Viewing notes for video
1. Mark Twain was “the most American of writers.” What does that mean?
2. Where was Hannibal, Missouri, located? What sort of town was it? (A frontier river town).
3. Where does Sam Clemens go when he leaves Hannibal? (St. Louis)
4. What work does he find there? (working for a printer)
5. What was the Mississippi River like during the 1850s? (Exciting, full of action, the major route of commerce connecting the interior of America with New Orleans)
6. Who are the most “unfettered and independent” of all people according to Twain? (river boat pilots)
7. Between what two cities does Twain travel as a river boat pilot? (St.Louis and New Orleans)
8. What were steamboats like for travelers? (unutterable pomp and luxury)
9. What ends Twain’s steamboat career? (The Civil War)
10. How long did Twain participate in the Civil War and what did he specialize in? (two weeks, retreat)
11. What was the name of the gold vein in Nevada where Mark Twain worked? (Comstock Lode)
12. Where does Twain go when he leaves the gold mines in Nevada? (San Francisco)
13. Twain became successful with Innocents Abroad:the world’s most amusing travel book made Twain’s career.
14. Characterize Twain’s marriage (he loved his wife, Livy-the light of my wife-"Mama loves morals and Papa loves cats”
15. What did Twain call the age of properity and technological progress at the end of the 19th Century (He coined the term “gilded age")
16. What was the attitude toward bicycles? (30% of all fallen women were former bicycle riders)
17. Posing for photographs becomes a new fad.
Child labor and sweat shops--
19. Twain was proud of knowing Thomas Edison, raging tearing booming 19th Century--"People don’t dream, they work”
20. What national political figure did Twain save from poverty (US Grant--Twain published his memoir)
21. 1893 Worlds Fair in Chicago--A forward looking, progressive era--it was an era of financial trouble and Twain’s publishing business was failing
22. The time around T Roosevelt Imperial aggression and commercial frenzy appalled Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Tues, Jan 27 Chapters 1-2-3 - Pages 13-26
Wed, Jan 28 Chapters 4-5-6-7 - Pages 27-45
Thurs, Jan 29 Chapters 8-9-10 - Pages 47-63
Fri, Jan 30 Chapters 11-12-13 - Pages 65-81
Mon, Feb 2 Chapters 14-15-16 - Pages 83-99
TEST: Chapters 1-16
Tues, Feb 3 Chapters 17-18 - Pages 101-117
Wed, Feb 4 Chapters 19-20-21 - Pages 119-142
Thurs, Feb 5 Chapters 22-23-24-25 - Pages 143-166
Friday, Feb 6 Chapters 26-27-28-29 - Pages 167-196
Mon, Feb 9 Chapters 30-31-32 - Pages 197-213
TEST, Chapters 17 - 32
Tues, Feb 10 Chapters 33-34-35-36 - Pages 215-237
Wed, Feb 11 Chapters 37-38-39-40 - Pages 239-261
Thurs, Feb 12 Chapters 41-42-43 - Pages 263-276
Friday, Feb 13 TEST, chapters 33-43
What does "freedom" mean for Jim? For Huck?
. . .does Huckleberry Finn deserve its celebration as a testimony to freedom? What exact place, in fact, does freedom have among the book’s themes? . . . a firm grip upon the complete and total text is necessary to understand the form freedom takes in the book.
. . .In the broadest sense, the theme of freedom begins to engage us at the outset: Huck feels cramped and confined in his new condition as ward of Widow Douglas and closet neophyte of Miss Watson. The early episodes with Tom Sawyer add a complicating paradox: to enjoy the freedom of being “bad"--joining Tom’s gang--Huck must submit himself to his adopted household and appear “respectable.” With Pap’s arrival the paradox is reversed; now he can enjoy his former freedom to lounge and choose his time, but the expense is a confinement even more threatening, a virtual imprisonment. The only release is, escape, flight, and effacement of the identity through which both town and Pap oppress him; he can resume autonomy only by assuming “death” for his name.
