The last and final chapter!!!!

In the last chapter of the book it ended in an overall good and pleasant way. Earlier in the book Tom who got shot in the leg was eventually healed and fully recovered at the end. Another good thing that happened to Huck was that his dad died and he ended up with all of his money still, which I find pretty good and happy for Huck. A very happy thing that happened at the end was Jim becoming free. Jim finally became a free man towards the end of the book. This is an overall happy ending because Huck and Jim's whole adventure is finally truly complete. Other side things that made it a happy ending is also Jim became free like he always wanted and Huck was able to escape from Miss Watson who was always bothering him about needing to be civilized. 

Huck and Buck

Huck and Buck are both very similar with each other. The first thing that pops in to mind with each of these characters being similar is their names. Their names are both the same. Both Huck and Buck are also the same age and both boys. They also both have the same attitude with both wanting to be on their own and living free in the open environment. Also they were both raised in wealthy families. The are also both tricksters and love to lie and play tricks on people. This may not be the best mixture with friends because they could get into a lot of trouble being with each other. They are also both faced with having to live in these civilized areas when they are both exactly the opposite of that. Both of them also live in the slave area and they do not hate slaves like everyone else. One thing different between the two is that Buck is more mature and stands up for himself unlike Huck. 

Raftsmen

In this chapter you can learn many things about the raftsmen. In this chapter you learn about the different levels in society with the different types of boats that you ride on. For example, the people who ride on the rafts are usually the middle class or the lower class. Then the people who ride on the steamboats are usually the higher and upper class people. The people who ride on the steamboats don't even care about other people because for example the steamboats run into the other rafts people and don't even care because they don't stop and apologize or see if everyone is right. The raftsmen people are more caring because for example the raftsmen help Huck and Jim because Huck talks about how his family is sick and has small pox so they give him forty dollars out of kindness. 

Helping Huck

There are two reasons in which Huck wants to get onto the ship and what he wants to do. First he wants to get onto the ship to see if he can find any loot or money that they can steal. He believes that him and Jim can become richer than they could ever imagine. It all changes once they get onto the ship because Huck and Jim see a man that is being threatened and beaten. Once this all changes he decides to tell Jim that they are now going to try and help the man in distress and also try to get the treasure to become rich. To do this Huck and Jim try to steal the captains ship so then they can be successful in stealing the money and also saving the innocent man in distress. This shows that Huck has feelings for people and  always like to trick because he wants to try and save the innocent man. But it also shows that Huck is a little greedy because he wants to get rich even though he gave all of his money to the judge in the beginning. 

Huck and Jim Trick

In Huckleberry Fin Huck plays a trick on his friend Jim. Huck and Jim have a rattle snake skin and Jim believes it is bad luck. Huck doesn't listen to Jim about it being bad luck so Huck decides to play a trick on Jim with the rattle snake. Huck is a trickster and loves to play tricks when he has the opportunity. Therefor Huck decides to kill a rattle snake and put it at the end of Jim's sleeping bag. Huck decides to trick him now instead of before because he wasn't sure if Jim would take it offensive and get into trouble and Huck did not want to get into trouble. This is why Huck didn't do it at first, but eventually did. 

How does the increased pressure of running Turtle Island effect Eustace? How is he relating to the people around him?

After Eustace had run Turtle Island for a few years he was still overly stressed. Every kid Eustace taught he thought they were so annoying and he was never truly becoming happy with what he was doing. Something that really increased Eustace's pressure was that he became arrested. He was arrested because the government thought he was killing illegal animals. The government found out because of his neighbor. Due to this Eustace kept having to make deals with his "enemies", which was something he wasn't ever used to doing. He also had to keep worrying about the streets and areas surrounding his camp incase of huge roads or resorts would be established. Also due to his world completely revolving around Turtle Island he started to ignore Valerie, which caused her to cheat on him with one of her friends. This causes Eustace to become depressed because everything is going down hill for him and everyone around him is pulling away from him. 

Turtle Island

What Turtle Island does to Eustace has some good outcomes and some bad outcomes. Eustace who isn't used to being pressured all of the time was very pressured to get Turtle Island created. His father who he didn't really enjoy talking to very much lent him the money that was to help him create Turtle Island. Having his father lend him money really pressured Eustace to work all the time he could because Eustace wanted to pay his father the money back. Eustace started traveling on the road offering programs to all ages of children. This caused Eustace to be extremely busy and pressured him even more because he had to be constantly moving at all time and moving from one program to another. This was nothing like Eustace was hoping for as the beginning of his idea. Besides Eustace being over stressed and getting only a couple of hours a sleep tonight he did benefit some people from making Turtle Island. There was one mother that complemented his work because when her son came home from Turtle Island she said he was more mature than she ever thought he could be. Valerie who he loved definitely wasn't getting the benefit of the doubt because she was never able to see him because of Eustace working 24/7. This does allow Eustace to finally see how he is truly helping children not only mature, but learn things they never thought they would. This gives Eustace the true happiness he has been searching for from the beginning. 

