huckleberry finn, questions november 29

Chapter 5-11

5. Freedom is the major theme, and both Huck and Jim are seeking it, only in different ways. Huck is now free from his father, and Jim from Miss Watson. They are both worth a lot of money (Huck has money in the bank and Jim is a slave so he is worth a lot of money.

6. The irony in wishing Tom was there to help plan the escape is that it would be messed up. It wouldn't be successful.

7. The irony in Huck finding bread to eat is that it actually arrives to him and he is considered as dead. (Bread was supposed to arrive to dead people.) His view at prayers also changes, because it actually happened. (he got bread, just as Miss Watson prayed for.)

8. Jim is scared that Huck will hurt him, and he begs him not to. Jim also hesitates to tell his story to Huck, because if he told anyone about it he would be dead.

9. Both Huck and Jim are free now. Everyone thinks Huck is dead, which symbolizes his rebirth. Jim as a slave just ran away, and Huck is going to help him. Although he is helping Jim, he is scared of the consequences it can bring.

10. "People would call me a lowdown Abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum." Abolitionists were people who wanted to end slavery. Huck thinks its wrong because its against the society. It also shows his honesty.

11. Some young birds come along, flying a yard or two at a time and lighting. Jim said it was a sign it was going to rain. He said it was a sign when young chickens flew that way, and so he reckoned it was the same way when young birds done it. I was going to catch some of them, but Jim wouldn't let me. He said it was death. He said his father laid mighty sick once, and some of them catched a bird, and his old granny said his father would die, and he did. It shows that what Jim "believes" in is not only nonsense, it comes from his personal experience.

12. It's the second trick Huck plays on Jim, and it's the second time snake (motif) appears in the book. It's typical Huck because only wants to have fun, and he doesn't understand what he does. (He is just a kid..) To handle a snake is bad luck to Jim, and when Huck gets to know that he feel sorry and ashamed. He will never do it again and he starts to believe in superstition. Huck still sees Jim as a slave.

13. We learn that he does what he has to do to get what he wants. He wanted information about what people think happened to him, Jim and his dad, and to get it he has to dress like a girl (in this case).

14. What she does is that she exaggerate to get people more interested. This is a very common human trait.

15. Pap is worth $200 while Jim is worth $300. (the price is given to the one that can find them. They think Pap murdered Huck, and Jim is a slave that ran away.) The reason is because Jim is a slave, and at that time it was more important than murder. The satire is that murder is less important than slavery.

Chapter 12-14

1. Huck now sees borrowing and stealing as equal, although Jim and he made a "list" of what they wouldn't "borrow" anymore. The things were unnecessary anyway. They are not stealing for personal gain, but to keep them alive. The logic is that they're not going to take things they don't need anymore.

2. Huck wants to be an adventurous as Tom Sawyer.

3. The significance of the boat named The Walter Scott is that Walter Scott also is an writer who wrote romantic novels. He wrote about great adventures with fantastic escapes. Mark Twain is making fun of romantic literature. The irony is that people actually die on the boat and the escape is far from fantastic.

4. Huck tries to save the murders because he might be one himself on day. He feels sorry for them and is able to have compassion for them.

5. The satire is that Huck lure the boatman to rescue the murders. He pretends that a wealthy lady is in danger. The boatman helps him because of money, not because he really cares. This also shows us how Mark Twain criticizes the society.

6. "it was all up with HIM anyway it could be fixed". Jim is talking about being stuck on the boat. He is in a loose-loose situation because he is black and a slave. Either he will drown or someone will find him and he will be sold to the south.

7. It is not accurate at all. What Huck thinks is that they just sit around and do nothing. They have many wives and children that they don't really care about, because they are just "one in a gallery." He also thinks that the kings do exactly what they want and if someone disagrees they just cut their head of. The reason comes from lack of knowledge.

8. Comparing Huck's thoughts about kings, Jim thinks this about King Solomon. He has many wives and children. King Solomon also cut one of his children in half. To Jim this just shows him how stupid he is, why would he have so many wives and children that just were fighting and making noise? Wouldn't it be better if just had "a few" (one wife, a couple of children?) that he would really care about? It would actually matter if he loose one of them... Jim has a point!

huckleberry finn, questions november 18

Chapter 1-5

1. The Widow Douglas is a religious and has a good heart. She took Huck into her life, gave him nice, clean clothes and food. Since Moses is dead, Huck doesn't care. This shows us that Huck is a realist and lives in the present.

