Critical Lens Close Reading, Song of Solomon

When she closed the door behind her afternoon guests, and let the quiet smile die from her lips, she began the preparation of food her husband found impossible to eat. She did not try to make her meals nauseating; she simply didn’t know how not to. She would notice that the sunshine cake was too haggled to put before him and decide on a rennet dessert. But the grinding of the veal and beef for a meat loaf took so long she not only forgot the pork, settling for bacon drippings poured over the meat, she had no time to make a dessert at all. Hurriedly, then, she began to set the table. As she unfolded the white linen and let it billow over the fine mahogany table, she would look once more at the large water mark. She never set the table or passed through the dining room without looking at it. Like a lighthouse keeper drawn to his window to gaze once again at the sea, or a prisoner automatically searching out the sun as he steps into the yard for his hour of exercise, Ruth looked for the water mark several times during the day. Sheknew it was there, would always be there, but she needed to confirm its presence. Like the keeper of the lighthouse and the prisoner, she regarded it as a mooring, a checkpoint, some stable visual object that assured her that the world was still there; that this was life and not a dream. That she was alive somewhere, inside, which she acknowledged to be true only because a thing she knew intimately was out there, outside herself.

In this passage Ruth talks about how she is a stereotypical woman in the 1960’s. Ruth talks about how she is a housewife and in order for her to feel like she is still alive she has to constantly look at a “water mark” on the table several times a day. She has to look at this water mark as a “checkpoint” to make sure her “world was still there” and that she is living real life and not just a dream.

Under the Feminist lens, it is analyzed how women serve as stereotypical figures such as housewives. Ruth, in this scene, is a prisoner in her own home. The water mark not only represents Ruth being a prisoner, but it also reminds her of the happy moments she used to have before she got married, while it also symbolizes the fear she has of her husband.

In this novel the water mark symbolizes many things. It symbolizes happiness, fear and being a prisoner. The water mark symbolizes happiness because before Ruth got married and she still lived with her dad, they had a vase in the middle of the table, where the water mark is. The vase was always filled with flowers because Ruth’s dad liked to have the house decorated and he thought the house looked nicer with flowers. The water mark also symbolizes the fear that Ruth has of her husband. This symbolizes fear because when Ruth had just gotten married with her husband, and the vase was always filled with flowers her husband threw the vase because he did not like the flowers. This caused Ruth to be scared of her husband and it also created the water mark. Lastly, the water mark symbolizes being imprisoned. This is because Ruth always tries to clean the water mark, she tries to take it off but she fails everytime. The water mark is stuck in the table, just how she is stuck in her house and can get out. Ruth is so depressed and unhappy with her life that she is constantly reminding herself that she is still alive. Looking at the water mark also helps her, because she is looking at a physical object so it reminds her that she is still there.  

Through the feminist lence we can see how women in the 1960’s who were stereotypical women, suffered a lot. Most women would suffer a lot because they would have no say in what they wanted. They would just have to stay quiet and do what was “right” for their family.

Marxist Lens: Responding and Reflecting

Song of Solomon

Marxist Lens

This honestly wasn’t a very engaging story as I thought it to be, despite that I did finish the story. I’ve read this sort of plot so many times that it fell on me as a bore. This reminded me of Tuesdays with Morrie, if you’ve ever read it. The character has a late blooming personality and not very social with others, breaking all relationships he had. Along comes Morrie Schwartz, one of his old teachers from high school and takes the protagonist on a spiritual journey to find himself before he passes becauses he is diagnosed with cancer and only has a month to live. Milkman’s situation isn’t as dire and desperate, but he has to break through many social barriers; including the women’s evaluation of him and the still evident presence of discrimination before he finally regains what he thoughtlessly wasted.

Morrison did find a interesting idea in coming up with an apathetic African American who knows nothing but getting gain; inheriting it from his father as indicated in the book. Usually I’ve seen old/rich white men take that spotlight, but this was very taken aback that a rich black man; a most unusual choice for placing apathy upon would display such animosity towards his life and other’s lives. I didn’t understand why Morrison would choose such a character until I looked her up and discovered that she was a black women. I figured that she had the right to pour her soul and relate into this created character since her people have a history being heavily oppressed for many centuries. But when I read about Milkman being indifferent instead of being a humble man that I thought he would, I was disappointed because that’s also what the many black people I met were known for. But tying into the Marxist Lens, it was a flip-the-script idea because it made me imagine what america would’ve been if blacks and people like Milkman were among the higher class and the other majorities in the lower. Moving up the social ladder does change a person because of the many assets that come with it, but it is all decided with their will and personality in the end and how they choose to stay stable.

