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Post by Mr. Thomas on Dec 19, 2013 13:22:25 GMT -5
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Post by emmanuelluna on Jan 3, 2014 16:10:34 GMT -5
Emmanuel Luna
Mr. Thomas
English 11
1/6/14
D. I enjoyed the quote where Huck says, “it was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race.” Huck said this in response to the King and Duke’s actions where they were pretending Peter Wilks’ relatives. Peter was a wealthy man and they were doing this in hopes of getting a piece of the inheritance. Huck saying this shows again how moral Huck is despite having had an abusive father and not being formally educated.
E. Despite being conmen and being very immoral, which is the opposite of Huck who is very moral, the King and Duke both constantly show how smart and clever they can be when robbing others and committing fraud. They are both very smart and an example of this is when they have the inheritance money and notice that money is missing. When they see this they decide to add some of the money they made from the “show” they put on so that no one suspects them of the missing money. This shows how smart they are because they are trying to perfectly execute their plan and making sure that there are no rough edges. This is why I like the Duke and King because they are actually smart conmen.
B. Huck has a moral crisis again when he overhears the King and Duke saying that they will live the girls without any of the inheritance. Because of this Huck decides that he will take the gold and wait for the whole thing to die down and then explain the whole thing to the girls. I feel that this will be important later on because if the king and duke find out they could easily turn on Huck because they know that Jim is a runaway slave that Huck is helping.
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Post by eointunney on Jan 5, 2014 13:05:37 GMT -5
Eoin Tunney
Mr. Thomas
English 11
5 January 2014
D. When the Duke and the king decide to act as Peter Wilk’s brothers to steal his land and money I became extremely disgusted. This way of stealing money is definitely the dirtiest act of stealing possible. It really takes someone desperate to do an act like this. This chapter also shows us that Huck is actually a pretty good kid with some strong moral values. When Huck said, “it was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race.”, I knew right away that he would do something to stop them.
E. The last chapter immensely illustrates the changes in Huck from the first few chapters to now. Before Huck ran away, he and his friends would always say how they were going to rob everyone and kill people. But now Huck is feeling bad that the nieces are being conned by the King and Duke. I feel this adventure with Jim has greatly matured Huck so far.
C. The one thing that confused me was the fact that the King and Duke added some of their money to the inheritance money so they wouldn’t get blamed for the missing money. The reason why I am confused about this is because I thought one of the brothers was given $3,000 of
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Post by johnmarano on Jan 5, 2014 15:43:48 GMT -5
John Marano
Mr. Thomas
English 11
5 January 2014
B. In chapter 26, Huck devises a plan to help the family and go against these con artists. Basically he is conning the con artist. I think the significance of this reading is when Huck plans to steal the gold in order to help the family. The King is literally planning to leave the people with nothing and Huck shows how he wont let that happen. I feel this was important because it shows his true character. He doesn’t want to see other people suffer.
C. I was confused at why Huck continues to remain with these cons. He sees of all the wrong doings of these people, yet he remains with them. WHY? Doesn’t he know that this is all trouble? Also, these chapters really reveal how Huck is so opposite fro his dad. He is even disgusted by the way the cons kneel over the dead body. I want to question how he is so different from his dad. He is only hoping to help the family. I mean he didn’t have anyone to teach him anything and yet he still manages to be a better person.
I. I would like to add to Emmanuel Luna’s point when he gives a response from Huck. “It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race.” I would like to point out that I also thought this quote was significant. In the story, the two men were able to disguise themselves as the dead uncle’s nephews just to make a quick buck. Huck is aware of the con artists and he says how they disgust the human race because of going to extremes to rob money from a DEAD person. As we know, Huck isn’t in favor of stealing because he doesn’t want to. In any way, resemble his father. I think his dad played a role in the way he looks at the mischievous deeds of these people. Emmanuel was spot on saying how Huck is moral because although he didn’t have great supervision as a kid, he still is aware of what is right and wrong. This shows how Huck is completely different from his father. Huck doesn’t feel the need to rob from innocent person, while his dad would most likely have no problem doing so.
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Post by bourdonm15 on Jan 5, 2014 19:09:52 GMT -5
Matthew Bourdon
Mr. Thomas
English 11
1/5/14
C. If Huck realizes that the Duke and the King are lying about being the sons of Peter Wilks, why doesn’t he say anything? “It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race.” (Page 162) If he feels so strongly about these two con artists doing wrong why doesn’t he speak up. I feel that Huck is not being smart by not escaping with Jim at this point. The whole situation is starting to boil up and throughout every chapter the Duke and the King seem to get their way every time.