2. Superstitions are "not real things" if you are superstitious you believe that if you break a mirror, you see a black cat walk over the way or you walk under a ladder you will have bad luck. In Mark Twain's view, people who believe in superstitions are religious. The spider and the owl are examples from the book, and they are both connected to death.

3. Huck believed that death and afterlife would be an adventure. It was something different from life, which he would find exiting. Death is mentioned a lot in chapter 1 becuase it is a motif. It helps us to understand Huck's personality and the way he thinks of life. He is very realistic, and death is as normal as birth. 


4. The trick Tom and Huck play on Jim is not really mean, they just have fun. They are children, and its no bad thoughts behind it. 


5. "Jim was most ruined for a servant..." means that now that Jim has followers who believe in him and look up to him. Since he has people looking up to him and he gets attention (which makes him feel good) he feels too good to be a slave. That is what has ruined him as a servant (slave).


6. Tom leaves 5 cents for the candle because he is trying to be honest. He has a little education and moral. Tom didn't really need this candle, but he "took" it just to have it. Unlike, Huck would only have taken the candle if he really needed it, but he wouldn't have left the money there.


7. Tom is way more grown up and smart than Huck, he knows what is going on. Huck is more straight forward, honest, naive and "stupid". 


8. Tom thinks it's important that the gang is called "higwayman" in stead of burglars because it sounds more adventuring. 


9. Huck sees praying as unnecessary because you don't get "what you wish for". He thinks it doesn't make any sense then. Why would you do it only for the spiritual, when thats not even real? Again, this shows that he is a realist. 


10. Tom calls Huck a "numskull" because he doesn't understand what is going on. Numskull is the same as stupid.


11. This is true. It just shows how realistic Huck is. It also shows a difference between Huck and Tom.


12. Huck wants to give all his money to Judge Thatcher so that his dad won't get any of it. His dad will only use it on alcohol anyway.


Chapter 5-11


1. The irony is that his dad doesn't like that Huck goes to school, learn religion and get an education. 


2. The society don't want to seperate Huck and his father, even though Huck would have a better life. This because of the traditional family, where parents and their children live together. 


3. Even though Huck is beaten up by his father he prefers to stay at his house. There he doesn't have to go to school, dress up, learn religion and be trapped in a society where he has to follow rules. With his father he has freedom, and can do pretty much whatever he wants, because his father doesn't care. 


4. ("Pap" - Hucks dad) Pap's thoughts are the opposite of Mark Twain's thoughts. Pap is extremely racist ! He won't vote anymore because he heard that somewhere in Ohio the black people had rights to vote.

evanescent, veneration

Evanescent, adjective
The theory about the earth being flat evanescent long ago.

Veneration, noun
The veneration of the king and queen in Norway is big.

magnate, malleable

Magnate - noun
Jens Stoltenberg is an magnate politician form Norway.

Malleable - adjective
Chewing gum is malleable.

the scarlet letter, symbol 35

Chapter 19

After Hester tore the scarlet letter of her bosom...she says "Come, dearest child!" to Pearl. Pearl won't listen to her because she is not the same anymore. The only one she has been close to her whole life is her mother, known with the A on her bosom. It's obvious that she won't go to her when she is not the same. The one and only thing she knew is not the same anymore because she is not wearing the scarlet letter. The scarlet letter was Hester characteristics.

the scarlet letter, symbol 34

Chapter 16


“Mother,” said little Pearl, “the sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom.......when I'm a woman grown?" Pearl does still not know what the A on her mother's bosom means. Because of the way she says it, I think Pearl knows it's something "bad", since they have never been as everyone else, she has always been an outsider, they don't have contact with other people(as friends. Hester only "works" for others). It seems like she also thinks that she is going to have the letter A on her bosom when she grows older, I think this is because she is grown up with her mother, and no one else, so it is what she is used to. 

the scarlet letter, symbol 33

Chapter 14

 “It is not granted me to pardon. I have no such power as thou tellest me of. My old faith, long forgotten, comes back to me, and explains all that we do, and all we suffer. By thy first step awry, thou didst plant the germ of evil; but, since that moment, it has all been a dark necessity. Ye that have wronged me are not sinful, save in a kind of typical illusion; neither am I fiend-like, who have snatched a fiend’s office from his hands. It is our fate. Let the black flower blossom as it may! Now go thy ways, and deal as thou wilt with yonder man.” 