In brief and general terms, such is the inner logic of the theme of freedom as we arrive at the Jackson Island episode. With Jim’s appearance as a runaway slave a new and decisive development begins. We now have two runaways, and their conjunction generates the rest of the narrative,’ deepens the theme, and forces nuances to the surface. Jim’s situation is both simpler and more urgent than Huck’s. His freedom is no more or less than escape, from bondage, escape to free territory. He expects there to assume what is denied him in slave society, his identity as an adult man, husband, and father. The fact that the reader is made to share this expectation with Jim, that the novel does not allow us to anticipate a reversal of hope if Jim reaches free territory, is important; as readers we are freed of normal historical ambiguities in order to accept as a powerful given the possibility of fulfilled freedom for Jim. Thus by confining the action to the area of slave society, Mark Twain compels us (at the expense of historical accuracy, perhaps) to imagine the boundary between “slave” and “free” as real and unequivocal, and to accept that boundary as the definition of Jim’s plight: on the one side, enslaved; on the other, free.
Jim presents himself, then, unencumbered by the paradoxes of Huck’s problem: to be free, to possess himself, to reveal a firm identity--these will be equal consequences of the single act of crossing the border. The effect of such a simplifying and unambiguous presence in the book is, first, to bring into relief the more subtle forms of denial of freedom, forms which cannot be overcome by simple geographical relocation, and second, to force Huck, once the boy commits himself to the slave, into a personal contradiction. Jim can say, as soon as he escapes from Miss Watson, “I owns myself,” while Huck is still “owned” by the official values supervised by his “conscience.” Once Jim’s freedom becomes Huck’s problem, the boy finds himself at odds with what Mark Twain called his “ deformed conscience.” Huck’s “sound heart” may respond to Jim’s desire to recover his humanity at the border, but his. conscience wants to repress that response.
In light of this conflict, implicit in Huck’s words at the end of Chapter 11, “They’re after us!” what would constitute: freedom for Huck? Clearly, getting Jim to the free states would not be enough. He would need to free himself of moral deformity before he too can say “I owns myself.” Just as clearly neither issue is resolved in the novel. And the book’s indecision is reflected in the criticism. The controversies regarding the “Evasion” at the Phelps farm need not be reviewed here, but it is useful to point out that the question of the ending eventually becomes a question of form, of judgment about the book’s unity of tone and intention. Those who wish for Jim’s release through a heroic act by Huck tend to feel the ending flawed, and those who wish for Huck’s escape from all consciences, including a “good” abolitionist conscience, tend to accept the ending. . .
The Critical Response to Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. Contributors: Laurie Champion - editor. Greenwood Press: Westport, CT. 1991.
Seeing romanticism from a realist point of view
William F. Byrne:
The contrast between the characters of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn is used by Twain to illustrate the romantic imagination. Tom has led a quintessential middle-class American existence. He attends school and church, is comfortable materially, and has an unexciting but stable, and certainly bearable, home life with his Aunt Polly. In contrast, Huck’s life, though sometimes viewed as happy-go-lucky, has been by objective standards a nightmare. He has been raised in complete poverty by a worthless and shiftless father who is rarely present and often drunk, who sometimes treats Huck cruelly and has failed to have him educated, and who demonstrates a wide range of bad personality traits. . . One notable characteristic of Huck is that he seems to remain outside society, looking in. Another characteristic is his curious lack of a boyish imagination. It is as if the harsh realities of his life have forced Huck to grow up fast, and to focus exclusively on the practical concerns of the world immediately around him. Forced by necessity to live by his wits, Huck is constantly striving to work with the actual circumstances at hand. . .Huck cannot suspend disbelief even for boyish play; he does not fantasize. In contrast, Tom is spectacularly imaginative in the boyish, romantic sense. He has learned some history, geography, and religion, and, we are reminded again and again, he has filled his head with romantic adventure novels. This material has shaped Tom’s worldview and feeds his fantasies, which he is constantly trying to act out.
