Ap English Language And Analysis Essay

Authors often express their views on any given subject through their works, and Mark Twain is no exception. One may read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and believe it is simply a novel about a young boys childhood; however, a deeper analysis of the text reveals many of Mark Twain’s expressions about important moral and social issues. Perhaps one of the most prominent being the frailty of human justice and the hypocrisy we as a people foster in our societies. Throughout the novel, Huck meets people who appear to be good, civilized people, but always end up having a hypocritical fault about them. Though not every instance is a grave matter, Twain’s writing shows

People often hesitate to accept what they do not understand. In the absence of love and compassion, it is no question that fear, ignorance, and hatred, all contribute to a melting pot of negativity in the world. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, is about the love and friendship cultivated by a young boy and a black slave on the Mississippi River. Despite the pair’s differences, they are able to endure the struggles and difficulties that the toilsome journey brings. Mark Twain, in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, emphasizes the shift in Huck’s view towards slavery by contrasting Huck’s initial tone of reflectiveness to his assertive tone, both collectively addressing the issue of racism in society.

Huck rushes back to the island and demands that Jim be ready to run with him, meaning that Huck has risked his own freedom to save Jim. “Git up and hump yourself, Jim. They’re after us,” Huck finds out they are looking for Jim on Jackson’s Island and he rushes back to let him know (Twain 63). Huck could’ve easily ran and left Jim, but he didn’t. This is the first time where Huck begins to change and value Jim as a companion and friend. Huck realizes the value of Jim, outside of being a slave, and risks his own freedom in order for Jim to remain free. Huck realizes that Jim is a good and true friend and that lying is what will keep them safe and together in the society that they are living in. “He’s sick--and so is Mam and Mary Ann,” Huck lies to the men who want to search the raft for slaves (Twain 90). He says his family has smallpox which is what drives the slave searchers away. Huck knows they must lie about their intentions and who they are in order to be successful. This also proves how awful society was, they would have taken away Jim, no questions asked, and it just simply becomes easier to hold their tongues. This is when Huck first begins to protect Jim and defy society once again. Huck later hurts Jim’s feelings by playing a cruel trick on Jim and feels bad. Huck knows white people aren't supposed to, but he apologizes to a slave

There are many supporters in favor of English being the only recognized language spoken in America and there have also been many opponents. The debate has driven many states to pass their own laws concerning the English language. As we know, the United States is a nation known as a “ Great Melting Pot” built by immigrants whom many can not speak and parse English. Most immigrants faced difficult barriers by being discriminated against and the cause of their cultural name. If an immigrant name was stenuous to pronounce, they changed it. Immigrants brings their cultures and languages, as well as their customs and traditions. Making English the official language of the US

Mark Twain’s classic novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn took place during a tense period in U.S. history. Heated debate over the morality of slavery had sparked and deep divisions were emerging between the northern and southern states. Born in Missouri, a slave state, the novel’s protagonist Huckleberry Finn was raised on values of racism and prejudice. He adhered to these principles as they were all he knew. However, over the course of his journey, Huck’s formerly provincial morality was challenged by his real-world experiences, and he was forced to derive a new set of morals for himself. At the start of the novel, a blind acceptance of slavery was present in Huck’s mind. This was revealed when Huck thought, in reference to Jim’s plan to free his children, “Here was this nigger, which I had as good as helped to run away, coming right out flat-footed and saying he would steal his children – children that belonged to a man I didn’t even know; a man that hadn’t ever done me no harm” (137). Although grateful for Jim’s companionship and reluctant to report him to the authorities, Huck still believed slavery to be a moral practice. As evidenced by this thought process, Huck held on to the values of the slave-owning states in the south, believing that Jim’s children, as slaves, were property. He even felt remorseful at the thought of a man’s slaves being stolen. Regardless of his budding friendship with Jim, Huck was still concretely in favor of slavery. This static view on

The first contrast between Jim and Pap is the initial reaction Huck has when encountering them. When Huck is on Jackson’s Island, presumably alone, but then comes across a smoldering fire, he is at first frightened, but once he sees that the other refugee is Jim, he pops right out of the bushes and greets him. He is glad for his company. However, when signs of Pap being around are apparent, Huck is seen to panic, and rushes off to rid himself of his fortune. He knows that Pap is greedy enough to steal from anyone, even his own son. When they come face to face, it becomes clear that Huck is afraid of his father, who used to beat him while in a drunken state. During this confrontation, it becomes clear that Pap resents that Huck is being educated, and feels threatened by it. On the contrary, Jim teaches Huck what he knows, and is proud of him for thinking up schemes, such as faking his death to escape his father’s grasp. As Jim and Huck travel together, Jim shows more consideration and a protective nature for Huck, and he tries to act, as much as he can, as a shield between Huck and the corrupt world, which is something Huck’s father never did. On the contrary, Pap exposed Huck to more corruption than most others his age, such as Tom Sawyer, were expected to have been exposed to.

In Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Jim represents different things to Huck that make him a father-figure. Jim loves Huck and forgives him when he his less than kind to him, and Jim also protects Huck. His behaviors and actions towards Huck really influences Huck and made Huck grew more matured. Because of Jim, Huck started to have more have of his own thoughts and also helped him to know the true meanings that are behind love and freedom. Jim’s behavior toward Huck is like how a father influences his own son.

