This unit is divided into the following sections.

Imagine if Nantucket had slavery right now.

• What would they do?

• What would their lives be like?

• What would a slave auction be like?

• How would other people’s lives be different?

As a class, we will write a brief, fictional book of slavery on Nantucket in the year 1997.

The class will be broken into groups of three. Each group will be responsible for an aspectof modern slavery. For work, they will need to do

•a one page story or journal entry from a slave-owner or non-slave,

•a one page story or journal entry from a slave, and

•a one page "report" on the topic.

We will use the following chapters.

• Getting and keeping slaves here

• Slave auction

• Daily Life of Slaves

• Work

• Family Life

• Effect on Non-slave workers

• Escape and Fugitive Slave laws

We will have to follow the following procedure.

All written assignments must have the following chracteristics

• typed

• at least one full page (12 point Palatino or New York, space and a half)

Assuming they meet the minimal requirements, the writing will be graded on these characteristics.

• Clarity

• Comprehensiveness

• Use of Detail

Think about the following questions. Answer them fully in one Sentence.

• Think about the slave owning Nantucket. What might walking up Main Street be like?

• What would be the attitudes of white people with slavery around?

• What would be the attitudes of black people with slavery?

Answer the following questions fully. They will require you to think more than usual.

1. Twain has a good time tweaking the widows. Why?

2. Why doesn’t Huck complain to them? Why does he stay silent?

3. What is adolescent about Huck?

4. Why does he use the word "niggers" so carelessly?

5. Why, do you suppose, Tom is quick to play a trick on Jim?

6. What is the difference between Huck and Tom?

Why does he quit the gang, then?

7. Why does Huck believe in superstition if he is so matter of fact with everything else?

8. Twain, true to form, makes fun of Pap. Why?

Answer the following questi ons fully.

1. How has Huck fingured out how to deal with Pap?

2. What is ironic in Pap’s speech about the dressed up black man?

3. Why doesn’t Huck talk about returning to town?

4. Huck wishes Tom Sawyer was there. Why is it a good thing that he isn’t?

5. One of the hallmarks of this book is the way nature is portrayed. How does Huck look at the river?

6. Why does Huck start to think that praying might work after all. What does this show you about Huck?

7. Why is Jim so scared to see Huck?

8. Why does Jim run away?

Answer the following questions.

1. What do Jim and Huck do while they are living on the island?

2. Why, do you suppose, Jim goes and checks out the dead man and asks Huck to stan d still.

Where else has Jim taken charge over Huck?

3. Why does he go to town?

4. Does Huck act as if he knows Jim is black and Huck is white?

5. How does Huck get found out?

How does this trick show the difference between Tom and Huck?

6. Life on the river is often described as something close to ideal. Is it?

7. Why does Jim bolt for the raft instead of exploring the steamboat?

We are going to try, in groups, to rebuild the book from Jim’s point of view.

To do this, we need to do three things.

1. Establish what has happened in the book.

2. Establish what Jim’s mindset would be?

So far, what are the major events in Jim’s life duringthe course of this book.

What can we tell about Jim’s Mind? In other words, how does he feel about people, places and things.

Huck?

The Town?

The Island?

Others?

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•

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Using your own writing voice, write a paragraph diary entry for each of Jim’s events.

Use specifics

Answer the following questions fully.

1. How do Huck and Jim escape?

2. Why does he tell a lie to rescue the bums on the wrecked boat?

3. Huck is out argued by Jim. What does that show about the two of them?

What does the Solomon thing show you about Jim?

Why doesn’t he like Solomon?

4. Does Huck thinkhe has won the argument or not?

5. What is the plan for Huck and Jim?

6. How do Jim and Huck try to find each other in the fog?

Why doesn’t Huck panic?

7. What trick does Huck play on Jim?

Why do you suppose Jim goes for it?

8. Why is it a cruel trick?

9. What strange thing does Huck do afterwards.

Answer the following questions.

1. Why does Huck get pangs of conscience?

Why does he feel bad? Isn’t he doing a good thing?

Has he thought about what he is doing?

Why is Jim happy?

2. How big is Jim’s family?

How are we supposed to interpret Huck’s words?

Why does he leave the boat?

3. Who does he run into on the river?

How does he lie?

How are his lies different from Tom Sawyer like lies?

4. What do they think the rattle snake skin did?

When did they miss Cairo

What is the importance of missing that town?

5. How does the steamboat ruin their plans?

Answer one of the following questions.

• Twain is at his sarcastic best with the Grangerfords. What are the elements of their lives that he makes fun of?

• Huck is back with white people and he acts in the style that he is accustomed to. How does he treat his slave? How does Buck and the rest of the Grangerfords?

Pick one of the following questions and answer it fully.

• Huck doesn’t say a word about the danger the Duke and the Dauphin pose for Huck and Jim. Are they dangerous?

• Huck spends the first severalpages describing life on the river. What makes it edenic? Is this Melville’s river, or Emersons?

Answer on of the following questions in a page of writing.

• Twain has a lot of fun with the "Arkansaw" town. What is so ridiculous about them?

• Are we supposed to like Sherburn or dislike him? How does Twain feel about the man that shot someone in the middle of the street? Is he right when he speaks to the crowd?

Answer one of the following questions.

• Huck clearly likes the three women. Why? What qualities are good about them?

• Twain, for all his warbling, seems to like the Doctor who comes for the Duke and the Dauphin and tries to expose them. What units Sherburn and the Doctor?

• Why isn’t Jim involved more in the story?

• How is this section also about the mob?

Fillin the followign chart. On the left, write down things Huck believed while he was home with the Aunts. On the left, write what his current belief is.

Jim is a slave and a person.

Answer the following questions.

• What qualities does Huck have that makes him different from his contemporaries (Buck, etc)

• Is Huck qualified to live happily in any of these towns?