Huckleberry Finn resources
Teaching Mark Twain
Study Guide: http://www.mshogue.com/English_11/Finn/finn.htm Other resources: http://www.mshogue.com/English_11/dialect.htm
Reading Schedule
Chapters 1-2-3 - Pages 1-14
Chapters 4-5-6-7 - Pages 15-36
Chapters 8-9-10 - Pages 36-55
Chapters 11-12-13 - Pages 55-75
Chapters 14-15-16 - Pages 76-95
Chapters 17-18 - Pages 95-116
Chapters 19-20-21 - Pages 117-145
Chapters 22-23-24-25 - Pages 145-170
Chapters 26-27-28-29 - Pages 171-205
Chapters 30-31-32 - Pages 205-224
Chapters 33-34-35-36 - Pages 224-250
Chapters 37-38-39-40 - Pages 251-276
Chapters 41-42-43 - Pages 277-294
Blog posts
http://normblog.typepad.com/normblog/2008/02/writers-choic-1.html (a deformed conscience vs a good heart)
http://principleddiscovery.com/?p=685 (controversy over “n word”
Glencoe Huckleberry Finn unity
Chapter analyses and summaries with glossarie
A summary of the novel, quotes, metaphor analysis
Reading schedule
Study Questions
Reading review questions: http://www.bell.k12.ca.us/fac_staf/p-z/weightmanron/free/huckfinnqs.html
Reading quiz 1
Reading Quiz 2
The “N” Word
Vocabulary:
VOCABULARY
These words from Huckleberry Finn have appeared on past SAT tests. They are listed in alphabetical order.
abolish
Lincoln abolished slavery.
to do away with, annul, eradicate, exterminate, obliterate
afoot
The eclipse of the sun caused him to think that something bizarre was afoot.
developing or in the process of happening
air
I intend to air my views to the school board.
to make public utterance
blithe
Her blithe spirit provided an air of gaiety at the meeting.
lighthearted, joyous, glad, cheerful, free of spirit
brazen
Pinching that woman was a brazen act.
shameless, insolent, disrespectful
calamity
The earthquake in Jamaica was a calamity.
a serious event causing distress or misfortune
confound
I am confounded by the tax forms from the government.
to cause one to become confused
dissipation
Even though he inherited a million dollars, I expect quick dissipation of his fortune.
wasteful spending, squandering
divination
The prophet was known for his accuracy in divination.
foretelling the future by means of magic
frivolous
A teacher should limit frivolous behavior in the classroom.
lacking in seriousness or importance
haughty
Being quarterback of the football team does not give him the right to be haughty.
arrogant, excessively proud and vain
histrionic
Your histrionics do not sway my opinion.
overly theatrical
hues
A rainbow has many hues.
colors
infernal
It is not nice to wish that someone go to the infernal regions.
relating to hell
languid
The old man’s walk was languid, each pace requiring great effort.
slow, sluggish, listless, weak
muse
I have often mused about life on a tropical island.
to ponder
ponderous
The ponderous furniture was hard to move, and thus became a burden.
very heavy, unwieldy from weight
resolute
The business was run by a resolute man who set his mind on a goal and followed through with it.
characterized by a decided purpose
soliloquy
Hamlet’s soliloquy in the graveyard is a popular piece to memorize.
a speech made to oneself to reveal thoughts
stealthy
The secret organization moves by stealth to gather information on its enemies.
acting in a secret and sneaky way
sublime
The romantic cinner, which included delicious food, soft music, and a beautiful setting, was simply sublime.
exalted, noble, uplifting
temperance
The woman exercise temperance in filling her plate with small portions of food.
moderation or self-restraint in action or statement
The order in which they appear in the novel:
1. temperance
2. infernal
3. abolitionist
4. afoot
5. confound
6. frivilousness
7. haughty
8. divining
9. dissipating
10. sublime
11. histrionic
12. muse
13. brazen
14. contrite
15. languish
16. soliloquy
17. calamity
18. hue
19. resolution
20. ponderous
21. air
22. stealthiest
23. blitheful
CHAPTERS 1-16: 1) commence, 2) tolerable, 3) shrivel, 4) providence, 5) ingots, 6) oracle, 7) specimen, 8) infernal, 9) speculate, 10) hogshead, 11) vial, 12) pivot, 13) careened, 14) gaudy, 15) thicket.
CHAPTERS 17-29: 1) crockery, 2) reticule, 3) pensive, 4) impair, 5) pommel, 6) capered, 7) cavorting, 8) scow, 9) lineal, 10) histrionic, 11) phrenology, 12) contrite, 13) sublime, 14) soliloquy, 15) yawl, 16) pallet, 17) pone, 18) mesmerism, 19) frock, 20) passel, 21) rapscallion, 22) flapdoodle.
CHAPTERS 30-43: 1) dismal, 2) temperance, 3) venture, 4) bogus, 5) texas, 6) impudent, 7) insurrection, 8) garret, 9) inscription, 10) tedious, 11) brash, 12) ascend, 13) singular, 14) tapering off.
STUDY QUESTIONS
1. Explain how Huck Finn changes in the novel.
2. Discuss Hucks relationship with Jim.
3. Compare and Contrast TomҒs and Hucks characters.
4. Analyze Huck Finn as a novel of initiation.
5. What picture of society is given in the novel? Give specific examples of how Twain criticizes society.
6. Huck Finn deals with the issue of slavery. What was TwainҒs opinion of it, as viewed through the novel.
7. Explain the purpose of the river in Huck Finn, mentioning Hucks preference for the ғraft over the ԑshore?
8. How does Twain hold the book together when it is a series of separate episodes?
Chapter Questions
Chapters 1 - 5
1. How is Huck’s father first introduced?
2. Does Huck fear going to hell? Why or why not?
3. Does Huck have more faith in superstition or religion? Why?
4. In what way is Tom different than Huck?
5. What do the “robbers” think ransoming is and what are some objections to it?
6. How does Miss Watson confuse Huck about prayers?
7. What difference do you notice between Miss Watson and the Widow Douglas?
8. What does Huck mean at the end of chapter 3, “It had all the marks of a Sunday school”?
9. What is a hairball? What does this tell us about slave culture?
10. What happens as Huck just gets used to being civilized?
11. Why does Huck go to see Judge Thatcher? How do Judge Thatcher and the Widow try to help Huck?
Chapters 6 - 9
1. Where does Pap take Huck and what is it like?
2. Explain Pap’s behavior.
3. How does Twain use irony to show Pap’s ignorance of government?
4. How does Huck escape the cabin? What does this tell the reader about Huck?
5. Who appears on Jackson Island?
6. What is Huck doing when he finds out that someone else is on the island?
7. Why did Jim run away?
8. Why does Jim say, “I’s rich now”? In what ways are people rich?
9. Where do Huck and Jim get so many supplies?
10. Who is the person in the cabin? Why is this significant?
Chapters 10 - 13
1. How does superstition seem as logical as religion in Huck’s mind?
2. Why does Huck ignore Jim’s warning? Why is this significant?
3. Why does Huck go ashore? What disguise is he wearing?
4. How does Judith Loftus figure out Huck’s disguise?
5. Why is there a reward for the return of Jim? For the return of Huck? (There may be different reasons for this.)
6. How does Huck help Jim escape the man-hunt?
7. Why doesn’t Huck turn Jim in?
8. What was life like on the raft?
9. For what purpose does Huck go to the ferry boat watchman?
10. What happens on the steamboat? Be specific.
11. Why are states mentioned in connection to the boat?
12. What do Jim and Huck do with the robbers’ boat? Why is this important?
Chapters 14 - 16
1. Specifically, what does Jim object to about King Solomon? How does this perpetuate stereotypes?
2. Who shows more logic and wisdom in this argument, Jim or Huck? Explain why.
3. What are Huck’s and Jim’s motivation for going to Cairo?
4. How does the river’s tranquility suddenly change?
5. How does the theme of loneliness and isolation come out here?
6. How does Huck’s practical joke on Jim humanize Huck? What was Twain’s purpose in this passage?
7. What is Huck’s moral dilemma in chapter 16?
8. How does Huck’s quick thinking save Jim?
9. How does Huck feel about misleading the bounty hunters?
10. What is Huck’s relationship with the river? Is this normal behavior for someone his age?
Chapters 17 - 19
1. Whose home does Huck come to?
2. Who is George Jackson?
3. Review p. 9
4. Was their house in fact, “mighty nice” or in bad taste?
5. How was Miss Emmeline different from the others?
6. At what point does Huck become horrified by the feud?
7. Why does Huck think the fight was his fault?
8. Where was Jim while Huck was at the Grangerfords? How does Huck discover him?
9. How does Huck feel about getting on the raft again? What are some of the attractions of raft life?
10. How does the description of the river and the raft life differ from that just before and after Cairo?
11. How does Huck meet the Duke and the Dauphin? How does he know the truth about them? 1
12. Why does Huck go along with the two frauds who come aboard the raft?
Chapters 20 - 24
1. How does Jim show concern for Huck?
2. How does Twain satirize religious gullibility in the town of Pokeville?
3. How do Huck and company travel without hiding Jim?
4. What comment about human nature does Twain make in the “loafers” account in chapter 21?
5. What ideas does Twain get across in the Boggs-Sherburn incident?
6. Why does Huck decide the circus isn’t funny?
7. How do the Kind and Duke increase attendance at their second performance?
8. What is Twain’s purpose for including Jim’s story of his ‘Lizbeth?
9. What new, potential scheme do the King and Duke learn about?
Chapters 25 - 28
1. Who do the King and Duke claim to be?
2. Why do they give all six thousand dollars to Wilks girl?
3. What was it about the King that made Dr. Robinson suspect he was a fraud?
4. Where does Huck hide the inheritance money?
5. What makes the Wilks girls saddest about having their property sold?
6. Why does Huck want Mary Jane to leave the house after he tells her the truth?
7. Why doesn’t Huck just blow the whistle on the frauds?
8. About whom does Huck say, “She had more sand in her than any girl I ever seen; in my opinion she was just full of sand”? What does Huck mean by this?