In the opening chapters, there is one boy in the gang who Tom cannot seem to make understand why pretend adventures are practical. He and Huck, the classic standoff between Romanticism and Realism, cannot see the world through the same perspective. Tom wants to do things they way they were done in the books. He references Stevenson’s Treasure Island and Dumas’ Monte Cristo as roadmaps of how to do things. Huckleberry doesn’t understand why they would charge a Sunday school picnic in search of rare treasures.
If Huck is the consummate realist of the novel, Tom Sawyer is the representative romantic. When readers are first introduced to Tom, they immediately recognize his role as a leader, or controlling agent, of the situation. The gang is labeled Tom Sawyer’s Gang because he is the one that controls the activities and pursuits. These activities, however, are always based upon Tom’s exaggerated notions of adventure. Basing his experience on the fanciful books he has read, Tom tries to adapt his life and the life of others to that which he has read. The end result is a burlesque of sensibility and emotion, two literary agents that Twain despised.
Toms role as a romantic is extremely important because of its juxtaposition with Huck’s literal approach. Although Tom declares that his gang will pursue the exploits of piracy and murder, in reality the gang succeeds in charging down on hog-drovers and women in carts taking garden stuff to the market. The vision of the young boys disrupting women bound for the market provides much of the harmless humor during the early pages of Huck Finn, and Tom is largely responsible for the slapstick approach. Tom’s constant barrage of exaggeration, however, contrasts with Huck’s deadpan narration, and Huck can see no profit in Toms methods. Where Huck is practical, Tom is emotional; where Huck is logical, Tom is extravagant. Despite the fact that readers easily recognize Tom’s ideas as folly, Huck does not question Tom’s authority. On the contrary, Huck believes that Tom’s knowledge is above his own, and this includes Tom’s attitude toward slavery.
In a sense, Tom represents the civilized society that Huck and Jim leave behind on their flight down the river. When Tom reappears with his fancy notions of escape from the Phelps farm, Jim again becomes a gullible slave and Huck becomes a simple agent to Tom. There is no doubt that Tom is intelligent, and he does state that they will free Jim immediately if there is trouble, but the ensuing ruse suggests that Tom is unable to shake society and the Romantic idealism he possesses, even when Jim’s freedom is at stake.
Another reference to Romanticism comes when they approach the wreckage of the Sir Walter Scott that has been slammed against a rock...surely this is a metaphorical depiction of Twain’s perspective of Scott’s poetry and the lack of practicality thereof.
In many ways, Twain blamed Romantic Literature for stunting the moral progression after the Civil War.
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Realism •
Tracking a topic through the story
Conformity 1: When the widow and Miss Watson try to civilize Huck by teaching him about the Bible, clothing him, teaching him how to read and write, and telling him not to smoke, he goes along with it. Instead of putting up a fight, he conforms to what they want and expect.
Conformity 2: Huck continues to go to school, even though he doesn’t want to. He has started to get used to the new ways, even though he may like the old ways better.
Conformity 3: When Huck is kidnapped by Pap, he takes him to a remote place in the woods. There, Huck can be his old self. Even though he is somewhat civilized now, he fits back into his former lifestyle easily. He adapts very well to new situations.
Conformity 4: Huck just met the Grangerfords, but fits right in immediately.
Conformity 5: The Duke tells Huck and Jim that he is really the Duke of Bridgewater, and he expects to be treated like a Duke. Huck immediately conforms to this idea, despite the fact that he doesn’t know if they are telling the truth or not.
Conformity 6: The King tells Huck and Jim that he is the King of France, and expects to be treated like a King. Once again, Huck conforms, and treats him like a King, no questions asked.
Conformity 7: Huck knows that the King and the Duke are liars, and that they aren’t really Kings and Dukes. Despite this, he continues to conform to their demands and act like their servant.
Conformity 8: When Huck finds out that Mr. and Mrs. Phelps think he is Tom Sawyer, he decides that he is really going to have to act like him. He has no problem doing this, and even likes it at times.
Conformity 9: Instead of standing up for himself against Tom, Huck conforms to all of his ideas about how they are to rescue Jim. He agrees with Tom instantly because he thinks Tom’s ideas have a lot of style, even though his own ideas are much more realistic.
