Today, we spoke about Huck's change of heart. Some were surprised that he could consider turning Jim in, but given the culture he was a part of, we shouldn't be. We looked at the video clip I put in last night's blog post to get just the merest sense of how bizarrely race relations were structured. If that clip was OK in 1950, what on earth could have been OK in 1880? Yeesh!
In last night's reading, Huck sees Jim unabashedly look forward to freedom. While we place our sympathies wholly with Jim, whose family is torn apart because his wife and children are owned by others, Huck places his sympathies elsewhere. In responding to Jim's talk of freedom and what it means, Huck is conflicted about whether to listen to what he has been taught or what he has experienced with Jim. He has been taught to identify with white slave owners, but he has experienced Jim's friendship. Which to follow? In the heat of the moment, he chooses to listen to the wisdom of experience, but is this full-out loyalty? Well, check the class notes to see what you all think.
We also spoke about the Grangerfords and the Grangerford home. This episode, though it seems silly and foreign to us, is really not that far removed from us. I asked how many of you have rooms in the house you're not allowed in, or fancy books that are pretty much for decoration. Some of you brought up the candles you're not allowed to light--ever--or the fancy Christmas dishes. These items are the icons of respectability. How else do you show you're respectable but have fancy things you don't use or consult much? It is this idea that Twain is having fun with, and he takes it a whole lot further. He sees that our emotional relationships to one another are just as contrived as our economic ones, hence the spidery armed drawing and absurd poem. Our Sense of Occasion is silly, even if the impetus that moves us to seek out occasions is pure and admirable (Emmaline, after all, is kind to mourn the loss of a drowned child, which truly is quite sad. But her poem? Preposterous.). Please see the Explanatory Notes on 415-422 to get a sense of just what Twain is talking about in this chapter. It's worth it.
Tomorrow will be a reading day; you may read either Huck Finn or Of Mice and Men. By Monday, you should be up to page 195 in Huck Finn.
QUIZ TOMORROW ON VOCABULARY UNIT 8 and SENTENCE DIAGRAMMING 1-12.
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