Update Feb. 19

Students studied in pairs the fourth lecture from Lectures on Faith. Then they responded in writing to the following questions:

1. What is the nature of God?
2. What does Twain fail to understand which keeps him from good faith?
3. What is life like for someone who doesn't have good faith?

Update Feb. 18

Today I collected students' reflections on why Huckleberry Finn matters to them.

We then discussed the central theme from the novel of self-betrayal and bad faith. We saw that Twain's ideas are grounded in his assumptions about human nature and the nature of God. To help us understand the opposite of bad faith, we will be studying the fourth lecture from the Lectures on Faith.

Homework:
Finish your SOAPSTone analysis of Huckleberry Finn. You should have it all done except for last minute questions you may want to ask tomorrow. Remember, you should write down as much as you can for each of the SOAPSTone categories:
Speaker
Occasion
Audience
Purpose
Subject
Tone

Update Feb. 11

We finished the lecture by Prof. Forrest Robinson on Twain and slavery. We then discussed how the lecture enlightens our understanding of Huckleberry Finn. Students should begin outlining an essay on the question of how Twain satirizes American society through the novel.

Homework:
Read through page 202 of Huckleberry Finn.

Update Feb. 10

During class on Thursday and today we watched and discussed a recorded lecture on Twain and slavery. The video introduces the concept of bad faith, the phenomenon when people act as though something were true which they actually know to be false. It is a form of self-deception. We learned that self-deception is usually a communal act of denying what everyone knows to be true. We also learned that it is the very act of concealment that calls attention to the truth, thus ironically serving as a revelation of guilt. Thus Twain, or Clemens, claims that as a boy he was unaware that slavery was wrong since everyone acted as though it were right; nonetheless, this is clearly an act of denial or bad faith. We discussed how The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is itself an act of bad faith, for it tells the story of innocence lost when it seems that innocence was not the original state. The novel is an attempt to cover up national guilt by claiming ignorance/innocence prior to a moral awakening.

Homework:
Read through page 189 of Huckleberry Finn.

AP
We are working on writing rhetorical analyses. We have been learning to identify rhetorical strategies and their effects on audiences. Today we focused particularly on syntactical patterns including periodic and loose sentences.

Last week we learned about writing effective transition sentences that serve as "bridges" between paragraphs. We also reviewed paragraph structure for analysis writing:
1) claim
2) context for quotation
3) quotation
4) analysis of quotation

Of course, multiple quotations might be used in a single paragraph in support of the same claim. Such a paragraph might be structured as 123234 or 1234234.

Homework:
Review the list of rhetorical strategies. Look up any terms you do not yet know. Add any terms you feel are missing.

Update Feb. 6

Yesterday we read together from Huckleberry Finn. We discussed Huck's decision to "go to hell" rather than turn in Jim.

Today we watched the first 23 minutes of a lecture on Twain and slavery . We discussed the concept of bad faith and considered ways in which we might engage in bad faith ourselves.

Homework: Read through page 175 of Huckleberry Finn by Monday.

Update Feb. 4

In class we finished reading and discussing "The Decay of the Art of Lying" by Twain. We also looked at a few passages from Huck Finn:

1) page 111-- Just after Sherburn has dissipated the mob with a speech on how the average person is a coward, Huck lies to himself by also leaving saying, "I could a staid, if I'd a wanted to, but I didn't want to."

2) page 114-- When the audience in the King and Duke's Royal Nonesuch show realizes they have been conned, they respond "But we don't want to be the laughing-stock of this whole town, I reckon, and never hear the last of this thing as long as we live. No. What we want, is to go out of here quiet, and talk this show up, and sell the rest of the town! Then we'll all be in the same boat. Ain't that sensible?" The people perpetuate a lie to save face.

3) page 127-- When the King is posing as the Wilks brother, he realizes he has been using the wrong word to talk about funeral obsequies, calling them funeral orgies instead. He covers his track with an absurd explanation of the Greek and Hebrew roots of the word "orgies" arguing it is actually the best word. This is one of the most grotesque examples of covering the truth with a lie in plain sight. Twain seems to indicate how absurd the lie is through the meanings of the supposed word roots: orgo=outside, open, abroad and jeesum=to plant, to cover up. Something is indeed being covered up in wide open view, namely the truth. The people want to be deceived and so they allow this disgusting con to proceed, even when the truth of it stinks to high heavens.

Homework:

• Rhetorical Notebook entry for "The Decay of the Art of Lying" is due tomorrow.

Update Feb. 3

In light of our class discussion on Friday, students took a quiz on Huck Finn responding to the question: Why did Twain include the King and the Duke in the novel?

Next, students finished presenting their fashion analyses.

Homework:
Write a well-structured, complete paragraph synthesizing what you learned from the fashion analysis presentations about the messages communicated by the clothing we wear. Did you observe some common themes across various fashion styles? What were your "aha" insights? What are you, personally, taking away from this experience?

Please ensure that your paragraph is well-formed. It should have a clear topic sentence, strong supporting sentences, and a concluding sentence. Supporting sentences should use concrete examples and imagery to support your abstract ideas.