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Realism •
Isn't It Ironic?
What is irony? Webster’s Dictionary offers two definitions:
1. The use of words to express the opposite of what one really means.
2. Incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the expected result.
The first definition we sometimes think of as sarcasm (although not all irony is sarcastic); the second definition is how we often use the word colloquially, or in everyday life. In literature, however, irony has a special meaning, closer to the first definition than the second.
When an author wants to distinguish her ideas from that of her characters, she will use dramatic irony. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, dramatic irony occurs when “an audience knows more about a character’s situation than a character does, foreseeing an outcome contrary to the character’s expectations, and thus assigning a sharply different sense to some of the character’s own statements.” Such a character is sometimes called an unreliable or naive narrator. Dramatic irony is often used in satire, a genre of writing that makes fun of or mocks individuals, institutions, and society. Huck Finn, as you know, is definitely a satire.
Just as we can’t always tell if someone is being sarcastic, we can’t always tell if an author is being ironic. But just as with our friends, family, and teachers, the more we know about an author, the easier it becomes to tell when she is being ironic or not. Although it may sometimes seem like authors are being needlessly confusing when they use irony, they actually mean for us as readers to feel smarter; after all, we know more about the characters in the book than the characters themselves.
Irony abounds in Huck Finn. Indeed, English professor and Mark Twain scholar Shelly Fisher Fishkin argues that Twain’s use of irony is the key to understanding the novel:
It is impossible to read Huck Finn intelligently without understanding that Mark Twain’s consciousness and awareness is larger than that of any of the characters in the novel, including Huck. Indeed, part of what makes the book so effective is the fact that Huck is too innocent and ignorant to understand what’s wrong with his society and what’s right about his own transgressive behavior. Twain, on the other hand, knows the score.
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Realism •
Mark Twain
Huckleberry Finn Reading Schedule
February 25 (Point of View) Homework: Chapters 1-2-3 - Pages 1-14
February 26 (Huck’s initial attitudes, dispositions, and aspirations—contrast with Tom’s Romanticism) Homework: Chapters 4-5-6-7 - Pages 15-36
February 27 (Irony) Homework: Chapters 8-9-10 - Pages 36-55
February 28 (Jim; Conscience) Homework: Chapters 11-12-13 - Pages 55-75
February 29 (Morality-Kohlberg; Rationalizations) Homework: Chapters 14-15-16 - Pages 76-95
March 3: TEST Pages 1-95 Homework: Chapters 17-18 - Pages 95-116
Apology to Jim; Doing the Right Thing)
March 4 Homework: Chapters 19-20-21 - Pages 117-145
March 6 Homework: Chapters 22-23-24-25 - Pages 145-170
March 10 Homework: Chapters 26-27-28-29 - Pages 171-205
March 10 TEST pages 117-205 Homework: Chapters 30-31-32 - Pages 205-224
March 12 Homework: Chapters 33-34-35-36 - Pages 224-250
March 13 Homework: Chapters 37-38-39-40 - Pages 251-276
March 14 Homework: Chapters 41-42-43 - Pages 277-294
MARCH 17: TEST Entire Book
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Realism •
Writing a well-developed paragraph
Handout: How to incorporate quotations (PDF)
Example: How to incorporate a quote into a paragraph
Steps to getting an A on this paragraph
punctuation
Quote a short passage of that states the point you are agreeing or disagreeing with.
Your paragraph should follow this format:
[Sentence 1: topic sentence] Thoreau praises living close to nature, but he doesn’t go far as to camp out in nature. [Sentence 2: Lead-in to the quote] He writes about building his house, and the fact that it protected him from the elements. [Sentence 3: A sentence that includes the quote] “I began to occupy my house on the 4th of July,” he says, “as soon as it was boarded and roofed, for the boards were carefully feather-edged and lapped, so that it was perfectly impervious to rain . . . .” [Sentence 4: Tell why you include this quote] As you can see, he was careful in the way he constructed his house, and he did wish to be protected from the elements when necessary. [Sentence 5: Expand on your point by adding more information to strengthen the support] It is also interesting that he did not actually move to the woods until this house was ready for him to live in. [Sentence 6: Reminder of how this relates to your main idea] So it is apparent that while he loved nature, he wasn’t willing to live in a cave, or even a tent.