9. Where does Huck tell Joanna and Susan that Mary Jane has gone?
10. How is Huck’s increasing maturity shown in these chapters?
Chapters 29 - 31
1. How does Huck escape the Wilks investigation?
2. What do the Duke and King get in a fight about?
3. How does Huck feel about having them back on the raft?
4. Why does Huck think he ought to let Miss Watson know about Jim?
5. Why does he change his mind?
Chapters 32 - 35
1. What satire on values does Twain make in Huck’s first conversation with Aunt Sally?
2. Who do the Phelpses mistake Huck for?
3. Why does Tom drop in Huck’s estimation?
4. Why do Huck and Tom sneak out of the Phelps’ and go to town? What is Huck’s opinion of what he sees?
5. How does Huck feel about his conscience?
6. What is the value, according to Huck, of Tom’s plan for stealing Jim?
7. How do Tom and Huck fool the “nigger” who is watching Jim?
8. What are the major differences between Huck and Tom?
9. Why does Huck go along with Tom’s wild ideas?
Chapters 37 - 39
1. How do Huck and Tom keep Aunt Sally from knowing what’s missing?
2. How does Tom show a lack of sensitivity to peoples’ feelings?
3. What’s worse to Tom and Huck than the licking they get for letting loose the rats and snakes?
4. Why do Tom and Huck write the “nonamous” letters to Aunt Sally?
Chapters 40 - 43
1. What does Huck mean when he says of Jim, “I knowed he was white inside. . .”?
2. How does Twain help us feel sympathetic toward Aunt Sally?
3. In what way do the people show gratitude to Jim at first?
4. How does Jim get rich again?
5. What happened to Pap?
Huck Finn Questions and Answers:
Chapter 1
1. With whom was Huck living at the beginning of the book? The widow douglas
2. Who is the narrator of the book? Huckleberry Finn
3. What relation is Miss Watson to the Widow Douglas? Sister
4. Who takes care of Huck and Tom’s money? Judge Thatcher.
5. Who was waiting for Huck Finn after midnight? Tom Sawyer
Chapter 2
6. To whom did Jim belong? Miss Watson
7. Who did Jim say gave him the ‘five-center piece’ he wore around his
neck? The devil
8. Who was called a cry-baby? Little Tommy Barnes
9.What was the “line of business” of the gang? Nothing, only robbery and murder
10. Who was elected Second Captain over ‘Tom Sawyer’s Gang?’ Jo Harper
Chapter 3
11. Why did huck get a good ‘going-over?’ Because his new clothes were dirty
12. How did Huck know that his ‘Pap’ waasn’t drowned? Because drowned men
don’t float face down, only drowned women do
Chapter 4
13. Where did Jim get his hairball? from the fourth stomach of an ox
14. What made Huck suspect Pap was back? He found his tracks in the snow
15. Who is Pap? Huck’s father
16. Where is Pap at the end of the chapter? In Huck’s room
Chapter 5
17. How did huck’s unexpected visitor get in the room? By the shed
18. What did Pap trade his new coat for? A jug of forty-rod
19. What did the judge recon a body would need to reform Pap? A shotgun
Chapter 6
20. What did Pap get every time he got money? Drunk
21. What object did Huck use to escape the cabin? An old saw without a handle
22. Why does Pap not vote? Because there’s a state in this country where’d
they let “That nigger” vote.
Chapter 7
23. For what did Huck dive in the water? A canoe
24. What did Huck drop “so as to look like it had been done by accident?”
Pap’s whetstone
25. What was Huck’s destination once he was in the canoe? Jackson Island
Chapter 8
26. Why was the ferry-boat firing the cannon? To make the body rise to the
top.
27. How long is Jackson Island? 3 miles
28. What did Huck find that made his “heart jump up amongst his lungs?”
Ashes of a campfire that was still smoking
29. Why was Jim afraid of Huck? He thought he was dead(a ghost).
30. Why didn’t Huck believe that bees didn’t sting idiots? They’d never
stung him.
Chapter 9
31. How wide was the island? 1/4 mile
32. What did Jim say that the little birds said? It was going to rain
33. Were they right? Yes
34. How did the man in the house die? Shot in the back
Ch. 10
35. What did Huck and Jim find sewed up in the lining of an old blanket
overcoat? 8 silver dollars
36. After Jim got bit by the rattlesnake, what did he have Huck do with the
rattles? Tie them to his wrist
37. Why does Huck think that Jim got bit by the snake? Huck touched a
snake-skin/ Huck put a dead snake in Jim’s sleeping bag
38. What two objects did they find in the stomach of the catfish? Brass
button, round ball (spool)
Ch. 11
39. Who is Sarah Williams? Huck Finn
40. Where is Sarah from? Hookersville
What three ways did Mrs. Loftus ascertain Sarah’s true gender?
41. the way she threaded the needle
42. The way she caught the lead lump in his lap
43. The way she threw the lead lump
Ch. 12
44. What is a tow-head? A sand bar that has cottonwoods as thick as
harrow-teeth.
45. What two items did Huck and Jim decide to NOT “borrow?” Crabapples and
persimmons
46. According to Huck Finn, how much do steamboat captains make per month? $60
Ch. 13
47. What’s the name of the wreck? Walter Scott
48. According to Huck Finn, how many wives did Solomon have? 1 million
Ch. 14
49. How many boxes of cigars did Huck and Jim get from the ferry-boat? 3
50. How did Louis the XVI die? decapitation
Ch. 15
51. Where did Huck lose the raft? In the fog
Ch. 16
52. What town were Huck and Jim looking for? Cairo
53. Why was Huck miserable? He thought he should turn Jim in for being a
runaway slave
54. How did the raft get destroyed? Hit by a ferry-boat
Ch. 17
55. What was Huck’s pseudonym? George Jackson
56. How did Huck find out his pseudonym after he’d forgotten it? Buck
spelled it for him
57. How did Stephen Dowling Bots Die? Fell down a well and got drownded
Ch 18
58. Who was Col. Grangerfords oldest son? Bob
59. At what time was Miss Sophia supposed to have her rendezvous?
Half-past two
60. With whom did Sophia Grangerford run off with? Harney Shepherdson
Ch. 19
61. Who wouldn’t say, “dern the fog”? Spirits
The two men said that they were really
62. The duke of Bridgewater
63. Dauphin, the king of France
Ch. 20
64. How old was the imaginary boy named Ike? Four
65. How much did the King make at the camp meeting? 87.75
Chapter 21
66. What play are the duke and the king rehearsing? Romeo and Juliet
67. What is the “most celebrated thing in Shakespeare”? Hamlet’s Soliloquy
68. Who Killed Boggs? Colonel Sherburn
Ch. 22
69. Colonel Sherburn isays that the average man is a ____________. Coward
Ch. 23
70. How much did “them rapscallions” take in in three nights? $465.00
71. Who does Huck say is Henry the Eighth’s father? Duke of Wellington
72. Why did Jim feel bad about hitting his daughter? She was deef and dumb.
Ch. 24
73. What was Peter Wilkes occupation while he was living? Tanner
Who are Peter Wilkes’ three nieces?
74. Mary Jane
75. Susan
76. Joanna
Ch. 25
77. How much were the king and duke short of $6,000 in the basement? $415.00
78. Who told the girls the King was a fraud? The Doctor
Ch. 26
79. Where did Huck hide to eavesdrop on the king and duke? Behind the curtain
80. Where did the King put the money? in the bedding
Ch. 27
81. Where did Huck stick the money? in the coffin with Uncle Peter
82. Why was the dog howling in the basement during the funeral? He had a rat.
83. Whom did Huck say he had seen in the king’s room? the niggers.
Ch. 28
84. To where was Mary Jane going for 4 days? Mr. Lothrop’s
85. In what town did the duke and the king play the “Royal nonesuch”?
Bricksville
86. Who was the man with the broken arm? William Wilkes
Ch. 29
87. What did the king say was tatooed on Peter Wilkes breast? A thin blue
arrow
88. What did Harvey Wilkes say was tatooed on his brothers breast? P-B-W
Ch. 30
89. What does the duke say is the one smart thing the king did, the thing
that saved them? coming out cool and cheeky with that blue arrow mark
90. A freebie question. This is called grace.
Ch. 31
91. At whose house was Jim when Huck came back to the raft? Silas Phelps’s
92. How much did the king get for Jim? $40
93. How much was the reward for Jim? $200
94. Huck found out that you can’t pray a Lie
Ch. 32
95. What is Silas’ wife’s name? Sally
96. Who do Mr. and Mrs. Phelps think Huck is? Tom Sawyer
Ch. 33
97. Who was coming from town in a wagon? Tom Sawyer
98. What did the stranger do to Aunt sally that made her almost hit him?
He kissed her.
99. What happened to the king and the duke? They were tarred and feathered
and rode out of town on a rail.
Ch. 34
-What two clues assured Tom and Huck that Jim was in the shed?
100. the watermelon
101. the key
102. How did Tom nad Huck finally decide to free Jim? Dig him out
Ch. 35
103. What did Tom and Huck hear that made them stop talking about Jim’s
escape? The breakfast horn
104. How many knives did Tom want Huck to “smouch”? 3
Ch. 36
105. What kind of pie did Tom tell Nat to make? Witch pie
106. How many tallow candles did tom steal? 6
Ch. 37
107. Where do they keep the boots and rags, and pieces of bottles and
wore-out tin things, and all such truck? The rubbage Pile
-According to Tom, from where did William the Conqueror come, and on what ship?
