AE Contemporary Composition, Per.2

Please view the following short animation To This Day and take notes.
How does this short relate to theme(s) in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?

To This Day
Shane Koyczan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ltun92DfnPY

AE Contemporary Comp, Per 2

Please follow the link to My Google Drive to access the Research essay guidelines and requirements (you will need to copy and paste the url link)

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5sqsf8qhz-MVGQ5QmN5TC1zZms/edit?usp=sharing

Expository Composition, Per. 1,3,5

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
Vocabulary - In alphabetical order (with page reference):

Scenes 1-3 with 18 words:
appraise (36) = to assess; to evaluate
cosmopolitan (13) = sophisticated; worldly
decay (13) = rotted matter
emblem (29) = symbol; sign
evoke (13) = bring to mind; suggest
improvident (43) = careless; irresponsible
incongruous (15) = out of place; incompatible
lunacy (57) = insanity; madness
perpetual (32) = continual; everlasting
peruse (43) = read through
preen (35) = to clean; to groom
primitive (39-40) = simple; crude
treachery (41) = deceit; betrayal
valise (15) = a traveling bag; a suitcase
vivacity (18) = liveliness; energy
vulgar (55) = rude; offensive
illusion vs allusion (41) = a misconception; false impression/ a reference to something else
you're vs you are (39-40/19) = you are/possessive "you"

Scenes 4-7 with 18 words:
bestial (71) = beastly; brutal
contemptible (99) = despicable
coquettish (84) = flirtatious
deluded (95) = be mentally deceived
dote (76) = to show excessive love or fondness
emphatic (65) = expressed or performed emphasis
incredulous (65) = skeptical; disbelieving
morbid (79) = gruesome; grisly
peal (74) = a loud burst of noise
precede (87) = to come before
quaint (76) = nicely odd or strange
row (63-64) = an uproar; a brawl
serene (62) = calm; undisturbed
solemn (88) = deeply serious
vicinity (90) = a nearby region or area
wince (76) = to flinch
role vs role = a character or part played by a performer/ to turn over and over
it's vs its (65) = it is/possessive of "it"

Scenes 8-11 with 18 words:
anxiety (110) = a state of uneasiness and apprehension
callous (131) = emotionally hardened; unfeeling
conceit (127) = a fanciful thought or idea
dismal (106) = dreary; dreadful
enrich (126) = to make more meaningful or more rewarding
grotesque (128) = ugly; monstrous
implore (126) = to beg for urgently
obscure (116) = not clearly understood or expressed
partial (114) = having a particular liking or fondness for something
protrude (129) = to push or thrust outward
repertoire (106) = the range of skills or accomplishments of a person or group
sinister (139) = suggesting or threatening evil
slander (126) = a false and malicious statement about someone
sullen (106) = gloomy or somber
transitory (126) = short-lived or temporary
uncouth (113) = crude; unrefined
our vs are (126) = our is possessive of we/are is a verb form of to be
hear vs here (115/128) = you hEAR with your EARs/here means "the area close by"

AE Cont Comp, Per 2

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain

Study Questions Chapters 24-33

Chapters 24-28

     1. What new plan does the Duke come up with for traveling in daylight with Jim?

2. What new identity does the “king” take on? How does he pick up details about the recently deceased Peter Wilks? Why?
3. How do the “King and Duke” convince almost everyone that they are the brothers of the late Peter Wilks? Are they good fakers – or is it just that everyone is gullible? Why does the Duke say, “Goo-goo... like a baby that can't talk?
4. Why does the Duke suggest adding money to the bag of gold?
5. Why does Huck steal the bag of gold? Would he have done it if he hadn't liked Mary Jane? Trace the sequence of events that leads to the unearthing of the casket.
6. How can you tell that the King is even greedier than the Duke? Why doesn't the King feel badly about auctioning off every last bit of the orphaned girl's property? Do you think he really expects to get it back?
7. What property do the girls feel worst about losing? Why doesn't Huck feel as badly as they do about the fact that the slaves' families are being divided?
8. Why does Huck tell Miss Mary Jane the truth? To what plan does she agree? Is this a good idea?
9. Why is this chapter called “Overreaching Don't Pay”? Would the King and Duke be better oof if they hadn't held the auction?

Chapters 29-33

1. Do you think the two strangers are the real heirs? Do most of the townspeople? Why does it look suspicious that one brother has his arm in a sling?
2. Why is it that neither of the men who claim to be Harvey Wilks have handwriting that matches that on the letters from England?
3. Why is the body dug up? How does Huck escape? How does Huck escape? What would probably have happened to him otherwise?
4. How does the gold “save the thieves”? What did the robbers originally think while everyone is rushing to look at the gold? What do they think now? Are you surprised that they aren't shrewd enough to figure out the truth?
5. How do the King and Duke begin to “work” the villages again? Are they successful? How do Huck and Jim feel about the scams the King and Duke plan?
6. Why does Huck still feel guilty about Jim? Why does he try to pray? Why can't he “pray a lie”?
7. Why does Huck write the letter to Miss Watson? Why doesn't he mail it?
8. Why has Jim disappeared? How does Huck figure out where he is? Why does Huck take on a new name?
9. What happens to the King and Duke? How does Huck feel about it?
10. The grotesque, basically an American genre, describes special types of writing, characters, subjects characterized by distortions of the natural and a merging of the comic and tragic. The purposes of the grotesque may be humorous, moral seriousness, commentary on human beings as animals, satire, or social commentary.
    What elements of the grotesque do you find in Huck? (e.g. Huck praying, the Grangerfords and Sheperdsons – Chapters 17 and 18.