Notes about including quotations:
1. As you think about integrating quotations, keep looking for ways to be more concise and lively:
First Draft: In The Prince Machiavelli states that the general requirement of a prince is to “endeavor to avoid those things which would make him the object of hatred and contempt.”
Revision: In The Prince Machiavelli states that a prince should “endeavor to avoid those things which would make him the object of hatred and contempt.”
2. Make sure your quotations fit grammatically into the paragraph. They can’t simply be stuck in anywhere. Like any other elements of writing, quotations must be incorporated so that the sentence as a whole makes grammatical sense. For example, a quotations that’s an independent clause must not be spliced onto another independent clause:
First Draft: Hawking is at heart a scientist, “I think there is a universe out there waiting to be investigated and understood.”
Revision: Hawking is at heart a scientist: “I think there is a universe out there waiting to be investigated and understood.”
3. Useful words for introducting a quotation:
suggests
implies
testifies to
indicates
argues (that, for)
shows
demonstrates
supports
underscores
4. It’s important to explain what it is about the quote that you want the reader to notice. What’s your point? The revision does a much better job of helping the reader make sense of the quotation and how it helps the writer’s arugment:
First Draft: Iago says to Othello, “Who steals my purse steals trash; . . . / . . . / But he that filches from me my good name / Robs me of that which not enriches him / And makes me poor indeed” (3.3.157-61).
Revision: Drawing Othello further into his web, Iago suggests that public embarrassment would be intolerable: “Who steals my purse steals trash; . . . / . . . / But he that filches from me my good name / Robs me of that which not enriches him / And makes me poor indeed” (3.3.157-61). Iago, of course, is utterly contradicting his earlier declamation to Cassio on the folly of reputation (2.3.256-61).
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Grammar and Usage Guides •
What you should know
The study guide on your class home page on Moodle has hot links to texts.
Here’s a text version.
Wednesday and Thursday
1st Semester Test, Part 1, Wednesday
The following readings are covered by this test:
Desperate Crossing (video)
“A History of Plymouth Plantation” by William Bradford
“A Model of Christian Charity” by John Winthrop
“Some Verses Upon the Burning of Our House” by Anne Bradstreet
“A Narrative of the Capitivity of Mary Rowlandson” by Mary Rowlandson
The Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
There will also be a grammar and usage section dealing with modifiers.
1st Semester Test, Part 2, Thursday
The following readings are covered by this test:
The Enlightenment (Revolutionary Period)
Romanticism (study the introduction to this literary period)
The Declaration of Independence
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Walt Whitman
A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
The American Renaissance (study the introduction to this literary period)
Ralph Waldo Emerson and Transcendantalism
Henry David Thoreau (Resistance to Civil Government)
There will be a grammar and usage section focusing on Active and Passive Voice
Advanced: These people do not need to take the semester final (already have an “A” for semester grade): Melissa, Jordan, Laura, Karissa, Christian, Erika, Tim, Mary. However, some of these are A-, so the semester final may help.
Grades
194-207 A (6)
191-193 A- (5)
185-190 B+ (8)
176-184 B ((5)
168-175 B- (9)
158-166 C+ (6)
138-155 C (7)
117-133 C- (8)
100-110 D+ (3)
88 - 100 D - (4)
-88 F (6)
Civil Disobedience
Essential Question
Are we obligated to always obey the law? If yes, why? If no, what criteria can be used to determine when disobedience is morally justified?
Opening
1. What word, phrase or line do we need to understand to get to the heart of Thoreaus work?
2. What does Thoreau want us to believe?
3. Do you like Thoreau’s viewpoint? Why or why not?
Core
1. Which did Thoreau think was most important--that government should increase the material equality between citizens, or that government should preserve the liberty of citizens? Relating this to other texts we have read, which do you think the 1776 generation (Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson) would say was most important?
