Huck Finn . Discussion Questions [: I-IV

1. The widow Douglas has a good heart. She takes Huck to her, she gives him clothes, she feeds him, she offers him to go to school, and she gives him an own room to live in.
Huck answered, that he is not interested in dead people. That shows that he is realistic and lives in the world of today.

2. Superstition is used quite often in the first chapter. Huck sees a ghost, he burns a spider, he hears an owl. Superstition has a similarity to religion. Its is mentioned in chapter 1 a lot, because it is used as a motif to understand Huck in a better way.

3. Huck says, that he does not want to go to the 'good place', where people play harps all day long. He wants to have an adventure, a change, he wants to do something.

4. The trick Huck and Tom played on Jim was not really meant in a bad way. They took his hat and hung it up. As they are children, it was just meant as fun.

5. A servant is a really good name for a slave in that time. Jim has somebody that pays attention to him, that makes him feel good. This ruins him, because a slave in that time is not supposed to feel good.

6. Tom took the candle, even though he did not need it. He left the 5 cents on the table, because he thought that would be right, maybe even better for the person, if they get something that is more worth than the candles. I think Huck wouldn't have taken the candles as long as he really does not need them He just takes things, when he needs them, but then he wouldn't have let 5 cents on the table.

7. Tom stands for romanticism, Huck for realism in this book. Huck is a uneducated boy, that does not understand everything that people tell him. He lives in the world of today, he tries to be honest. Tom has education. He is clever, but he is also insidious. He wants to make everthing as romantic as possible.

8. Highwaymen sounds way better than burglars. Burglars are usual, there are a lot of them, Tom does not want to be like everyone else. Highwaymen sounds more noble, and it is more fun to stop wagons instead of breaking into houses.

9. When Miss Watson said when you pray for everything, you get it back, Huck thought, when you pray, you get back even material things. He tried to, it did not work. He also wonders, why no one prays for the things they lost. Then Miss Watson told him that it is for spiritual things, then he is not interested anymore.

10. Tom calls Huck a numskull, because he doesnt get a lot of things. When Tom says something, he believes, that Tom means it, but he often does not, for example with the gang they found. Huck thought they would really kill all the people, but Tom only attacked a picnic.

11. Tom is romantic. He acts like there are all the elephants, and the arabs. Huck does not get it. He is realistic, he does not believe in those things.

12. He gives all the money to the Judge Thatcher, because he does not want his dad to get access to it.

Vocabulary Words ..Evanescent . Veneration.. November 9th

Evanescent (adjective)

There is an evanescent popularity of people who fight for less violence in the world.

Veneration (noun)

Some people have a huge veneration on famous people.

Vocabulary Words ..Magnate . Malleable.. November 8th

Magnate (Noun)

Josef Ackermann is a magnate in the German bank business

Malleable (Adjective)

Our arms are malleable. Otherwise we would fail at picking up things.

The Scarlet Letter .. The Nature of the Evil .. Post #55

I finally decided to take this theme as my essay theme.
The Evil is associated with the darkness in this book. Even though darkness can have good aspects, for example romance, it does not do here. With darkness Chillingworth is connected, and so Satan is, too. It seems like evil in this society is a lot about revenge and not being able to forgive. When someone decides on revenging he gets totally 'eaten' by the darkness. It is just like this person is some kind of puppet, a slave, that is totally devoted to the evil. It is just like you sign into a book with your own blood and it keeps you alive as long as you have something to suck from. You give your soul to the devil. Just as Chillingworth is the darkness in this book he needs sunlight of other people. He needs their pain. Like it always has been, evil needs good things to survive, just like there has to be sunlight for having shadows, there has to be light to have darkness, and so there has to be good to get bad things.

The Scarlet Letter .. Chapter Nine - The Leech and his Patient .. Post #54

“Even in the grave-yard, here at hand,” answered the physician, continuing his employment. “They are new to me. I found them growing on a grave, which bore no tombstone, nor other memorial of the dead man, save these ugly weeds that have taken upon themselves to keep him in remembrance. They grew out of his heart, and typify, it may be, some hideous secret that was buried with him, and which he had done better to confess during his lifetime.”


Is this some kind of a tactic of Chillingworth to get deeper into Dimmesdale's heart? Even though it was not Dimmesdale's grave where the herbs grew, it connects to him, as he has a secret in his heart too. It is like the jewell Chillingworth keeps looking for in Dimmesdale's heart. The jewell, the secret in Dimmesdale's heart, that keeps Chillingworth's heart bumping.

The Scarlet Letter .. Chapter Twenty four - Conclusion .. Post #53

“Don’t you know,” cried the ship’s captain, “that this doctor here—he calls himself Chillingworth—has decided to try ship’s cooking along with you? Yeah, sure, you must have known. He tells me that he is a member of your party and a close friend of the gentleman you spoke of—the one that is in danger from these sour old Puritans.”


and 


"Even across the broad and busy square, through all the talk and laughter and various thoughts, moods, and interests of the crowd, that smile conveyed a secret and fearful meaning."


compared to 


"But what distinguished the physician's ecstasy from Satan's was the trait of wonder in it!" (Page 121, Chapter Nine)


Chillingworth changed during the book. He changed throughout his whole life. First, when he married Hester he was a normal person, studying books, trying to get more and more knowledge. Then he decided to take revenge and this revenge converted him into an evil man. He needed Dimmesdale to survive. First he was some kind of a substitute of Satan, until he finally changed into Satan. When he was described with the snake earlier in the book that was one of the first hints because Satan often gets described in the body of a snake. When he was wondering he was not totally evil yet, he still had some light in him but at the end of the book, he was not wondering anymore. All the light was gone, he turned into a devil. That is the reason he dies in the end. Would he have survived if there had been light somewhere hidden in him? Or would he have died anyways?

The Scarlet Letter .. Chapter Twenty four - Conclusion .. Post #52

"All his strength and energy—all his vital and intellectual force—seemed at once to desert him;"


"Leaving this discussion apart, we have a matter of business to communicate to the reader. At old Roger Chillingworth’s decease (which took place within the year)..."


Finally Chillingworth died too. First he just lost all his strength, he got weaker, than all his life faded away. I think again Dimmesdale is the reason that he dies. Again Chillingworth does not have any victim, any sins to get nourished from, and so he finally 'starves' to death.