108. England
109. The Mayflower
Ch. 38
110. What does “Maggoire fretta, minore atto” mean? The more haste, the
less speed
111. What was Jim to get instead of a rattlesnake? Garter snakes with
buttons tied on their tails.
112. What was Tom going to put in Jim’s coffee pot? an onion
Ch. 39
113. What did Tom and Huck see dripping from the rafters , landing on
plates and down the back of your neck? garter snakes
114. What did Tom and Huck do with the sawdust? Ate it
Ch. 40
115. What happened that alerted the farmers to Tom, Huck, and Jim’s
presence? Tom’s clothes got snagged and he snapped a splinter getting off.
116. What was Jim wearing during the “evasion”? A dress
Ch. 41
117. Who went to get the doctor? Huck
118. Why? Tom was shot in the leg
119. Why didn’t the dogs lead the farmest to Jim and the boys? The dogs
were theirs
Ch. 42
120. How much did the doctor say a nigger like Jim was worth? $1,000.00
Chapter the last-
121. How much money was waiting for Huck back home? $6,000 and then some
122. How did Huck’s Pap die? Shot in the back
DISCUSSION/WRITING
Find examples of one of the following:
Huck fibbing, fudging, or exaggerating the truth
Օ Huck obeying social conventions and authority
Huck disobeying social conventions and authority
Օ Huck doing the right thing
Huck doing the wrong thing
Is Huck at all times a rebel or does he sometimes go along to get along? Does his doing the right thing ever clash with what society tells him is right? Concur? How does Huck deal with these tensions?
Ask the class to come up with other examples of people following their conscience despite the law or the consequences, either historical or contemporary. Where would Huck stand on the Civil Rights Movement? Protest against the Vietnam War? The war in Iraq? Abortion Clinics? The inclusion of the phrase, “under God,” in the Pledge of Allegiance? If we believe one must follow the dictates of the law, how do we reconcile Huck as a hero? If we believe that it is moral to follow one’s conscience, how do we decide which laws or social conventions are wrong? Who gives us the authority?
For homework, ask students to write an essay about a time in their lives when they’ve been confronted with a choice between doing what their conscience told them to do and what societyfriends, parents, teacherstold them to do. Was it easy to decide? Was it easy to tell what the right thing was? Does the example of Huck shed any light on their decision?
Is this a book about race, as some have argued? Freedom, as others have argued? Moral choice and responsibility? Or is it just a boy’s adventure book that somehow got out of hand?
1. For homework, ask the students to find the most important sentence in the novel, the one the novel cannot דlive without.
2. Break up the class into small groups. Assign each group one sentenceԗregardless of students’ individual choicesand ask them to come up with a one-paragraph argument why that sentence is the most important one in the book. Allow 15-20 minutes for this exercise, circulating among groups as they work.
3. Ask each group to read its argument to the class.
4. Have the class vote on their preferred sentence. Did the discussion change their minds? Reinforce their opinions?
---------------
1. Why did Twain include the “Notice” on the opening page?
2. Discuss how the feud between the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons is symbolic of the Civil War. Do you agree that the novel is דa satirical treatment of the myth of romantic fiction, Southern chivalry, and witless honor?
3. Each stage of Huck’s moral growth culminates in a crisis of conscience and a decision to assist Jim (as when Huck tells the two slave hunters that there is “only one” man on the raft and that “He’s white"); and each decision is more consequential than the previous. What are these stages and decisions; when do they occur; and what are their consequences?
4. What are the consequences of Huck’s and Jim’s going past the mouth of the Ohio River in the fog? (Chapter XV)
5. Among the novel’s great ironies is that Huck’s and Jim’s quest for freedom takes them farther and farther into the deep South, the heart of slavery. How and why does this happen? What are the implications?
6. The primary movement of Huck’s and Jim’s journey and of the novel is linear, from north to south. A back-and-forth pattern of movement between river and shore also occurs. How is this pattern important in terms of plot? How is it related to the north-to-south movement? Does it reflect any other kind of movement experienced by Huck or Jim?
7. How do the king and the duke impact Huck’s and Jim’s life on the raft, their quest for freedom, and the novel’s movement?
8. What are the parallels between the king’s and duke’s treatment of Jim in Chapter XXIV and Tom Sawyer’s treatment of him in the final chapters?
9. The cemetery passage in Chapter XXIX is one of the few times when Huck is in immediate danger of actual harm or death. What are some similar incidents? What threatens his safety and well-being in each instance--other people or forces of nature? How does he escape in each instance?
10. Do the final chapters, beginning with Huck’s arrival at the Phelps farm, rely too much on coincidence? Do Tom Sawyer’s elaborate escape stratagems indicate that Jim’s and Huck’s goals are unobtainable?
11. Is there any justice in the fact that only Tom is wounded in the final chase through the swamp?
12. The story is told by a fourteen-year-old Huck, who admits to elaborate lies and fabrications. Can we trust him? Can we accept his version of things, or must we read between his lines?
https://secure.layingthefoundation.org/english/vocab/novels/Adventures%20of%20Huck%20Finn.pdf
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Huck Finn •
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Slavery and Freedom
Teachers Guide (Penguin)
INTRODUCTION
The compelling autobiography of an extraordinary man born into slavery, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave is also a powerful inquiry into the question of what it means to be human. From the opening sentences of the narrative, Douglass delineates the context from which this question emerges—the fact that slave owners typically thought of slaves as animals. Douglass does not know how old he is, and he quickly asserts that this is not unusual, since most slaves “know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs” (p. 47). It is instructive that this initial comparison of slaves to animals does not serve to express something about the minds of the slave owners; instead, it expresses something about the minds of the slaves that is the consequence of being born into an environment constructed and carefully maintained by their owners. In an environment that does not permit the idea that slaves are human, the only perspective available to them is that of their owners. Their own perspective therefore becomes an additional barrier to thinking of themselves as human.
Learning to read and write is essential to the process whereby Douglass comes to see himself as human. As he describes it, the acquisition of these skills is inseparable from the dawning of self-consciousness. Reading gives Douglass access to a new world that opens before him, but the strongest effect of his literacy is the light it casts on the world he already knows. His anguish is so great that he “would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing” (p. 84). It allows him to see his “wretched condition, without the remedy” (p. 84). Self-consciousness, the trait that most distinguishes humans from animals, produces such despair in Douglass that he confesses he often wished himself a beast.
Douglass portrays the breadth of slavery’s ability to dehumanize through his insights into the mentality of slave owners. Douglass suggests that if slaves are made rather than born, the same is sometimes true of slave owners. The mistress who began teaching him to read and write “at first lacked the depravity indispensable to shutting [him] up in mental darkness” (p. 81). Under the influence of her husband and, more generally, the institution of slavery, “the tender heart became stone, and the lamblike disposition gave way to one of tiger-like fierceness” (p. 82). The mistress not only stops teaching Douglass to read and write, but she is even more vigilant than her husband in preventing him from learning. The transformation of his mistress raises the question of how much of the behavior of slave owners toward their slaves was learned and how much was internally motivated. Douglass would have us believe that the mistress was the victim of her circumstances, yet the brutality other slave owners seemed to come by so easily makes it difficult to determine whether the behavior was learned or inherent.
Edward Covey undoubtedly counts among the slave owners who play the role as if born for it; his harsh treatment breaks Douglass “in body, soul, and spirit” (p. 105). Following his eloquent lament for the freedom he cannot have, represented by the ships sailing on Chesapeake Bay, Douglass writes, “You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man” (p. 107). The first part of this statement could refer to the methods employed by Covey, if not to all the owners at whose hands Douglass suffered. The second part refers to the story that follows, in which Douglass resists the whipping Covey intends to give him for disobeying. They fight for two hours, with Covey “getting entirely the worst end of the bargain” (p. 113). Douglass is never whipped again, and he describes this incident as “the turning-point in [his] career as a slave” and says that it “revived within [him] a sense of [his] own manhood” (p. 113). Douglass emphasizes the importance of literacy in developing his sense of himself as human. Is he suggesting, though, that his refusal to submit to Covey’s punishment was ultimately more important than his ability to read and write in shaping his sense of self?
In a letter that prefaces the narrative, Wendell Phillips, social activist and friend of Douglass’s, recalls “the old fable of ‘The Man and the Lion,’ where the lion complained that he should not be so misrepresented ‘when the lions wrote history’” (p. 43). As Phillips observes, Douglass’s narrative is history written from the perspective of those who previously had no voice. The very existence of the narrative makes it a testament to its author’s humanity and, therefore, a document of revisionist history. However, what gives Douglass’s narrative its universal relevance is his acute awareness of the complexities of human psychology. He observes that slaves usually spoke of themselves as content and of their masters as kind, concluding that slaves “suppress the truth rather than take the consequences of telling it, and in so doing prove themselves a part of the human family” (p. 62). Douglass is ever mindful that our humanity encompasses our failings no less than our capacity for nobility.
ABOUT FREDERICK DOUGLASS
Frederick DouglassFrederick Douglass was born into slavery in rural Maryland in 1818. Sent to work in Baltimore, he was taught to read by the mistress of the house and regarded this achievement as a turning point in his life. Another such point was his violent resistance to a beating by the man to whom he had been bound as a field slave at age seventeen. Three years later, he escaped to the North, married, and worked menial jobs until his debut as an orator at an antislavery convention in 1841.
To expand his audience and to document the authenticity of his story, Douglass published his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, in 1845. The book was critically acclaimed and sold well both in the United States and in Europe. Douglass left for England later the same year, where he spent two years writing and lecturing. He returned to the United States after abolitionist friends purchased his legal emancipation.
