Huck Finn-- blog 4 (chpt 31-43)

               As The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn came to a close, the themes and symbols were apparent and full-circle. Remarks about society, slavery, and morals helped add to each of the themes. Also, different characters that Huck and Jim encountered throughout the book assisted with symbols and themes.

                To begin with, Huck always discussed how he wanted to live his life in a similar manner as Tom Sawyer. Huck wanted to be out on an adventure since Tom Sawyer was always looking for an adventure. Huck always seemed to relate himself to Tom, until Huck and Jim run into Tom beginning in chapters 32 and 33. Tom agrees to help free Jim only because he wants to turn it into an adventure and game, while Huck is very serious about freeing Jim. After spending quality time with Jim, Huck has developed a strong bond with Jim and an adventure or game is the last thing Huck wants it to develop into. These chapters that cover the relationship between Huck and Tom prove their main difference of morals and maturity. Starting out as a young and immature boy, Huck begins to mature while on his adventure with Jim and becomes dissimilar from Tom. Tom Sawyer’s character helps relate to the theme of morals especially after Twain reveals that Tom knew throughout the entire story that Jim was freed. Tom’s secret, though, also contributed to the book. If Tom would have told Huck and Jim the truth earlier in the book, Huck and Jim would not have gone on their adventure down the river. Huck would not have developed into the character that he was at the conclusion of the book, and his and Jim’s relationship would have remained as acquaintances. Therefore, even though Tom Sawyer’s character began to grow rather differently from Huck, he still helped develop a major part of the book with the relationship between Huck and Jim.

                Slavery was also a major factor in this book. At the end of the book Huck tells, “and when Aunt Polly and Uncle Silas and Aunt Sally found out how good he [Jim] helped the doctor nurse Tom, they made a heap of fuss over him, and fixed him up prime, and give him all he wanted to eat, and a good time.” Finally, these people realized that Jim was not a bad man and actually helped Tom after he was shot in the leg. This situation represents racism and slavery. Just because Jim was a black slave, people expected him to be a bad man and were always set out to try to catch him and turn him in. People never realized that Jim is actually a selfless, caring man with good intentions. This specific theme still relates to society today. Even though slavery is no longer a part of our society, some people still have poor views of blacks and other races. The theme helps address the fact that all races should be seen equally.

                Jim’s superstitions that he brought up throughout the entire book appeared once again in the last chapter. As Jim told Huck previously, hairy arms or a hairy chest are a sign of good luck and also signify that the person is rich. Jim told Huck that he was rich before and would eventually be rich again. In the final chapter Jim tells Huck, “what I tell you up dah on Jackson islan’? I tole you I got a hairy breas’, en what’s de sign un it; en I tole you I ben rich wunst, en gwineter to be rich agin…” At the beginning, Huck hesitates to believe Jim and his questionable superstitions. Jim telling Huck about this particular superstition should help foreshadow that Jim will be free and rich at the end of the book. Jim’s superstitions also prove that Huck begins to put trust into him and they gain a close bond.

                The final chapters of the book helped recognize the themes and symbols that the book exemplified.  

Huck Finn blog 3 (chpt. 23-30)

Huck has continued to struggle with his internal conflict of whether or not he should turn Jim in since people are out searching for him. Throughout the entire book, Huck has been faced with making the choice of whether he should be morally correct and turn Jim in or if he should be a valuable friend and pretend Jim is somebody else and not turn him in. Huck decided not to turn him in. Eventually Huck will be faced with more challenges and this internal conflict will grow, developing into the theme of not having morals, which brings up the next topic.

Huck’s experiences on the river versus on land have begun to grow into a theme. While rafting down the river, Huck and Jim hardly faced any problems and their lives were literally smooth sailing. On the contrary, every time Huck and Jim were off the raft and onto land, they had run-ins with people that have brought them to trouble. Since Jim and Huck never had to worry about anyone catching Jim while on the raft, Huck began to believe that there were no rules or necessity for morals on the raft. Because of what Huck adapted to on the river, he continued to make the decision to keep hush about Jim. These experiences add to the reasons why Huck continues to make poor decisions when it comes down to deciding which choice is morally correct. Huck’s morals may eventually develop by the end of the book as he continues to mature and is faced with other struggles dealing with Jim.  

