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American Literature Assistamce

 
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equestrian
Icarian Member



PostPosted: Sat Feb 16, 2013 7:22 pm    Post subject: 1 Reply with quote

I am taking a American Literature course in college and was hoping I could get some help from you guys. I was told you guys are very nice and helpful so I'm hoping for the best. We were given a 3 page study guide for a upcoming exam, and I was bale to answer all but 2 of the questions and was hoping to get some help. Here they are:

1.) Controversy characterizes the ending of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Evaluate the ending.

2.) Naturalist novels tend to portray their protagonists as subject to massive social forces. These social forces are virtually inescapable; they are as inevitable as fate. When we first see a broad-brush picture of the Bowery in the second chapter of the novel, for example, we are told that the people are "withered . . . in curious postures of submission to something." Maggie: A Girl of the Streets raises important questions about the capacity of people to be responsible for their own deeds. Is Maggie to blame for her descent into prostitution? Is Jimmie to blame for his violence, brutishness, and casual cruelty? Or must we point the finger at the social forces and diseases that brought them to the brink of degradation (poverty, coercive capitalism, lack of education, alcoholism)? How does this book steer a path between the two extremes of absolute personal responsibility and entirely contingent morality? Or does it avoid choosing a compromise position, and instead throw itself behind the position that social circumstance, not personal choice, is to blame for Maggie's tragedy?
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extropalopakettle
No offense, but....



PostPosted: Sat Feb 16, 2013 8:15 pm    Post subject: 2 Reply with quote

equestrian wrote:
I was told you guys are very nice and helpful so I'm hoping for the best.


First you must tell us who told you that.
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equestrian
Icarian Member



PostPosted: Sat Feb 16, 2013 8:19 pm    Post subject: 3 Reply with quote

My fiance, Sniklac16
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LordKinbote
Daedalian Member



PostPosted: Sat Feb 16, 2013 8:20 pm    Post subject: 4 Reply with quote

equestrian wrote:
I am taking a American Literature course in college and was hoping I could get some help from you guys. I was told you guys are very nice and helpful so I'm hoping for the best. We were given a 3 page study guide for a upcoming exam, and I was bale to answer all but 2 of the questions and was hoping to get some help. Here they are:

1.) Controversy characterizes the ending of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Evaluate the ending.


I think the "controversy" starts right about when Tom Sawyer appears and basically undoes all of the character growth in Huck Finn that the book was building upon. There's a point where Mark Twain stopped writing the book for about three years, and this probably accounts for the dramatic tonal shift in the last handful of chapters.
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extropalopakettle
No offense, but....



PostPosted: Sat Feb 16, 2013 9:03 pm    Post subject: 5 Reply with quote

equestrian wrote:
My fiance, Sniklac16


LOL, I seriously wasn't expecting an answer. The first post sounded so much like one of those spam posts where the person posts and comes back a month later to add a spam signature to their account.
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extropalopakettle
No offense, but....



PostPosted: Sat Feb 16, 2013 9:07 pm    Post subject: 6 Reply with quote

And yes, we are very nice and helpful. I wish I could help now.
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extropalopakettle
No offense, but....



PostPosted: Sat Feb 16, 2013 9:09 pm    Post subject: 7 Reply with quote

Of course, I could have just checked and saw that you posted here before. I saw "Icarian" and just assumed ...
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equestrian
Icarian Member



PostPosted: Sun Feb 17, 2013 7:00 am    Post subject: 8 Reply with quote

So no one can help me with these questions? I need more help with the second one than the first.
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Thok
Oh, foe, the cursed teeth!



PostPosted: Sun Feb 17, 2013 11:19 am    Post subject: 9 Reply with quote

equestrian wrote:
So no one can help me with these questions? I need more help with the second one than the first.


The second question is asking you to evaluate how much control the characters have over their actions. You should look for places where alternative behaviors are suggested in the book (either directly when they make a choice, or indirectly by the examples of other characters in similar situations), and assess how feasible those options would have been.

My answer is a bit vague, because
a. I have not read the book in question
b. There may not be a unique right answer and part of the point of the question is for you to determine what the answer should be and to be able to defend that choice with examples from the text.
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