From 1847 to 1863, Douglass published his own weekly paper, The North Star, leading to a break with his mentor William Lloyd Garrison. Douglass also produced a number of other periodicals, as well as two extensions of his narrative—Life and Times of Frederick Douglass and My Bondage and My Freedom. In 1848, he played a prominent role at the women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, and he was a lifelong supporter of the women’s suffrage movement. During the Civil War he was an adviser to President Lincoln and recruited blacks, including his own sons, for the Union army. He was appointed to several government positions, including recorder of deeds for the District of Columbia and United States minister and consul general to Haiti. Douglass died in 1895.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Why does Douglass believe “Slavery proved as injurious to [his master’s wife] as it did to [him]” (p. 81)?
2. After his confrontation with Mr. Covey, what does Douglass mean when he writes “however long I might remain a slave in form, the day had passed forever when I could be a slave in fact” (p. 113)?
3. Why is Douglass able to “understand the deep meaning of those rude and apparently incoherent songs” (p. 57) sung by slaves only when he no longer is a slave himself?
4. When Douglass writes, “You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man” (p. 107), what does he understand a man to be?
5. Douglass describes knowledge as “valuable bread” (p. 83) and the Liberator, an anti-slavery paper, as his “meat and drink” (p. 151). How does literacy sustain him?
6. How is Douglass able to maintain his religious faith when that of his owners is used to justify their treatment of him?
7. Why does Douglass consider holiday celebrations as part of the “inhumanity of slavery” (p. 115)?
8. Why does Douglass describe the sails on Chesapeake Bay as “so many shrouded ghosts” (p. 106)?
For Further Reflection
1. To what extent should a piece of autobiographical writing be regarded as “factual”?
2. Can literacy be a curse as well as a blessing?
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself
1. What purposes of this book are emphasized in its title? What function is served by the opening testimonials by W. H. Garrison and Wendell Phillips?
2. What does Garrison believe are the conclusions readers should draw from this book? Why is Daniel O’Connell an appropriate person to cite for an opinion of the effects of slavery?
3. What does Garrison believe are the most devastating effects of slavery? Is there evidence for this view from Douglass’s Narrative?
4. Why does Garrison cite two reports of cases of slave murder? According to him, can slaves testify at law against cruelties perpetuated on them?
5. What opinions about slavery does Phillips add in his introduction? Why does he believe Douglass’s publication placed him in jeopardy?
6. Toward what audiences do these prefaces seem addressed?
7. What kinds of brutality did Douglass witness when he was a child? How did they affect him later in life?
8. What is the turning point in Douglass’s life as a slave?
9. What role does literacy play in Douglass’s emancipation?
10. How is the white man a victim of slavery, according to Douglass?
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Chapter 1
Why do you think Douglass is so detailed in describing his home and its location?
What kinds of knowledge about themselves does he believe are kept from slaves, and why does he believe this is important?
What does Douglass regret in his memories of his parents? What qualities does he associate with memories of his mother? Why wasn’t he able to live with her?
What does he believe are some of the worse consequences of masters’ siring of children on their slaves?
What kinds of cruelty did Douglass witness as a boy? What may be the motivation of the cruel beating of Aunt Hester?
Chapter 2
What were the economic circumstances of Douglass’s master, Colonel Lloyd? What conditions does he describe on the plantations? How were the slaves housed and clothed? Under what conditions did they work?
What explanation does Douglass give for the singing of slaves? What features does he ascribe to the songs he heard? How do you interpret the refrain he reproduces? ("I am going away to the Great House Farm!/ O, yea! O, yea! O!")
What seems his attitude toward the desire of other slaves to travel to the Great House Farm?
Chapter 3
How did Col. Lloyd treat his stable keepers? What incident does Douglass narrate to indicate why slaves often gave seemingly contented replies when asked about their treatment?
What does Douglass think of the practice he describes of slaves fighting to defend the alleged virtues of their masters? To what psychological impulse does he attribute this?
Chapter 4
What violent events does this chapter record? Why do you think nothing was done to prosecute the murder of slaves?
How would you describe Douglass’s style? How does he show emotion in recounting the horrible sights he has witnessed?
Chapter 5
What were the circumstances of Douglass’s life in childhood? What was his relationship to his siblings?
What was his response to his removal to Baltimore? What sentiment did he hold about his future?
What seems to be indicated about Douglass’s character by his account of his childhood?
Chapter 6
What effect on the character of his new mistress Mrs. Auld does Douglass ascribe to slavery? What information does Mr. Auld unintentionally provide him?
How was Baltimore life different from that on the plantation?
Chapter 7
How does Mrs. Auld try to inhibit Douglass from learning to read and write? How does he succeed in attaining his aim?
What books does he read, and how do these influence his beliefs about slavery? How does he come to learn about the abolitionist movement?
What first suggests to his mind the possibility of escape?
Chapter 8
What happens to Douglass after the death of Captain Anthony? What treatment of his brother does he witness?
After his return to Baltimore and the death of Master Andrew Auld, what is done to Douglass’s grandmother?
Whom does Douglass regret to leave when Master Thomas orders him sent from Master Hugh’s residence? What kind of information does he seek before he leaves Baltimore, and for what purpose?
What are some general features of Douglass’s writing style? Which qualities help make it effective? Does the narrative create suspense?
Chapter 9
Under what conditions did Douglass live when with Thomas Auld and his wife at St. Michael’s? What behavior toward a lame woman slave does Douglass record?
In Douglass’s view, what was the disappointing effect of Mr. Auld’s conversion? What was the fate of Mr. Wilson’s Sabbath school for slaves? What effect may the behavior of professing Methodists have had on his later opinions?
What motivated Mr. Auld to send Frederick to Mr. Covey’s farm?
Would it surprise you to learn that years later Douglass visited Mr. Auld and bade him a kind farewell shortly before the latter’s death?
Chapter 10
How did Mr. Covey treat Douglass and his peers? What enabled Douglass to survive the incidents of the oxen and the beatings?
What psychological effect did Covey’s brutality have on Douglass? What thoughts or hopes encouraged him in his despair? (46)
What assistance in his plight did Douglass seek? What responses did he receive? Why do you think Mr. Auld refused to help him?
Why do you think Douglass included the incident of Sandy’s offer of the root? What seems to have been Douglass’s attitude toward this form of African folk practice?
How did Douglass regain his self-confidence? How does he add interest to his description of his long fight with Mr. Covey?
How does he analyze the fact that Mr. Covey failed to prosecute him for resistance? What lesson does he seem to have gained from this experience?
How does Douglass interpret the motives and psychological effects of the owner’s encouragment of excess among the slaves during holidays? Do you think his analysis may be correct?
What improvements does Douglass find in his labors for Mr. Freeland?
What were the results of Douglass’s efforts to teach his fellow slaves?
How did he and his friends resolve to emancipate themselves, and how is their effort failed?
Why do you think Mr. Auld sent the imprisoned Douglass back to Baltimore, rather than punishing him more severely?
In Baltimore, how was Douglass treated in Mr. Gardner’s shipyard, and how did he resist? Why was his master unable to obtain legal redress on his behalf?
What trade did he learn, and how did this alter his status?
Chapter 11
What reasons does Douglass give for not describing more of his manner of escape? From his other writings, how in fact was this escape effected?
What immediate considerations prompted Douglass to act? How did he plan to leave without arousing suspicion?
What aspects of his escape does he especially remember?
What part does his intended wife play in these recollections?
How does he choose his new name? Why may he have found it fitting?
What aspects of New Bedford life surprised him? What difficulties followed him in the exercise of his work?
What publication especially inspired Douglass? How did he commence his career as an orator and writer?
What is the effect of the book’s closure?
Appendix:
What clarification of his views about the relation of religion and slavery does Douglass provide in the appendix?
What effect might it have had on religious readers?
Do you think the appendix provides a useful addition to the narrative of his life?
As you think back on this book, what features of its content or rhetoric most impress you?
AP Comp Resources
AP Comp Resources
Island selves: human disconnectedness in a world of interdependence.
by Yi-Fu Tan
Growing awareness of the ecological crisis, together with increasing familiarity with images of the earth taken from outer space, should support the viewpoint that human beings share a small but beautiful planet with other living organisms and that there is something very special about the earth. This opinion is not merely human bias, for it is supported by the objective fact that life of any kind in the universe is extremely rare. Life teems on the earth; the more it is studied in its myriad manifestations the more evidence accumulates of their interdependence. “No species is an island, entire of itself,” one might say, with apologies to John Donne. “We are part of the main, part of the single weave of life.”
Concurrent with this acceptance of life’s oneness and interdependence, there has emerged in the late twentieth century a rather passionate need on the part of many people to see themselves as different from one another. They may push their separateness and autonomy, their cultural singularity, to the point that no one outside the group and its unique experiences can understand it, much less speak about or for it. Peoples and cultures are, in this sense, islands, their insularity both fate and a source of pride.
This split in contemporary consciousness is not in itself exceptional. In other times and places thinkers have wrestled with the dialectical tension between the whole and its parts, how the parts are related to the whole, whether the whole is greater than the sum of its parts; or, on the contrary, the whole exists to serve its parts when these are not subgroups but human individuals, each with an eternal destiny, as the Judeo-Christian tradition teaches. In this tradition, more than in others, individuals with a philosophical turn of mind have repeatedly asked, what does it mean to be a human being apart from the identity and satisfactions that derive from group membership? What are some of a reflective person’s most fulfilling and most disturbing experiences?
