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Role of Mark Twain in the development of American literature
American literature themes
Role of Mark Twain in the development of American literature
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Pleasantville
Have you ever heard of the great Mark Twain? Many people have and recognize his novels by name; especially his most famous book called The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The great thing about Huck is that it was meant to be a simple book, but ended up deemed a classic. The reason for this is that it contains many great American themes and motifs. Many American novels, books and movies also contain these themes and motifs, making it very easy to compare Huckleberry Finn to Pleasantville. Although the plot of each story is very different, Huckleberry Finn and Pleasantville have the same motifs. Both the movie and the book have the motifs of going west, rebel vs. the establishment and Jim Crow/Shaman. This essay will compare these common American motifs.
The "go west" motif is about the characters running away or escaping from where they previously were (this doesn't necessarily have to include a trip west). In Huck Finn the river is the tool used to help Huck and Jim escape from their life. The river helps to take Huck and Jim away from civilization and reunite them with nature. The river also helps to free them from "slavery", Huck being a "slave" to the Widow Douglas and Jim actually being Miss Watson's slave. In Pleasantville a life in colour is how the townspeople are allowed to "go west". When they are in black and white they have the perfect life, meaning that nothing can ever go wrong, therefore they can never learn from their mistakes. When David introduces the thought of thinking for themselves to the teenagers of Pleasantville they begin to notice that there are other places in the world, this begins to change things from black and white to colour. Both stories contain the motif of going west. Another motif in these two works is the Rebel vs. the Establishment motif. In Huck the rebel would be Huck and one of the establishments would be the "civilized" people in the book. Huck refuses to believe that people can be so shallow and religious, and also believes that this comes from being "civilized". The other establishment would the Widow Douglas/Miss.
In the first chapter of Guns, Diamond establishes two main arguments that will become crucial to his thesis later on in the book. First, he goes in depth about mass extermination and further extinction of large mammals that occurred in New Guinea and Australia which were important for food and domestication, and secondly he argues that all the first civilized peoples in the world each had the ability to out develop one another, but were hindered or helped by their environment.
In the novel Huckleberry Finn, Huck goes through many adventures on the Mississippi River. He escapes from Pap and sails down a ways with an escaped slave named Jim. Huck goes through a moral conflict of how wrong it is to be helping Jim escape to freedom. Eventually Huck decides he will go against what society thinks and help Jim by stealing him from a farmer with the help of Tom Sawyer, a friend. In A+P the young man, Sammy, is confronted with an issue when he sees his manager expel some girls from the store he worked in simply because of their defiance to its dress code. In his rebellion against the owner, the boy decides to quit his job and make a scene to defend the rights he feels are being violated. In these stories, both the boys are considered superior to the authority that they are defying because of the courage that it took for Huck to free Jim, and for Sammy to quit his job for the girls because it was what they believed in.
“History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples’ environments, not because of biological differences among people themselves.”(Diamond 25) This statement is the thesis for Jared Diamond’s book Guns Germs and Steel the Fates of Human Societies.
At the beginning of the documentary, it explains the situation of the conquest by the Europeans. How they arrived to native people's lands, how they assimilated the native population. And their success was guns, germs and steel. The documentary says that these three elements shaped the history of modern world.
Jared Diamond's fundamental argument in Guns, Germs, and Steel is that Eurasians were able to conquer the Americas, sub-Saharan Africa, and Australia because continental differences set Eurasia on a different, better trajectory than the other continents. His argument addresses a simple question: Why did human development proceed at such different rates on different continents? According to the author, the most important continental differences appear in domesticable plants and animals, germs, orientation of continental axes, and ecological barriers. Throughout the book, he refers back to the "Collision at Cajamarca," or the first encounter between the Incan emperor Atahuallpa and the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro, as a "broad window onto world history." The encounter is effective in capturing his argument, nam...