I think what Roger Chillingworth means here is that when Hester comitted the adultery she already planted the evil (which is Pearl). He refers to her as the dark all the time, even though he is the evil one here actually. He keeps saying this was their fate, like it should convince Hester that he is not the bad one, it was just fate, what has happened is exactly what should have happened. In the end of this qote it's like he is giving up, he has done what he wants to do with Mr. Dimmesdale, and now they can do whatever they want. I don't think thats true, I think he will make sure Mr. Dimmesdale wil die. 

the scarlet letter, symbol 32

Chapter 14

"I have surely acted a false part by the only man to whom the power was left me to be true!” Hester is aware of what she has done. She knows that not telling Mr. Dimmesdale about the secret between Roger Chillingworth and her has been killing him. She knows what Roger Chillingworth has done to him, to give him medicines just to torture him. She realizes that she was trapped, and by concluding this promise with Roger Chillingworth killed the man who she loves and cares most about slowly.  Since Mr. Dimmesdale was the only man who knew about who she slept with in the beginning (since it was him), he is the only one she can be 100% honest to. 

the scarlet letter, symbol 31

Chapter 14


Roger Chillingworth tells Hester that the council had debating about her and the scarlet letter. "It was debated whether or no, with safety to the common weal, yonder scarlet letter might be taken off your bosom." I think certain people now wanted to take the scarlet letter of her chest because it has a different meaning. They thought that the letter which was supposed to be filled with sin and sorrow, and now has a positive meaning wasn't right. That people started to talk nicely about her was wrong! The scarlet letter has became her in a way. It has made her the person she is. If it removes she won't be the same person. 

the scarlet letter, symbol 30

Chapter 13


"The world’s law was no law for her mind." This tells us that Hester had her own way to think of. She didn't agree with the Worlds laws, as for her part would be the Puritan laws. It's like the laws wasn't made for her, and this society she lives in wasn't made for her. She was made to be different. The Puritan society didn't allow this, and that's why she is an outsider.

the scarlet letter, symbol 29

Chapter 13


"She came, not as a guest, but as a rightful inmate, into the household that was darkened by trouble; as if its gloomy twilight were a medium in which she was entitled to hold intercourse with her fellow-creatures." She has found a way to make people look at her in a different way. Sick people tend to appreciate more in life, because they see how precious it actually is. I also think sick people easier forgive, and in this example allow Hester to show how good she actually is. 

the scarlet letter, symbol 28

Chapter 13


"They said that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength." People doesn't look at Hester's A as "adultery" anymore, but in stead they look at it as "Able". She made the A on her bosom to have an other meaning, by doing good things. People started to look at her as a person who made things possible. Able can also mean Angel. An Angel is often compared to Christianity (or other religions). The Puritan people were Christian.  Persons called angels were lovable, pure and good people. Just like they looked at Hester now. 

esoteric, vitiate

Esoteric, adjective
The scarlet letter is an esoteric book.

Vitiate, verb
Peter vitiated my hairdryer.

the scarlet letter, symbol 27

Chapter 10

Mr. Dimmesdale sits by the window in their house looking out on the graveyard. He asks Roger Chillingworth where he got his planted herbs with such a dark, flabby leaf from. Chillingworth's answer sounds like this “They are new to me. I found them growing on a grave, which bore no tombstone, nor other memorial of the dead man, save these ugly weeds that have taken upon themselves to keep him in remembrance. They grew out of his heart, and typify, it may be, some hideous secret that was buried with him, and which he had done better to confess during his lifetime.” I think that what he tries to do here is to make Mr. Dimmesdale feel even worse than he does, by saying "which he had done better to confess during his lifetime".  It's obvious that he hints to the secret Mr. Dimmesdale is hiding, and he knows that he won't confess, and that this makes him sick, he feels so bad about it. It's still all about torturing him, but not only by his health, but mental too. 

the scarlet letter, symbol 26

Chapter 10

"Sometimes, a light glimmered out of the physician’s eyes, burning blue and ominous, like the reflection of a furnace, or, let us say, like one of those gleams of ghastly fire that darted from Bunyan’s awful door-way in the hill-side, and quivered on the pilgrim’s face. The soil where this dark miner was working had perchance shown indications that encouraged him." People could now see that Roger Chillingworth was not to be trusted. They describe his eyes as burning flames, or more interesting, the light that shined on a Pilgrim's face from Bunyan's awful door-way in the hill-side. The hillside doorway is the gates to Hell, which gives me a picture of Chillingworth as a terrible man, with black scary eyes. Just as he was mentioned as Satan, the door-way in the hill-side is his way. It's the way he wants Mr. Dimmesdale to go. 

the scarlet letter, symbol 25

Chapter 10

"He now dug into the poor clergyman’s heart, like a miner searching for gold; or, rather, like a sexton delving into a grave, possibly in quest of a jewel that had been buried on the dead man’s bosom, but likely to find nothing save mortality and corruption."  


