What Value does Religion Have to The Characters of Huck Finn?

Religion plays a large role in the lives of the characters of Huckleberry Finn, as well as the storyline. From the beginning of the story, Huck, unlike the rest of the characters in the story, doesn't even have a basic concept of what religion is. This lack of knowledge on religion seems to upset Widow Douglas, Huck's essential guardian, and she tries to explain to him the difference of Heaven and Hell to Huck, and how Huck is going to want to be a good Christian, so he may go to Heaven when he dies. This to me shows that religion, at least to Widow Douglas and most likely Miss Watson holds great value in their daily lives. Christianity is not the only religion that plays a role in the story line. Voodism as well, is added into the story when Huck finds out that his father, Pap Finn has found him, and is looking for his money. Huck goes to see his friend Jim, a slave of Miss Watson's for advice on the matter. Using his "Magic Hairball," Jim sees what is going on with Pap Finn at the time. Jim also has a "Five Center Piece," which he said was a charm that the devil himself had given him. Slaves from all over the area would apparently come to see Jim's Five Center Piece, but they wouldn't touch it, as they had believed that the devil had his hands on it. This relays to the reader that religion and superstition would also go hand in hand in the storyline as it continues. An example of these to aspects being combined would be when in Chapter Four of the story, Huck discovers that a mysterious person, or thing had been outside of the garden at Miss Watson's house. Huck later realized that this was his father, Pap Finn. Huck discovered this by looking at the footprints in the snow, and noticing that in the left boot heel of the tracks, there was a cross made out of nails to ward off the devil. This can be not only be associated with superstition, but religion as well. The idea of adding a cross to the soles of your shoes has a religious base to it, and was probably told to people like Pap Finn by a preacher of some sorts. So naturally in fear of the devil, Pap Finn added the cross to his boots to protect himself from any kinds of evil that may cross his path. As we read on, I expect that we will find more examples of religion and how it relates to the culture of the characters in Huck Finn.

Huck Finn and Tom Walker

I think that people should pursue wealth if they feel that they would like to, but they should not exploit another person ,or persons in order to achieve this. Some people have becoming wealthy as a life goal; which they attempt to achieve by putting themselves in a place where they would be capable of earning a large sum of money, over time or all at once. People usually go about doing this by working at high paying jobs, trying to win the lottery, or by gambling, which for the most part can be a respectable or honest method of earning money. Some people though, choose to use more cruel, dastardly methods in order to obtain this goal of being wealthy. This is where the story "The Devil and Tom Walker" by Washington Irving begins to come into play. Instead of trying to earn his wealth the honest way, he took the easier way, which later came back to haunt him. I think that if Tom had not listened to his wife when she said that he should comply to the terms of the "Black Man," or "Old Scratch," then he wouldn't of had the problems that he later recieved. I would call this story an example of the limitations of how far people should go to be able to recieve wealth. Those limits I think should basically be that a person can do anything that helps them recieve wealth, as long as it doesn't exploit another person or group of people on a major scale.

The Coyote and The Monster

The story I read was The Coyote and The Monster, which told the story of a Coyote who was left alone after a terrible monster ate all of his friends. Tired of hiding from the monster, the Coyote challenged the monster and won over the monter, and they became friends. The Coyote then convinced the monster to let him into his stomach so he could visit his devoured friends. The monster agreed and the Coyote killed the monster by cutting out his heart and setting fire to his insides. The Coyote then freed his friends and created four different tribes from his insides. This story was probably used to explain how some of the tribes came to be, and why they are geographically located where they are. The story also said that the Coyote created a new animal with the tribes, which could also explain why the tribes could be represented by their particular animal. I chose this story as it seemed interesting to me, and it seemed to have some legitimate Navajo origins to it. http://members.cox.net/academia/coyote.html

Expectations for this class

I think I am going to enjoy this english class this semester. English has always been one of my strongsuits (not just because it's the language I speak) as I usually like the work that I am doing for the class. This class in particular I think I will like as from my understanding we are mainly focusing on American literature, like Huck Fin and other classic American stories. I'm also concerned at the same time about this, as I have never been that big on reading long, full stories. I think that is why I enjoyed sophmore writin workshop, as it was more focused on just the writing aspects of English. This I will see in time though I guess, as I will not know until I get more into the semester. I think although it will be quite a bit of reading, I will enjoy the class. One thing I do greatly enjoy is the usage of this blog. I have never done this in previous classes, and I think I will have a great deal of fun toying with it.

The World on The Turtle's Back

I was kind of skeptical when I first looked at this story. I thought that it was going to be kind of confusing, and honestly a little boring. As I read the World On The Turtle's Back, I did find the story to be very interesting. I enjoyed how the authors described the creation of the Earth, with it all starting as a large ocean. Then the woman fell from the sky world and was placed on the turtle's back by the birds. It was interesting how the woman began to grow plants and create life from this one small clump of dirt that the muskrat retrieved from the ocean's floor. The twins I found to be rather interesting. The idea of the left and right twin to me reminds me of the Chinese idea of Ying and Yang, with one being good and the other being somewhat evil. This is also different though, as the twins were used as the reasoning for different plants and animals. Overall i did really enjoy this story.
Questions
1. Where does the muskrat come from? The muskrat I thought was a land mammal.
2. What happens to the turtle after all this land mass began to grow on his back?
3. How large was the turtle, being he was holding 4 people on his back?