Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Opinions About Going to Hell Discussion

I’m working on a literature multi-part question and need an explanation and answer to help me learn.

I. Consider Huck’s two opinions about going to hell. 

A. “I couldn’t see no advantage in going where she is going.”

B. “All right, then, I’ll go to hell.” –and tore it up. 

1. Who is “she” in Quote A?   
2. Explain, in a few sentences, why Huck does not want to go “where she is going.” 
3. In Quote B, Huck tore up a piece of paper. What is written on the piece of paper?
4. Explain, in a few sentences, why he thought he would have to “go to hell” if he tears up the piece of paper. 
5. Write in a paragraph discussing the difference between these two quotes in terms of Huck’s attitude toward hell. 

II. Shelley Fisher Fishkin’s “Jimmy” argues that Huck’s narration may be modeled after an African-American boy depicted in “Sociable Jimmy.” 

1. Who wrote “Sociable Jimmy”? 
2. What kind of academic approach to literature is Fishkin’s article an example of? 
3. In this essay Twain referred to Jimmy as “the most ___________, ___________, and _________ talker I ever came across.” Write the three adjectives. 
4. Jimmy says: “Some folks says dis town would be considerable bigger if it wa’n’t on account of so much lan’ all roun’ it dat ain’t got houses on it.” Explain in a sentence or two what Jimmy wants to say. 
5. In a paragraph, explain in what ways are Huck and “Sociable Jimmy” may be similar. Discuss at least two aspects. 

III. Answer the following questions. 

a. The following is a quote from the novel. 

Then at the bottom was the biggest line of all—which said:

                  LADIES AND CHILDREN NOT ADMITTED.

        “There,” says [the duke], “if that line don’t fetch them, I don’t know Arkansaw!”

1. Did many people show up to this play? Answer with YES or NO. 
2. What happened after the play was over? Explain in a sentence. 

b. Mark Twain writes in a letter to the Omaha World-Herald (dated August 23, 1902):

[The “noise” about the novel] has started a number of hitherto spotless people to reading Huck Finn, out of natural human curiosity to learn what this is all about—people who had not heard of him before, people whose morals will go to rack and ruin now.

      The publishers are glad, but it makes me want to borrow a handkerchief and cry.  

3. What is “the noise” to which Twain refers? Explain in a sentence. 

4. Why is Mark Twain crying? Explain in a few sentences. 

5. What does this quote tell us about the effects of censorship? Discuss in a paragraph. 

IV. Answer the following questions about short stories.

1. In Kafka’s “Judgment,” whose existence was questioned by Georg’s father?  (Hint: you may only describe him in relation to the protagonist, Georg.) 
2. In Chekhov’s “The Student,” Vasilisa was listening to the student’s story and “suddenly burst into sobs herself […] and Lukeyla, her eyes still fixed on the student, flushed, and the look on her face grew heavily and tense like that of a person holding back great pain.” Who is the central figure in the student’s story?
3. In O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” Red Sammy says “A good man is hard to find” and the Misfit says the grandmother “would of [sic] been a good woman”. In a few sentences, explain the difference between the meaning of “good.”

V. Choose one of the following questions and write a paragraph answering the question you chose. 

a. Toni Morrison called Adventures of Huckleberry Finn “this amazing, troubling book.” What aspects did she find “troubling”? Do you agree with her view?  

b. In On Literature, J. Hillis Miller writes that the era of modern literature is almost ending. Why do you think is the era of modern literature ending now (in the twenty-first century)? Discuss.

c. What is the role of the river in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in shaping the structure of the novel?