The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chapters 35-36, Conclusion
Sid sneaks into the room that Tom and Huck are changing in. He reveals what the heck is going on: Widow Douglas is throwing a party for the old Welshman and his sons. He also reveals that the Welshman is going to tell Huck's part of the Widow's rescue, and that it won't be a surprise, since someone has rattled. Tom knows that the tattler is Sid, and kicks his younger brother out.
Thanks to Sid, the Welshman's surprise isn't so surprising anymore. But Tom manages to get a real shock out of the crowd. He reveals the treasure that he and Huck had dug up!
Things change quickly. All the nearby "haunted" houses are torn up for treasure, and the boys are considered like treasures themselves. They are each given an income from their 12-thousand dollar treasure depot.
Judge Thatcher is the one who is put in charge of Tom's money. He really likes Tom at this point. Things get even better after Becky tells her dad about how Tom saved her from a whipping in school.
Widow Douglas becomes Huck's guardian. Huck is made to live a civilized life... and he hates it. He even runs away, and starts living his old life again.
Tom fixes that. He and Huck have talked about making a robber gang before. He says that if Huck stops living a civilized life, he can't join the robber gang. Huck struggles, but decides to continue living the civilized life so he can be a robber.
The Conclusion could have been better. Mark Twain does a good job giving a good reason for stopping, but I would have liked to have known what happened to everyone. Mark Twain does say that they are happy and prosperous, but I would have liked more details. What did everyone grow up to be? Did any of them get married, and to whom?
I was really surprised about what happened to the treasure. I would have believed it if they had taken the treasure completely away from the boys. But instead, the adults took it and start giving it to the boys slowly.
Huck acted very realistically in this area. He suffered the civilized life as long as he could, and then ran away to live the life he liked. And yet, like a boy, he faltered in his decision and changed his mind so he could be a certain something he wanted to be.
I get that this book is considered one of the best ever. While I can see where Mark Twain could be considered a great author, I don't think this book is the best. The enjoyment level wasn't always very high. And there were some problems. To me, this was only an average book, and not really worth all the fuss.
Wild West Central
The Renoes
The Renoes were a famous outlaw brotherhood. They were famous for their train robberies. In fact, they were the "inventors" of train robberies in the West. They had been doing it since the Civil War. The robberies were so famous and successful, that other outlaws' train robberies seemed to follow the Renoes' pattern.
In fact, the Renoes became so big a problem for trains and train companies, that some of the big train companies got together and hired a big-time detective to stop the gang. The detective got to work by inflitrating (sp?) the gang's hometown. He got a saloon, and hired some other detectives to play different roles so that plans could be overheard. This team also got the first picture of a Reno gang member, and got it smuggled all the way to Chicago!
The Renoes were an outlaw brotherhood, but some of the members were also part of a real family. They were siblings whose last name was "Reno". The eldest of these siblings, Frank Reno, was a natural-born leader and crooked as well. He was the one who ended up leading the brotherhood which bore his last name.
Not all of the Renoes' crimes were train robberies. The train robberies were the famous thing, but they did other robberies as well. Once they had a robbery of a place with two safes. There was an older safe and a newer safe. They figured that the newer safe was probably the one with the money, since it was a better safe. After they spent hours popping the safe, they discovered that they were wrong. They had to open the other safe to find it stuffed with money.
Then they spent a rough little bit. They had to cross a river, and sleep during the day in a field. It wasn't comfortable, since they had ice on their clothing!
Then they had to get food that night, since they hadn't eaten in around 2 days. They managed to trick an old farmer and his wife into getting them dinner. But the leader thought that one of the members would have to get out his gun. The farmer kept insisting that his wife was sick, and she refused to get up. On the third try, she finally got up, and the leader reveals in what he has written down that she wasn't sick... she was lazy.
Then the gang had to take a ride on a freight train. They managed to trick a guy who owned a ton of cattle into thinking that they were drovers in need of work, and got hired. And then they had to move those cattle like real drovers!
Now, the train robberies were the big ones. One time, 7 of the gang, including Frank Reno, stole an actual train! They knocked and took out almost everyone of importance, and kicked off the passenger cars. They then took everything else, including the engine.
The dude with the keys to the safes refused to hand them over. So he was thrown off the train. Luckily he survived because of his landing spot.
Now, it turns out that it didn't matter that the Renoes didn't get the keys. The safes were older ones, and they could be pried open with crowbars. So the Renoes still got the government stuff and money that was inside the safes in the end.
