Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (2)

Mark Twain. 1884. Literary Classics of the United States, Inc. 1982.

Why read it? A vivid re-creation of the time of slavery in the U.S. A moral dilemma for Huck who, in helping Jim, the escaped black, is violating the law.

Ideas:

Huck: “…[the Widow] said the thing a body could get by praying for it was ‘spiritual gifts’…too many for me… I must help other people, and do everything I could for other people, and look out for them all the time, and never think about myself…but I couldn’t see no advantage about it—except for the other people.” p. 635.

“I had been to school most all the time, and could spell and read and write just a little, and could say the multiplication table up to six times seven is thirty-five, and I don’t reckon I could get any further than that if I was to live forever… don’t take no stock in mathematics, anyway.” p. 639.

Jim to Huck: “You gwyne to have considerable trouble in yo’ life, en considerable joy.” p. 642.

Pap to Huck: “You’re educated, too, they say; can read and write… think you’re better’n your father, now, don’t you, because he can’t.” p. 643.

Pap to Huck: “I’ll lay for you my smarty; and if I catch you about that school I’ll tan you good.” p. 644.

Huck: “[Pap]…clumb out on to the porch-roof and slid down a stanchion and traded his new coat for a jug of forty-red, and clumb back again and had a good old time; and towards daylight he crawled out again, drunk as a fiddler, and rolled off the porch and broke his left arm in two places and was most froze to death when somebody found him after sun-up.” p. 646.

The judge on trying to reform Pap: “He said he reckoned a body could reform the old man with a shot-gun maybe, but he didn’t know no other way.” p. 646.

Huck: “Every time he [Pap] got money he got drink; and every time he got drunk he raised Cain around town; and every time he raised Cain he got jailed…this kind of thing was right in his line.” p. 647.

Huck: “But by-and-by Pap got too handy with hick’ry, and I couldn’t stand it; I was all over welts.” p. 648.

Huck: “Pap was agoing on so, he never noticed where his old limber legs was taking him to, so he went head over heels over the tub of salt pork, and barked both shins, and the rest of his speech was all the hottest kind of language….”

To be continued.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1).

Mark Twain. 1884. Literary Classics of the United States, Inc. 1982.

Why read it? A vivid re-creation of the time of slavery in the U.S. A moral dilemma for Huck who, in helping Jim, the escaped black, is violating the law.

Ideas:

“Notice: Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot. By Order of the Author.” p. 619.

“She [Miss Watson] said all a body would have to do there [in Heaven] was to go around all day long with a harp and sing, forever and ever…didn’t think much of it….” p. 626.

Huck: “…the wind was trying to whisper something to me and I couldn’t make out what it was.” p. 627.

“Pretty soon a spider went crawling up my shoulder, and I flipped it off and it lit in the candle, and before I could budge, it all shriveled up…an awful bad sign and would fetch me some bad luck.” p. 627.

“There was a place on my ankle that got to itching; but I dasn’t scratch it; and then my ear begun to itch; and next my back, right between my shoulders…like I’d die if I couldn’t scratch…was itching in eleven different places now.” p. 629.

Tom Sawyer: “I’ve seen it in books; and so of course that’s what we’ve got to do.” p. 633.

Tom Sawyer’s gang plans to stop stage coaches, and kill the inhabitants and steal their watches and money. He’s seen it in books.

Tom Sawyer: “Kill the women? No…you fetch them to the cave, and you’re always as polite as pie to them, and by-and-by they fall in love with you and never want to go home any more.” p. 634.

Ben Rogers: “Mighty soon we’ll have the cave so cluttered up with women, and fellows waiting to be ransomed, that there won’t be no place for the robbers.” p. 634.

Huck: “I says to myself, if a body can get anything they pray for, why don’t Deacon Winn get back the money he lost on pork…can’t the Widow get back her silver snuff-box that was stole…can’t Miss Watson fat up?” p. 635.

To be continued.

Spoon River Anthology (11)

Edgar Lee Masters. New York: Collier Books. A Division of Macmillan Publishers Co. 1915.

Why read it? Epitaphs in poetic form. Concise. Cryptic. Subtle. Often bitter. From the grave, the characters summarize their lives. Each poem is a potential short story.

“Amelia Garrick.” The speaker has wielded some kind of influence over her more successful friend—an influence that will always gnaw at the feeling of satisfaction which the other feels at her success. p. 140.

