Huck Finn Chapters 1-4 Questions

1. Describe the Widow Douglas.  How does Huck respond to the Moses story?  What does this tell the reader about Huck's character?  (Moses will be a motif in this book)
Widow Douglas is a kind woman who has pretty much adopted Huckleberry Finn, allowing him to live in her house. She prayed a lot, be in before meals or in closets. She brought up Huck like the Pharos’s Daughter did for Moses. Huck Finn was interested in the story of Moses until he found out the man had been dead for a long time. This shows that Huck believed only people living in the present were worth his time, and didn’t honor the past, so to speak.

2. Discuss superstition as a motif.  Provide examples.
People in that time were very superstitious, especially Huck Finn. He took as many precautions again evil as possible, trying to save himself from bad luck every few pages. It's his way of making sense of the world. Twain is using it to show how closely related superstition and religion are.

Killing the spider and trying to ward away witches

Huckleberry Finn throwing salt over his shoulder

3. Discuss Huck's view of death and the afterlife.  Death is mentioned frequently in chapter 1.  Why?
Huckleberry Finn realized there was a good place (heaven) and a bad place (hell) after you died. Huck asked if Tom would go to the good place or the bad place. Because he was lead to believe Tom would go to hell, Huck said he would rather go there because he’d want to be with Tom Sawyer. Chapter 1 is the introductory chapter to show Huck’s preoccupation with death due to his scarring childhood.

4. Comment on the trick Tom and Huck play on Jim.
Tom took Jim’s hat off of his head and hung it on a tree limb above his head, making the slave think he had been kidnapped by witches and returned alive. They don't respect Jim as much as they would if he was a white man. They would have done it to one of their friends.

5. "Jim was most ruined for a servant..."  Discuss the significance of this quote.
This shows how into witches and the devil the people of this time were, and how Jim got stuck-up because he had dealt with supernatural beings and lived to tell his tale.

6. Considering the themes listing in the objectives, comment on Tom's decision to leave 5 cents for the candles.  Do you think Huck would have done the same thing?   Why or why not?
I don’t think Huck would leave 5 cents because he doesn’t have the common sense to do something of that nature. He grew up needing to just survive, and puts himself first. He doesn't understand what money is worth. I think he’d focus more on obtaining the candles and escaping than leaving more than enough money for the candles to be replaced. I think Tom was being kind and leaving the extra bit of money was an apology for taking the candles.

7. Compare and Contrast Tom and Huck.
Tom is imaginative, lives with his aunt, lies a lot, reads,

Huck is slightly-educated, lives with Widow Douglas, previously homeless, honest, had to grow up faster, a bit slow

Both are mischievous, like pulling pranks on people,

8. Why does Tom think it important that the gang be considered "highwaymen" rather than burglars?
Because they will stop stages and carriages on the roads to kill the people, whereas burglars are less intense and don’t sound as exciting.

9. Discuss Huck's conflict over Miss Watson's view of prayer.
Miss Watson had told him he could get anything he wanted through prayer. He followed her instructions, but he began questioning why everyone didn’t get what they wanted/needed through their use of prayer.

10. Why does Tom Sawyer call Huck a "numskull"?
Because Huck suggests they kill magicians.

11. Comment: "I reckoned he believed in the A-rabs and the elephants, but as for me I think different.  It had all the marks of a Sunday school."
In this, Huck is speaking of Tom’s vivid imagination. Tom is known for his lies and over exaggerations, but sometimes believes what he dreams up.

12. Why does Huck want to give all the money to Judge Thatcher?

His dad would take the money.

Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural Address

Paragraph I

-Talking about power

-There’s a less occasion for a longer address

-This is going to be short

-There’s no need for an extended address because public announcements have been made so often over the past four years that there’s nothing much to say

Paragraph II

-Talking about the war briefly

-Why the war started

-Sort of blaming the south for not understanding that the union should stick together

-The South would rather go to war than work things out

Paragraph III

-Why are we in the war

-Talks about slaves

-God is punishing them for their sins

-Uses religion as a tool because it was a legitimate resource in these times

-Trying to justify the war

Paragraph IV

-Wrapping up his speech

-What the nation as a whole needs to do

-Brothers are fighting against brothers

-The Nation needs to get back together

-They’re not going to hold it against anybody for the war

Lincoln answers (revised)

1. The dedication of a graveyard for those who perished there because of what they sacrificed for their country

2. democracy and keeping the union alive

3. They didn’t acknowledge the confederacy. He thought they were just going through a phase (“You don’t understand, Mom.”)  and was punishing them for rebelling. He was encouraging freedom among slaves and inspired many to fight for the union.

4. It’s not really enforceable - it’s more of a nicely-worded suggestion because he didn't go through any law processes.

5. Lincoln was always rather against slavery, so when he was elected, many states dropped out of the union. The Emancipation Proclamation inspired over 200,000 slaves to fight on the side of the union. Lincoln was trying to stitch back together a country separated by different views of slavery.

7. Lincoln was dedicated to keeping the nation together, so it showed he had faith in the young country he lived in. He helped take a step towards equality between whites and blacks, and came from a poorer family.  I believe Lincoln could relate to Drake’s astoundingly articulate lyrics, “Started from the bottom, now we here.”

8.
a sense of presidential authority
In the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln sets regulations urging slaves in rebelling states to be freed. In this, he's taking charge of his country and showing his presidential authority.

the value of freedom
The Emancipation Proclamation was focused around the freeing of slaves in rebelling states, showing that freedom was very important to him.

the urgency of the national crisis
Gettysburg Address
Lincoln addresses how the nation needs to get back together quickly to save the union.


Lincoln's personal voice
Gettysburg Address
The Gettysburg Address is a short speech of Lincoln honoring the dead. Because this is more of a sentimental thing, it show's Lincoln's person voice.

Page 556 #1-8 (Revised)

1. the speaker calmly approaches death

2. they don’t agree with it

3. everything is calm before the speaker dies except for the fly

4. 
“My life closed twice before its close–”
In this poem, the speaker implies that two horrible things had happened to them, causing them to have basically died two times emotionally before they really died. The poem brings up the idea of whether you only have one death, or if you can die multiple times because of tragic events that happen in your lifetime.

“I heard a fly buzz – when I died–”
In this poem, the speaker is on their deathbed, waiting for god to, so to speak, pick them up. Instead of a bright light and the Lord, however, the speaker is confused when all they experience is darkness and the sound of a fly buzzing.

5.
“Much Madness is divinest Sense”
The capitalization of words, like “Sense,” “Majority,” and “All” personifies these words, changing them from just a word to a person. They make it seem like there is someone behind these words.

“The Soul selects her own Society”
In this poem, “Soul” is very far away from “Society,” implying that one’s soul does not and should not conform to Society’s expectations.

6. She is quiet and dark

7.
“Much Madness is divinest Sense”
In this poem, the paradox is “Much Madness is divinest Sense–” which deals with how people who are different are labeled as insane. They are left out from society, when in fact they are just as “normal” as the people around them.


“Success is counted sweetest”
The paradox is “Success is counted sweetest By those who ne’er succeed.” This implies that the loser values success more than the victor because they would have to work harder to succeed. They savor their success when they get it.


“My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun–”
In this poem, the paradox is “For I have but the power to kill, Without–the power to die–” Basically, this shows that a gun can kill, but cannot die.


8. Dickenson was very partial to using dashes, and used metaphors and personification when speaking of “the mind” in her letter.

Song of Myself Questions #1-3

1. Nothing really dies; no matter can be destroyed, so when something dies its atoms are just transformed into something like the grass. With everything that dies, something new is created. Section 52 is about how, after death, his atoms will be scattered throughout the world. He writes of how he will be everywhere, so it would be futile for someone to look for him because he’s all around them.

2. The Hawk. 

3. Grass is pure, fresh, and unprejudiced. Grass will not judge you, and symbolizes new life and how death isn’t really the end.