Note that the two scales so prominently addressed in the last quarter-century - global and local elude the question of the individual. Whether the enthusiasm is for global ecological interdependence or for communal solidarity, the individual is submerged in a larger whole. Why is this? Could it be that in contemporary society’s growing intellectual sophistication, people find it more difficult to escape confronting the true nature of being an individuated self? Because habits and customs of the past, such as harvest festivals, rites of passage, and state ceremonies, can no longer quite inter the anxiety that goes with selfhood, new or refurbished cultural covers that are plausible and congenial to the modern mind need to be put in place. Ecological interdependence and communal oneness, as quasi-religious doctrines, are among the most effective covers of recent times. Although they are undoubtedly worthy of the most serious attention and commitment, they also perform, as did religion and elaborate social ceremony not so long ago, the service of burying the uncomfortable truth of individual uniqueness and, with it, another truth - the world’s indifference that together aggravate every person’s sense of isolation and vulnerability.
UNIQUENESS
Consider first the question of uniqueness. In the United States no one wants to be treated like part of the woodwork. Americans want to be recognized for their distinctive quality, their importance to the group. In other societies, especially those called folk or traditional, people are less eager to stand above the crowd. An individual would not want to be seen as assertive and so targeted for criticism. Yet, in perhaps more covert ways, each person wants to be recognized and acknowledged as somehow special and nonexchangeable with others. This wanting to be special is one face of human nature. The other face shows that there are times when even the most ardent individualists want to fade into the background, to sink into the reassurance and protective coloring of some larger being. To be special or unique is ego boosting, but it also makes one feel disconnected, an island.
The uniqueness, in a nontrivial sense, of every human being has a variety of causes. Among them, at the most basic level, is biology. In a large cosmopolitan city, anyone can see how humans differ in body size, shape, and color, often to an arresting degree. More subtly, body scents and fingerprints vary from person to person. Outwardly so unlike one another, humans are hardly “brothers under the skin.” On the contrary, as biochemist Roger Williams (1967, 1978) noted, the size and shape of stomachs differ far more than do those of noses and mouths. If noses varied proportionately to stomachs, some would look like cucumbers, others like pumpkins. A hand with six fingers is considered abnormal, yet pipes that branch from the aorta above the heart vary in number from one to six. Individuals equipped with a narrow esophagus have a difficult time swallowing pills; at the opposite extreme, those well favored may accidently ingest a whole set of false teeth. Politicians would do well to have an esophagus large enough to allow them to finish eating and still leave plenty of time to bend their neighbors’ ears.
The perceptual senses vary widely in their scope and degree of sensitivity, even among individuals considered normal. Ears that can barely register sound at certain frequencies may be supersensitive at others. When pitch sensitivity is combined with other capabilities of hearing, people’s daily lives are affected in matters such as tolerance of the level and kind of noise, ability to grasp certain words in speech, and appreciation of music. Standard eye tests reveal unique strengths and weaknesses in visual acuity. Peripheral vision is not ordinarily tested, yet it can show remarkable differences that affect competence in sports, driving cars, or flying airplanes and perhaps also in the ease and speed of reading. Whereas color vision is a species trait, sensitivity to shades of color and to the appreciation of a color’s richness can differ widely. “Is the redness of the rose the same to you and me?” lovers may wonder as, hand in hand, they stroll through a garden. But the question is not merely philosophical; it is also neurological - a matter of knowing the number of pigment genes on the eye’s X chromosomes (Neitz and Neitz 1995).
Most remarkable of all are differences in the human brain. Every feature that has been measured shows surprising diversity. The brain makes every individual truly unique, a fact that is a source of pride but also of isolation and discomfort. A wizard at chess may not be much good at algebra. Excellence in one branch of mathematics does not guarantee high performance in another. The talented French mathematician Jacques Hadamard (1949, 115) admitted that he had difficulty mastering Lie group: it was as though his mental energy for that specialty had been exhausted in the process of attaining mere competence. Some people are very verbal, but there too the talent may show itself in one area rather than another - for example, in poetry rather than in expository prose. Double negatives in a sentence can be a stumbling block for some listeners, who otherwise do not lack aural-verbal competence. Exactly how specialized is the human ability to form grammatical sentences? An extreme example is a family whose members, as a result of a defective gene, have difficulty forming plurals, although in other respects they speak or write normally (Gazzaniga 1992).
THE WORLD’S INDIFFERENCE
One consequence of human biological uniqueness is that a person often feels slightly out of step with other persons, including ones who are closest by virtue of blood or affection - still eating when others have finished, feeling cold when others complain of heat, unable to catch the meaning of a sentence when others nod, and so on in the course of an ordinary day. Reminders of disconnectedness are easily repressed. Beginning with lessons in the family, people are schooled to attend to what holds them together. The family is par excellence mutual support and community, despite differences in sex, age, and temperament. Each family member lives in a world uniquely its own, for both biological and sociocultural reasons. Yet all family members are one, not in spite of but because of these differences. Still, it is also within the family that a child first learns the fact of human disconnectedness. The child learns that just as it has a project, so does its mother, and that the two by no means always coincide. The look of annoyance that clouds the mother’s face as the child disrupts her reverie to show her a picture it has proudly drawn creates in the child, however fleetingly, a sense of disorientation, even of betrayal. Through incidents of this kind, trivial in themselves, a person first encounters a hint of the world’s indifference (Updike 1989, 100).
The world is composed of people, other living things, and inanimate matter. If people at times find their own species uncomprehending and incomprehensible, what expectation can they reasonably have of their ability to connect at a personal level with plants and animals, rock and wind? Fortunately for their peace of mind, the question seldom arises. The world’s comprehensibility and responsiveness are almost taken for granted. As an illustration, consider a man and his dog. The man reads a newspaper; at his feet the dog wags its tail. What can the dog really know of the man’s world of thought, or the man of the dog’s world of odor? What real mutual understanding and communication can there be? Very little. An abyss separates the two beings, yet they are often seen as a perfect picture of companionship and compatibility. If this abyss can exist between a man and a dog, which is humankind’s oldest domesticated animal, what is one to think of wild animals - cockroaches, for example, that scuttle across the kitchen table in the dark? Or, still further from humans - plants and inanimate nature?
From time to time, people are aware of their isolation and the world’s indifference. Such awareness is rarely the result of failing to penetrate imaginatively another’s existence and world. Rather, it comes through simply noting the disjunction between one’s mood or condition and that of the surrounding world (Kolakowski 1989, 69-77).
Among life’s most common experiences is the world’s indifference. Though awareness of this distressing fact is deeply buried so that life may go on, once in a long while people, ordinary people, speak out. Consider the eloquent exchange between Aua, an Iglulik Eskimo, and Knud Rasmussen, the Danish explorer. Rasmussen tries to get Aua to articulate a coherent philosophy. Aua replies that it cannot be done and that it is indeed presumptuous to try to do so. Look at it this way, he says: “In order to hunt well and live happily, man must have calm weather. Why this constant succession of blizzards?...Why must people be ill and suffer pain? We are all afraid of illness. Here is this old sister of mine: as far as anyone can see, she has done no evil; she has lived through a long life and given birth to healthy children, and now she must suffer before her days end. Why? Why?” “You see,” says Aua to Rasmussen, “you are equally unable to give any reason when we ask you why life is as it is. And so it must be.” In the midst of an enigmatic and chaotic world, the Iglulik seek comfort and security in the rules that they have inherited from their ancestors. To quote Aua again, “We do not know how, we cannot say why, but we keep those rules in order that we may live untroubled” (Rasmussen 1930, 69).
Human beings create order and meaning, suspecting even as they do so that their works may well be a measure of their desperation. The anthropologist Monica Wilson asked the women of an African village why they set such store by their ceremonies. Their answer was always the same. The purpose of such ceremonies, they responded, is “to stop people going mad” (Drury 1974, 52). Nature is indifferent and often unpredictable; people, for their part, can be not only indifferent but malevolent - the malevolence descending on the victim unexpectedly like a sudden shift of wind. What to do? The advice of the poet W. H. Auden (1991, 153) is like that of the African women. Not to be born may well be the best, but there is, he says, a second best, which is formal order, the “dance’s pattern.” We should dance while we still can.
To a character in a novel by Iris Murdoch (1975, 45), “unironed handkerchiefs could lead to madness.” People must opt for order somewhere down the line. A touching confession of helplessness before the world’s bewildering complexity, verging on chaos, comes from Claude Levi-Strauss. He has been accused of reductionism, of suggesting that mathematical models have the power to illuminate human experience and social reality. Levi-Strauss denies this. “This idea that structural analysis can account for everything in social life seems outrageous - it has never occurred to me. On the contrary, it seems to me that social life and the empirical reality surrounding it...unfold mostly at random.” “Disorder reigns” in social life’s “vast empirical stew,” as the famous anthropologist picturesquely put it. He, for his part, has chosen to study only its “scattered small islands of organization.” Moreover, these “islands” refer not to “what people do, but [to] what they believe or say must be done” (Levi-Strauss and Eribon 1991, 102-103).
OVERCOMING ISOLATION
Human beings have found numerous ways to overcome isolation and the self’s problematic uniqueness. These ways constitute a large part of culture. Culture is the human answer to the world’s disjunctions, unconnectedness, and indifference. Some of these ways may well be considered as much biological-instinctive as cultural: for instance, bodily contact. In a hunting-gathering band, huddling, fondling, and caressing occur frequently not only between adults and children but also among adults. Young men, in particular, sleep together in clusters, with arms and legs slung over one another’s bodies as though they are a band of lovers. Bodily contact establishes a feeling of oneness so strong that it can transcend even close kinship ties (Henry 1941, 18, 33; Turnbull 1982, 137).
Communal singing has a similar effect, asserts musicologist Victor Zuckerkandl (1973). In preliterate and folk communities, people gather to sing and so make a reassuring bubble of sound around themselves. There are singers, but no listeners - no outsiders to evaluate the performance and so make the singers feel self-conscious. Because looking tends to create distance, eyes may be closed in communal singing to enhance the sensation of total immersion in sound. This way, individuals are blissfully able to lose their burdensome identities in the larger whole (Turnbull 1990, 56).