The Renoes managed to make a getaway. They hopped out of the train at a certain place, where horses were waiting. It took a while for the people who had been knocked and taken out during the robbery to sound the alarm, since they had a bunch of stuff to do.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Friday, March 15, 2013
Literature and Wild West Central: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chapter 34; Taking Care of the Baby
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chapter 34
A ton of people head to the cave once they hear the news. But they discover that Injun Joe is dead... Tom is relieved, of course. Many people come to the funeral, and leave sastisfied (sp?).
Later on, Tom and Huck get together to discuss the still-missing treasure. Tom reveals that he has discovered the location of the treasure... the same cave he, Becky, and Injun Joe were trapped in!!! The boys pack up, and go to dig up the treasure.
It takes some time, smarts, and digging, but the boys eventually find the treasure. They put the treasure into bags to make it easier to carry, and head back to town. Tom grabs a wagon there, and they hide the treasure in the wagon, even covering it with old rags!
But as they pass the old Welshman's house, the dude runs out to get them. He rushes them to Widow Douglas' house, dragging the boys' wagon with them. All of them end up in a fancy-affair party, but the boys have no idea what's going on.
And neither do I! It's obviously a party of some sort, and the boys are important somehow. But other than that... I don't really have a clue what the heck is going on.
That's a nice part on Mark Twain. Plus, this "cliffhanger" is a good trick employed by Mr. Twain. It makes you want to stay, and figure out what the heck is going on.
We had another good scene. It was where Mark Twain was describing how the drop of water had been dropping for ages, and would for many more. He questions whether or not it had been dripping to be solely Injun Joe's water source, and whether or not it would have some other big purpose in ages to come. It was just a very good scene.
Wild West Central
Taking Care of the Baby
Once the gung-ho about the child's birth is done, it's time to actually take care of the child! There is much joy in this as well... but a lot of dread to boot. There was often a high death rate after birth.
There were also a lot of issues and fights. One was whether or not to breastfeed the child, or to use bottles. A mother's milk often proved to be the best, since cow's milk often had germs and poisonous stuff in it. But some women believed that breastfeeding made one look old, and they still cared about fashion. And sometimes a mother's milk had problems of its own.
Medicines was a big problem in the Wild West too. There were next to none there! So everything else was used... herbs, remedies, and other stuff. A good thing was that it helped build family bonds, but whether or not the "cures" and "medicines" would actually work was an iffy thing.
Being a Wild West mother was exhausting. The mom needed help constantly. And she got it everywhere... family, friends, and neighbors would team up to help the mom. But even then, the mother would have to think of ways to calm down the child... including ways which we now know is dangerous, like using opium!
There were concerns about the private areas in those days. Mothers would panic over their children masterubating (sp?), especially since it was looked down upon even in adulthood. Circumscioun (sp?) was a major question in those days, though not really for the Jewish folk. But even Jews would delay the tradition to make sure that the ritual was done properly.
A ton of people head to the cave once they hear the news. But they discover that Injun Joe is dead... Tom is relieved, of course. Many people come to the funeral, and leave sastisfied (sp?).
Later on, Tom and Huck get together to discuss the still-missing treasure. Tom reveals that he has discovered the location of the treasure... the same cave he, Becky, and Injun Joe were trapped in!!! The boys pack up, and go to dig up the treasure.
It takes some time, smarts, and digging, but the boys eventually find the treasure. They put the treasure into bags to make it easier to carry, and head back to town. Tom grabs a wagon there, and they hide the treasure in the wagon, even covering it with old rags!
But as they pass the old Welshman's house, the dude runs out to get them. He rushes them to Widow Douglas' house, dragging the boys' wagon with them. All of them end up in a fancy-affair party, but the boys have no idea what's going on.
And neither do I! It's obviously a party of some sort, and the boys are important somehow. But other than that... I don't really have a clue what the heck is going on.
That's a nice part on Mark Twain. Plus, this "cliffhanger" is a good trick employed by Mr. Twain. It makes you want to stay, and figure out what the heck is going on.
We had another good scene. It was where Mark Twain was describing how the drop of water had been dropping for ages, and would for many more. He questions whether or not it had been dripping to be solely Injun Joe's water source, and whether or not it would have some other big purpose in ages to come. It was just a very good scene.
Wild West Central
Taking Care of the Baby
Once the gung-ho about the child's birth is done, it's time to actually take care of the child! There is much joy in this as well... but a lot of dread to boot. There was often a high death rate after birth.