SONG OF SOLOMON RESPONDING AND REFLECTING: RACIAL /CULTURAL LENS

The abolishing of slavery in the United States had been put into place in the late 1800's but there were still some cases of discrimination with people of color like in Song of Solomon when there was a hospital at the beginning of the book we got to hear about mercy hospital or “No Mercy Hospital” which is known by the residents for not admitting blacks but had changed when Robert Smith, an insurance agent, had jumped of the building at the same time his daughter was pregnant and going into labor and became the hospital's first black patient. The name of the hospital known to the locals by “No Mercy hospital” can give an explanation to maybe why there has never been a black patient admitted until Robert Smith's daughter because before they would refuse the service to people of color showing them no mercy. Resulting in the discrimination of colored people in Michigan.

Then while the Dead family is on a trip around town Lena which is Ruth Fosters daughter, Robert Smith's daughter, responses to the comment made by Macon saying that he would want to create a property that colored people can afford and live in saying later there will be people of color sooner or later that will be able to afford the houses. Lena then responds to that saying hopefully there will be enough people of color and that hopefully that there will be enough nice one that live in them. As I was reading is seemed that they were different types of classes between the blacks there was those that were more privileged like the Dead family which had nice cars that made everyone seem jealous of what they had then there were those that were in poverty and weren't as privileged as the Dead family. It seems that in the different races there was different classes and people were put into different classes depending on the money you had. I think Lena considers people in the higher class to be nice because they may not have to struggles to find food or anything they need to survive and they can just get it with money.

Song of Solomon Experts

In The Quest For and Discovery of Identity in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon by Valerie Smith, she speaks of Milkman’s journey through the novel. It starts with him searching for money and in the end, he has a new sense of identity that opens his eyes to his true self. However, how he came to finally discover his true self is not clear, and she makes several different arguments for it.

While Smith talks about all the different things Milkman did to come to his true identity, she still claims, “Milkman’s discovery of his identity lies not so much in his connection with the earth or in his ability to understand his own past; these accomplishments only attend his greater achievement - learning to complete, to understand, and to sing his family song. Milkman comes to know fully who he is when he can supply the lyrics to the song Pilate has only partially known,” (Smith 40). In the both the beginning and the end of the novel, a song is sung. In the first instance, Pilate is singing it right before Milkman is born. In the second, Milkman returns the favor as Pilate loses a fatal amount of blood, right before dying. Though Milkman has heard Pilate sing the song many times over his lifetime, the fact that “he [could] supply the lyrics to the song Pilate has only partially known,” can guide the belief that Milkman had a truer understanding of his past than his aunt, and thus, will have a stronger sense of self and identity.

Smith explains the significance of the song with ease, but just a paragraph later claims that “Milkman acquires a sense of identity when he immerses himself in his extended past,” (Smith 40), which almost comes off as a counterclaim to what she had just said. However, it is not. The main difference is him “understanding his own past” versus “[immersing] himself in his extended past.” Really though, he in a way always has been immersed in the past and had connections with it, as explained by “throughout his life, Milkman has had an inexplicit fascination with flight.” She reminds readers how Milkman often thought about flight, whether it was from “riding backwards makes him uncomfortable because it reminds him of ‘flying blind’”(Morrison 30), or “his recurring childhood fantasy of being able to take flight.” All of these things connect to his great-grandfather’s flight. That “fascination with flight” was his past trying to break through and become apart of him. It wasn’t until he learned to understand and identify with his past, could he symbolically take flight and be the person he was meant to be, and not what his environment has forced onto him.

Song of Solomon close reading: Racial/Cultural lens

“Who’s going to live in them? There’s no colored people who can afford to have two houses,” Lena said. “Reverend Coles can, and Dr. Singleton,” Corinthians corrected her. “And that lawyer—what’s his name?” Ruth looked around at Corinthians, who ignored her. “And Mary, I suppose.” Lena laughed. Corinthians stared coldly at her sister. “Daddy wouldn't sell property to a barmaid. Daddy, would you let us live next to a barmaid?” “She owns that place, Corinthians,” Ruth said. “I don’t care what she owns. I care about what she is. Daddy?” Corinthians leaned toward her father for confirmation. “You’re going too fast, Macon.” Ruth pressed the toe of her shoe against the floorboard. “If you say one more thing to me about the way I drive, you’re going to walk back home. I mean it.” Magdalene called Lena sat forward and put her hand on her mother’s shoulder. Ruth was quiet. The little boy kicked his feet against the underside of the dashboard. “Stop that!” Macon told him. “I have to go to the bathroom,” said his son. Corinthians held her head. “Oh, Lord.” “But you went before we left,” said Ruth. “I have to go!”He was beginning to whine. “Are you sure?” his mother asked him. He looked at her. “I guess we better stop,” Ruth said to nobody in particular. Her eyes grazed the countryside they were entering. Macon didn't alter his speed. “Are we going to have a summer place, or are you just selling property?” “I’m not selling anything. I’m thinking of buying and then renting,” Macon answered her. “But are we—” “I have to go,” said the little boy. “—going to live there too?” “Maybe.” “By ourselves? Who else?” Corinthians was very interested. “I can’t tell you that. But in a few years—five or ten—a whole lot of coloreds will have enough to afford it. A whole lot. Take my word for it.” Magdalene called Lena took a deep breath. “Up ahead you could pull over, Daddy. He might mess up the seat.” Macon glanced at her in the mirror and slowed down. “Who’s going to take him?” Ruth fiddled with the door handle. “Not you,” Macon said to her. Ruth looked at her husband. She parted her lips but didn't say anything. “Not me,” said Corinthians. “I have on high heels.” “Come on,” Lena sighed. They left the car, little boy and big sister, and disappeared into the trees that reared up off the shoulder of the road. “You really think there’ll be enough colored people—I mean nice colored people—in this city to live there? (Morrison 65-68)