2. Thoreau begins with a quote from Thomas Jefferson"That government is best which governs least.” In what other ways is Thoreau’s thinking similar to the thinking of those who signed the Declaration of Independence? Can you see any ways in which his thinking differs from theirs?
3. Who should ultimately have the final say: the individual, the citizens as a whole, or the government? Do we (as citizens) have responsibilities to society? What are they?
What are the limits that government should follow in intruding in our daily lives?
Can the government restrict your beliefs? Are there beliefs or actions that the government should try to alter? Should we be forced to pay taxes for other people’s needs?
4. In Walden, Thoreau said, “The government of the country I live in was not framed in after-dinner conversations over the wine.”
In Civil Disobedience, he says “I please myself with imagining a State at last which can afford to be just to all men, and to treat the individual with respect as a neighbor; which even would not think it inconsistent with its own repose if a few were to live aloof from it, not meddling with it, nor embraced by it, who fulfilled all the duties of neighbors and fellow men.”
Does he mean the same thing by “the country” in the first quote as he means by “a State” in the second quote? Explain differences between the meaning of a country, a nation, and a state.
5. In discussing the role of the individual, which quote best outlines your philosophy?
“If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go. . .perchance it will wear smooth - certainly the machine will wear out. If it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then , I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.” Thoreau
“An individual must do what his city or country demands of him or he must change their view of what is just.” Socrates
“Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.” Kennedy
What problems or limitations do you see with the various views?
What should be the relationship between the individual and the government?
What is the best reason (or what are the best reasons) for obeying the law? Are there some circumstances that outweigh these reasons? Is there ever a valid reason for breaking a law?
What should the consequences be for someone who breaks the law because of moral convictions?
Can you see yourself breaking a law in order to obey a higher principle? Explain
6. Can we ever reach the government that Thoreau advocates?
Are we a democracy in Thoreau’s eyes? In your eyes? In the textbook definition of democracy?
What areas of our government today would Thoreau attack? Defend
Are there leaders today that Thoreau would admire? Detest?
Closing
1. What are some situations today where people are working for changes in the name of justice (liberty) or social justice (equality)? To what extent should they go to accomplish their goal? What advice might Thoreau give them?
2. If Thoreau were alive today how would he judge America?
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Romanticism •
Walden and Civil Disobedience
Introduction with good interpretation, both Walden and “Civil Disobedience” (4 minutes): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhP7PKoRmmY&feature=related
Walden: Essay/Discussion Questions
Socratic Dialogue Questions - Civil Disobedience
Slow Down: A student video
Lecture
Thoreau & Individualism and Transcendentalism, emphasis on Civil Disobedience, Part 1 (9 minutes): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGdreCP6shU&feature=related
Thoreau & Individualism part 2 (references Winthrop’s community)(9:10): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV4YHOjJLDk&feature=channel_page
Thoreau & Individualism, Part 3 (8:43): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_66e7ufanX4&feature=channel_page
Photographs and quotations focused on observation of nature (6 minutes): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0Quw_RPB0U
Intro to Walden
1. Fear is the main obstacle to happiness
“Why are they in such desperate haste to succeed and in such desperate enterprises”
- Fear of not having enough (how simple to build a house and plant a garden)
- Fear of not being enough
- Appreciation is fears most powerful antidote. A mind can’t be in a state of appreciation and a state of fear at the same time: appreciate the view, the taste of chocolate, a friend’s sense of humor
The pursuit of pleasure, as an antidote to fear, doesn’t work.
We glimpse in the best literature where we really are, which helps us see who we really are. Sometimes the speaker tells, directly and without dissembling, the most important secrets. Unfortunately, the secrets remain unrevealed because only those who can hear them can hear them, no matter how plainly they are said. Thoreau’s language in the conclusion is not figurative but literal. In fact, if we set about doing the right thing for the right reason, the universe around them will change if need be.
The difficulty lies in knowing what is the right thing and what is the right reason. All of us have shipwrecked on our vain realities.
