Chapter 1:
"The stars were shining, and the leaves rustled in the woods ever so mournful; and I heard an owl, away off , who-whooing about somebody that was dead, and a whippowill and a dog crying about someone that was going to die; and the wind was trying to whisper something to me, and I couldn't make out what it was, and so it made the cold shivers run over me." Page 11
Comments and Questions
The author, Mark Twain, uses different nature figures to show how lonesome Huck is and the unnaturalness of the night. Huck interprets the leaves rustling as mournful relating things around him to how he is feeling. He sees the night as having a sad and sorrowful plague around it. This is how night usually is perceived. Night is the opposite of day, being dark and mysterious where there is no good to be found and only gloom.
Chapter 4:
" I liked the old ways best, but I was getting so I liked the new ones, too, a little bit. The widow said I was coming along slow but sure, and doing very satisfactory. She said she warn't ashamed of me." Page 25
Comments and Questions
This quote describes the change that Huck is facing with the widow. Change is not easy for everyone and no one really likes it. It takes people out of their comfort zone, but sometimes is necessary. Huck starts to adapt and realize even though he liked the way things were before, things now are not that bad. He had someone who watched his progress and was not ashamed of him, but someone who cared for him.
Chapter 5:
" '...Your mother couldn't read, and she couldn't write, nuther, before she died. None of the family couldn't before they died. I can't; and here you're a-swelling yourself up like this...' "Page 30.
Comments and Questions
Back in the 1800's not all of the kids or adults got an education, in the south especially. Kids on farms were obligated to help out the family in the fields leave almost no time or money for education. There wasn't even a need for children on farms to get an education when all they were doing was working in the fields,. This made it so that several generations in a family didn't get and education. People that did go to school that ought they were 'better' than those who didn't.
Chapter 6:
" 'There was a free n----- there, from Ohio; a malatter, most white as a white man...They said he could vote when he was at home. Well, that let me out. Thinks I, what is the country a-coming to?' " Page 38.
Comments and Questions
In the 1800's, while slave trading was still going on, especially in the South with the plantations, up North were some free slaves. The Fifteenth Amendment ratified on 1870 signified a great accomplishment for the African Americans. Though it allowed African Americans and Whites to be legally equals, socially it did not change for most. Many Whites were outraged that African Americans could vote.
Chapter 8:
"Jim knowed all kinds of signs. He said he knowed most everything. I said it looked to me like all the signs was about bad luck, and so I asked him if there warn't any good-luck signs." Page 59.
Comments and Questions
Back in the more heavily religious day, signs or omens were very popular. Even in the ancient civilizations, people looked out for different sign that their gods sent them. People were, and still, are superstitious such as the breaking of mirrors, walking under ladders, and opening umbrellas inside.
Chapter 12
"Pap always said it warn't no harm to borrow things, if you was meaning to pay them back, sometime; but the widow said it warn't anything but a soft name for stealing, and no decent body would do it. Jim said he reckoned the widow was partly right and pap was partly right..." Page 81
Comments and Questions
Situations are sometimes not as black and white, or right and wrong, as we want them. On a normal daily basis, stealing is a crime and calling it borrowing is just a name to feel less guilty about it. To call it borrowing is to make up a excuse to appease the conscience. But when on the run and supplies run low, even when against the law, stealing is the only option for survival, but it still is not okay.
Chapter 14
"...and if he did get saved, whoever saved him would send him back home so as to get the reward, and then Miss Watson would sell him South, sure." Page 93.
Comments and Questions
Though in the late 1800's Blacks gained the right to vote, they were still sold to plantation owners in the South. In the South, plantation owners would work Black slaves on the land, where they were treated harshly with no rights. If they could escape, bounties were put on their heads and dragged back to the South. Many tried and some succeeded escaping into the North were slavery was abolished.
"The stars were shining, and the leaves rustled in the woods ever so mournful; and I heard an owl, away off , who-whooing about somebody that was dead, and a whippowill and a dog crying about someone that was going to die; and the wind was trying to whisper something to me, and I couldn't make out what it was, and so it made the cold shivers run over me." Page 11
Comments and Questions
The author, Mark Twain, uses different nature figures to show how lonesome Huck is and the unnaturalness of the night. Huck interprets the leaves rustling as mournful relating things around him to how he is feeling. He sees the night as having a sad and sorrowful plague around it. This is how night usually is perceived. Night is the opposite of day, being dark and mysterious where there is no good to be found and only gloom.
Chapter 4:
" I liked the old ways best, but I was getting so I liked the new ones, too, a little bit. The widow said I was coming along slow but sure, and doing very satisfactory. She said she warn't ashamed of me." Page 25
Comments and Questions
This quote describes the change that Huck is facing with the widow. Change is not easy for everyone and no one really likes it. It takes people out of their comfort zone, but sometimes is necessary. Huck starts to adapt and realize even though he liked the way things were before, things now are not that bad. He had someone who watched his progress and was not ashamed of him, but someone who cared for him.
Chapter 5:
" '...Your mother couldn't read, and she couldn't write, nuther, before she died. None of the family couldn't before they died. I can't; and here you're a-swelling yourself up like this...' "Page 30.
Comments and Questions
Back in the 1800's not all of the kids or adults got an education, in the south especially. Kids on farms were obligated to help out the family in the fields leave almost no time or money for education. There wasn't even a need for children on farms to get an education when all they were doing was working in the fields,. This made it so that several generations in a family didn't get and education. People that did go to school that ought they were 'better' than those who didn't.
Chapter 6:
" 'There was a free n----- there, from Ohio; a malatter, most white as a white man...They said he could vote when he was at home. Well, that let me out. Thinks I, what is the country a-coming to?' " Page 38.
Comments and Questions
In the 1800's, while slave trading was still going on, especially in the South with the plantations, up North were some free slaves. The Fifteenth Amendment ratified on 1870 signified a great accomplishment for the African Americans. Though it allowed African Americans and Whites to be legally equals, socially it did not change for most. Many Whites were outraged that African Americans could vote.
Chapter 8:
"Jim knowed all kinds of signs. He said he knowed most everything. I said it looked to me like all the signs was about bad luck, and so I asked him if there warn't any good-luck signs." Page 59.
Comments and Questions
Back in the more heavily religious day, signs or omens were very popular. Even in the ancient civilizations, people looked out for different sign that their gods sent them. People were, and still, are superstitious such as the breaking of mirrors, walking under ladders, and opening umbrellas inside.
Chapter 12
"Pap always said it warn't no harm to borrow things, if you was meaning to pay them back, sometime; but the widow said it warn't anything but a soft name for stealing, and no decent body would do it. Jim said he reckoned the widow was partly right and pap was partly right..." Page 81
Comments and Questions
Situations are sometimes not as black and white, or right and wrong, as we want them. On a normal daily basis, stealing is a crime and calling it borrowing is just a name to feel less guilty about it. To call it borrowing is to make up a excuse to appease the conscience. But when on the run and supplies run low, even when against the law, stealing is the only option for survival, but it still is not okay.
Chapter 14
"...and if he did get saved, whoever saved him would send him back home so as to get the reward, and then Miss Watson would sell him South, sure." Page 93.
Comments and Questions
Though in the late 1800's Blacks gained the right to vote, they were still sold to plantation owners in the South. In the South, plantation owners would work Black slaves on the land, where they were treated harshly with no rights. If they could escape, bounties were put on their heads and dragged back to the South. Many tried and some succeeded escaping into the North were slavery was abolished.
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