Here I compare gold and jewel to Mr. Dimmesdale heart, because gold and jewels are outstanding beautiful things just like the heat. The grave to his body and his psyche. In norwegian we have this expression that if someone asks to much about someone's personal life, they dig(?). We often say "stop digging(?)". Chillingworth doesn't ask, but he is there all the time observing all Mr. Dimmesdale's actions. Roger Chillingworth will most likely not find anything because Mr. Dimmesdale's heart is already filled with sorrow and dark hidden secrets, and his soul is already dead.

the scarlet letter, symbol 24

Chapter 9 


"Then, after long search into the minister’s dim interior, and turning over many precious materials, in the shape of high aspirations for the welfare of his race, warm love of souls, pure sentiments, natural piety, strengthened by thought and study, and illuminated by revelation,—all of which invaluable gold was perhaps no better than rubbish to the seeker,—he would turn back, discouraged, and begin his quest towards another point." This is right before Roger Chillingworth looks at Mr. Dimmesdale A painted on his chest when he's asleep. I think Roger Chillingworth was a very smart person, who could read people. He didn't have else to do in New England because no one knew him. He didn't have to care about anyone, all he ever did was to seek for the other sinner, Pearl's dad. Since he is a person who easily read others, he must have seen the hidden relationship between Hester and Mr. Dimmesdale. He must also have seen that Mr. Dimmesdale very often holds his hand over his heart, like he hides something. 

the scarlet letter, symbol 23

Chapter 9


"To sum up the matter, it grew to be a widely diffused opinion, that the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, like many other personages of especial sanctity, in all ages of the Christian world, was haunted either by Satan himself, or Satan’s emissary, in the guise of old Roger Chillingworth." People did never really like Roger Chillingworth because he was very strange, but they believed that he was a good doctor so they accepted him. Now that Mr. Dimmesdale moved in with him to be healed, but he doesn't, people start to look at Roger Chillingworth as Satan. Satan is the chief of evilness. I think people sees him as Satan himself or Satan's messenger because Mr. Dimmesdale only gets worse after moving in with Roger Chillingworth.

the scarlet letter, symbol 22

Chapter 9


People wants Mr. Dimmesdale to move in with Roger Chillingworth because he is really sick, and Chillingworth is the "doctor". Mr. Dimmesdale says “I need no medicine." because if God wants him to die, he should die. I think that the reason Roger Chillingworth wants to move in with him is because he suspects that he is Pearl's father, and he easily can torture him with keeping him alive. 

opaque, propensity

Opaque

Camilla's clothes are opaque.

Propensity

Julia has a propensity towards animals. 

the scarlet letter, symbol 21

Chapter 9

Roger Chillingworth is mentioned as the leech. Before a docter was called a leech, but it is also a worm with suckers on both ends. I think the society looks at him as the "doctor-leech", because ever since he came he has been acting as a nice but strange man just trying to help, and he presents himself as a doctor(and wants to be looked at as a doctor). What he really is, is the worm trying to suck all information he can get to find out who Pearl's father really is.

the scarlet letter, symbol 20

Chapter 8


".... the young minister at once came forward, pale, and holding his hand over his heart, ...." Here Mr. Dimmesdale talks up for Hester, so she can keep her child. Mr. Dimmesdale holds his hand over his heart because he is afraid the people around (Mr. Wilson, Governor Bellingham and Roger Chillingworth) him are going to read his heart. 