“John Hancock Otis.” The aristocrat without power denounces the pauper who rises to power. p. 141.

“Anthony Findlay.” Belief that greatness resides in the power to control others. “When the people clamor for freedom/ They really seek for power o’er the strong.” “ ‘Tis better to be feared than loved.” p. 142.

“John Cabonis.” Freedom—a force which endures despite setbacks—in the effort to make every citizen equal in wisdom and capable of self-rule. [The liberal’s credo. RayS. ] p. 143.

“The Unknown.” Like the shot and caged hawk, “The Unknown” was wounded and caged in life. p. 144.

“Alexander Throckmorton.” “Genius is wisdom and youth.” p. 145.

“Jonathan Swift Somers.” The hour of supreme vision. [He is the author of The Spooniad, and I assume that these epitaphs are at “the hour of supreme vision” about the characters’ lives. RayS.] p. 146.

“Widow McFarlane.” Life is a loom at which you weave your own shroud. p. 147.

“Carl Hamblin.” On the day the Anarchists were hanged in Chicago, he wrote a description of Justice as “disgustingly blind” and was tarred and feathered. p. 148.

“Editor Whedon.” The editor’s life and his last resting place are similar in that garbage and sewage are dumped and abortions hidden on his grave. His credo was “To be able to see every side of every question….” But he used “base designs for cunning ends.” p. 149.

Note: At this point, I will stop my summaries. You get the idea. If you are as fascinated by these epitaphs as I am, buy the book. RayS.

Spoon River anthology (10)

Edgar Lee Masters. New York: Collier Books. A Division of Macmillan Publishers Co. 1915.

Why read it? Epitaphs in poetic form. Concise. Cryptic. Subtle. Often bitter. From the grave, the characters summarize their lives. Each poem is a potential short story.

“Georgina Sand Miner.” Mistress to men and lesbians tries to keep up the illusion that she is not a whore. Her lover, Daniel, strips her of this illusion before all those from whom she was trying to hide it. p. 126.

“Thomas Rhodes.” The splintered soul of the liberal do-gooders vs. the self-contained and compact soul of the hoarders of earthly wealth. p. 127.

“Jim Brown.” Horse trainer’s view of society—those on the side of humanity vs. the “Social Purity Club.” p. 130.

“Elsa Wertman.” Mother of illegitimate son who was adopted by the man who seduced her and his wife. She must watch as her son becomes successful and she cannot partake in his glory. p. 132.

“Hamilton Greene.” Irony. The successful son who does not know that he is a bastard. p. 133.

“Ernest Hyde.” “The mind sees the world as a thing apart,/ And the soul makes the world at one with itself.” p. 134.

“Roger Heston.” Metaphor for lack of free will. The roped-in cow—free to a point. Then he pulls up the stake and she gores him, Roger Heston. God, something, or somebody sets the limits. p. 135.

“Amos Sibley.” Preacher saddled with an adulterous wife tires to find a way to be successful in some other profession so that he can divorce her. He is unsuccessful, so a preacher he remains—married to an adulterous wife whom he despises. p. 136.

“Mrs. Sibley.” In death, buried where no one can find her. The adulterous, sensitive wife is now hidden away from her compulsion. p. 137.

“Adam Weifauch.” Political ingratitude. Fighting for principle, he goes unrewarded while others are rewarded. Finally, he accepts politics as a means to personal gain—and he is caught. Who or what has caused his ruin? p. 138.

“Ezra Bartlett.” The love of women and wine are but steps on the way to the love of God. The soul uses stimulants to love until it can love by itself without stimulants. p. 139.

To be continued.

Spoon River Anthology (9).

Edgar Lee Masters. New York: Collier Books. A Division of Macmillan Publishers Co. 1915.

Why read it? Epitaphs in poetic form. Concise. Cryptic. Subtle. Often bitter. From the grave, the characters summarize their lives. Each poem is a potential short story.

“Rev. Lemnuel Wiley.” The preacher who advised the Blisses not to get a divorce brags about how he saved the marriage and, he thinks, the children’s respectability. See “Mrs. Charles Bliss” for rebuttal. p. 113.

“Thomas Ross, Jr.” The tragedy of nature: snake eats a swallow’s brood. The swallow brings about the destruction of the snake and the swallow in turns is impaled on a thorn by a shrike. Point? He renounces his “lower nature,” the dog-eat-dog philosophy and was destroyed by his brother’s ambition. p. 114.

