Huck Finn 6

Like we discussed for our last reading, the raft is the place where Jim and Huck become closer friends. This is proven once again when "[they] said there warn't no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don't. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft." They are also quite comfortable out there on the water because "[they were] always naked, day and night..." That's awkward. Unless, they were comfortable with eachother and their surroundings. i love hannah

Also, i found a little bit of sybolism of Jesus in both of the men that got on the raft with them. The first one said, " the world may go on jsut as it's always done, and take everythign from me- loved ones, property, everything' but it can't take [his grave]. Some day i'll lie down in it and forget it all, and my poor broken heart will be at rest...by rights i am a duke!...and here am i, forlorn, torn from my high estate, hunted of men, despised by the cold world, ragged, worn, heartbroken, and degraded to teh companionship of felons on a raft."
Christ was whipped, cursed at, spit on, mocked, and killed to take the sins from the ones that broke his heart. He lied in his grave for three days. He was rightfully the "king" but worked as a carpenter with his dad and grew up as a regular boy. He was "hunted" by the priests in a way because they always tried to catch him in an act of doing wrong. Then the second man said he was " ...the rightful kind of France."

Huck Finn 5

Fog is mentioned a lot in chapter  15 while they are on the river. The river is a place where Huck and Jim bond and the fog can symbolize the separation between them, both physically and mentally. I also noticed that it is Huck chasing Jim. This can show the bond between the two is becoming stronger and it may be foreshadowing a coming event. There may be some ways that show Huck might be maturing a little bit but when he plays a trick on Jim saying the whole thing that happened on the river was a dream, it proves he is still a boy.  

Then when Jim excepts that it may have all been a dream he starts telling Huck all the things it means. I wonder if all those things actually do have symbolism. He’s looking at what had happened as if reading a book and picking out the symbolism.

I made a relation between the lights of Cairo that Jim was franticly searching for and Christianity. Jim says when he finds Cairo he finds freedom. Freedom from slavery, from being judged, from being sold and bought, and the chance of getting his family back. The river is the road they follow, fast or slow, rapid or smooth, foggy or clear: the road of life. Cairo could be heaven because they’re searching for the light, freedom, a new home. The little blotches of lights along the way could symbolize worldly things to us that distract us along the way and things we hope will bring us joy but have us walk away disappointed.

Huck Finn 4

I found quite a bit of humor and sarcasm in this reading and it was, so far, one of the most enjoyable ones too. Like when Huck and Jim find the crashed boat Jim says, “…dey’s a watchman on dat wreck.” And Huck replies, “Watchman your grandmother…”

Also, in chapter 12, restating from my first blog, I said Huck decides whether a thing is true or not to him normally by having hard evidence.  This time it’s when they are on the raft floating past St. Louis. People have told him there were twenty or thirty-thousand people living there but “ [he] never believed it till [he saw] that wonderful spread of lights at two o’clock that still night.”

Now in chapter 14, we see Huck’s opinion about Jim evolving when he realizes “…he [has] an uncommon level head for a nigger.”  And again when he says, “I never seen such a nigger.”

My favorite part has probably got to be when Jim and Huck talk about King Solomon in the bible and Jim isn’t getting the importance of the king saying he’ll split the child in two so both women are happy. His reasons of why he thinks it “[has no sense]” is so innocent because his mind is set and Huck soon realized that “ if [jim’s] got a notion in his head once, there warn’t no getting it out again.”

Huck Finn 3

In this reading there was A TON of superstition! Whether it was Huck doing thing he knew about from Tom, or it was Jim doing to saying them. I'm startign to think that, according to Jim, there's bad luck from evey innocent thing you do! I hope he realises some day that whether you expect it or not, bad luck is going to come. There wouldn't be such a thing as bad luck if there wasn't always good luck to come with it. But according to Jim, knowing how to bring good luck "aint no use to a body."