In the beginning of chapter two the Dead family is out and they are visiting homes that they own and are sharing their plans for the use of the land and who it should be sold to. As the family start to talk about the future plans of the land Lena says “There’s no colored people who can afford to have two houses,” this might be because of money problems as they continue they bring up possible names that can afford two house and they all seem to have one thing in common education. To the father in the Dead family he thinks the only people that can afford to buy the land are people that have the education which leads to most of the time having a good job that brings money to the table to be able to buy houses and other necessities. Then Corinthians ask her father whether he would sell the property to a barmaid saying that she owns other places and the father responses with “I don’t care what she owns. I care about what she is.”  This isn't a racial profiling like saying that colored people couldn't afford to have two house but it is still a type of discrimination of what kind of job that they have can affect whether the barmaid had really wanted to get the property her job would affect if she were to get it or not which may be seen to the father that if he were to sell it to her would she be able to pay for it on time.

When Lena and her brother go out the car Lena ask her brother  “You really think there’ll be enough colored people—I mean nice colored people—in this city to live there?” After Macon say that he wants to invest on land that will be able to be affordable for people of colored Lena say that hopefully there will be enough colored people that are nice to get a house or own property. This can be an example of how people discriminate against people of color in thinking that all in this case are mean because of maybe an event that made people of color all seem mean not giving other the chance to show themselves and put away the stereotypes that exist.

Critical Lens Expert: Marxist lens #2

Song of Solomon

Marxist Lens

A Marxist perspective review by Doreatha Drummond Mbalia; a professor from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee specializing in the Africology studies there, interprets Song of Solomon as another common starting point for any African American wishing to change the structure of today’s social class. This is obviously true to fact, as there has been a definite history of racial tension when the black people are brought up. As we all know, blacks have been a commonly used example when describing situations of race or class because of the ongoing mistreatment in both the north and especially the south. But while race does play a role in the story, class is the main focus because both tie into each other and also because Mbalia compliments Morrison and the story by this quote: “She is more aware of the role capitalism plays in the African’s exploitation and oppression”.

Considering Milkman Dead’s lifestyle, his job, and the ways he makes money for himself Mbalia quotes “ As his nickname suggests, he milks women, pilfering their love and giving them nothing in return”. Generally this means that he views females as nothing more than tools. This is of course a mindset for any corrupt tycoon who seeks to make money in the poverty of others. Mbalia quotes further that: “He loves her solely as a receptacle in which to empty his lust”. Besides possessing dark interests that have lead many to their downfall, it is my thought that he seeks out the females as quick money as well. It is understandable, since it is said he has lived a sheltered life and has little understanding of the moral ethics of business. This is what makes Milkman’s transition from an apathetic man to a more wiser one quite a challenge. For a man who has been studying the finances that have economically upgraded him to a high middle class worker and elevated his status as to a respected person in a financial sense to one that now has a moral code is difficult because they simply don’t mix. The financial area is a cold business, and you have to be the firmest there is, but Milkman is the first one who pulls it off at the end, henceforth proving that a position of power can corrupt one’s moral sense if held too long, but with proper help and tutelage you can be able to stay sable and perform tasks with reason and sense.

Song of Solomon Close Reading

““You don’t like nothing sweet?”

“Fruit, but nothing with sugar. Candy, cake, stuff like that. I don't even like to smell it. Makes me want to throw up.”

Milkman searched for a physical cause. He wasn't sure he trusted anybody who didn’t like sweets. “You must have sugar diabetes.”

“You don’t get sugar diabetes from not eating sugar. You get it from eating too much sugar.”
“Then what is it, then?”

“I don’t know. It makes me think of dead people. And white people. And I start to puke.”

“Dead people?”

“Yeah. And white people.”

“I don’t get it.”

Guitar said nothing, so Milkman continued, “How long you been like that?”

“Since I was little. Since my father got sliced up in a sawmill and his boss came by and gave us kids some candy. Divinity. A big sack of divinity. His wife made it special for us. It’s sweet, divinity is. Sweeter than syrup. Real sweet. Sweeter than…”” (Morrison, 61)

Although this passage seems like a simple conversation about sweets between two children, this is possibly one of the most telling passages that marks the differences between Milkman and his best friend, Guitar. Here, Milkman is questioning Guitar on why eating sweets makes him feel sick. The way the conversation goes and the specific things each one says shows a hard to see psychological depth to each character.