AE Contemporary Composition, Per. 2

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain

Study Questions - Chapters 14-23 - DUE TUESDAY, 19 February 2013

Ch. 14-18

1. What sort of loot does Huck get from the Walter Scott? Which do you think are the most valuable items to Huck and Jim?
2. Why doesn't Jim think Solomon was wise? What do you think is the point of that biblical story? Why doesn't Jim get the point? How could Huck have explained it?
3. What is Huck and Jim's plan for going down the Mississippi? Why do they plan to take the Ohio River where it comes in?
4. How do Huck and Jim get separated on the river? How does Huck play a trick on Jim? Why? Why does he apologize? Why does it take him so long?
5. How does Huck feel about the fact that Jim is almost free? Why?
6. What disasters happen to the canoe and to the raft? Why is this chapter called The Rattlesnake-skin Does it Work?
7. Who are the Grangerfords? What new identity does Huck assume? Why do the Grangerfords take him in?
8. Why does Huck try to write a poem? What does this show about the kind of person he is?
9. How do Buck and his father and brothers get killed? Is it Huck's fault? How do you explain that only a few hours after Huck watched terrible bloodshed, Huck and Jim “talked and had a good time” (p. 107)?
10. Satire is the use of ridicule, sarcasm, wit, or irony to expose a folly or social evil – and Mark Twain was a skilled satirist. Reread the section where Huck describes the role of kings (pp. 74-76). At what aspects of royalty is Twain poking fun?
11. Huck feels guilty about a lot of things. He wishes he hadn't pulled the practical joke on Jim (Chapter 15) and he feels responsible for igniting the feud by bringing the note from Harney to Miss Sophia (Chapter 18). Describe something you did that you felt very guilty about later. What happened? Looking back, were you really to blame? Did you ever apologize – or do anything to make the situation better?

Chapters 19-23

1. Who are the “Duke” and “Dauphin”? How does Huck help them? How do they treat Huck and Jim?
2. How are the Duke and King frauds? Why are they on the run? Why doesn't Huck tell them he knows they are frauds? Do you agree that “the best way to get along with this kind of people is to let them have their own way” (p.115)?
3. What identity does Huck assume when describing who he is to the Duke and King? How much of the story is true?
4. Why do the people of Parkville get angry with the Duke and King? What scams have they fallen for?
5. What plan does the Duke come up with for moving downriver with an escaped slave in the daytime? Does Huck consider how uncomfortable this will be Jim? What other plans could have been devised?
6. What literary speech does the Duke teach the King? Why? The Duke seems to be quite intelligent. If he decided to earn an honest living, what career might he have pursued?
7. Who is Boggs? How is he killed? How does Huck feel about the killing?
8. Who Colonel Sherburn? Why isn't he lynched? How do you feel about him as he faces the crowd and turns them back? Why do you suppose Twain included this episode?
9. How does the crowd feel about the Royal Nonesuch performance? Why do they spread the word about how great the show is?

AE Contemporary Composition, Per. 2

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain

Study Questions - DUE MONDAY, 11 February 2013

Chapters 1-7

1. Who is the narrator? How did he end up staying with the widow Douglas? How did his friend, Tom, convince him to come back after running away?
2. What does Huck think of the widow? How does he feel about her Bible stories and her her snuff? Why do you suppose she has taken him in? What would you do if he were in your care?
3. Who is Miss Watson? How is she like her sister? How is she different? Why doesn't Huck like Miss Watson? How does she make him feel?
4. How can you tell that Huck is superstitious? What are three of the strangest superstitions he believes?
5. Who is Jim? What trick does Tom play on him? What is the result?
6. Why does Tom Sawyer's Gang form? What sort of oath do they swear?Are they a dangerous gang? Who are the “A-rabs” that the gang “ambucades”? Where does the gang get the ideas for its adventures?
7. What is the hair-ball oracle? Does Jim's prediction for Huck come true? What kinds of similar fortune-telling do we have today?
8. How does Huck feel about seeing his father again? Why? Why don't the courts protect Huck? Would they protect him better today? How does Pap deceive the new judge?
9. Why does Pap try to kill Huck? How does Huck fool him and get away?
10. What is the setting at the outset of the novel?
11. What is the story about Moses and the “Bulrushers” that the widow tells Huck (the answer is not found in the book)

Chapters 8-13

12. How does Huck end up with a nice loaf of bread? What does he mean when he says there's something to praying, “but it don't work for me”?
13. Why has Jim run away? How does Huck feel when he sees Jim? How does he “spare” Jim – and why?
14. Where do Jim and Huck find a dead man? Why won't Jim let Huck look at the man's face? What do Huck and Jim take from the house?
15. What trick does Huck play on Jim with the snake? Is it Huck's fault that the snake bites Jim? Does he blame himself?
16. Why does Huck dress up as a girl and go to see Mrs. Judith Loftus? Whom does he pretend to be? Is Mrs. Loftus fooled?
17. Why doesn't Mrs. Loftus turn Huck in? Would she turn him in if she knew that he is helping and escaped slave – and is not an escaped apprentice himself?
18. Why do Huck and Jim leave the island in a hurry?
19. Why does Jim think that he and Huck should leave the wrecked steamboat alone? Does Huck listen? Would things have turned out better if Huck had listened to Jim?
20. How does Huck get the townspeople to check on the wreck of the Walter Scott? Why? Are the rescuers in on time?
21. From whose point of view is this story told? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using this point of view? What sort of person is the storyteller? Is he a reliable narrator?
22. After whom was the steamboat named? Why did Twain choose it?