sweeney@lschs.org
La Salle College High School
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RELATED PAGES
The
Thoreau Reader |
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Internet Resources: · An interesting site on Huckleberry Finn · An illustrated e-text of the novel · Search the text of the novel We had the sky up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made or only just happened. Jim he allowed they was made, but I allowed they happened; I judged it would have took too long to make so many. Jim said the moon could a laid them; well, that looked kind of reasonable, so I didn't say nothing against it, because I've seen a frog lay most as many, so of course it could be done. (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapter 19) It was beautiful to hear that clock tick; and sometimes when one of these peddlers had been along and scoured her up and got her in good shape, she would start in and strike a hundred and fifty before she got tuckered out. They wouldn't took any money for her. (Chapter 17) Now I struck an idea, and fetched it out: "It warn't the grounding -- that didn't keep us back but a little. We blowed out a cylinder-head." "Good gracious! anybody hurt?" "No'm. Killed a nigger." "Well, it's lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt.” (Chapter 32) Twain’s most extraordinary achievement in Huckleberry Finn is the invention of a prose style to convey the mind of a highly intelligent but naive boy, who frequently fails to appreciate the significance of what he is telling us. (We infer the significance, but Huck doesn't: a really neat, writerly sleight-of-hand.) Huck is completely deaf to irony—which may be why the novel is so profoundly ironic. I want you to write another, "lost" chapter of Huck Finn, narrated by, and in the style of, Huck. Your chapter can relate an additional adventure that occurs shortly after the end of the novel, or it can narrate an incident that occurs during the course of the novel which Huck "neglected" to tell. (In any case, you should indicate exactly where I should imaginatively insert your chapter into Twain's text: "After Chapter 32" or "Chapter 26 1/2" or "Beyond Chapter the Last" -- be creative.) The chapter ought to be titled (as Twain's are) and should rather effectively imitate the style of Huck Finn, as well as the tone of the novel (however you perceive that tone to be). You must employ both narrative and dialogue. Note: there should be nothing in the chapter to suggest that it is not, in fact, a lost chapter of the novel. You are aiming at a convincing, entertaining counterfeit. Your paper must be four pages (or more, if you like), double-spaced, Times New Roman (12 point) or equivalent (no Courier fonts, please). It must be submitted on paper (no e-mail attachments) when I collect them in class. See the syllabus for rules regarding late papers (including electronic submissions). |