This conversation starts between the two characters with Guitar telling Milkman that he does not eat any sweets because it make him sick, such as “candy, cake, stuff like that.” The idea of disliking sweets confuses Milkman so much that “he wasn’t sure he trusted anybody who didn’t like sugar.” While this doesn’t seem like much more than a passive thought that only came from shock, it actually speaks to the development of his psyche. That he is unsure if he “trusted anybody” based on one small choice, leads the belief that Milkman is being lead by his id, especially because the thought was so rash. The fact that the mistrust is based on the dislike of “sweets” reveals that Milkman is still very childlike in nature. Most rational people would not base their trust of someone on a simple like or dislike, especially not a matter of literal taste. However, children are often known for their love of sweets, and even more, their quick, not completely thought through judgements, such as Milkman’s. While Milman is about twelve at the time of this conversation, and the maturity in judgement is not completely necessary at that age, it still shows how Milkman does not seem to be rushed into growing up, which leads to the next part of the passage.

Guitar quickly explains to Milkman that he believes the reason for his dislike for sweets is because it reminds him “of dead people. And white people. And I want to puke.” When Milkman is confused, he only asks about the “dead people”, and it is Guitar who reminds him that “white people” also come to his mind when he is around sweets. He then reveals that when his father died, his fathers “boss came by and gave us kids some candy,” and that was when the sickness began. This revelation about Guitar shows the trauma that he has faced, and even more, the shelter that Milkman has always had. When Guitar explained his associations, the only thing Milkman caught on too was the “dead people,” seemingly disregarding that Guitar also mentioned “white people.” Since Milkman has been so sheltered, he most likely hasn’t seen, or, if he has, doesn’t understand, the racial divide between black, such as himself, and whites. He is much more interested and surprised by what he knows is different and scary, which is the “dead.” This shelter that Milkman was given is most likely the reason his mind is still young and hasn’t been forced to grow up quickly, whereas his closest friend was not so lucky. When he mentions “white people” in his associations to “sugar,” it almost seems like an obvious after thought to him, as if he anything he associated with white people was clearly unpleasant to him. Guitar has likely seen much more of the racial divide that Milkman has been blind to, which forced him to grow up quicker. Even when he says “us children” after saying “since I was little.” It is almost as if his psyche is telling him that he is not longer a child, even though he is only a few years older than Milkman.

Responding and Reflecting

In the text The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, females and males are both presented, but they are presented very differently. The genders in the novel are presented in a specific way. Both males and females have very different roles in society. The females in the novel are usually presented as small characters, meaning that they are characters in the background. Women in the text are usually seen as the role models, because they would teach the younger, and in order for them to learn from them they had to be seen as a “good” person. White males in the novel were seen as more educated men and they also had more power over everything. While black men in the text were suppressed, everyone looked down on them because they were uneducated and most of the black males were slaves at that time.

Males are the gender that holds the power in this novel. Males have complete control over their actions. Even though the white males are seen higher then black males, black males, who are slaves, are still “free” to decide where they want to go as long as their hiding. But, females do not have the power over this decision. In the novel when Sophia decides to have control over her actions and decided to leave with one of the Shepherdson boys, her brothers go looking for her and they end up fighting them which lead to death. This shows how females in the nineteenth century didn't have the power to decided for themselves.

I believe that women are seen as stereotypical women. Women should not be seen less than men. Women should be treated equally even in books. Its frustrating to see that even the “slaves” at that time had more “freedom” than what women did. The slaves were able to have “freedom” to do whatever they wanted as long as they were hiding from the whites, but the women did not have the freedom to decided what they wanted to do or even who they wanted to live with. I feel that women should not have “specific” roles in novels or in real life. Women should have the same right that men have.

Close Reading: Marxist Lens #2

Song of Solomon

Marxist Lens

“When Mrs Brains closed the door, Macon Dead went back to the pages of his account book, running his fingertips over the figures and thinking with the unoccupied part of his mind about the first time he called on Ruth Foster’s father. He had only two keys in his pocket then, and if he had let people like the women who just left have their way, he wouldn’t have had any keys at all. It was because of those keys that he could dare to walk over to that part of Not Doctor Street and approach the most important Negro in the city. To lift the lion paw’s knocker, to entertain the thoughts of marrying the doctors daughter was possible because each key represented a house which he owned at the time” (Morrison 22).

Here in this quote is Morrison expressing Macon’s profound ability to make powerful friends and the ability to make money most people like him wouldn’t be able to, in a general overview of course. But the focus here is how I thought the “keys”, as Macon described them; were resemblant to that of “doors of chance” and such, which I will explain later in the entry. But that comparison is very revealing of Marxism through the wealth that is evident and the how the words are placed to make it seem a very prominent position that he’s in.