Mohandas Gandhi once said, “Morality is rooted in the purity of our hearts.” However, it may not hold true in Twain’s novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In the novel, the protagonist Huck Finn’s morality and perception of others is shaped by the society he lives in, demonstrating that an individual’s morality or the epistemological sense of right and wrong can be largely influenced by society and the living environment. Yet despite strong traditions of the 19th century south, Huck is able to live away from the “civilized” world, leaving behind his hometown and travelling down the Mississippi river with Jim, a runaway slave. Huck’s unusual experiences with Jim contrast with his predetermined notions of race and power in the midst of the Jim Crow Era, thrusting Huck into a great crisis of morality dictated by his consciousness instead of his intellect. Through Huck’s journey in the search of morality, Twain conveys the theme that that morality is dictated by society, despite the goodness of an individual’s consciousness, it is difficult for and individual to intellectually challenge societal paradigms.

Huck is a slave to his dad, Pap, who enslaves him using the fear of abuse. “He kept me with him all the time and I never got the chance to run off. We lived in an old cabin and he always locked the door and put the key under his head nights” (Twain 30). Huck expresses the hardships he has with his father and why he feels the need to run away in search of freedom. In this novel Pap is a slave to alcohol and all the consequences that come with drinking. He is a hopeless drunk who cannot change his ways even when other people try to intervene and help. “The judge he felt kind of sore. He said he reckoned a body could reform the old man with a shotgun, maybe, but he know no other way” (Twain 29). Another character Twain describes as a slave is Jim. Jim is a slave to Miss Watson and escapes and runs away in hopes of becoming free, making money and one day buying his family back. In this time period slavery was not abolished and blacks were not given the respect or equality they deserved. Slavery was a huge issue during this time and unfortunately it is still an issue

As evidenced in the introductory instances regarding death, Huck’s morality is defective and his sympathy is missing. Perhaps, Huck’s flaws are due to his close contact with the iconic delinquent Tom Sawyer, who is likely corroding Huck’s ethics. Consequently, when Huck bonds with his new partner-in-crime, Jim, a stark juxtaposition is evidenced between the ideals of Tom and Jim. However, luckily “youth is a time of greater potential for change than any other stage of life”, and Jim’s positive influence proves beneficial (Trites 53) . Specifically, Jim is extraordinarily superstitious and attaches a copious amount of meaning to just about everything, even a measly snake skin (Twain 162). Of course, this means that Jim does not completely disregard the significance of death and importance of sympathy, as Tom and his mischievous mates do. Consequently, Jim “has proven himself as a morally admirable figure” (Bollinger). As a result, after prolonged exposure to Jim, Huck starts to exude more concern for the life of others, as evidenced in quite a few scenarios that take place on his and Jim’s journey.

My choice for consideration of this essay are Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Purloined Letter” and, Katherine Mansfield’s “The Garden Party”. In reading these works I enjoyed the beauty with witch the words flowed, because if often seemed like the writer was using poetry to present their story. The similes and metaphors brought the text to life, and I was able to picture myself alongside one of the characters. Even the use of onomatopoeias made my sense of sound participate in the reading. The diction with which the author chose to have his/her characters speak help me to establish a time period and setting in my mind. All of this helped to create a complete picture of what the writers were trying to convey within their works; however, it was the word choices that made me feel as though literature is not relevant to contemporary society.

Throughout my BA course I read a broad range of literature and researched a number of literary genres and periods. I particularly enjoyed literature of the Enlightenment era, as I find it to be a fascinating example of how literature and the written word can be used to make a stand against the established codes of society and bring about a change in political and public opinion. Reviewing the unit

Have you ever watched a trend happen or seen everybody else do something, but you chose not do it because deep down inside you thought “that is so stupid,” or “that is wrong, why is everybody doing this?” Those thoughts are critiques of society from the perspective of those who have not fallen under society’s influence and instead follow their own morals. In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain has the main character, Huckleberry Finn, encounter characters or be put into situations that will implicitly, but on occasion explicitly, critique different aspects of society. Twain uses the aspect of hypocrisy to critique society through the church and people who call themselves Christians on Sundays in church, but everywhere else they are violent and hateful. Along with hypocrisy, Twain has the average white man act toward or address the slaves or any African American in an inhumane manner, contrasting Jim’s development and Jim and Huck’s relationship throughout the book to address how society’s influence has people view race as a reason for some people to view as superior to others. Twain also portrays greed and material possessions as evil and portrays people who are greedy with atavism and other qualities to have the reader be disgusted with people for their greediness. Twain uses theses aspects of hypocrisy, inhumanity, and greed to advance his purpose of showing how flawed society is, even though society itself believes itself to be correct in all

Works of literature are often categorized into genres and considered separately, within their own genre. However, there are merits in comparing works of different categories–writing conventions do not change how works are experienced. Oscar Wilde’s comedic play The Importance of Being Earnest, and William Butler Yeats’s somber poem, “The Wild Swans at Coole,” evoke emotional responses in a reader, and these responses are often shaped by the work itself, culture, and individual experiences.

People start to express and exchange their opinions about art or literature works and try to understand the deeper meaning of them with the development of the society. Different critical theories that are introduced during this semester in Critical Inquiry have been built based on various of society events or issues in different periods. After getting in touch with each popular theory, Reader-Response Theory, in the personal opinion, has become one of the commonest theories since it only considers the personal experience of the readers and how it connects to the work; the readers would receive different messages and come up with their personal thoughts and comments toward what they read, see or watch. Different from African American Theory or LGBTQ Theory, Reader-Response Theory does not have a limitation on the subject position or cultural background because the comments and thoughts are based on the readers’ personal experience and from their own view points, and this characteristic will always benefit people not only in college but also in their entire life by expanding their horizons and helping them to find and understand their own lens in professional practices.