William

In the book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl we find out about William running away to be in the free states. William decides to run away because he is sick of and cant stand being a slave anymore. One thing Mr. Sands always did was treat him like a son and didn't disrespect him at all. William may not have been treated like a slave, but he was and always would have been know as being a slave. In the book William does talk about how some slave masters have treated their slaves kindly, but then eventually have become traders and total turned on them. William didn't even want the chance of this happening to him and he didn't like being known as a slave anyway so he ran away to the free states. I believe that his actions were more than justified. Nobody should ever even have to be a slave in their life and if he didn't feel safe being with Mr. Sands and didn't like being a slave then he definitely had the right to run away to the free states. 

Possession of the Children

In the book Incidents of the Life of a Slave Girl, Mr. Sands finally got possession of the children. At first the children were jailed for months until Mr. Flint even started to think about selling them. At first Mr. Flint was stuck on the idea of never going to or wanting to sell them but finally when  a slave trader came to him with an offer that he couldn't refuse. So Mr. Flint started to think about selling the children because there was always the possibility that the children could die before they were fifteen years old or even sooner. Thinking about this Mr. Flint thought he could make a very could profit out of them with them having the chance of dying soon so he finally sold the children. Before this ever even happened Mr. Sands had an agreement with the guy that bought them from Mr. Flint that he would sell them to him. Without this agreement Mr. Sands probably wouldn't have ever had the opportunity of getting the children because Mr. Flint wouldn't have allowed that to happen. The only reason Linda trusts Mr. Sands is because she has had a long relationship with him and as long as se has been friends with him he had promised to always help her if she was any need. This was the time of Linda's need so he helped her. I think it is a good idea for Mr. Sands to have the children because even though they are his slaves he will treat them with a lot more nicely than Mr. Flint did. 

Necklace

In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Linda's daughter was given a golden necklace out of kindness from a lady. When Linda saw her give her daughter the necklace she was very upset and reminded her of the past. Linda becomes very upset with the necklace given to her daughter because it reminds her of the chains in slavery. She relates the gold chain to chains used in slavery and how hurtful they are to slaves. She thinks about how she never wants her child to ever feel what it feels like to be in chains. Even though it is just a necklace Linda can't think of it in any other way than chains in slavery. I understand where Linda is coming from when she doesn't like the idea of her daughter having a chain around her neck, but the necklace was given because the lady felt bad for her not because she was mean and was relating it to slaves. I also don't think she should have over reacted the way she did because a necklace is a lot different than the chains slaves had to wear. Overall I believe that why Linda was upset was understandable, but she shouldn't have over reacted when all the lady was doing was trying to be nice. 

Favorite Passage

"Dr. Flint was an epicure. The cook never sent a dinner to his table without fear and trembling; for if there happened to be a dish not to his liking, he would either order her to be whipped, or compel her to eat every mouthful of it in his presence. The poor, hungry creature might not have objected to eating it; but she did object to having her master cram it down her throat till she choked." I liked this passage for a couple of reasons. First off when I read this passage I thought it was very disturbing for what the masters did to the slaves just because he didn't like his meal. It does a good job of showing how the slaves were really treated and also shows that no matter how unimportant something is that the slave does wrong they still get severally punished. I liked how the slave did stand up for herself by at least not letting him shove it down her throat, which shows that she does have some respect for herself that she knows she doesn't deserve that. Overall I really like how this passage describes how slaves were truly treated beyond disrespectful and how even though they got beaten they still had a limit to what they would take as a punishment. 

Love in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

In the book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Love is almost or pretty much a impossible thing to do when you are a slave. If a slave does find either another slave that they love or a free slave then most likely their master or mistress will stop them from either seeing each other or threaten to do something if they don't stop loving each other. Even if a slave is able to get married, which is highly unlikely if they were to have kids they would be sold into slavery and everyone in the family could be sold and separated from the rest of the family. Also with the effect of slave owners threatening to beat them or do something else if they fall in love with another slave or someone else then  it makes it even harder to stay in love with that person due to the fact of the slave owners doing everything they can to stop it from happening. I don't find it right in any way that slave owners should stop their slaves from falling in love with someone even if then they were considered to them as "property". 