On page 66, chapter 9, two things caught my eyes right away. I'm not sure if they mean a whole lot to the book but to me, it seems like they mean a whole lot more then what is just said. The first one i just glanced over: "(the lighting) it was bright as glory". Then once I saw "...; dark as sin again..." and i knew something might be trying to be said? But i'm not quite sure what.

Huck Finn 2

The main thing that caught my attention is this reading was the part when Huck's dad chases him around the cabin with a knife screaming bloody murder...literally. It reminded me of a part in a horror movie when the dad "...was laying over by the corner. By-and-by he raised up part way and listened, with his head to one side.He says, very low: Tramp-tramp-tramp; that's the dead...they're coming for me." I think he very well could have been demon possessed there. The only thing that would contradict that idea would be because he was chasing Huck, trying to kill him, calling him the Angel of Death, and normally demons flee in teh presence of an angel or the power of God/ holy spirit

Another thing i thought of was the things Huck did and the events that happened when he finally escaped the cabin. The very first thing that he did was go hunting. He killed and used the blood of a pig to, in a way, -set himself free- from anyone trying to find him. Just like we have the -blood of that lamb- to set us free from our bonds and sins. After throwing teh pig to it's "grave" Huck runs and hides in hid canoe just like the soldiers that hung Jesus on the cross ran away. Now, considering the sin(s) that are to be forgiven, who changed at that moment in the book? Who could have been seen as "forgiven"? I think it was Huck's father. Unlike Huck expected, he came back COMPLETELY sober. I wonder if his character has changed at all after that night in town.

Huck Finn 1

It seems to me that Huck has only a One-Track-Mind when it comes to new things poeple tell him. Whether true or not, he decides if they're true in his mind or not. An example would be after supper when the widdow took out the bible and began reading passages about Moses. Huck was excited at first "and [he] was in a sweat to find out all about him; but by-and-by she let it out that moses had been dead a considerable long time; so then [he] didn't care no more about him.." I think the reason he quit caring was because he couldn't get any "real" hard evidence of his existance and all the things he had done. Who better to get the information from then from Moses himself, but he couldn't. However, he could prove himself right or wrong with the idea Tom gave him about witches and genies. "[He] thought all this over for two or three days, and then [he] reckoned [he] would see if there was anything in it. [He] got an old tin lamp and an iron ring, and went out in the woods and rubbed and rubbed...but it [wasn't any] use, none of the genies [came]. So then [he] judged that all the stuff was only just one of Tom Sawer's lies."

TTC 4th

In the chapters we read this time, i saw ALOT of times where i really began questioning the stories that were being told. In the letter Bowker wrote to O'Brien, he says he "If [(the author)]want[s], [he] can use the stuff in th[e] letter.(But not [his] real name)." Right now you're thinking what?! So you start thinking this whole story including him was all made up or the guy isn't who he says he is. Then later is says "Norman Bowker's letter hit [him] hard." After explaining to you that the guy didn't want his real name in there, it  makes you really think about if it actually is his real name, the whole thing's a confusing MESS!

After a couple chapters (or that really long one) O'brien tells you yet another piece of the novel that was a complete story; "The Man I Killed". That was, hands down, the best chapter for me so far. It made you feel the emotion and awe that he was going through and it also made you realise how much agony a soldier can have over tha death of someone he knew nothing about. That's exactly what O'Brien was trying to do though. "I want you to feel what i felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes then happening-truth." What he's basicalling saying here is that he can tell you stories about everything that happened. He could describe to you how much he carried with him everyday, but we'd never fully understand and see it the way he did. He is simply explaining to us through examples of different events to get us to get a small glipse of what pain he endured. He sweeps you into a story about mistakes, shock, regret, disgust, and heart ache: gets you to have that feeling deep in your stomache, and showing you that that's what killing ONE man feels like. O'Brien would tell you a story about loosing love, fighting without a meaning, witnessing soemone die infront of you and say "That's what it feels like to be away from home for so long." It's all one big mess of pure genious...