“Rev. Abner Peet.” Preacher’s household effects are sold at auction. But his trunk containing a lifetime of sermons is sold to a man who burns his sermons as wastepaper. p. 115.

“Jefferson Howard.” A personal battle against attitudes and beliefs he did not accept. A Southerner in a northern environment; a lover of humanity who dislikes formal religion—and then his children went into strange paths. So he remains as he has always been—alone and fighting. “And I stood alone, as I started alone!” “Facing the silence—facing the prospect / That no one would know of the fight I made.” p. 116.

“Judge Selah Lively.” Little man in body and soul becomes a judge and takes his vengeance on all of the “giants” who had sneered at him. p. 117.

“Albert Schirding.” Parent whose children were more successful than he. p. 118.

“Jonas Keene.” Parent whose children were all failures. p. 119.

“Eugenia Todd.” The gnawing pain—physical or mental—which torments you throughout life—awake and asleep. Death is a release from this pain. p. 120.

“Washington McNeely.” Successful man lives 90 years to see all his promising children broken. p. 122.

“Mary McNeely.” McNeely’s daughter who became a recluse. Her father’s repose while sitting under the cedar tree becomes the model of repose which she adopts and achieves repose herself. p. 124.

To be continued.

Respite

This blog will resume on January 4, 2010. It consists of ideas taken from books that are, for the most part, unfamiliar to the public that reads the New York Times's best sellers. RayS.

Spoon River Anthology (8).

Edgar Lee Masters. New York: Collier Books. A Division of Macmillan Publishers Co. 1915.

Why read it? Epitaphs in poetic form. Concise. Cryptic. Subtle. Often bitter. From the grave, the characters summarize their lives. Each poem is a potential short story.

“Wendell P. Boyd.” Read the Bible and interpreted it in an anti-religious manner. They locked him up as a loony and he was killed by a Catholic guard. He quotes the exact words of the Bible to prove his case. “My offense was this: / I said God lied to Adam, and destined him/ to lead the life of a fool, / Ignorant that there is evil in the world as well as good. / And when Adam outwitted God by eating the apple / And saw through the lie, / God drove him out of Eden to keep him from taking/ The fruit of immortal life.” p. 102.

“Francis Turner.” Victim of a heart problem, he yet died while experiencing the culminating experience in life—sex. p. 103.

“Franklin Jones.” Life is expectation. Fulfillment is usually frustrated. In the case of Franklin Jones, frustrated by death. If he had had another year of life, he could have completed his invention of the flying machine. p. 104.

“John M. Church.” As a lawyer, he does his job—brilliantly—for his clients, the owners and insurers of the mine that had collapsed. The widows’ and orphans’ claims were not allowed. Now that he has died, he must contend with rats and snakes—his just retribution for his earthly deeds. p. 105.

“Russian Sonia.” She did all that was wrong—mistress, lived with a man in Spoon River without being married—and was considered a success. She laughs at life. p. 106.

“Isa Nutter.” A man who devoted his life to securing the hand in marriage of Minnie in spite of many obstacles. He succeeded. An act of will. p. 107.

“Petit, the Poet.” The poet laments that he didn’t see the web of life around him while living, which could have made him a great poet. Instead, he repeats his same narrow themes again and again, no matter what form he used. “Triolets, villanelles, rondels, rondeaus,/ Ballades by the score with the same old thought: / The snows and the roses of yesterday are vanished; / And what is love but a rose that fades?” p. 109.

“Pauline Barrett.” Wife is a shell of herself after the surgeon’s knife. Can’t bear to have her husband keep up the charade of rapture in marriage. She is half-dead, and she feels she should be all dead, so she commits suicide and hopes that her husband understands. “One should be all dead when one is half-dead.” p. 110.

“Mrs. Charles Bliss.” A husband and wife who know they will be better off divorced, take the advice of the preacher and the judge to remain together because of the children. She points out that a loveless, cold marriage is no environment in which to rear children. p. 111.

“Mrs. George Reece.” Because she remembers and had memorized a line from Pope, she was able to endure in raising her children in spite of her husband’s unfairly being sent to prison—the scapegoat for Thomas Rhodes’s bank failure. “Act well your part, there all the honor lies.” p. 112.

To be continued.