If human togetherness were the sole aim, tones without words should suffice. People, however, feel a strong need to be emotionally engaged not only with other human beings but also with the nonhuman world of plants, animals, rock, and wind. For this to occur, says Zuckerkandl (1973, 27-29), words must be used. Words alone, as in ordinary speech, can already capture things for people, making them a part of their world. But the capture is insecure - the things still seem separate, “islands” out there. When words are sung rather than merely spoken, people and things are finally able to resonate emotionally: the separateness is then fully bridged.
All sorts of communal activities have the power to repress the self, especially when these require coordinated movements, as, for example, farmers working in a field, soldiers marching to the music of a military band, or people enacting their designated roles in a ceremony. An awareness of the Other - an indifferent or hostile reality out there further intensifies group solidarity and weakens the feeling of individual separateness. To farmers laboring together, the fields to be plowed and the weeds to be uprooted constitute the Other. To soldiers, the Other is the sharply defined human enemy. But it is always present, hazily or vividly, for any group that is engaged in common activity and shares a way of life. A possible exception is cosmic ritual, which in principle is all-inclusive. But there too, something lies outside: chaos, which the cosmic ritual is designed to forestall or tame.
Human beings are able to build an artifactual world from the material of nature. This world, especially at the microscale of rooms and houses and perhaps of neighborhoods and small towns, can promote a sense of group solidarity. In the living room, family members do different things and think separate thoughts: the baby crawls on the floor, the teenager studies algebra, the mother balances the budget, the father dozes before the television set. Yet they feel very much a close-knit family, and any observer of the scene would conclude the sam.e. The enclosed space of the room, a cheerfully illuminated interior set against the darkness outside, encourages a sense of oneness. Likewise, the pictures on the wall, the coordinated pieces of furniture, all attest to a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. The classroom provides another example. All the chairs in it are identical, which helps to create the illusion that the students who sit in them are alike - that they all have much the same body shape and weight, much the same sensory equipment, much the same kind of mind and intellectual preparedness, absorbing professorial wisdom in much the same way. What a shock when the professor reads the blue books!
SPEECH AND BONDING
Speech binds. Human beings feel that they live in the same world in large part because they apply the same words to the same things - because they speak alike. If I am not a botanist, why do I still want to know the name of a flower? What additional information do I gain when I am told that I am looking at an African violet - a specimen of the Saintpaulia ionantha? None. Knowing its name reassures me not because I know more about a plant, a feature of nonhuman reality, but because I now share one more term with other people, which gives me the impression that I share one more bit of the world with them. For a people to sustain the belief that they live in a common world, their conversational vocabulary has to be severely limited, as it almost invariably is (Whiting and Whiting 1975, 170-171). In modern society, even when men and women chatter away, they use perhaps no more than a hundred different words in the course of a day. Bonding among members of a group is further strengthened if they develop a distinctive pronunciation, a jargon; and linguists assert that every close-knit human group has its own manner of speech that sets itself off, however subtly, from others.
Speech both binds individuals and tempers their peculiarities so that they can fit into a larger and blander whole; it also binds, as I have noted previously, people with the nonhuman environment. It does so most effortlessly and effectively by means of metaphors, which are a universal feature of language. Apparently, human beings can only know who they are through the use of animal and plant metaphors and similes. “I am a fox; you are a pig; he or she is a prickly cactus.” In the process of learning who they are, people also become aware of their intimate ties to other living things: the two processes are inseparable, melded into one by the character of language (Fernandez 1974, 122-123). As for things in the mineral realm, anatomical metaphors such as foothills and headlands, the spine of a ridge, the mouth of a river, the face of a cliff make them all seem familiar and personal, features of a world impregnated with human values. Indeed, language tricks its users into believing that the features are all in some sense alive. And remember: there was never a time when natural human language did not perform this comforting trick. Language in itself makes the inanimate appear animate. Historically, as Hans Jonas (1966, 11-12) has observed, the problem that confronts human beings is not how life has emerged in a lifeless universe, but rather how a warm body can turn into a corpse. Ordinary speech lacks neutral ways of referring to that which is not alive. The inanimate depends on the prior conception of animate. Words such as lifeless or dead, when applied to rocks and stars, imply a prior state of aliveness.
SPEECH AND SOLITUDE
Through most of human history, speech has helped to maintain a sense of group cohesion. In numerous myths and lores, the kinship of all things - some kind of mutual understanding at the level of feeling and verbal communication - is assumed. Speech nevertheless is not solely a social glue. It is also an instrument of critical reflection and inventiveness. Used in a certain way, speech enables people to penetrate its social character, its power to elevate the fetishes of the group into nature’s norm, and to mask the disjunctions and separateness in the world, as well as its fundamental indifference. Self-critical speech eschews metaphors and other rhetorical devices that so effortlessly rope the nonhuman into the human world. It seeks to become a more austere scientific language that, in the interest of hard truths, sets aside human-bonding needs. Ironically, such a language creates its own bonding among scientists, who by speaking in a way understandable only to themselves are able to forget their status as complex human beings and to assume the simpler role of experts, distinguishable from one another by their scientific viewpoints, which they offer to their colleagues in a warm bubble of mutual appreciation. Life in this specialized community can be fully satisfying unless or until some other dimension of reality rudely intrudes.
In a well-coordinated and well-designed room it can seem as though the armchair and its ottoman, a standing lamp and the adjoining side cabinet are “conversing” with one another, such that a polite person would hesitate to disrupt the exchange by passing between them. When human beings stand side by side talking, is there a similar sense of coordination - of souls in deep and sympathetic exchange that should not be lightly disrupted? I would say yes, but even more often no, at least on social occasions, which means on most occasions. The fact is, people seldom truly speak with or listen to another. It is tempting to say, “Well in the old days, friends and family had genuine conversation. In our time, with so much television watching, we have lost the art.” Tolstoy would have disagreed. In an early literary effort, which was published posthumously, he wrote, “I don’t know how people were in the old days, but conversation there can never be....It is not from any deficiency of intelligence but from egotism that conversation fails. Everyone wants to talk about himself or about what interests him” (Bayley 1978, 37-38). I am reminded of Andre Gide, who reportedly believed that people were not really interested in what he had to say and that hence he had a tendency, even in his prose, to rush the ending. He based this conclusion on the fact that when he was interrupted in the middle of a story, no one ever asked, “And what comes next?” (Green 1985, 63).
Egotism may indeed be the heart of the problem. Egotism, however, is not just the moral defect of some people; it is an inescapable fact by virtue of a person’s uniqueness of body, mind, experiences, and projects. Having an ego makes listening truly to another a superhuman achievement, because it calls for an emptying of sell and how many people can do that? In Simone Martini’s altarpiece, The Annunciation, the Angel of the Lord speaks; Mary listens but discreetly keeps her place in the book she was reading when the Angel arrived. The Angel’s mission is no doubt momentous, but it is not hers: she listens with a hint of reluctance, because she was otherwise engaged. In Anton Chekhov’s play “The Three Sisters,” anguished cries from the heart are deflected by a rebuke to the servant or an asinine comment on the weather. Misunderstanding in a familiar setting - in the family and among friends - is a common theme in modern literature: things are said but are not understood; distress signals are sent out but are lost in indifference. Human beings have not become more egotistical, only more aware of their egotism - of their disinclination to listen, thanks in part to modern works like those of Chekhov and numerous other writers. Such awareness may encourage a person to become a better listener, and so a better person.
If a small vocabulary and the frequent use of cliches promote understanding and communal solidarity, the achievement of verbal-intellectual sophistication can have the opposite effect. The more people know and the more subtle they are at expressing their knowledge, the fewer listeners there will be and the more isolated individuals will feel, not only at large but also among colleagues and coworkers. Let me use an architectural metaphor to show how this can come about in academic life. Graduate students live in sparsely furnished rooms but share a house - the intellectual house of Marx, Gramschi, Foucault, or whoever the favored thinker happens to be. A wonderful sense of community prevails as the students encounter one another in the hallways and speak a common language, with passwords such as capital formation, hegemony, and the theater of power to establish firmly their corporate membership. Time passes. As the students mature intellectually, they move from the shared life of a house to rented apartments scattered in the same neighborhood. The apartments are close enough that friends still feel free to drop in for visits, and when they do the entire living space is filled with talk and laughter, recapturing as in younger days not only the bonhomie but also the tendency to embrace wholeheartedly the currently favored doctrine. Eventually the students become professors themselves. They begin modestly to build their own house of intellect and add to the structure as they prosper. Because each house bears witness to a scholar’s achievement, it can be a source of great personal satisfaction. But the downside is, who will want to visit? And if a colleague or friend does, why should the person spend time in more than one room?
Social scientists assert that a tenement, at which people hang out the washing or sit on the stoop to socialize, can be a warm and communal place. By contrast, a suburb with freestanding houses is cool and unfriendly. I am saying that the same may be true of intellectual life as one moves to larger houses of one’s own design. Both types of move - socioeconomic and intellectual - signify success, and with both the cost to the mover can be an exacerbated feeling of isolation.
FEAR OF LIGHT
Culture may be variously defined. One that promises new insights is culture as a form of escapism unique to human beings. When it rains, what do people do? They escape by going indoors. Shelters are built so that people need not confront nature’s pummeling and unpredictability, which not only can be dangerous but are unwelcome reminders of nature’s indifference. People also erect conceptual shelters - that is, tell stories, conduct ceremonies and rituals - for much the same reason, as well as to soften dissonances in social life and to reduce, for the individual, a sense of aloneness and anxiety. Material shelters can be taken down, but so can conceptual shelters - those reassuring covers composed of words and gestures - by an unusually reflective individual. Understandably, all societies strongly discourage the practice. One possible exception is the modern West. In modern Western society, blowing the cover is not simply an odd happening initiated by an exceptionally bold and gifted individual, but it is fairly common, emerging from a intellectual climate that has, at least ostensibly, the approval of society itself.
