Throughout the novel HUCK FINN, Twain gives us insight to his wit and his wisdom. Which episode or line/passage from the novel did you find especially humorous and why? Which line/passage of Twain's did you find didactic? How so? (The deadline to post a response to this post is midnight Friday, August 26, 2011)
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Wit and Wisdom on a Raft
Throughout the novel HUCK FINN, Twain gives us insight to his wit and his wisdom. Which episode or line/passage from the novel did you find especially humorous and why? Which line/passage of Twain's did you find didactic? How so? (The deadline to post a response to this post is midnight Friday, August 26, 2011)
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The part I found most humorous was in the beginning when Tom Sawyer's gang was about to rule Huck out because he had no family, and Huck decided to offere them Miss Watson; "... and so I offered them Miss Watson- they could kill her." I found it funny because of the naivety of them for making such a pact and because of Hucks quick, improvised decision to offer Miss Watson as a sacrifice. The passage I found most didactic was when Col. Sherburn confronted the mob and said, "Why don't your juries hang murderers? Because they're afraid the man's friends will shoot them in the back, in the dark- and it;s just what they would do." I believed it to be didactic because it teaches that men do not backstab or hide behind masks or darkness or lies. True men speak and act in the light and in plain view of their audience.
"Human beings can be really cruel to one another." through this line, Mark Twain reveals how willing humans are to punish an condemn others for doing something wrong. We are not God and it is not our place to take a man's life. I find this didactic because we are never in our place. Humans constantly try to be the best and the most pwowerful when we are not meant to be.
I found the line "I don't take no stock in dead people" to be the funniest line because it showed how naive Huck really was. I found the grangerford section to be one of the more didactic scenes because it does provide insight to the nasty side of the rich and famous. This "lesson" even shows in modern times in the form of movie stars and singers and athletes who are viewed as perfect but have flaws.
I found part where Huck and Tom mess with Tom's aunt because she thought she was crazy and believed that something was haunting her. I liked it because it was lighthearted against Tom and Huck trying to steal Jim and run away again. The most didactic part was the end where Tom and Huck are found out. It shows that no matter how well something is planned it is impossible to keep it up forever; something is going to go wrong.
I personally found the notice at the beginning of the novel to be very humorous. It is a true example of Twain's wit and wisdom because it disclaims Twain's reason for many scenes in the novel. It tells the reader to not look for meaning because he hides it, and only the people who want to understand will find his wisdom in the many plots of satire. This is hilarious to know the reason behind the notice. The scene where Buck explains to Huck the feud between the Grangerfords and the Sheperdsons is very didactic. This is didactic because it teaches the lesson that society tends to fight without reasons. Twain includes many other didactic scenes in the novel, but this one is very prominent.
The point that I found most humerous was when Tom Sawyer insisted that carving the messages on the log wall was not good enough,and so decided that they had to bring in the mill stone to carve on. However, Tom and Huck could not get the stone all the way there, and so had to break Jim out, a task of only a minute, so he could help them roll it in. To me, the most didactic moment was when Jim shames Huck after Huck tried to trick Jim into thinking it was a dream. Through this, Twain teaches the value of people and the damage a seemingly harmless joke can have on a friendship.
The part I found most humorous in the novel was when Tom and Huck decided to find snakes and bugs to give to Jim. The snakes ended up in a bag inside the house, and whenever Tom and Huck came back from dinner the snakes were gone. Every now and then a snake would drop down on someone, and I found this most humorous because I could just imagine Tom's aunt's reaction. The section that I found most didactic was when Huck was in the Granger's house and looking at the chipped fruit. The fruit was pleasing from a distance, but once he got up close, Huck realized that is was chipped and not as great as it seems. Mark Twain uses this to show how civilization is not great either.
The part in the novel that I thought was the most halarious was the part where Tom told Huck he could join his gang that kills people and steals only if he goes back to live with the widow. I thought the passage where Huck decides not to send the letter to Mrs. Watson telling her that he has helped Jim escape was the most didactic passage. I thought this passage was didactic because it reveals that Huck is going to do the right thing for himself even though he was raised to think helping an African-American escape is wrong.
I thought it was humorous when Huck said "i don't take no stock in dead people". The line is funny because the context it was in was trying to teach him a lesson. Twain shows us that poor illiterate,for lack of better term, "rednecks" are ignorant and they won't take the time to learn a lesson from history.
Whenever Huck talks about how he does not take stock in dead people, I laugh because of how abrupt, and to the point he is. The most didactic moment for me was at the end of ch. 15 when Huck is messing with Jim's head, and Jim says, "Dat truck dah is trash; en trash is what people is dat puts dirt on de head er dey fren's en makes 'em ashamed". Jim is teaching Huck making people feel bad or ashamed only for a laugh or snicker is wrong, and only trashy people act that way.
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