There were also a lot of issues and fights. One was whether or not to breastfeed the child, or to use bottles. A mother's milk often proved to be the best, since cow's milk often had germs and poisonous stuff in it. But some women believed that breastfeeding made one look old, and they still cared about fashion. And sometimes a mother's milk had problems of its own.
Medicines was a big problem in the Wild West too. There were next to none there! So everything else was used... herbs, remedies, and other stuff. A good thing was that it helped build family bonds, but whether or not the "cures" and "medicines" would actually work was an iffy thing.
Being a Wild West mother was exhausting. The mom needed help constantly. And she got it everywhere... family, friends, and neighbors would team up to help the mom. But even then, the mother would have to think of ways to calm down the child... including ways which we now know is dangerous, like using opium!
There were concerns about the private areas in those days. Mothers would panic over their children masterubating (sp?), especially since it was looked down upon even in adulthood. Circumscioun (sp?) was a major question in those days, though not really for the Jewish folk. But even Jews would delay the tradition to make sure that the ritual was done properly.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Literature Central: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chapters 30-33
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chapters 30-33
Becky and her family return home. She gets the picnic she promised a while ago up and going. She tells her mom that she'll stay the night with the Harpers, and then everyone goes. On the way, Tom convinces Becky to change her plans, and stay at Widow Douglas' house instead.
Everyone has a good time at the picnic. They play in the woods, eat, and then go exploring a cave with vast mazes in it. And then all the kids go home tired.
Huck hears the ferry-boat carrying the kids come home. He spots Injun Joe and his companion moving off with a bundle a few hours later. Huck follows them until they aren't far from Widow Douglas' house. Then Huck hears Injun Joe's plan for revenge... he's going to hurt Widow Douglas to take revenge on her dead husband!
Huck quickly runs off to the closest home, which is of an old Welshman and his sons. He makes them promise not to reveal him as the news-teller, and then tells them how Widow Douglas is in danger. The family goes off to save her.
Huck follows for a bit, but stops before re-entering the woods. He hears gun-shot explosions and a cry. And then he runs off in fear.
He comes back to the old Welshman's place in the morning to hear the story. The family tried to sneak up on the bad guys, but the old Welshman sneezed. The family tried to capture Injun Joe & Companion, but they got away. The Welshman & Co. picked up the bundle, however... and it was only a bundle of burgular (sp?) tools.
The old Welshman's sons go to join the authorities in catching Injun Joe and his companion. While they are alone, Huck is given breakfast, and the two talk. Huck doesn't tell the old Welshman the whole truth, but the old Welshman manages to get that the Spaniard is really Injun Joe!
Then a bunch of crowds come to figure out what happened. The old Welshman keeps Huck's secret, but starts a curiousity of "who told him about the danger"? He tells the story over and over again to the people who show up.
Things soon get hectic. Tom and Becky are discovered missing! Everyone is thrown into a panic and upset states. Kids are questioned, but no one even remembers seeing them on the ferry-boat on the return home.
People go to the cave to search it. For days, there are no positive signs of the children. Hope begins to disappear, and people begin to stop searching.
What did happened to Tom and Becky? Chapter 32 covers this. The two went off exploring when a game of hide-and-seek stopped being fun to them. Tom discovered a natural staircase behind a waterfall, and the duo went down to explore.
They have fun for a while, even remembering to mark their paths. But they have a bad run-in with a bunch of bats. They soon reach a subterrainean (sp?) lake, and decide to get out. But they don't know the way out!
Soon, the kids become hopelessly lost. They find a place with a small stream which becomes their "headquarters" of sorts while they're stuck. Tom starts exploring side-tunnels off of this place.
Problems arise though. The kids' food and light runs out, and they loose hope. But that's not the worst problem... Tom spots Injun Joe in the cave!!!
Tom eventually finds a way out. The kids get out, and get picked up by some folks in a skiff. They sleep at the skiff-folks' place, and then are taken home in the middle of the night.
Tom and Becky take a couple of days to recover. And they aren't the only ones in need of recovery... Huck fell ill the day the kids were discovered missing. Tom goes to visit him very day after he finds out and is allowed to visit his friend.
One day, on the way to visit Huck, Tom stops to check on Becky first. He learns that Judge Thatcher had the cave's door triple-locked and covered with some sort of iron, and that the Judge keeps the keys. Tom freaks out, and when he can talk again, he reveals that Injun Joe is in that cave!!!
