IRP Blog Post 6

Fog not only clouds vision but also the mind

Huckleberry Finn and Jim continue to travel down the Mississippi River when a deep fog approaches their raft. They are unable to see anything in front of the raft, so they do not paddle. Suddenly, the raft smashes into an island on the river. Huck is completely lost as his senses deceive him as he swings in both directions across the bank of the river.

"I couldn't tell nothing about voices in a fog, for nothing don't look natural nor sound natural in a fog" (Twain 86).

 When Huck returns to the raft, he lays down underneath of Jim. Under the cover of the fog, he attempts to trick Jim into believing that he had been asleep the entire time. The fog clouded Jim's mind. Huck said to Jim:

"What's the matter with you, Jim? You been a drinking?...Well, then, what makes you talk so wild?" (p88).

IRP Blog Post 5

The Dauphin

Huckleberry Finn wants to go after a king. After giving up on King Solomon, or Solermunis, as he is called, Huck wants to go after a new king. He is convinced that the son of the late Louis the Sixteenth, the dauphin, moved to America. They want to track him down and keep him company. Many people, myself included, like to look for those that are better than ourselves and imagine that they exist.

IRP Blog Post 4

The Boat


Huckleberry Finn and Jim move to sabotage a boat belonging to some looters who were plundering a steam boat. At the last minute, Huck finds sympathy for the robbers.

"Then Jim manned the oars, and we took out after our raft. Now was the first time that I begun to worry about the men - I reckon I hadn't had time to before. I begun to think how dreadful it was, even for the murderers, to be in such a fix (Twain 75)."

It seems often that characters do things that they later regret and seek to re-do. This is an intrinsically human characteristic that Twain gives to Huckleberry Finn. I have often felt second thoughts about many of my own actions.

Motorcycle Diaries Section 2

You    Che    5 Tweets    Obstacles


1. You should probable look before you shoot.
2. Why use a motorcycle?
3. You guys are hardly experts in leprosy!
4. Don't be so quick to blame one woman's misfortune on a 'system'
5. You got lucky on that boat.

IRP Blog Post 3

Pap

(MEDIA: Watch a 1.5 minute animated video on Huck's meeting with his dad here)

Huck's father is first introduced to the reader when Huck finds him sitting in his room. Immediately, the reasons for Huck living with the Widow become abundantly clear. Pap is a gruff man who instantly becomes mad at Huck for merely wearing starched clothes that his nicer than his own. Pap is angered that Huck is being raised to a better standard than his own father. He is angry that Huck goes to school and is learning to read. Pap continuously promises that he will tan (beat) Huck. Pap later ends up in jail for drunkenness. For a short time, Pap becomes clean after being reformed by the judge and dresses nicely, encouraging people to shake his hand. That night, however, pap went back on his old ways and "got powerful thirsty". The judge conceded, "He reckoned a body could refor the ole man with a shotgun, maybe, but he didn't know no other way" (Twain 24). It is clear that Pap is a terrible man with no real redeeming quality, but it is possible for the reader to sympathize with his situation.

IRP Blog Post 2

Jim

Jim is one of Miss Watson's slaves, referred to in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn using the n-word. This reflects the social attitudes of the time period that Mark Twain portrayed, the 1830s and 40s in the South. Jim is shown as being extremely unintelligent. In Chapter 4, he is shown relying on a hairball that was found in "the forth stomach of an ox" for advice. Huck thinks that he sees his father's tracks in the snow so he asks Jim for advice from the hairball. Jim mentions that there would be two angels - one black and one white. Huck goes to his room that night and sees his father, "There sat pap, his own self" (p 19).

IRP Blog Post 1

Tom Sawyer's Gang

Early in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck Finn sneaks out of his home where he meets his longtime friend Tom Sawyer. They, and several other boys, form a band of robbers called "Tom Sawyer's Gang".

"So Tom got out a sheet of paper that he had wrote the oath on, and read it. It swore every boy to stick to the band and never tell any of its secrets" (Twain 8).

The boys make their way to a cave, and it becomes clear that they are not really a band of murderous criminals as they may think. Tom Sawyer suggests that the gang "randsomed" people from their cave; however, none of the boys seem to know what the word ransom means. The boys also showed that they have some reverence for religion.

"Ben Rodgers said he couldn't get out much, only Sundays, and so he wanted to begin next Sunday; but all the boys said that it would be wicked to do it on Sunday, and that settled the thing" (p 10).

The Tom Sawyer Gang only stays together for a few months, they realize that their is not much purpose in the gang.

3rd MP Independent Reading Book

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
By Mark Twain

180 Degrees South Reflection

" The best journeys answer questions that in the beginning you didn't even think to answer."

The film shed light on the fact that the journey can often be more important than the destination. Valuable lessons are often learned over the course of a journey, and Jeff seemed to learn a few of these. I would disagree somewhat with his analysis, however. They state in the film that we need to stop making 'progress' and take a step back from the cliff. Innovation and progress has been important in allowing people to live longer, better lives. I understand the importance of open spaces and wilderness, but there needs to be some kind of balance.

They seem to say that the land should be open and free, but this is the essence of the problem. If individual landowners had full property rights over their land, and the water, things could be run as they see fit.