A strongly analytical and critical inclination of mind, sustained over time, can lead to cynicism and despair. In the West this has not yet happened to a pronounced degree, and one reason is ironic: the same hard questioning that has corroded traditional cultural covers has enabled Westerners to build a new one the dazzling technological world that has its own great powers to shield, entertain, and distract. Still, in the course of the last two centuries, critical thinking has undoubtedly dented the modern person’s sense of what it means to lead a moral and rewarding life, the true nature of relationships among human beings and between them and nature. May this not be another reason, perhaps even the deepest reason, for the vehemence with which the West is sometimes attacked? Besides its egregious faults of imperialism, racism, and specieism that are generic to civilization, the West is uniquely destructive of cultural covers and escape routes, not only other people’s but its own. I wonder, however, whether the critics, who are themselves nearly all Westerners or Western trained, know that they derive a personal benefit from their indignation? The benefit lies in the forging of a camaraderie, a warm feeling of being in the right in the company of others also in the right, the creation of a strong sense of Us through the postulation of an implacable and powerful Other, which is among humankind’s most time-honored and effective means of repressing the tormenting awareness of personal guilt and anomie, aloneness and vulnerability. In short, the attack hides a deep human fear - one that has always been a part of conscious life - the fear of light in places that best remain in the dark.
CITATIONS
Auden, W.H. 1991. Death’s echo. Collected poems, ed. E. Mendelson. New York: Vintage.
Bayley, J., ed. 1978. The portable Tolstoy. New York: Viking.
Drury, J. 1974. Angels and dirt. New York: Macmillan.
Fernandez, J. 1974. The mission of metaphor in expressive culture. Current Anthropology 15:119-145.
Gazzaniga, M. S. 1992. Nature’s mind: the biological roots of thinking, emotions, sexuality, language, and intelligence. New York: Basic Books.
Green, J. 1985. Diary 1928-1957. New York: Carroll & Graf.
Hadamard, J. 1949. The psychology of invention in the mathematical field. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Henry, J. 1941. Jungle people: a Kaingang tribe of the highlands of Brazil. New York: J. J. Augustin.
Jonas, H. 1966. The phenomenon of life: toward a philosophical biology. New York: Harper & Row.
Kolakowski, L. 1989. The presence of myth. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Levi-Strauss, C., and D. Eribon. 1991. Conversations with Claude Levi-Strauss. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Murdoch, I. 1975. A word child. London: Chatto & Windus.
Neitz, M., and J. Neitz. 1995. Numbers and ratios of visual pigment genes for normal red-green color vision. Science 267 (17 February):1013-1018.
Rasmussen, K. J. V. 1930. Intellectual culture of the Iglulik Eskimos. Report of the fifth Thule expedition 1921-24, vol. 7, nos. 2 and 3. Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Boghandel, Nordisk Forlag.
Turnbull, C. M. 1982. The ritualization of potential conflict between the sexes among the Mbuti. Politics and history in band societies, eds. E. Leacock and R. Lee, 133-155. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
-----. 1990. Liminality: a synthesis of subjective and objective experience. By means of performance, eds. R. Schechner and W. Appel, 50-81. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
Updike, J. 1989. Self-consciousness. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Whiting, B. B., and J. W. M. Whiting. 1975. Children of six cultures: a psycho-cultural analysis. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Williams, R. J. 1967. You are extraordinary. New York: Random House.
-----. 1978. Nutritional individuality. Human Nature (June):46-53.
Zuckerkandl, V. 1973. Man the musician. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
DR. TUAN is the John K. Wright professor of geography and a Vilas Research Professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706.
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Publication Information: Article Title: Island Selves: Human Disconnectedness in a World of Interdependence. Contributors: Yi-Fu Tuan - author. Journal Title: The Geographical Review. Volume: 85. Issue: 2. Publication Year: 1995. Page Number: 229+. COPYRIGHT 1995 American Geographical Society; COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group
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Bellringers
Writing Prompts
What is…
* What is something you dislike about yourself?
* What is something you do well?
* What is your favourite room in your home and why?
* What is a good neighbour?
* What is the worst thing parents can do to their children?
* What is your favourite time of day?
* What is your idea of a dull evening?
* What is the best way to treat meddlesome people?
* What is something you are optimistic about?
* What is something you are pessimistic about?
* What is your most indispensable possession and why?
* What is the meaning of “He laughs best who laughs last”?
* What is your favourite song and why?
* What is the best birthday present you ever received?
* What is the best birthday present you could receive?
* What is something that makes you feel sad?
* What is your favourite book and why?
* What is something that really bugs you?
* What is something that really makes you angry?
* What is the best advice you ever received?
* What is your favourite holiday? What makes this holiday special?
* What is your favourite day of the week?
* What is your favourite month? Why?
What if…
* What would happen if you could fly whenever you wanted? When would you use this ability?
* What would happen if there were no television? Why would this be good? bad?
* What would happen if everyone lived in space? What type of houses would they live in? What type of clothing would they wear? What type of food would they eat? How would they travel?
* What if cows gave root beer instead of milk?
* What if all the streets were rivers? What would be different?
* What would happen if people never co-operated? Why do you think it is important to co-operate?
* What would happen if it really did rain cats and dogs?
* What would happen if animals could talk? What are some of the questions you would like to ask animals?
* What would happen if you could become invisible whenever you wanted to? What are some of the things you could do that you cannot do now?
* What would happen if everyone wore the same clothes?
* What would happen if you threw a piece of trash on the ground? What if everyone did?
* What if you could walk up walls and across ceilings?
* What would happen if you loved your neighbour as yourself? What if everyone did?
* What would happen if you grew taller than trees? How would this change your life?
* What would happen if children ruled the world?
* What would happen if there were no cars, buses, trains, boats, or planes? How would this change your life?
* What if everyone lived under water? Where would people live? What games would children play? What would school be like?
* What would happen if you found gold in your backyard?
* What would you do if a bully bothered you on your way home?
* What would you do if you did very poorly of a test?
* What would you do if a friend borrows things from you but never returns them?
* What would you do if You were the teacher and everyone forgot his homework?
* What would you do if you were in the middle of the lake and your boat began to leak?
* What would you do if Your friend had a broken leg? How would you cheer him up?
* What would you do if you saw little bugs in your salad?
* What would you do if you woke up in another country and no one could understand you?
* What would you do if you ordered an ice cream cone and you forgot to bring money?
* What would you do if someone got in front of you when you were in line at the movies?
* What would you do if your jelly sandwich fell upside down on the floor?
* What would you do if only one hot dog is left and neither you nor your friend have had one?
* What would you do if two of your best friends went to the movies without inviting you?
* What would you do if the surprise party was for you but you weren’t surprised?
* What would you do if you got a present you didn’t like?
* What would you do if you were at home and your homework was at school?
* What would you do if you dropped the cookie jar and it broke?
* What would you do if you were invited to two parties on the same day?
* What would you do if you promised to feed your pet and you didn’t?
* What would you do if someone said you did something wrong and you didn’t?
* What would you do if your new shoes felt fine in the store but now they are hurting?
* What would you do if someone told you a joke that you don’t think is funny?
* What would you do if an hour before the party you remember you don’t have a gift?
* What would you do if a friend comes to your house and his/her mom doesn’t know he’s/she’s there?
* What would you do if you had four math problems marked wrong that were right?
* What would you do if you found in the street?
* What would you do if you found a magic wand?
* What would you do if you wanted to be friends with someone who spoke no English?
* What would you say if someone told you it was all right to steal from a large department store?
* What would you do if you saw a friend cheating--report it, confront the friend, nothing--and why?
* If you could have been someone in history, who would you have been?
* If you could only take 3 people with you on a trip around the world, who would you take and why?
* If you could give any gift in the world, what would you give and to whom?
* If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
* If you received any sum of money as a gift, what would you do with it?
* If you could do whatever you wanted to right now, what would you do?
* If you were principal of this school, what would you do?
* If you were a mouse in your house in the evening, what would you see your family doing?
* If you were five years older you would…
* If you were lost in the woods and it got dark, what would you do?
* If it were your job to decide what shows can be on t.v., how would you choose?
* If there were no rules, what do you think would happen?
* If you owned a store, what would you do to discourage people from stealing from you?
* If you could participate in an Olympic event, which one would you choose and why?
* If you could break the Guiness Book of Records it would be for?
* If you had to describe yourself as a colour, which would you choose?
* If your friend told you of a secret plan to run away from home, what would you do and why?
What do you think…
* What do you think of 3D movies?
* What do you think someone your age can do to help reduce the amount of pollution in our environment?
* What do you think the world needs now?
* What do you think your friends say to each other when you’re not around?
* What do you think about the amount of violence on T.V.?
* What do you think about people polluting the environment?
* What do you think about having set rules for people to follow?
* What do you think about people who are inconsiderate of others?
* What do you think should be done to keep people who are under the influence of alcohol off the road?
* What do you think the world will be like when you are a grown up?
* What do you think about ghosts?
* What do you think of someone who has bad manners?
* What do you think about people who take advantage of others?
* What do you think about when you can’t fall asleep?
* What do you think courage means?
* What do you think makes a good friend?
* What do you think makes a happy family?
* What pollutants do you think do the most damage and why?
* What things do you think are beautiful?
What...misc.
* What do you like most about yourself?
* What do you like to do in your free time?
* What kind of animal would you like to be and why?
* What kind of trophy would you like to win?
* What TV or movie star would you like to invite to your birthday party?