Thoreau-civil-disobedience-annotated.doc
Thoreau-civil-disobedience-annotated.pdf
AGENDA FOR SOCRATIC DIALOGUE
Essential Question
Are we obligated to always obey the law? If yes, why? If no, what criteria can be used to determine when disobedience is morally justified?
Opening
1. What word, phrase or line do we need to understand to get to the heart of Thoreaus work?
2. What does Thoreau want us to believe?
3. Do you like Thoreau’s viewpoint? Why or why not?
Core
1. Which did Thoreau think was most important--that government should increase the material equality between citizens, or that government should preserve the liberty of citizens? Relating this to other texts we have read, which do you think the 1776 generation (Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson) would say was most important?
2. Thoreau begins with a quote from Thomas Jefferson"That government is best which governs least.” In what other ways is Thoreau’s thinking similar to the thinking of those who signed the Declaration of Independence? Can you see any ways in which his thinking differs from theirs?
3. Who should ultimately have the final say: the individual, the citizens as a whole, or the government? Do we (as citizens) have responsibilities to society? What are they?
What are the limits that government should follow in intruding in our daily lives?
Can the government restrict your beliefs? Are there beliefs or actions that the government should try to alter? Should we be forced to pay taxes for other people’s needs?
4. In Walden, Thoreau said, “The government of the country I live in was not framed in after-dinner conversations over the wine.”
In Civil Disobedience, he says “I please myself with imagining a State at last which can afford to be just to all men, and to treat the individual with respect as a neighbor; which even would not think it inconsistent with its own repose if a few were to live aloof from it, not meddling with it, nor embraced by it, who fulfilled all the duties of neighbors and fellow men.”
Does he mean the same thing by “the country” in the first quote as he means by “a State” in the second quote? Explain differences between the meaning of a country, a nation, and a state.
5. In discussing the role of the individual, which quote best outlines your philosophy?
“If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go. . .perchance it will wear smooth - certainly the machine will wear out. If it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then , I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.” Thoreau
“An individual must do what his city or country demands of him or he must change their view of what is just.” Socrates
“Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.” Kennedy
What problems or limitations do you see with the various views?
What should be the relationship between the individual and the government?
What is the best reason (or what are the best reasons) for obeying the law? Are there some circumstances that outweigh these reasons? Is there ever a valid reason for breaking a law?
What should the consequences be for someone who breaks the law because of moral convictions?
Can you see yourself breaking a law in order to obey a higher principle? Explain
6. Can we ever reach the government that Thoreau advocates?
Are we a democracy in Thoreau’s eyes? In your eyes? In the textbook definition of democracy?
What areas of our government today would Thoreau attack? Defend
Are there leaders today that Thoreau would admire? Detest?
Closing
1. What are some situations today where people are working for changes in the name of justice (liberty) or social justice (equality)? To what extent should they go to accomplish their goal? What advice might Thoreau give them?
2. If Thoreau were alive today how would he judge America?
Socratic_Dialogue Questions (PDF)
What words are used most in each chapter?
CLICK on the thumbnails to see a larger version.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
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The Great Gatsby •
Poetry: free verse
Ecclesiastes 3
A Time for Everything
1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
9 What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboreth?
10 ¶ I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
12 I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.
13 And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labor, it is the gift of God.
14 I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.
15 That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.
Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln’s two addresses, in 1861 and 1865, are regarded as the best not just among inaugural addresses but in the history of American oratory.
In the first address, Lincoln, speaking to an assembled throng in front of the East Portico of the Capitol, tried to prepare the North for war.
“The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as they surely will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
Four years later, before a crowd that historians believe included John Wilkes Booth, who would assassinate the president a month later, Lincoln delivered a short but remarkable address, asserting that the 600,000 killed in the Civil War were God’s punishment to the nation for the sin of slavery.
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
Lincoln’s second inaugural address “is probably the best inaugural address ever delivered because of its great explanation of why we had the Civil War—God’s punishment for slavery,” Ryan said.
“It had an Old Testament language and cadence,” said Chris Matthews, The Chronicle’s national columnist and onetime speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter. “The level of the language was so eloquent, so sublime.”
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