Alcohol and drinking has appeared in the book a few times and has helped add to one of the themes as a whole. To begin with, Pap was always a drunk and took poor care of Huck because of his drinking problems. Huck even told earlier in the book, “The judge he felt kind of sore. He said he reckoned body could reform the old man with a shotgun, maybe, but he didn’t know no other way.” The king and the duke also relate to this topic. In chapter thirty, the duke and the king begin to bicker, accusing each other of moving the bag of money into Peter Wilks’s casket. Their fight results into them drinking alcohol. Huck tells on page 260, “So the king sneaked into the wigwam and took to his bottle for comfort.” The duke and king are replicas of Pap, not only because of the fact that they drink their problems away with alcohol, but also with the way they treat Huck. Pap always put Huck down and never had any encouragement for him, and the king and the duke were threatening Huck and questioning him after he tried to ditch them. None of them treat Huck well. The king and the duke will never change in the way they treat Huck, and also tricking people into believing them. Lying and tricking people into believing them is one of their main hobbies and adds to the theme involving corrupt society.  

Huck Finn blog 2-- through chpt 22

The first topic of discussion includes Huck’s father, Pap. Being an extremely hypocritical man, he adds to the theme of judgmental and disoriented society. He is definitely not the definition of a good parent since he is a drunk and usually stays out of Huck’s life. Most parents would want their child to be in good care and receive a good education, but Pap is the complete opposite. In chapter five, Pap shows up complaining about Huck’s “starchy clothes” and also tells him, “you drop that school you hear?” Pap will never learn to be a father and will always be a drunk. In fact, the judge states that the only solution to fixing Pap would be to shoot him. He could easily represent the poor morals of society since he has no idea how to be a good parent and is continuously drunk and getting into fights. He also is very hypocritical since he tells Huck how he should be living his life, yet he hardly stays in contact with Huck.

Other characters that also represent hypocrites in society were the Grangerford and Shepardson families. Both families are frequent church-goers and also believe they are very religious, yet they are continuously fighting each other as if they are battling in a war. Even though they go to church, they hardly follow the Commandments or beliefs of the church. The families kill one another as if killing is not a horrendous crime at all. They always brought their guns everywhere, even to church, as backup if the families were to get in a feud. These families are considered hypocritical since they believe they are extremely religious, yet they commit sin after sin and still believe they are perfect saints.

Adventures of Huck Finn contain multiple superstitions that Jim always tells Huck throughout the reading. Jim is always introducing new superstitions. A few examples are on page 61, where Jim tells that the birds flying overhead are a sign that rain is coming and also to not count the things you cook for dinner or else it will bring you bad luck. Bad luck will also come with shaking a tablecloth. On page 63, Jim tells one of his superstitions and states, ‘”Ef you’s got hairy arms en a hairy breas, it’s a sign dat you’s agwyne to be rich.” Jim has hairy arms, and tells Huck that he used to be rich at one time and eventually will be rich again, making the appearance that the superstition is true. Jim’s superstitions tend to help Huck at times too. When Huck and Jim see a dead body floating down the river, Jim recognizes that the body is Pap, but does not want Huck to see so he tells him to look away while Jim covers the body. Later, Huck has the urge to see the body, but Jim tells him that looking at the dead body would bring bad luck. Jim is saving Huck from having to see his father dead. So, whether all of Jim’s superstitions are true or not, some of them can help Huck in a way.

What theme is Twain building in this chapter when Huck chooses not to turn Jim in for the reward money? Once Huck found out that people are searching for Jim and even including a reward for whoever finds him, Huck is in a predicament. He has to choose between turning Jim in or being a true friend and not telling a soul about Jim.  Even though Huck knows that he is making the wrong decisions by not turning him in, he still chooses to do it. He thinks he will go to Hell for not turning Jim in, but he also wants to be a companion. This situation adds to the theme of morals. Even though Huck knows that turning Jim in would be the right choice, he goes against his will and does not tell anyone about Jim. Huck repeatedly choosing to not tell anyone about Jim proves that he has poor morals and goes against his gut in what he should truly do.

The Duke and the dauphin were introduced in chapter 20 when they come aboard Huck and Jim’s raft. They have a knack at tricking people into believing their lies. A few situations include the dauphin receiving money donations from people when he tells people that he is going to be a missionary. Another situation is when the duke comes up with the plan of tying Jim up whenever they see other people on the river to pretend as if they caught the runaway slave (Jim) and will receive the $200 reward. The Duke and dauphin should eventually add to a theme and might teach others not to believe everything they hear. 

chapt 1-7 -- Huck Finn

Chapters 1-7 of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn introduce Huck as a young, mischievous boy whom resides with a widowed lady named Miss Watson, and the reader instantly learns that Huck Finn lives his life in the same manner as Tom Sawyer.

A few different instances within these chapters help reveal a few symbols and themes that come along with the time period and location. One section of the reading that seemed rather peculiar and symbolic occurred on page 8 where Huck wanted to smoke, but the widow told him no. The widow, Miss Watson, lectured Huck with reasons why he shouldn’t smoke, yet she uses chewing tobacco herself. This situation makes the reader assume that Miss Watson is a hypocrite. This specific situation represents how judgmental society has become, and still is. Even though Miss Watson uses tobacco in a different form, she judges Huck for wanting to smoke. Miss Watson seems to be a character that could potentially add to a theme about judgmental society.