Reaction to the Image of Slavery

In the first few chapters of Incidents in the Life of Slave Girl I noticed that Linda Brent wasn't even aware that she was a slave. It seemed as if she thought this was all that ever happened in life and felt as she was loved and wasn't mistreated in any way. It wasn't until she was six years old when she finally realized that she was a slave and what a slave was. When she knew she was a slave she didn't even really care because her mistress treated her like a mother and didn't feel like a slave. When I first think of slavery i think about how slaves used to run away from getting beat and severally mistreated. This is very powerful because it shows how some slaves were treated almost like family even though they were considered as slaves. Jacobs describes how slavery was but also talks about Linda Brent's life. After Linda Brent's mistress died she was sold to a different slave owner where she realized how rough and horrifying slavery is. Linda is forced and yelled to do things with her new slave owner and almost cant believe it is happening. I found it very interesting how Jacobs describes Linda's life while also describing slavery during the time. 

In class discussion

In class we discussed the different symbols in the book. We talked about the green light, the valley of ashes, and the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg. Something we didn't talk about in class is which one we found the most significant. If i was asked which one i found most significant in the book i would choose the green light. I find the green light the most significant because it is the most focused symbol used in the book i feel. Both Mr. Gatsby and Nick use the green light as either an example or a dream.  Mr. Gatsby uses it as a dream towards Daisy when Nick uses it as an example towards early America. The symbol of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg is also used quit frequently, but is not as significant as the green light. 

The Great Gatsby Chapter 9 Question

In chapter nine of The Great Gatsby it talks about Mr. Gatsby's funeral. At the funeral barely anyone comes. The only people to attend the funeral are Nick, Owl Eyes, some of his servants, and his father also known as Henry C. Gatz. Nick did call Mr. Gatsby's close friends Meyer Wolfshiem and Klipspringer, but they both said they couldn't attend due to other things. When I first read about only this few amount of people showing up it made me angry because all of the people who attended his parties and claimed to be his friend when he was alive all ditched him. It seemed like nobody cared that he had passed away. It shows that all the people who went to his parties were all using him because he was wealthy. Towards the begging of the book when i read about the parties I could also tell that people didn't really care about him because nobody care to find out what he did and everyone just made up stories about him. Overall for the people who came it showed that those people really had a relationship with him and had feelings for him. For the people who didn't come it was meant to show us that if you have nice things and a lot of money then most likely a lot of people will just use you and not care for you at all.  

The Great Gatsby Chapter 7,8 Question

In Chapter seven and eight of The Great Gatsby it is the climax of the story. Something towards the beginning of the book that could have hinted to Mr. Gatsby death could have been when Nick tells him that he should leave the state for a little. When Nick tells Mr. Gatsby to leave the state for a little bit, it could be hinting to the reader that something bad is going to happen to him, like being shot and killed. Another thing that could have been hinted earlier in the book towards the climax could have been when Myrtle got hit by the car. Earlier in the book Myrtle and her husband were constantly fighting and he found out about myrtle having an affair with someone else, which gave a little hint that everything with their relationship was going horribly wrong. When you read the book you don't really think about any of these hints, but after you have read and think about the certain hints in the book it is kind of interesting. 

The Great Gatsby Chapter 6 Question

In chapter six of The Great Gatsby we find out about Mr. Gatsby true life story. He was born in North Dakota on a farm and he was known as James Gatz. There are many reasons to why Mr. Gatsby would have lied about his past. For example, when Mr. Gatsby went to St. Olaf's college he had to drop out because he was embarrassed and made fun of doing janitorial work that he was required to do to pay for his tuition. ALso when he was younger he worked on lake Superior digging for clams and fishing for salmon. Finally Mr. Gatsby finds a man named Dan Cody who was very wealthier and worked as his assistant on his Yacht. When Dan Cody dies Mr. Gatsby enjoyed the wealthy lifestyle so he decides to dedicate himself to also becoming a wealthy man. Another reason why Mr. Gatsby could have lied is because he didn't want people to know he was a poor farmer and was embarrassed and humiliated when he went to college. Nick told us at this point in the book instead of earlier in the book because he wanted people to see how Mr. Gatsby really is so people wouldn't think different because of what he did when he was younger. 

Great Gatsby Ch. 5 Question

In chapter five Nick invites Daisy and Mr. Gatsby over for tea because Mr. Gatsby has been dyeing to see her for years. Mr. Gatsby finally has his chance to see Daisy after waiting forever and looking in articles to just see things she has said. Finally after waiting impatiently Daisy arrives to Nicks house and Daisy and Mr. Gatsby meet. When they meet Nick says that Gatsby count of enchanted objects had diminished by one. Nick is referring to Daisy. When he says this he is talking about how Mr. Gatsby had this huge imaginary picture in his head of how perfect and amazing Daisy would be when they finally meet since forever ago. When Mr. Gatsby saw Daisy he had his expectation so high that Nick referred her to being an enchanted object that he didn't see her as he was expecting. If Gatsby wouldn't have had his expectation so high then I believe that he wouldn't have "lost one of his enchanted objects. 

Hi Lamags