F. We now see Huck’s guilt as he decides to get the money back for those related to Peter Wilks. “But I knowed better. I had it out of there before they was half-way down-stairs. I groped along up to my cubby, and hid it there till I could get a chance to do better.” (Page 178) Finally what I have been waiting for since he met these two fools! We finally see that Huck has gotten some sense into him and he now realizes that escaping these frauds and giving back the money is the right thing to do instead of just standing there and keeping shut. This scene shows Huck’s bravery and common sense and I commend him for this.
I. I agree with the comment Emmanuel made about the King and the Duke. Huck needs to be very careful and cautious because they can take away Jim’s freedom. This is a part in the story that is very suspenseful because we do not know what exactly is going to happen next.
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Post by georgebaroudos on Jan 5, 2014 20:51:23 GMT -5
George Baroudos
Mr. Thomas
English 11
2 January 2014
A – I have to admire the acting skills of the Duke and the King. They certainly put on a performance. But their performance showed their true disgusting and selfish nature in all honesty. It really is sickening. But this goes to show how far money will push people to. Money in all honesty is the root of all evil and it will remain that way. It hasn’t changed since Huck’s time and it stays this way. It shows people’s true colors and it shows what an evil and corrupt thing it truly is.
D – “Music is a good thing” (159). Music truly is a good thing. Music can take anyone out of any mood. Music is a beautiful concept and can cope to anyone’s mood and that’s beautiful in itself. I know that when I am in a bad mood I resort to music. Sometimes it is the only thing we have in all honesty. Sometimes we feel like the music is directed straight at us as well and that makes you feel comfortable. Comfort is one of the greatest and worst things when we don’t have it. But with music that song will always stay the same so the comfort will be there.
I – I believe this in many ways relates to Poe. The fact that there is evil in this world. It isn’t always that fairy tale, but things do work out. But even though they do work out there are still so many disgusting things out there. There are so few genuine people out there. It’s sickening, but we can always make it out. Poe sets this president and Twain honestly emphasizes it further.
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djmat
New Member
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Post by djmat on Jan 5, 2014 21:14:41 GMT -5
Dj Mat
Mr. Thomas
English 11
1/5/14
I. I have to agree with Matt on this one. At first it was alright to let them pretend to be a king and Duke, and it was a bit harmless but now its causing more trouble. Yes Huck was just trying to go with the flow to not bump into any trouble but at sometime you have to say "stop" because things can get to far. Now I think it is a bit to late even though even though he is probably going to leave them. They may meet up along the story and I do not think that their meeting will go to well.
C.Is Huck starting to lose his touch? In chapter 26 he kind of dug himself into a hole by telling all those contradictory stories and Joanna might have caught him if Mary Jane had not told her to stop asking questions. She essentially put him into a corner and he had to swear he was telling the truth. Is it just cause Joanna is just a bit more observant than the rest of the people Huck has met or is he really starting to lose his touch?
E. I feel Huck could probably go about this a bit different. He could probably get the police or something or even tell the girls. But it already feels like he is going on another adventure to get he money back. Sometimes it seems as if he goes about things difficultly.
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Post by frankclarke on Jan 5, 2014 23:16:13 GMT -5
Frank Clarke
Mr. Thomas
English 11
5 January 2014
B. Really these three chapters have a lot of substance in them, but looking there about 20 chapters dedicated in this book (so far) to escaping or having some sort of running nature to them. They’ve been on the run for a while now, and ever since they met the “Duke” and “King”, we see them looking over their shoulders less and less. Really enjoying their time with their newly founded friends, without a care in the world. These three chapters really show a turning point in the book; from always running to just hanging out with Mary Jane (possibly in more ways than one)
A. In chapter four we see even more racism, like it’s necessary for them to survive. This can easily be compared to present day racism. If we venture off into Harlem we see an overwhelming sense of blacks and hispanics, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but in this day and age we see these young children being forced into a life style some of them don’t even want to be apart of. A lot of these young kids get mixed up with drug and gang violence, the kind of “social norm” for these black communities. We see this in the book as they are forced to die Jim up to make him look like he’s just a slave. Again, fitting into whatever the social norm is for the time.
