Huckfinn Finale

I really enjoyed the novel of Huckfinn and I really liked that everything about was cynical and making fun of southern society pre-Civil War. This book was really clever, especially the ending. In the ending we see that Huck didn't really change too much and he had sort of been sucked back into what he had been trying to escape from. This is the ultimate joke on that culture because it basically means that it was impossible for these people to adapt or evolve when they were all together and had that mob mentality. 

Huckfinn Response 6

Ji tells Huck about the time when he discovered that his daughter was deaf. He found out she was deaf and was furious at her for a little while. It shows us that Jim is a caring parent and maybe he takes care of Huck and is more compassionate to Huck probably because he feels guilty about being a sub-par father to his children. It also shows us that conversely to Huck, Jim cares more about the present and for other people. 

Huckfinn Response 5

he Duke and the King are a couple of con men that Huck and Jim meet on their way to Cairo. They claim to be royalty, but it turns out that they lied about who they are and are really just a couple of hoboes. I think it's ok for Jim and Huck to accept them because they have some money and are entertaing, which is good for morale. Huck and Jim can't be too critical of them becasue Huck and Jim are sort of like hoboes and they hide their identities when it suits them on their odyssey. 

Huckfinn Response 4

huck and Buck are both similar boys. Both of them like to play tricks on people, they are the same age, and are both from environments where violence occurs. Huck has a tumultuous home life and pretends to be be in a "gang", and Buck is involved with a family feud. Also, Huck goes on journeys with Jim, a slave, and Buck has a family slave.   

Huckfinn Response 3

The men raftsmen are, in my opinion, are like pre-Episode 4 Han Solos. They are always around their ships, transporting things on it and making their living off of it. They also go drinking often, get into fights,and tell stories about their adventures. Huckfinn has river rats and Star Wars has space pirates. The two river rats began fighting after comparing themselves to natural elements. This has much resemblance to the reealtionship of Han and Leia, when the first meet each other, in that both characters had achieved so much and were so similar in many characteristics, such as being headstrong, yet they continued to bicker many times. 

Huckfinn Response 2

HUck goes back to save the boatsmen because he feels guilty for possibly killing these men. THis seems to contradict the mindset Huck has of where he only looks out for himself. I don't think that Huck would've had the remorse for his actions that he expressed by saving those men, had he not been with JIm. I think that the relationship that Huck and Jim have with each other has lead to emotional growth in Huck. For the first time ever he has to care for somebody other than himself. 

Huckfinn Response 1

The trick that Huck played on Jim was when they were both in the cave and HUck put a dead snake by Jim's body. When Jim went to go to sleep, the snake's mate had crept over and bit Jim. They were able to save Jim, due to Jim being a stout believer in superstitions and some of them had eventually gotten the bite to go away. 

This joke was an act of compassion from Huck to Jim. It isn't a conventional way to express yourself, but he did it like best friends, for example Beavis and Butthead, do to each other. They show each other love by hurting them. This is a completely different kind of prank than the one that TOm attempted to play on JIm earlier in the novel. That joke was a joke at the expense of Jim, and would have been done ina  mean spirit. TOm's joke was more like a slave owner toying with the feelings of one of his slaves. Huck did not know or count on the other snake coming and biting Jim, and we see the remorse Huck has for his actions later on.   

End of Last American Man

If you take the definition of the American Man literally, which states a man that forges his own life through the wilderness, Eustace is one of a dying breed of man. As stated in the epilogue, there are some men that live isolated in the wilderness, but Eustace is the only one that makes himself publicly available. Are those men the only left of the nearly extinct American man? what about those who survive the concrete jungle? They face dangers like those in nature, such as competition for resources. They have to teach themselves how to survive, and when you live in this type of environment you teach yourself all about the nuances of the biome. Eustace can point out the difference between a rare Turk's Cap and a tiger lily. An inner-city kid can point out he difference in two very similar alleys and whether one is safe or not or what time an area becomes dangerous. It all depends on how you look at the situation, like how Obi-Wan Kenobi looks at the story of Darth Vader, on whether American Men exist anymore. 

Chapter 8 response Last American Man

Eustace’s apprentices dislike Eustace for the main reason that he is not what they expected him to be. Eustace is a man, and all men have flaws, which is something that is not expected by Eustace’s apprentices, like Jason. All of these people flock to Eustace because they’re attracted to the idea of Eustace, which is very romantic. He is a lamp that attracts lost souls like mosquitoes. But instead of being Lollapalooza, Eustace is John Wayne. His work ethic and instead of being high, he is always down to Earth to such an extreme that it could be his flaw as well as his strength. I wouldn’t want to work for Eustace for the fact that I hate the woods and I don’t think he would let be independent while I’m on his property. I’m not afraid of hard work, I’d rather do manual labor instead of a corporate job, but I’d imagine Eustace would find one of my flaws and constantly draw conclusions as a result of the flaw. 

Chapter 7 Last American MAn

Eustace is first drawn to horses due to their natural beauty. He is naturally gifted with them, and he is so drawn to their beauty he purchases ten of them. He starts riding horses around the area of which he resides, and he suddenly stumbles upon a large, poorer, black family reunion to which he is invited. He is well received by the family and they treat him like a king. He realizes that the reason he was invited by this family, people who are almost the exact opposite of himself, because of his horse. The revelation to him is that, he needs the horse, as an “icebreaker”, for the reason it gives people that have little or nothing in common with each other, a starting point of getting to know each other. He rides his horse all over the south, and he comes into contact with people of all races in the south, telling him of some of their experiences of living in the south. Eustace realizes on the trip that that unique southern culture and drawl is beginning to disappear, to what he theorizes is the media and information being available everywhere. He notes that the generational gaps in southern society are beginning to become very distinct. It reminds me of the gap that Eustace has with his father. Both Eustace and his father, like the young and old, have a lot in common, but the little things, such as vocabulary or interests, are driving them further and further apart.

