We have begun reading Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and it seems that the first 4 chapters develop a series of contrasts: the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson and Tom and Huck. Select a pairing and explain their points of comparison and contrast as seen thus far in the novel. (CATCH: You must not compare/contrast the same characters as the person before you has, but you must comment on their response.) (The deadline to post a response is midnight, Thursday, August 21, 2014.)
5 comments:
Tom and Huck are very much alike because they are both full of shenanigans. They are around the same age and do a lot of stuff together. They are alike in those ways but are different in the way that they percieve right and wrong. Tom does not care while Huck does. That is how i perceived it.
I agree with Donavan that Huck and Tom perceive right and wrong differently. Tom may be more educated, but Huck realizes what is good an bad more than Tom does. The Widow Douglas and Miss Watson both play motherly roles in Huck's life. They're also the only "family" he has. The Widow Douglas feels almost bad for Huck and wants him to be happy. She is the sweet, loving side of the parenting. However, Miss Watson is much more strict and is the discipline side of the parenting. Both are very important in the upbringing of Huck.
Holly McKenzie
In the book, Tom and Huck are still young children and as young children they are very impressionable. Huck, under Tom's oppression, went out at night and joined Tom's gang, signed in blood oath, and joined the gang for all their excursions. But while Tom was imagining and pretending all their great feats of robbery, Huck was seeing as it was, just pretend. Huck also did not want to tie up Jim while he was asleep when Tom thought of it. So in a way, Huck chooses to be like Tom and do the things he wants while also holding on to his own self.
Travis Stennett
(With Donvan)Tom on pages 18 and 19 you can see how he perceives the world from the books he reads to help form the gang. Based on what he's reading you can see the gang as being ruthless in how they carry themselves.
I agree that Tom bases his gang off of the books that he has read, and that Huck views this as lies and not worth his time. Likewise, Miss Watson views are similar to Huck's in that she views his superstitions as lies as well. Although, Widow Douglas's methods of changing Huck's beliefs are quite different from Miss Watson's whose methods are harsh. "Sometimes the widow would take me one side and talk about Providence in a way to make a body's mouth water; but maybe next day Miss Watson would take hold and knock it all down again" (20-21). This statement, made by Huck, further explains how Miss Watson and Widow Douglas methods of teaching Huck are different. Widow Douglas is nurturing and tries to make learning and following virtues exciting, like Tom, while Miss Watson sees this as nonsense and goes straight to what matters, like Huck. All in all Miss Watson and Widow Douglas are very different, but they also compliment each other very well.
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