the adventures of huckleberry finn

For my individual novel, I chose the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; I chose it because when I was picking books, I was reading the backs to see which sounded interesting. When the back read of Huck and a slave boy building a raft to head down the Mississippi river and the adventure that shall be packed full of danger, I expected it to be an interesting book. But so far the book is just really, really sad. In the first book, the Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Huck becomes really rich after stopping some robbers. But in this book, Huck’s dad comes back and expects Huck to give him all of his money for booze, wants him to drop out of school so Huck doesn’t become smarter than his father. So Huck, realizing that his father is going to beat him until he does it, decides to give all of his money to judge Thatcher so Huck wouldn’t have to give it to his father. When the widow hears of this she tries to gain custody over Huck and become his guardian, but despite their efforts, a new judge doesn’t allow it because the judge refuses to take a boy from his father, so Huck’s father takes Huck out to a cabin that he lives in and locks him in whenever he is out and about. When I think about it, I don’t think I could continue to live in the conditions that Huck is forced to be living in. I would take any chance possible to run away from the father. I feel sorry for Huck, trapped in his father’s house doomed to stay here until he is old enough to leave, and by then, he wont be educated enough to get a job, so I really hope that Huck can find a way out of this miserable place he is in.

the jungle

In the reading we had to do for the jungle, jurgis and his family are still trying to adapt to this new, American life style. They are all starting to get jobs and make money, I love how they are so happy and optimistic even in the horrible conditions in which they have to live in. the man who was trying to sell the house to jurgis’ family seemed very untrustworthy. He avoided a lot of questions and ignored others so, if it was me, I would have never even thought of buying that house. But with the low price, and the fact that they’d be owning their own home, they count up their saving and decide to go ahead with it. In chapter 5, jurgis and his family are all getting jobs and things are swell. Jurgis does not want the women to work because “he is not that kind of man”. This did not make much sense to me because it does not indulge in what the author is trying to say, so I assume that the author is trying to tell us that jurgis believes that working is a man’s job, not a woman’s or child’s. Jurgis wants his kids to go to school and get an education before even thinking about working. I think that is very noble of him to believe that men should be able to support his family. Jurgis’ family is so far undergoing success in their strive toward personal success. Everyone’s getting jobs, the family is being fed, and they have a new, crappy house.

questions/comments
1are jurgis and ona really married? on page 55 it says they will be married soon but they got married in chapter one
2 i think its great that they are so happy having so little and considering the conditions they must live in.
3why was the man at his work trying to get jurgis to join a union?
4 what exactly is jurgis' job? the book talks about killing beds but doesnt explain his actual job
5i think its really greedy to hire someone to replace someone else so the boss gets more money