D. “Then Mary Jane she fetched the letter her father left behind him, and the king he read it out loud and cried over it.” Huh… I wonder if those were real tears, I’m sure they were but we see the king is already a good actor. After all, he just shook hands with a bunch of people pretending to be this almighty king. If you can look into hundreds of peoples eyes and tell them you’re something you’re not, you’ve got some gut.
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Post by michaelannunziata on Jan 6, 2014 12:23:10 GMT -5
Michael Annunziata
Mr. Thomas
English 11
1,6,14
A. One thing that I can make a connection to from my life to the reading is the on going racism. Racism can affect a person’s life substantially and could even make someone commit suicide. In the world today many people are racist about black people. Although they have equal rights to white people I don’t feel like society accepts them that way. I still feel like white people treat them as if they are lower then white people and I feel that this is never going to change, although it should be stopped as soon as possible.
c. One thing that has me in question is that I feel like Huck isn’t as sharp as he used to be with the lying and all the schemes he plays. He almost got caught multiple times and the most important time was when he almost got caught but Joanna pretty much saved him and helped him. I find this weird because I did not expect Mark Twain to take a different route with Huck I thought he would’ve kept him as a smart young man. This is one thing that I was extremely curious about as I read this reading.
d. One thing that really annoyed me throughout the reading was when Duke and the king did this acting job that they were Peter Wilk’s brother just to get his land and money. I don’t understand how a person can just plan to ruin another persons life just to pleasure their own.
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Post by matthewsegarra on Jan 6, 2014 17:53:52 GMT -5
Matthew Segarra
Mr. Thomas
English 11
6 January 2014
A. In these chapters we start to see Huck in a different way. He is becoming more mature by realizing black and white people
are not different from each other. His narration is also different, he starts to evaluate things more. We also see through the
metaphor about the river, that Huck is also starting to become less of a pushover. He will stand up for himself instead of letting
things happen without a fight.
D. I feel I can relate to th is quote, “Music is a good thing” (159). I always listen to music, it makes me feel better. If I am
frustrated or not in a good mood I will put in my headphones and listen to some music. Music sometimes keeps me calm or
calms me down. Music is also another way to connect with people; you can find someone with common interests in music with
you.
I. I agree with Emmanuel's response to "E.". The King and Duke are very deceptive con-artists and manipulate a lot of people.
They pretend to be the uncles of orphans just to get the money from inheritance. They seem to be very good at what they do.
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Post by Sgarlato on Jan 6, 2014 22:11:41 GMT -5
Stephen Sgarlato
Mr. Thomas
English 11
1/6/14
A. I feel as if when The Dauphin encounters the young man that tells him about Peter Wilk’s death, it was very weird. This man reminded me of a homeless man rambling on about nothing but is actually very intelligent and knows what he is talking about. It didn’t seem that The Dauphin had much interest in what was being discussed but it does seem like it will be brought about later in the movie.
C. What I was confused about was when in chapter 26 Huck steals the money back from the con artists. Like he should mind his own business and not always try to do what is moral because in the end it is going to cause him trouble. He already has a couple of enemies from the past chapters.
I. I agree with Mike Annunziata’s comment about how Huck is not as witty and smart as he used to. I feel like when he was independent he had to rely on more of himself while now that has friends he can rely more on them but that isn’t the best decision. I feel like it will get him into more trouble.
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Post by fotia15 on Jan 6, 2014 22:22:10 GMT -5
a. a totally weird scene starts off these chapters with jim dressed up as an "a rab" so they would discover his true identity of being a slave. they put a sign on him to "Sick Arab—but harmless when not out of his head." This is terrible i feel so bad for Jim. It is totally degrading to be demonstrated like that. Hes end goal is to be free yet he has to still pretend to be a slave. Its just wrong being he had the opportunity to be free and decided to stay with Huck to protect him. In the past post ive always said that it was a good thing but now im not so sure. If he was free he would finally be able to find his family and set things right. He would also not have had to put up with all the craziness he still in.
E. When the doctor came in and started to call them out on the money my hearts stopped. i thought that they were defiantly caught and they were going to be sentence to death or just taken to prison. I also thought jim was going to have to run for it by himself. It was strange that people trust the duke and king even though they are so terrible at what they do. not in a sense the conning but the their acting.
I. to answer francnis paul clarke question about the tears. i would say they are fake because the king doesnt really care to much about the father.
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