Finally! Tom finally tells a grown-up where Injun Joe is! That was a good and smart thing to do, though he should have done it sooner.
But why did he tell them now? Up to this point, he kept silent because of greed for that treasure. And yet, he just rattled when Judge Thatcher tells him that the cave's door has been locked up. The treasure, or desire for it, wasn't mentioned in this scene. So the reason for Tom's sudden rattling is unclear.
The cave sounded like an amazing place. The thought of a vast maze, with a second level of mazes, sounds cool and amazing. And there is the crystal pool which sounds pretty neat...
However, it sounds like an absolute terrifying place to get lost! Mark Twain did a good job in that sense. He relayed the kids' terror very well.
He also did a good job with relaying the hopelessness and desperation. I liked how Becky was even ready to risk the bats again, just as long as they got the right way out! That was so human and realistic!
Becky shouldn't have changed her mind about where she was staying. She told her mom she was staying at the Harpers, and that's where she should have stayed! While it didn't matter in the long run, if she hadn't gotten lost in the cave, she would have spared her mother some unneeded worry if she had!
Tom should have let Huck know he wasn't planning on spending the night at his house. After all, they had agreed to a plan. It would have been only fair to let Huck know that he wouldn't be keeping his part of the bargain, and that things would have to be different for that night.
Mark Twain did a wonderful job at the suspense and confusion in the panic-over-and-search-for-the-missing-children scenes. Even I didn't know where the children were! It made things perfectly confusing. Normally, I would condemn confusion in a book, but this was really the only set of scenes in this book where it worked for the book's advantages.
And Mark Twain then made a very reasonable explanation. The reason the kids couldn't be found was because they were in a lower level, and its entrance was hidden by a waterfall. And the cave was vast, and had a ton of tunnels and entrances as well.
But it is a little confusing. The men were searching the cave top to bottom. And it sounded very easy to reach the waterfall. So why didn't the men find the waterfall, or the stairs behind it? That was a little confusing.
Becky and her family return home. She gets the picnic she promised a while ago up and going. She tells her mom that she'll stay the night with the Harpers, and then everyone goes. On the way, Tom convinces Becky to change her plans, and stay at Widow Douglas' house instead.
Everyone has a good time at the picnic. They play in the woods, eat, and then go exploring a cave with vast mazes in it. And then all the kids go home tired.
Huck hears the ferry-boat carrying the kids come home. He spots Injun Joe and his companion moving off with a bundle a few hours later. Huck follows them until they aren't far from Widow Douglas' house. Then Huck hears Injun Joe's plan for revenge... he's going to hurt Widow Douglas to take revenge on her dead husband!
Huck quickly runs off to the closest home, which is of an old Welshman and his sons. He makes them promise not to reveal him as the news-teller, and then tells them how Widow Douglas is in danger. The family goes off to save her.
Huck follows for a bit, but stops before re-entering the woods. He hears gun-shot explosions and a cry. And then he runs off in fear.
He comes back to the old Welshman's place in the morning to hear the story. The family tried to sneak up on the bad guys, but the old Welshman sneezed. The family tried to capture Injun Joe & Companion, but they got away. The Welshman & Co. picked up the bundle, however... and it was only a bundle of burgular (sp?) tools.
The old Welshman's sons go to join the authorities in catching Injun Joe and his companion. While they are alone, Huck is given breakfast, and the two talk. Huck doesn't tell the old Welshman the whole truth, but the old Welshman manages to get that the Spaniard is really Injun Joe!
Then a bunch of crowds come to figure out what happened. The old Welshman keeps Huck's secret, but starts a curiousity of "who told him about the danger"? He tells the story over and over again to the people who show up.
Things soon get hectic. Tom and Becky are discovered missing! Everyone is thrown into a panic and upset states. Kids are questioned, but no one even remembers seeing them on the ferry-boat on the return home.
People go to the cave to search it. For days, there are no positive signs of the children. Hope begins to disappear, and people begin to stop searching.
What did happened to Tom and Becky? Chapter 32 covers this. The two went off exploring when a game of hide-and-seek stopped being fun to them. Tom discovered a natural staircase behind a waterfall, and the duo went down to explore.
They have fun for a while, even remembering to mark their paths. But they have a bad run-in with a bunch of bats. They soon reach a subterrainean (sp?) lake, and decide to get out. But they don't know the way out!
