In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain names the sinking steamboat the Walter Scott, after...
From Wikipedia:
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet FRSE (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832) was a Scottish historical novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of both English-language literature and of Scottish literature. Famous titles include Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, Old Mortality, The Lady of the Lake, Waverley, The Heart of Midlothian and The Bride of Lammermoor.
In his 1883 Life on the Mississippi, Mark Twain satirized the impact of Scott's writings, declaring (with humorous hyperbole) that Scott "had so large a hand in making Southern character, as it existed before the [American Civil] war", that he is "in great measure responsible for the war".[60] He goes on to coin the term "Sir Walter Scott disease", which he blames for the South's lack of advancement. Twain also targeted Scott in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, where he names a sinking boat the "Walter Scott" (1884); and, in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889), the main character repeatedly utters "great Scott" as an oath; by the end of the book, however, he has become absorbed in the world of knights in armor, reflecting Twain's ambivalence on the topic.
Thursday, November 15, 2018
Wednesday, November 14, 2018
Huck Finn - Journal
1. A good education makes a good person.
2. It is better to follow laws, even if we don’t agree with all of them.
3. Children should obey and respect adults.
4. The ability to read and write is the most important skill a person can learn in life.
5. An adolescent’s behavior is influenced by friends more than anything else.
6. An adolescent’s attitudes are influenced by parents more than anything else.
7. A person must “play the game” to survive.
8. “Game playing” is dishonest.
9. Cruelty begets cruelty and kindness begets kindness.
10. When bad things happen to a person, he/ she has done something to cause them.
Monday, November 12, 2018
Twain's Vernacular: Vocabulary in HUCK FINN
Twain's Huck Finn (Chapters 1-11) - Vocabulary List @ Vocabulary.com
Twain's HUCK FINN (Chapters 12-22) - Vocabulary List @ Vocabulary.com
Twain's HUCK FINN (Chapters 23-34) - Vocabulary List @ Vocabulary.com
Twain's HUCK FINN (Chapters 35-Chapter the Last) - Vocabulary List @ Vocabulary.com
Friday, November 9, 2018
Listen and READ - HUCK FINN
READ THIS HTML version of Twain's novel or download from Gutenberg.com.
Above audiobook is a playlist that includes a slide show of the text.
Full audiobook:
I recommend the reading by Elijah Wood on audible.com
Playlist: Context to TEACHING HUCK FINN:
Above audiobook is a playlist that includes a slide show of the text.
Full audiobook:
I recommend the reading by Elijah Wood on audible.com
Playlist: Context to TEACHING HUCK FINN:
Thursday, November 8, 2018
Monday, November 5, 2018
How Historically Accurate Is Spielberg's Lincoln?
When the movie was released in 2012, many historians along with journalists wrote reviews of Steven Spielberg's Lincoln.
For example:
December 2012
How Historically Accurate is "Lincoln"?
by Kelsey McKernie
Excerpt:
Critics of the movie have pointed out that there were other events happening at the same time, which helped to push the 13th Amendment forward and end the war. Professor Eric Foner points out that “slavery died on the ground” as well as in the House, due to abolition efforts by feminist leaders like Susan B. Anthony, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the actions of free blacks themselves. However, the absence of such events is not really historical error, but rather a choice of focus. The movie is about Lincoln, and the politicians on both sides of the aisle who were directly involved in the process of passing the 13th Amendment and ending the war -- not about the actions of other involved parties, however important they might have actually been to the historical event. Their stories are not this movie’s to tell.
Another criticism, voiced by Kate Masur in her New York Times review of the movie, is the passivity of black characters in the movie. It is true that free African Americans were actively involved in efforts to get the 13th Amendment passed, and the movie could probably have shown this a bit more without significantly veering off-course, possibly by highlighting the role of Frederick Douglass, who does not appear in the movie, or by providing more context for black characters like Elizabeth Keckley, Mary Todd Lincoln's dressmaker and one of the leaders of the African American community in Washington. Once again, however, this is not exactly an issue of historical accuracy (at least insofar as omissions are not errors) but of storytelling.
Ronald White, author of A. Lincoln: A Biography, tells NPR's Linda Wertheimer that if a ninth-grader were to write a school paper based on the film, she'd find that its "dramatic core" is basically on target.
On Kate Maser's New York Times op-ed, which criticized the film for keeping black people quietly in the background
"I think that's a point well taken. And what the audience doesn't fully understand, in the final scene — almost the final scene — where suddenly African-Americans arrive in the balcony as the final vote is to be taken, that one of those is Charles Douglass, the son of Frederick Douglass. Charles had fought in the famous Massachusetts 54th; he will write to his father after that climactic vote: 'Oh, Father, how wonderful it is. People were cheering, they were crying tears of joy.' So that had the potential for more black agency, but it doesn't come to full fruition in the film."
On whether freeing the slaves was the prime motive of Abraham Lincoln, as the film suggests
"I think we still don't understand, sadly, although historians have been telling us this for a generation — that slavery really was a cause of the war. However, Lincoln did start the war to save the Union; he did not start the war originally to free the slaves. But that became a purpose for him when he realized that he could no longer move forward without a true understanding of liberty and union. He ran in 1864 for re-election on the slogan 'Liberty and Union,' and so it becomes the second purpose of the Civil War."
On Kate Maser's New York Times op-ed, which criticized the film for keeping black people quietly in the background
"I think that's a point well taken. And what the audience doesn't fully understand, in the final scene — almost the final scene — where suddenly African-Americans arrive in the balcony as the final vote is to be taken, that one of those is Charles Douglass, the son of Frederick Douglass. Charles had fought in the famous Massachusetts 54th; he will write to his father after that climactic vote: 'Oh, Father, how wonderful it is. People were cheering, they were crying tears of joy.' So that had the potential for more black agency, but it doesn't come to full fruition in the film."
On whether freeing the slaves was the prime motive of Abraham Lincoln, as the film suggests
"I think we still don't understand, sadly, although historians have been telling us this for a generation — that slavery really was a cause of the war. However, Lincoln did start the war to save the Union; he did not start the war originally to free the slaves. But that became a purpose for him when he realized that he could no longer move forward without a true understanding of liberty and union. He ran in 1864 for re-election on the slogan 'Liberty and Union,' and so it becomes the second purpose of the Civil War."
Friday, November 2, 2018
Context to Huck Finn
 |
| Map of Huck and Jim's journey down the Mississippi. |
Playlist:
Context to TEACHING HUCK FINN:
Covers the time period from 1844 to 1877: A challenging period of expansion, crisis, and rebuilding for America.
Manifest Destiny
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