Chapter 6 blog Last American Man

In chapter 6 we see that the responsibilities, financial and otherwise, are finally catching up to Eustace. He has continued his nation wide tour, which has inadvertently led to his girlfriend having an affair with another man, while he is gone. Along with his being gone, I think Eustace’s dominating and extreme personality have caused Valerie to do that. Also, in order to expand Turtle Island, Eustace was “forced” to buy land from some very shady people. He could have potentially put himself in a very delicate position of paying his father and simultaneously the shady businessmen whom he purchased more land from. Also, another problem Eustace could face is his new marriage. Along with all of his other positions, motivational speaker, camp counselor, etc., he is now a husband. I don’t know if Eustace can keep this going, due to his constant falling in love with many different women and his “my way or the highway” personality. 

Chapter 5 blog Last American Man

The pressures felt by Eustace of running Turtle Island are tolls that affect him constantly. When Eustace is not running across the nation yelling at audiences of people he cannot relate to and he loathes, he is busy working in his 107 acres of land. We learn that when Eustace finally has a 40 day break from his public presentations, a very rare occurrence, he decides to build an office in his land, which he spends all most the entire day doing. Eustace would spend all hours working on his building, only getting three or fours hours of sleep a night. When he wasn’t touring the country or constructing buildings, he would host children and adult camps, in which he would teach his campers how to live in the world, pray, and about the new world they are living in. All of this work would make him question his relationships with those closest with him, such as Valerie. In Valerie’s case, Eustace would question as to whether or not he could be with her forever and with his workload that took away a lot of time from their love life. Most of these burdens, such as the ones for money, all stemmed from Eustace’s estranged father. Eustace had to convince his father to loan him enough money to purchase Turtle Island, a near $80,000 investment, and o pay him back with considerable interest.    

In class lesson

Today in class I realized that there could be different versions of the green light than what was said. For example, I thought we were supposed to only have one green light, but Alex MacDonald had multiple lights. It made me realize that my green light's bulb was dimming compared to other kids's aspirations. For example other people's green lights were shining brighter than mine in that they were planning to do grand things after college, grandiose adventures and they knew exactly what it would entail.

Also, I saw my vocab scores and I learned that I need to study before tests. 

Chapter response

During Gatsby’s lifetime he had many crowds of people attend his great and illustrious parties. In his death, only three men attended his funeral. These men, Nick, Gatsby’s father, and the owl-eyed man were the only people to see Gatsby at his final moments. Daisy, Gatsby’s love, fled the area with her husband and didn’t even send a note or flowers. Maybe she did this because Tom would forbid her from attending or maybe she was grief stricken and felt too guilty to attend. Gatsby did in fact die because of her actions.

I was surprised that Wolfsheim did not attend. I’m sure it was because he wasn’t that close with him and Gatsby was only a way to obtain more capitol. Nobody really knew Gatsby from his parties so the partiers didn’t care too much or even realize what had happened. I think the guy with the owl glasses went because he realized Gatsby was indeed great. 

chapter 8

From actions taken and stories revealed earlier in the novel we could decipher what was going to happen in chapters 7 and 8. It isn’t much of a stretch for Daisy to be the driver of a hit and run in which she responsible for the death of another in. Earlier in the novel we found out she was irresponsible on the road and that other drivers would make up for her lack of consideration on the road. Also, it’s unsurprising that daisy fell back in love with Gatsby from the story about how she was reluctant to marry Tom, but “fell in love” with him after someone told her she should be. Previously in the novel we heard Gatsby describe himself as a man of God. In the instances in the Bible, it was common for prophets to be killed. Even God’s son, Jesus, was crucified for our sins. Similarly, Gatsby was crucified for the murder of Myrtle Wilson, somebody he did not kill. 

Chptr. 6 and 7 response

Gatsby’s charade of attending Oxford and being an Oxford man was revealed to us in chapter seven. Nick, being the narrator of the story, knew this while telling us the story of Gatsby. I believe Nick didn’t tell us this earlier when Gatsby first made the claim of being an Oxford man because he was telling the story as it happened and letting the story develop as it had developed when it was actually occurring in Nick’s timeline.

I believe that Gatsby lied about attending Oxford and being of an Oxford family because had he not; it would have made his wealth and social status questionable. Living the upper class life he is living would have seemed credible and reliable due to the fact that he claimed he came from old money, meaning he was born into this wealth. Suddenly becoming fantastically rich during the Depression would have seemed suspicious and could’ve hinted at his true shady rise to power. Without this lie the Great Gatsby would have seemed like a common gangster and not the man he is viewed as. 

Nick says in chapter 5 that Gatsby’s “count of enchanted objects had diminished by one”. I assume Nick is referring to the lavish balls and parties that Gatsby frequently hosts. These elegant yet wild parties were all but a ruse to cause some sort of connection or meeting between Gatsby and Daisy.  Daisy had not attended any of these parties but after tea at Nick’s home the two had made their connection, five years this November in the making.

Gatsby’s reclusive behavior at his social events had given us the impression that he only hosted them in order to see Daisy, not to have fun and socialize with his guests. At Nick’s tea party the “chance” meeting between Daisy and Gatsby starts out awkwardly, but ends up leading to an assumed romantic connection. From Daisy calling Gatsby by his first name, to Gatsby finally getting the chance to preview his gargantuan house to Daisy it seems that Gatsby’s parties have since become obsolete. 

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