Another part that stood out to me in these chapters occurred in chapter 3 on page 21. Huck tells a story about him and some other boys running around in the woods and meeting Tom Sawyer. Huck tells, “One time Tom sent a boy to run about town with a blazing stick…and then he said he had got secret news by his spies that next day a whole parcel of Spanish merchants and rich A-rabs was going to camp in Cave Hollow with two-hundred elephants.” Huck always believed every story that Tom Sawyer told, and all of the boys in their gang lived by the same rules as Tom Sawyer. After Tom told the story about seeing A-rabs, elephants, and more, Huck thought he had better go see it all for himself. Huck wrote, “I wanted to see the camels and elephants…and when we got the word we rushed out of the woods and down the hill. But there warn’t no Spaniards and A-rabs, and there warn’t no camels nor no elephants.” Huck learns that he can’t always believe everything that somebody tells him, as he writes on page 23, “So then I judged that all that stuff was only just one of Tom Sawyer’s lies.” This incident also relates to life and has a thematic meaning. We eventually learn that a person can’t always believe what everyone else is telling them and they also need to live their own life. 

The Things They carried-- final blog (pgs 179-246)

               The last few chapters of “The Things They Carried” really added quite a bit of meaning and value to the book’s symbolization and themes.

                To begin with, on page 179, O’Brien once again writes, “I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth.” The author had discussed a few other times throughout the book whether his stories had any truth or not. He often leaves the reader questioning whether a certain story contains any truth to it or not. O’Brien sometimes told fictional stories in order for the reader to understand the experiences the soldiers went through. Even if O’Brien did not experience a certain story, other soldiers certainly did; that is the theme he attempts to make clear.

                The first symbol that came to the life in this section of reading was O’Brien’s daughter, Kathleen. On page 183, Kathleen begins to ask her father, O’Brien, questions about the war, such as “The whole war, why was everybody so mad at everyone else?” A few more questions Kathleen had were “What did you want?” and “How come you were even here in the first place?” After Kathleen’s questions, O’Brien cannot decide what to tell her, so he decides to reply with, “It’s a mystery, I guess. I don’t know.” Kathleen doesn’t exactly understand why her father went to war and what the purpose was, and her questions give O’Brien a new perspective on the war.

                The other symbol in this reading involves Linda. O’Brien claims that when he and Linda were a young age of 9 years old, they were in love, “and it was real.” One day, O’Brien’s dad took Linda and him to a movie. While on their way, O’Brien told Linda that he really liked her red cap that she happened to wear every day. After that, Linda continued to wear her cap every day to school for a few weeks until one day in class, a boy named Nick walked over and took her cap off, only to reveal Linda’s almost bald head with some stitches and Band-Aids. On page 236, O’Brien writes, “She died, of course. Nine years old and she died…..But in a story, I can steal her soul…In a story, miracles can happen. Linda can smile and sit up. She can reach out, touch my wrist, and say, “Timmy, stop crying.” Later, on page 243, O’Brien discusses how he would usually lie in bed at night and dream up stories that could possibly bring Linda into his dreams. Once he was dreaming, he’d picture him and Linda together. On page 244, still talking about his dreams with Linda in it, he writes, “She’d say amazing things sometimes. “”Once you’re alive”, she’d say, “you can’t ever be dead.”” Later on page245, he tells, “She was nine years old. I loved her and then she died. And yet right here, in the spell of memory and imagination, I can still see her as if through ice, as if I’m gazing into some other world, a place where there are no brain tumors and no funeral homes, where there are no bodies at all. I can see Kiowa, too, and Ted Lavender and Curt Lemon, and sometimes I can even see Timmy skating with Linda under the yellow floodlights. I’m young and happy. I’ll never die.” Linda’s presence in the book symbolizes how O’Brien deals and copes with the pain he endured during the war. By telling both fact and fictional stories, O’Brien’s memories help him live his life through storytelling.

The Things They Carried- blog 3 (pgs. 124-179)

In this section of reading, just the title of the first chapter struck me. Titled “The Man I Killed,” O’Brien writes about the death of My Khe. My Khe was a man that O’Brien had accidentally killed. He continuously describes My Khe for multiple pages and discussing what he was like before the war, what type of person he thought My Khe was, and what his future would be like had he not been killed. He questions every detail about My Khe’s life. One of the main reasons he inserted this specific story into the book was to prove to the reader how guilty he felt about the death of My Khe. My Khe died because of O’Brien, and O’Brien tells the story “The Man I Killed” to prove that he still has not forgotten about killing another man and showing the guilt he continuously feels.