"....This child of its father’s guilt and its mother’s shame hath come from the hand of God, to work in many ways upon her heart, who pleads so earnestly, and with such bitterness of spirit, the right to keep her....."  I think that what he says to support Hester is a way to communicate to Hester too. 

the scarlet letter, symbol 19

Chapter 8

Pearl is about to be taken away from her mother, but Hester refuses. Governor Bellingham means that Pearl would have it better if she lived with someone else. Mr. Wilson asks Pearl where she comes from to see if she had the kind of Christian upbringing appropriate for her age. Even though Pearl's mother has thought her that she comes from the heavenly father she says something else. She says she had not been made at all, but had been plucked by her mother off the bush of wild roses, that grew by the prison-door. Now it's clear that Pearl is a symbol. Pearl is a wild natural (nature) girl who can't be tamed, just like the rose bush! It fits her perfect to say she was picked from the rose-bush!

vocabulary words

Opaque (Ugjennomsiktig) - adjective - not able to be seen through


Propensity (Tilbøyelighet) - noun -natural tendency to behave in a particular way


Esoteric (Hemmelig) - adjective - to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest

Vitiated (?) - verb - spoil or impair the quality or efficiency of


Magnate (?)  - noun - a wealthy and influential person, esp. in business


Malleable (formbar, smibar) - adjective - something that is able to be hammered or pressed permanently out of shape without breaking or cracking.


Dearth (Mangel på noe) - noun - a scarcity or lack of something 


Florid (rødmusset) - adjective - having a bright red color


Evanescent (forsvinne, flyktig?)- adjective - quickly fading or disappearing


Veneration (ærefrykt?) - verb - regard with great respect

the scarlet letter, symbol 18

Chapter 7

“No, my little Pearl!” said her mother. “Thou must gather thine own sunshine. I have none to give thee!” Hester is already seen as a dead person to the society, she has nothing she should have said. She has no joy anymore, and can't give Pearl any. I aslo think Hester wants her child to be herself, and not just like everyone else. See "Thou must gather thine own sunshine." - you must find yourself, and your solutions. And "I have none to give thee" - she can't be her, and she doesn't want to be her. She doesn't want Pearl to be like her.

the scarlet letter, symbol 17

Chapter 7


"She screamed and shouted so loud that the children’s hearts must have quaked with fear. Victorious, Pearl returned quietly to her mother and looked up, smiling, into her face.......She screamed and shouted so loud that the children’s hearts must have quaked with fear. Victorious, Pearl returned quietly to her mother and looked up, smiling, into her face." When children grows up in a society where they don't get to develop among other children, they don't learn how to behave to other people, and react properly. Pearl understands that she and her mother is not like the others, She sees that Hester is treated differently. Since Pearl loves her mother, and she is the only one she knows (and she has grown up without any relationship to other kids) she reacts to protect her mother in this situation.

the scarlet letter, symbol 16

Chapter 7


"It was the scarlet letter in another form; the scarlet letter endowed with life!" Hester dresses her child in scarlet, where she becomes a living symbol of the scarlet letter, A.  "Her mother, in contriving the child’s garb, had allowed the gorgeous tendencies of her imagination their full play; arraying her in a crimson velvet tunic, of a peculiar cut, abundantly embroidered with fantasies and flourishes of gold thread." I think Hester dresses her child in these colors to transmit some of her "pain" over to something she loved so it would be easier for her to carry it. When she sees her child in the scarlet colors she sees herself, but not as a bad person. 

the scarlet letter, symbol 15

Chapter 7


Pearl was a very energetic child, filled with spirit! She is filled with joy and happiness. She doesn't seems to have any concerns in life. "So much strength of coloring, which must have given a wan and pallid aspect to cheeks of a fainter bloom, was admirably adapted to Pearl’s beauty, and made her the very brightest little jet of flame that ever danced upon the earth."
To dance and show happiness in a Puritan society is very bad. Already from a young age Pearl stands out, she is a rebel. Pearl is an outcast(?) from her mother, but in a different way. While Hester is filed with shame, Pearl seems to have no concerns in her life. I believe the society don't like it, because its wrong that a child of a mother who committed adultery should be happy. 

the scarlet letter, symbol 14

Chapter 6


When Pearl grew older Hester notice that Pearl is a special child.  She is not like everyone else “Thou art not my child! Thou art no Pearl of mine!.....Your heavenly Father sent you!” I also think that Hester doesn't want Pearl to know what really happened, why she doesn't have a father.  So she tries to tell her the same story every parents does when their kids are young, that someone sent her. It's obviously that she doesn't want her child to know why she doesn't have a father, why her life is not like other children's lives. Pearl is the symbol of Hester's sin, and she doesn't want Pearl to know that, she doesn't want her child to suffer.