Starting at the phrase “He only had two keys in his pocket then” immediately made me think of the keys as the way to open the doors to opportunity. For all of us, things such as financial assets are a much needed necessity in anybody’s life. Macon’s already got it all cut out for him. He’s in suitable position for living a lifestyle that he wants, as realty estate was and still is a big paying job. I suspect that Macon’s looking for bigger luck/wealth by approaching “The most important Nego in the city” as he calls him. Basically, it’s my belief he’s probably looking for continuous upgrades in the social ladder to better his family’s life, even though there is no common clash between the upper and lower classes recognized yet (sidenote). Also, the phrase “To entertain the thoughts of marrying the doctor’s daughter was possible because each key represented a house which owned at the time” meant that should he marry Ruth, then he could gain access into a powerful family’s assets and open doors for him to climb higher up the social ladder. This hunger for wealth and respect is what generally drives all oppressed people to forever look for windows that present fortune for them and their family. This section represents an insight of what Macon, the family patriarch is wanting for his clan.

Critical Lens Close Reading

“Oh, yes, this is a wonderful govment, wonderful.  Why, looky here.  There was a free n-gger there, from Ohio; a mulatter, most as white as a white man.  He had the whitest shirt on you ever see, too, and the shiniest; and there ain’t a man in that town that’s got as fine clothes as what he had; and he had a gold watch and chain, and a silver-headed cane - the awfulest old gray-headed nabob in the State.  And what do you think? they said he was a p’fessor in a college, and could talk all kinds of languages, and knowed everything.  And that ain’t the wust.  They said he could vote, when he was at home.  Well, that let me out.  Thinks I, what is the country a-coming to?”

During one of his drunken tirades, Huck’s father turns his attention to politics and the state of the government.  At the time of the book in 1845, the treatment of blacks was drastically different depending on if you were in a northern or southern state.  Pap, being a traditional white southerner is outraged to see a black man in a position of relative power.  Twain’s characterization of Huck’s father is especially telling of the massive contrast in how blacks were treated at the time.  Specifically, Pap calls the man “white as a white man” when describing his fine clothes and education.  By describing the man’s tokens of success as white, Huck’s father makes the important implication that success is an exclusively white trait.  Huck’s father also pays specific attention to the black man’s level of education, appalled that he is a “p’fessor in a college” and able to “talk all kinds of languages.”  Part of Pap’s reaction clearly stems from his own complete lack of education and consequent need to cling to feelings of superiority.  Although Huck’s father is a fictional character created by Mark Twain, the attitudes that he represents strongly correspond to attitudes in the south during the period of history in which the book was set.  As black people in the north continually gained more rights, white southerners felt increasingly resentful.

Critical Lens Expert

In the article, The Controversy Over Gender and Sexuality, the author, Nancy A. Walker argues that women are used as stereotypes in the novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In addition, she asserts that these stereotypes oppress women in the text. In this article we get to see how women are seen in society and how all the women in the novel fall under the typical female stereotype in the nineteenth-century.

The stereotypes that Walker points out are that women are in the background of the text; they are not central characters. They usually are maids, crying in the background, or they are role models of what women should be in society. Specifically, they are portrayed as “honest, compassionate, and with a sense of duty”  (Walker 488). Walker concludes that women are looked at lower than men in the text because of their stereotypical portrayal. In the end, the text shows “society’s efforts to oppress” women (Twain 489). Women are also seen as “nagging moralists” (Walker 488).

The reader can see that Walker’s interpretation are true in Huckleberry Finn because women are seen less than what men are and they are treated unequally. Throughout the novel we see that their are not many female characters, and when we do come across a female character they only have a small part. We are also not able to see a woman's perspective in the novel. Whenever a female character is being described we just get to see the way that a male character is describing her. We do not get to see a females point of view or desires because we are usually seeing this through a males point of view. They are also seen as the “virgin” in the text meaning that they are pure honest women. They also fit the “good” character which means that they are dependent, caring, selfness, and good role models. I do think that what the author Nancy argues is correct because all the female characters in the novel fall under that women typical stereotype, they are all considered “good” women, and they want to go to the “good”.  

Racial/Cultural Lens: Lens Expert

Julius Lester’s article, “Morality and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is an analysis of Huckleberry Finn through the views of the Racial and Cultural Lens. Lester ha shared some of his experiences with racial inequalities himself. As this is relevant to Huckleberry Finn which deals with racial problems and being treated unequally to others we can receive a different view on Twain's decisions to compare Huck and Jim being enslaved and the role of that Jim and Huck play in Huckleberry Finn.