* What does “Clothes make the person” mean to you?
* What does “Have your cake and eat it too” mean to you?
* What does “The early bird gets the worm” mean to you?
* What do we mean when we say, “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence”?
* What does “You can’t take it with you” mean?
* What do we mean when we say, “You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar”?
* What do we mean when we say, “Hitch your wagon to a star”?
* What does “still waters run deep” mean to you?
* What does “There are two sides to every coin” mean to you?
* What does Canada mean to you?
* What are you afraid of? Why?
* What are junk foods?
* What are some nutritious foods that you like?
* What are some rules you have to follow at home?
* What are some examples of prejudice?
* What is more important to you, appearance or personality?
* What is most important to you in a friend--loyalty, generosity, honesty--why?
* What is something that makes you melancholy?
* What makes your best friend your best friend?
* What makes you feel safe?
* What makes you laugh?
* What would you invent to make life better?
* What would you do to entertain your family without spending any money?
* What effects does watching violence have on people?
* What effects do cigarette and alcohol advertising have on young people?
* What kind of t.v. commercial would you like to make? Describe it.
* What kind of pet would you most like to have--monkey, snake, goat--why?
* What kind of program do you enjoy most on TV--detective shows, comedies, game shows--and why?
* What advice would you give a new student?
* What advice would you give to someone who stole something but now feels guilty?
* What things are better than going to school? Why?
* What talents do you have?
* What three words would describe you right now?
* What four things are most important in your life?
* What colour makes you think of happiness?
* What has been the most fun activity at school so far?
* What quality do you like about yourself--creativity, personality, appearance--why?
* What eccentric behaviour in a friend disturbs you the most?
* What parts of nature do you like best?
* What do you do for exercise?
How…
* How do you feel when it’s your birthday? Why?
* How do you feel on the first day of winter? Why?
* How would you feel if you were going to be on a show? Why?
* How do you feel when you do something wrong?
* How do you feel when you do something that is very good?
* How do you feel when you play a trick on someone?
* How would you feel if a new child moved into your neighbourhood?
* How do you think the new child would feel?
* How do you feel when you have had a fight with your best friend?
* How do you think your friend felt?
* How do you feel when you are in bed with the lights out?
* How do you feel when you want something very badly and you cannot have it? Why is this so important to have?
* How do you feel on a warm sunny day?
* How do you feel when you stay with a babysitter?
* How do you feel when you’re leaving home on vacation?
* How do you feel when you sleep at someone’s house?
* How do you feel during a thunderstorm?
* How do you feel on the first day of school?
* How do you feel when your parents are upset with you? Why do they become upset with you?
* How do you feel on Thanksgiving? What are you thankful for?
* How do feel on (any holiday)?
* How do you feel when something scares you? What do you do when this happens?
* How would you feel if someone told you that you were his or her best friend?
* How do you feel about your appearance?
* How would you change the world to make it better?
* How do you think eating junk food affects you?
* How do you have the most fun--alone, with a large group, with a few friends--and why?
* Explain how to play your favorite game.
I wish…
* I wish I had a million… Then I would…
* I wish I had one… because
* I wish I could be like.... This person is special because....
* I wish to be a ________ when I grow up. Then I will....
* I wish there were a law that said..... This would be a good law because....
* I wish I could forget the time I ..... because....
* I wish trees could..... because....
* I wish I could see...... because.....
* I wish I could learn..... because.....
* I wish I didn’t have to eat...... I don’t like this food because.....
* I wish everyone would learn to ..... Then everyone would.....
* I wish I never......
* I wish I had one more chance to..... Then I would.....
* I wish there was an electric......
* I wish I had enough money to......
* I wish everyone loved......
* I wish all children would......
* I wish everyone had.....
* I wish I could touch......
* I wish animals could...... If they could, then.....
* I wish I looked like.... because......
* I wish there were no more.....
* I wish I didn’t have to.....
* I wish I could go to.....
* I wish there really was..... If there really was, then.....
* I wish I could hear......
* I wish I could give......
* If all my wishes came true, I would......
Describe…
* Describe a time when you felt vengeful.
* Describe your favourite toy. Why do you like it best?
* Describe the most ludicrous outfit you can think of.
* Describe the best teacher you ever had.
When…
* When you are angry, how do you look?
* When are you happiest?
* When have you felt lonely?
* When do you feel proud?
* When was the last time you cried and why?
* When a friend was in an embarrassing situation, what did you do?
* When it might hurt their feelings, how do you feel about telling your friends the truth?
* When might it be bad to be honest?
* When someone picks on someone else, how do you feel? What do you do?
* Once, when you were very frightened, what happened?
* Once, when you were embarrassed, what happened?
* Once, when your feelings were hurt, what happened?
Which…
* Which quality best describes your life--exciting, organised, dull--and why?
* Which quality do you dislike most about yourself--laziness, selfishness, childishness--and why?
* Which place would you most like to visit--Africa, China, Alaska--why?
* Which holiday has the most meaning for you-Canada Day, Thanksgiving, Valentines Day--and why?
* Which is least important to you--money, power, fame--and why?
* Which is most important to you--being popular, accomplishing things, being organised--and why?
Who…
* Who do you talk to when you have a problem?
* Who is your favourite Star Wars character (or other movie/book/t.v. show, etc.)?
* Who or what has had a strong influence in your life?
Where…
* Where would you prefer to be right now--mountains, desert, beach--and why?
Why…
* Why is it important to be honest?
* Why is important to have good manners?
* Why do you think adults smoke/drink?
* Why is exercise important to someone your age?
* Why do you think some people encourage others to smoke/drink?
* Why do you think the rules you must follow are good or bad?
* Why would it be good to be honest?
* Why have men and women usually only done certain types of work?
* Why should or shouldn’t a man stay home to care for the house and children while his wife goes to work?
* Why do you think some people take advantage of others?
* Why do you think prejudice exists in the world?
* Why would we say that someone is “passing the buck”?
* Why would a Prime Minister have a sign on his desk which read, “The buck stops here”?
* Why do you think tact is an important quality?
* Why is it not wise to squander your money?
* Explain why we say, “dead as a door nail”.
Misc…
* Do you think there is too much fighting on t.v. Why or why not?
* Do you think it is necessary to have alcohol at a party in order to have a good time?
* Does it bother you to be around someone who has bad manners?
* Should there be a dress code in places such as school, restaurants, and places of business? Why or why not?
* Should animals be used for medical research?
* Should the Canadian Government financially support Olympic teams?
* Should people be prohibited from smoking in certain places?
* Families are important because…
* Would you like to be famous? Why or why not? What would you like to be famous for?
Caring for your Introvert
Close Reading: What makes writing good?
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bookmarks 1-04-09
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- Poems by Wendell Berry, from Farming: A Handbook, 1970
- Education World ® Lesson Plan: In Search Of Wisdom: An Interview With An Elder
- Poems by Wendell Berry, from Farming: A Handbook, 1970
- Interview a person age 60 or older to learn about significant events in their lives.
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- Persuasion Map
- Syllabus Builder, Version 2.0: Instructor's Guide for The Heath Anthology of American Literature
- The Persuasion Map is an interactive graphic organizer that enables students to map out their arguments for a persuasive essay or debate.
- Annenberg Media
- nnenberg_AmericanPassages
-
- Today, we have a guest feature by Don from Classic Poetry Aloud (iTunes - Feed - Web Site), a place where you can find a great lineup of poetry podcasts. We
Web
- Questia - The Online Library of Books and Journals
- The World's Largest Online Library of Books plus Tens of Thousands of Journal Articles
- AllPosters.com Affiliates Program!
- Keyword Playground
- Google AdWords: Keyword Tool
- A List Apart
Political
- Keyword Playground
- RealClearPolitics
- Power Line
- Anatreptic
- Power Line
- Townhall
- The Politico
- Politico
- American Thinker
- Slate Magazine
- Online magazine of news and commentary on culture and politics
- Victor Davis Hanson's Private Papers
- Joanne Jacobs
- Free-linking and thinking on education by Joanne Jacobs
- Education News - All Headlines - New York Times
- Find breaking news & education news on colleges & universities, teachers, public & private schools, tuition, scholarships, financial aid & student loans.
- NewsBusters.org | Exposing Liberal Media Bias
- Westhawk
- Townhall.com::Blog
- Bookworm Room
- Westhawk
- Bookworm Room She escaped from the belly of the liberal beast
- A Second Hand Conjecture
- A Second Hand Conjecture Questions through the veil of ignorance
- Pajamas Media
Religious
- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- FIRST THINGS
- Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies
- Mormon History Association
- BYU Studies–Home
- FIRST THINGS
- BYU Studies - your source of academic religous research including books, journals, and articles.
- AML-List
- LDSBlogs.org - Mormon Archipelago: Gateway to the Bloggernacle and list of LDS and Mormon Blogs
- ChristianityToday
- Times & Seasons
- Dialogue
- Association of Mormon Scholars in the Humanities
- Meridian Magazine : : The Place Where Latter-day Saints Gather
- LDSBlogs.org - Mormon Archipelago: Gateway to the Bloggernacle and list of LDS and Mormon Blogs
- Meridian Magazine--A Gathering Place for Latter-day Saints. Here you'll find the latest, most vital news and views about moral and family issues important to Latter-day Saints and their friends.
- GetReligion » “The press . . . just doesn’t get religion.” — William Schneider
News
- Google News
- washingtonpost.com - nation, world, technology and Washington area news and headlines
- The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia
- deseretnews.com | Deseret Morning News Web edition
- Missoulian - Missoula Montana's News Online
- Posted by Michael L Umphrey on 01/04 at 06:54 PM
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- washingtonpost.com - nation, world, technology and Washington area news and headlines
- Backpack: Links