The soldiers continuously feel remorse towards the happenings of the war. Even though they have years and years to put the bloody and stomach-churning memories in the past, they still do not have the ability to do it. A proof of this theme is on page 134, where Tim O’Brien writes, “Even now I haven’t finished sorting it out. Sometimes I forgive myself, other times I don’t. In the ordinary life I try not to dwell on it, but now and then when I’m reading a newspaper or just sitting alone in a room, I’ll look up and see the young man coming out of the morning fog.” O’Brien is continuing to describe how difficult it is to return to your original person after going through war. A good quotation about the war is “You’re already dead before you even go into war.” This statement fits perfectly with the book and one of the main themes. Being in the war basically kills whoever a person used to be and transforms them into a whole new human being, never being capable of returning to who they were before the war.

The chapter titled “Notes” was another slice of the book that relates to this topic. Norman Bowker was a soldier who had committed suicide after war, and he wrote letters before he passed away in which he complained about the war and what he had to deal with. On page 156, a polysyndeton is used in Bowker’s letter. The selection reads, “Guys sniveling about how they didn’t get any parades. Such absolute crap. I mean, who in his right mind wants a parade? Or getting his back clapped by a bunch of patriotic idiots who don’t know jack about what it feels like to kill people or get shot at or sleep in the rain or watch your buddy go down underneath the mud?” Nobody truly understands what war is like until they actually have to go to war. None of us have the ability to understand how much pain they endure, and that is one of the main purposes of “The Things They Carried.” One last part in this section of reading that seemed to stand out to me and correlate perfectly with this specific theme occurred on page 177, where the book reads, “When a man died, there had to be blame. Jimmy Cross understood this. You could blame the war. You could blame the idiots who made the war. You could blame Kiowa for going to it. You could blame the rain. You could blame the river. You could blame the field, the mud, the climate. You could blame the enemy..….. In the field, though, the causes were immediate. A moment of carelessness or bad judgement or plain stupidity carried consequences that lasted forever.” Even though you could blame a death of somebody on any other factor of the war, everyone still feels the guilt whether it truly was their fault or not. 

blog 2 (pgs 39-123) The Things They Carried

The author, Tim O’Brien, continues to inform the reader of stories and events that he endured during the Vietnam War. His stories continue to add to his purpose of writing the book, in order to inform citizens about the physical and emotional difficulties that a soldier encounters during a war.

To begin with, O’Brien discusses the story of when he was first drafted for the war. He was not particularly in favor of wars; especially having to fight in one that he does not even believe is worth fighting. How are you supposed to fight for your country when you don’t believe it is worth fighting? On page 44, after he found out that he would be drafted, he talks about how worried and afraid he is. O’Brien wrote, “Beyond all this, was the raw fact of terror. I did not want to die. Not ever. But certainly not then, not there, not in a wrong war… I imagined myself dead. I imagined myself doing things I could not do—charging an enemy position, taking aim at another human being.” Just the thought of having to be in the war scared him, so how is he expected to fight? He is already having fears of the war and he hasn’t even started fighting yet.

Around the same time as being drafted, O’Brien had a job at a meatpacking plant. On page 43 he writes, “At night I’d go home smelling of pig. It wouldn’t go away. Even after a hot bath, scrubbing hard, the stink was always there.” This particular line in the book seems to compare his job to the war. A soldier, no matter how hard they try, cannot erase the horrible memories and losses they experienced in the war. Similar to trying to erase the pig smell after work, it was impossible to erase the emotional hardships from the war. He mentions the pig smell again on page 53 and tells, “and how the smell had soaked into my skin and how I couldn’t wash it away.” He repeats this story and memory to once again help the reader understand how truly difficult it was for him to erase the memories—he couldn’t. They did not have the ability to be washed away.

On page 80, the author uses a polysyndeton, saying, “War is hell, but that’s not half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. By using the polysyndeton, he creates the effect of the war dragging on and how many effects it truly has on a soldier. War is more than just fighting; it comes along with all of the aspects he listed.

One final part of this reading that seemed to strike me was the story about Mary Anne. The story was about a relationship between Mary Anne Bell and Mark Fossie. They began in love, but in the end their love did not work out. Mary Anne came to visit Mark while he was at war. One night, he realized that she was no longer around. He searched for her, but nobody could find her. Page 116 reads, “She [Mary Anne] had crossed to the other side. She was part of the land. She was wearing her culottes, her pink sweater, and a necklace of human tongues. She was dangerous. She was ready for the kill.” This story also helps those Americans who never fought in war how easily things will change. The war can change everything, including relationships. Mary Anne wasn’t even fighting in the war, but was still changed by it. Wars can change others besides just soldiers.