Lester criticizes Twain’s comparison in the enslavement of Jim and Huck. Lester explains that Huck being enslaved by his drunken father and being locked up in a room for a long time compared to Jim's enslavement of being owned and the property of another person isn't the same. Lester says that Twain tries to cover the real horror in slavery although being held captive by a drunken father isn't the same as being the property of another human being showing that Twain did not take slavery and black people seriously. In agreement to Lester's that slavery wasn't taken seriously with comparing it to a boy that had the ability to leave that compared to a slave that wasn't able to leave slavery is something that is different but they had the same wishes of reaching their freedom which for Jim was slavery and for Huck being free from his father and starting over.

Lester also describes Twain's portrayal of Jim in the novel. In the novel Twain describes Jim, according to Lester, as being childlike instead of being a grown man with children. Twain plays around with black reality when Jim had escaped and fleeing deeper in the slave country rather than to free states. In contrary when Jim is sold Huck and Tom, in their plan to free Jim, Tom get shot and Jim comes out of hiding knowing he will be recaptured in trying to help Tom. Which is why I disagree with Lester that Jim is childlike because he was able to give his freedom away in trying to help a friend survive.

Huck Finn Experts

Though never studying or being an expert on psychology, Henry Nash Smith writes a psychoanalytical paper called “A Sound Heart and a Deformed Conscience.” Here, Smith explains how Twain uses setting and supernatural ideas to create a deeper understanding for his lead character, and without such, readers would not understand the full of Huck Finn as a character.

Smith describes one of the key parts of Twain’s characterization of Huck is “the boy’s capacity for love,” which is “projected into the natural setting.” Smith believes that “without qualification as a symbolic account of Huck’s emotions he [Twain] would have undercut the complexity of characterization implied in his recognition of Huck’s inner conflict of loyalties. Instead, he uses the natural setting to render a wide range of feelings and motives.” Smith seems to see the line between love and loyalty as thin, and Twain would not have crossed in had the novel not been in a setting where things are constantly out of the characters’ control. Many of the situations that Huck and Jim came across were uncontrollable natural accidents, and in many of the situations, Huck choose to help or stay with Jim. If they had not been in a natural setting, it would have made sense that only loyalty guided Huck’s relationship with Jim, as he would have stayed by his loyalty to others, such as Tom or possibly Widow Douglas, and would have given Jim up. However, since they were together in nature, the Huck’s love for Jim was able to build and over power loyalty.

Another important part of Twain’s writing that Smith touches on is “the characterization of Huck [that goes] beyond the needs of the plot.” After showing a passage from the first chapter of Huck alone, Smith explains “the whimpering ghost with something incommunicable on its mind and Huck’s cold shivers suggest a burden of guilt and anxiety that is perhaps the punishment he inflicts on himself for defying the mores of St. Petersburg,” and believes that “ the narrator whose stream of consciousness is recorded here is much more than the innocent protagonist of the pastoral idyl of the raft, more than an ignorant boy who resists being civilized.” This can connect back to Huck’s “capacity for love” and the complexity of Huck’s character. The author never had to talk about what happened in St. Petersburg, a major part of the novel Huck was previously a part of. However, the “burden of guilt and anxiety” for Huck can lead readers to believe that some of his motives from the novel could have come from that instead of what was implied in the novel. Having multiple motives for the character was unnecessary for the author, though he still chose to do it, most likely to point out that there is more to Huck than the “ignorant boy who resists being civilized,” which is absolutely true. When he is with the King and the Duke, he could have gone with the con’s, as it would have been a great way to resist civilization, but he continually explained his disdain for it, showing there is obviously more.

Critical Lens Close Reading

Chapter 1 page #4

"Her sister, Miss Watson, a tolerable slim old maid, with goggles on, had just come to live with her, and took a set at me now with a spelling-book. She worked me middling hard for about an hour, and then the widow made her ease up.  I couldn't stood it much longer.  Then for an hour it was deadly dull, and I was fidgety.  Miss Watson would say, "Don't put your feet up there, Huckleberry;" and "Don't scrunch up like that, Huckleberry—set up straight;" and pretty soon she would say, "Don't gap and stretch like that, Huckleberry—why don't you try to behave?"  Then she told me all about the bad place, and I said I wished I was there. She got mad then, but I didn't mean no harm. All I wanted was to go somewheres; all I wanted was a change, I warn't particular. She said it was wicked to say what I said; said she wouldn't say it for the whole world; she was going to live so as to go to the good place. Well, I couldn't see no advantage in going where she was going, so I made up my mind I wouldn't try for it.  But I never said so, because it would only make trouble, and wouldn't do no good. Now she had got a start, and she went on and told me all about the good place.  She said all a body would have to do there was to go around all day long with a harp and sing, forever and ever.  So I didn't think much of it. But I never said so.  I asked her if she reckoned Tom Sawyer would go there, and she said not by a considerable sight.  I was glad about that, because I wanted him and me to be together."

In this passage Miss Watson is trying to break Huckleberry and create him into an ordinary white male of that time period, she is trying to do this by teaching Huck manners and how to act. The Feminist lense is usually view as how woman are seen in society and what roles they play. Most women in society are seen as nurturers, teachers, mothers and even as pure women.