First farming is a key aspect and so is domesticating plants and animals the line "hunter gatherers of the Chatham (only 5 people per square mile) and of New Zealand's South Island, and the farmers of the rest of New Zealand (28 people per square mile). In contrast, many islands with intensive agriculture attained population densities exceeding 120 per square mile Page 61" This line shows how farming can increase the density of people due to a surplus of food that was acquired by farming and nearly impossible by hunting and gathering. That surplus allows for many more things to occur such as advance in technology and political advances. This is seen in the line "In general, the larger the size and the higher the density, the more complex and specialized were the technology and Political organization page 62" In this line "In addition, the largest domestic mammals interacted with domestic plants to increase food production by pulling plows and thereby making it possible for people to till land that had previously been uneconomical for farming." it shows how animals that are domesticated are used not only for food and materials but also for plowing the field and allowing to expand the farms. But these animals bring along nasty germs. This lines helps explain it "The major killers of humanity throughout our recent history—smallpox, flu, tuberculosis, malaria, plague, measles, and cholera—are infectious diseases that
The Europeans colonized most of America because they saw the land they had available where they could expand their influence on the world. Also, they were able to establish colonies that sent raw materials home which would make them money. Through the analysis of Jared Diamonds video Guns, Germs, and Steel, this essay will show that the Europeans were able to conquer the Native American’s so easily because of their geography, weapons, and diseases.
Kelly: Kelly is the fastest Spartan there is. She is just as dedicated to her work as John is. Each and every other Spartan also is as dedicated to their work as their leader John is. Although she is a female she considers herself equal to any other male Spartan.
Smith, Adam. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. 4th Edition. Edited by R.H. Campbell and A.S. Skinner. 1776. Reprint, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979.
Huck Finn learns from the actions of people around him, what kind of a person he is going to be. He is both part of the society and an outlier of society, and as such he is given the opportunity to make his own decisions about what is right and what is wrong. There are two main groups of characters that help Huck on his journey to moral maturation. The first group consists of Widow Douglas, Miss Watson, and the judge. They portray society and strict adherence to rules laid out by authority. The second group consists of Pap, the King, and the Duke. They represent outliers of society who have chosen to alienate themselves from civilized life and follow no rules. While these characters all extremely important in Huck’s moral development, perhaps the most significant character is Jim, who is both a fatherly figure to Huck as well as his parallel as far as limited power and desire to escape. Even though by the end of the novel, Huck still does not want to be a part of society, he has made a many choices for himself concerning morality. Because Huck is allowed to live a civilized life with the Widow Douglas, he is not alienated like his father, who effectively hates civilization because he cannot be a part of it. He is not treated like a total outsider and does not feel ignorant or left behind. On the other hand, because he does not start out being a true member of the society, he is able to think for himself and dismiss the rules authority figures say are correct. By the end of the novel, Huck is no longer a slave to the rules of authority, nor is he an ignorant outsider who looks out only for himself. This shows Huck’s moral and psychological development, rendering the description of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” as a picaresq...
Perry, M., Davis, D., Harris, J., Laue, T. V., & Warren, D. J. (1985). A history of the world (Revised Edition ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
When our forefathers sat down to write the bill of rights they made ten basic rules or freedoms that all Americans are entitled to. For hundreds of years no one has questioned any of those freedoms, that is until recent years. The second amendment gives Americans the right to bear arms. The purpose of this amendment is to be able to form a militia in order to be able to overthrow a repressive government. In recent years the availability and number of guns in the United States has increased. With the media tracking and recording violence, some Americans have begun to question the 2nd amendment’s relevance.
In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain illustrates several traits that are common in mankind. Among these traits are those that are listed in this essay. Through characters in the story Twain shows humanity's innate courageousness. He demonstrates that individuals many times lack the ability to reason well. Also, Twain displays the selfishness pervasive in society. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, many aspects of the human race are depicted, and it is for this reason that this story has been, and will remain, a classic for the ages.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, is an immensely realistic novel, revealing how a child's morals and actions clash with those of the society around him. Twain shows realism in almost every aspect of his writing; the description of the setting, that of the characters, and even the way characters speak. Twain also satirizes many of the foundations of that society. Showing the hypocrisy of people involved in education, religion, and romanticism through absurd, yet very real examples. Most importantly, Twain shows the way Huckleberry's moral beliefs form amidst a time of uncertainty in his life.
Jared diamond reiterated, time and time again, that global inequity coincided with geography. Egypt, in comparison to France, had the natural disadvantage of being dealt with a desert climate, as opposed to France’s favorable cultivating climate. This allowed for France to naturally be more skilled in areas such as planting crops; having the adverse effect for Egypt. The lack of water also contributed to the inequality, as animals were able to thrive in environments that offered a surplus of water. Lastly, a more favorable geography in developed countries plays a major role as to why developing countries are not quite developed. Jared Diamond’s thesis thoroughly explains this as geography is reason for the unequal distribution of wealth in the world today.