Saturday, February 28, 2009

Huckleberry Finn 1: P9-27

I. Quotations
1. "The Widow Douglas, she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the window was in all her ways; and so when I couldn't stand it no longer, I lit out. I got into my old rags, and my sugar-hogshead again, and was free and satisfied." (page 9)
  • The lack of discipline in Huckleberry's early education, made him an outsider of civilization. Although he was adopted as the widow's son, he was still, in nature, a free spirit: "All I [he] wanted was to go somewhere; all I [he] wanted was a change, I [he] warn't particular" (10). Unlike those well-educated children, Huckleberry wants adventures. However, little does he know, those adventures are not only exciting and playful experiences, but also developments of his personality, moral, and view of life.
2. "That is just the way with some people. They get down on a thing when they don't know nothing about it." (page 10)
  • From here we can see that Huckleberry is a skeptic of social doctrines. Although he is open to learning things he does not know, he never accept new ideas without thinking or testing them. People may view him as a ruleless rebel; however, he is, indeed, a liberal and thoughtful young boy who has the courage to question those infallible religious ideas, rituals, and manners. He is destined to make a difference.
II. Vocabulary
1. ornery - [adj.]
1> ugly and unpleasant in disposition or temper
2> stubborn
3> low or vile
4> inferior or common
Ex. "I was so ignorant and so kind of low-down and ornery." (20)

2.
ambuscade
[n.] an ambush
[v.] to attack from a concealed position; ambush
Ex. "They didn't have only a guard of four hundred soldiers, and so we would lay in ambuscade, as he called it, and kill the lot and scoop the things." (21)

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