In this period of time females in society where also know as “good” which meant that they have to pretty much be perfect and they could not misbehave or they could not do anything bad because the males were know as the “bad” ones. In this passage we can see how Miss Watson was the a “good” and “pure” women. She would always talk about the “good place” and how she wanted to live a good life so she would be able to go to heaven.

We can see that Miss Watson is considered a pure women because of her name. She uses Miss which means that she is still yet not married. “She was going to live so as to go to the good place.” In this quote Miss Watson talks to Huck about how she wants to go to the “good place” referring to Heaven and how she will never say any of the words that Huck says because she wants to live a good life. “She said all a body would have to do there was to go around all day long with a harp and sing, forever and ever.” In this quote, Miss Watson goes on and on about why she wants to go to Heaven and how Heaven is the good place to go to. This shows how Miss Watson is considered a pure woman because she tries to be a model women.

Throughout this passage we do not get to see any of Miss Watson’s thoughts or desires, we only get to see Huck’s. Huck sees Miss Watson as a teacher, because she is teaching him manners and how to act as a regular white man. Huck is a typical male that is “bad”. “Don’t put your feet up there, Huckleberry;”, "Don't scrunch up like that, Huckleberry—set up straight;" Miss Watson is always correcting Huck, and is trying to change his bad manners. Growing up Huck did not go to school and was not taught anything because his Pap, would just get drunk, so when he decided to run away the widow and Miss Watson has to teach him how to be like an ordinary white man.

Through the feminist lense we get to see how every gender does not have an equal say, women are usually in the background of the story and males have more say. Women are also described as a “model” women and they usually are widows, stay at home women, or even teachers. Here we get to see how Miss Watson has to not only teach Huck manners and how to act, but she also has to teach how to spell and read.

Huck Finn Responding and Reflecting:Racial/ Cultural lens

In choosing the racial /cultural lens I had previous knowledge that slave were treated badly and  unequally to the rest of the population. As I continued reading I had seen just how people like Tom Sawyer, who is the same age as Huck, had treated slaves like Jim as if they were dumb and easily persuaded. This can be seen when Jim had told his dreams of witches taking him around the world and Tom described Jim as crazy and he was someone that all the other slaves would want to see and hear about these dreams that he because they were just like Jim. Making him and the other slaves seem crazy in that they had believed all this crazy stuff and making fun of them. The use of the n word had been used many times by different people to make them seem less of a person.

When reading farther in the book I noticed that it seems as if Huck which seems to be struggling with his life himself having a drunken father that abuses him and going through hard times growing up to having to be removed from his father then being put into the custody of a widow which gives him everything from helping him learning to read and write giving him a better life but Huck it still unhappy of having to go to school everyday. He then tries to help Jim ,who is Miss Watson's slave, became free and creates a plan with Tom to free him. It can be seen that Huck in the way that he had grown up can be similar to Jim with feeling like society is against him or dislike him, when they had been separated from his father while Jim when slavery had started and was seen in society as being someone that was hated and treated badly. Though Huck and Jim are different racially they still face some similar difficulties in life and have grown close as friend in going through these thing together in trying to reach freedom in the own life.

Response and Reflection: Marxist Lens

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Marxist Lens

This story was one that was truly coming of age. It truly represents the naivety and innocence we all had before stepping into another stage of our lives that we knew nothing about. But how Huck dealt with it in this book was sort of childish, despite he’s almost an adolescent. We have talked in past history classes about the issue of race before and after the Civil War, this was a sort of a dive in experience about a personal life of one of those victims and what they thought was right, and not to the ways of a society.

At first I didn’t know if Twain was trying to mock the pre war north (and I still cannot identify why) But I begin to single out the reason that Twain’s intention was to mix the meanings of growing up and introducing to children issues that was critical to american society at the same time. And as the chapters pass on I began to think that was one of his motives. I guess it was one of those things that made him so confusing to understand, because at the same time he’s introducing Jim, a black slave; and referring to him constantly with the “N” word; which is probably never one of the things children should hear at such a young age. But this was probably his way of introducing mature material to children; it had to be in their face and introduce them to the matters at a young age. Sure it would confuse them at first, and maybe after a more detailed explanation about why it was in the pre war period, they would still be a little confused but the point is now that they understand it, it would take away a portion of their innocence. It’s ethical for kids to be kids while they still can and never learn about such things until they get older. But Twain obviously thinks otherwise. At least that’s what I think his whole gist of it was. But we all have different opinions of this book, but we know one thing: Mark Twain was very complicated to figure out.

Huck Finn Response and Reflection

After reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, I realized how although the book was written over a hundred years ago, Huck and parts of his story could exist today, or really in any time in history. I’m not talking about the running away with the slave, or witnessing first hand a volatile family feud, or even assisting a couple of con men. In reality, the relationships he has and they way he responds to them or his actions because of them are extremely real in any time in history.

Because I chose the psychoanalytic lens, I thought a lot about what made Huck the person he is in the novel and what relationships he had with different people that affected that. The three people who I thought had the biggest influence on him before, and even during the novel, where his Pap, Widow Douglas, and Tom Sawyer, and each relationship connected to some psychological idea that I had before reading the novel. Huck’s Pap was an alcoholic who beat and abused Huck. Most people believe that this would have made Huck try to avoid his father, however, Huck did what I believed to be true with many abused children. Huck would constantly excuse his father or deny that the abuse was as bad as it was, even though he acknowledge that his Pap shouldn’t be doing that and didn’t really like his father. When he was kidnapped, he made the best of the situation and made himself believe that living with his father wasn’t too bad, and he didn’t go to drastic measures to get away from his Pap until after he tried to kill Huck. It stuck with my belief that children, at least when they are still children, want to see the best in their parents, no matter how awful they are treated, and may even try to excuse their parent’s behavior. It wasn’t until Huck was in a better home with Widow Douglas, that he realized how bad he had it with his father, though he does not enjoy trying to be civilized by Widow Douglas. Though he enjoys being with her, and even to some extent he enjoys some parts of civilization, like learning to read and write, he plays it off as not being as good as living on the outskirts of the society.

The final person to be a big influence on Huck is his friend Tom Sawyer. Tom kind of acts as the voice of reason for Huck, though it is in a way that Huck feels like he is not being controlled. Huck’s relationship with Tom is one of the few he makes by choice and isn’t one that was forced upon him in someway. This creates a relationship where Huck wants to listen to and follow Tom. The way I saw this relationship was one of slight envy on Huck’s side. Huck most likely saw Tom’s life as an ideal one, and had an underlying level of jealousy. Because of this jealousy and envy, Huck listens to Tom in hopes that maybe he can be more like Tom.

Huck Finn Close Reading

“Did you want to kill him, Buck?”
“Well, I bet I did.”
“What did he do to you?”
“Him? He never done nothing to me.”
“Well, then, what did you want to kill him for?”
“Why, nothing—only it’s on account of the feud.”
“What’s a feud?”
“Why, where was you raised? Don’t you know what a feud is?”
“Never heard of it before—tell me about it.”
“Well,” says Buck, “a feud is this way: A man has a quarrel with another man, and kills him; then that other man’s brother kills him; then the other brothers, on both sides, goes for one another; then the cousins chip in—and by and by everybody’s killed off, and there ain’t no more feud. But it’s kind of slow, and takes a long time.
“Has this one been going on long, Buck?”
“Well, I should reckon! It started thirty year ago, or som’ers along there. There was trouble ‘bout something, and then a lawsuit to settle it; and the suit went agin one of the men, and so he up and shot the man that won the suit—which he would naturally do, of course. Anybody would.”
“What was the trouble about, Buck?—land?”
“I reckon maybe—I don’t know.”” (Twain, 91-92)

In this quote, Huck is questioning why his friend, Buck, shot at a random stranger who just happened to ride by. Buck, a Grangerford, explains that the person was not a random stranger, but rather a member of a feuding family, the Shepherdsons. Huck continuously asks questions about the feud to try and make sense of it, though he never seems to completely understand the point of the fighting.

The feud that takes place between the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons closely resembles an infamous feud that took place in the 1880s between the Hatfields and McCoys. Being the satirical writer that he is, Twain was likely commenting on what he believed to be the stupidity of these types of feuds. The way Buck “don’t know” why the feud started, especially after the casual “Well, I bet I did” in response to being asked if he wanted to kill someone after shooting at them, shows how ingrained the feud is in Buck’s head. He doesn’t register how many people get hurt, or even that he possibly gets hurt, so long as “everybody’s killed off,” as is supposed to happen in a feud. Here, Twain is essentially making fun of the feuds because most people, in a logical situation, would avoid something that they know would end in their death. He sees the feuds that he had witnessed as silly and pointless because all it meant was losing loved ones and taking the lives of another’s loved ones. He may have also seen this as important because he lost his father at a young age and thought that the loss of a life for such a pointless reason was a waste of a life.

With the feud, Twain also could have been commenting on people’s desires and how it can play a huge role in one’s life. There is a psychological theory that was created by Sigmund Freud, that explains how people have three parts of their subconscious. This includes the id, which is a person’s impulses and desires and just wants to fulfil them, the superego, which is the rational part, and the ego, which balances the id and the superego. With the Grangerfords, specifically Buck, represent the id. They desire to take out the Shepherdsons at all costs shows this, especially when others and their own are getting hurt because of it. Huck acts as a sort of superego when he tries to rationalize with Buck, explaining how the feud seems to be hurting others. Without a consistent or strong superego, or even ego, the id is able to do as it pleases, though it eventually gets hurt. This is proven later when the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons have one final battle that kills most of both families.