Soon, the kids become hopelessly lost. They find a place with a small stream which becomes their "headquarters" of sorts while they're stuck. Tom starts exploring side-tunnels off of this place.
Problems arise though. The kids' food and light runs out, and they loose hope. But that's not the worst problem... Tom spots Injun Joe in the cave!!!
Tom eventually finds a way out. The kids get out, and get picked up by some folks in a skiff. They sleep at the skiff-folks' place, and then are taken home in the middle of the night.
Tom and Becky take a couple of days to recover. And they aren't the only ones in need of recovery... Huck fell ill the day the kids were discovered missing. Tom goes to visit him very day after he finds out and is allowed to visit his friend.
One day, on the way to visit Huck, Tom stops to check on Becky first. He learns that Judge Thatcher had the cave's door triple-locked and covered with some sort of iron, and that the Judge keeps the keys. Tom freaks out, and when he can talk again, he reveals that Injun Joe is in that cave!!!
Finally! Tom finally tells a grown-up where Injun Joe is! That was a good and smart thing to do, though he should have done it sooner.
But why did he tell them now? Up to this point, he kept silent because of greed for that treasure. And yet, he just rattled when Judge Thatcher tells him that the cave's door has been locked up. The treasure, or desire for it, wasn't mentioned in this scene. So the reason for Tom's sudden rattling is unclear.
The cave sounded like an amazing place. The thought of a vast maze, with a second level of mazes, sounds cool and amazing. And there is the crystal pool which sounds pretty neat...
However, it sounds like an absolute terrifying place to get lost! Mark Twain did a good job in that sense. He relayed the kids' terror very well.
He also did a good job with relaying the hopelessness and desperation. I liked how Becky was even ready to risk the bats again, just as long as they got the right way out! That was so human and realistic!
Becky shouldn't have changed her mind about where she was staying. She told her mom she was staying at the Harpers, and that's where she should have stayed! While it didn't matter in the long run, if she hadn't gotten lost in the cave, she would have spared her mother some unneeded worry if she had!
Tom should have let Huck know he wasn't planning on spending the night at his house. After all, they had agreed to a plan. It would have been only fair to let Huck know that he wouldn't be keeping his part of the bargain, and that things would have to be different for that night.
Mark Twain did a wonderful job at the suspense and confusion in the panic-over-and-search-for-the-missing-children scenes. Even I didn't know where the children were! It made things perfectly confusing. Normally, I would condemn confusion in a book, but this was really the only set of scenes in this book where it worked for the book's advantages.
And Mark Twain then made a very reasonable explanation. The reason the kids couldn't be found was because they were in a lower level, and its entrance was hidden by a waterfall. And the cave was vast, and had a ton of tunnels and entrances as well.
But it is a little confusing. The men were searching the cave top to bottom. And it sounded very easy to reach the waterfall. So why didn't the men find the waterfall, or the stairs behind it? That was a little confusing.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Literature And Wild West Central: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chapter 29; More On Pregnancy and Childbirth
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chapter 29
The boys watch the target tavern for a few days, but never see someone looking like a Spaniard enter or leave the place. There is also no activity at the alley. The nights are also clear, so the boys can't break into the place.
Finally, a storm starts coming, making a dark night. Tom grabs an old latern (sp?) and a towel to mask it, and heads off to join Huck. Tom goes into the alley, and Huck waits. Tom takes a long time, and Huck becomes more and more afraid. Tom suddenly comes out and yells for Huck to run, and the boys take off.
Once they have taken shelter in a shed near an abandoned slaughterhouse, Tom then tells Huck that two of the keys didn't work, but made so much noise that he was afraid. Then Tom tried just turning the knob, and the door opened! And Injun Joe was sleeping right there! Tom grabbed his latern (sp?) and towel and ran away as fast as he could.
The boys then make a new plan. This time, Huck would watch the taverns at night until Injun Joe left. Then he would go get Tom, and the two would search the room while he was gone.
There was not a better opportunity to get Injun Joe caught than right in this chapter!!! The boys should have told the local authorities where Injun Joe was, and that he was drunk! Then the authorities would have caught Injun Joe, and the boys would never have had to worry about Injun Joe, or him trying to kill them (or just Tom), ever again!
This book showed something that I feel is very human indeed. Huck mentions a slave that he knows that likes Huck. Why? Because Huck doesn't act like this slave is lower than he is! That is a very natural thing.
But I don't like Huck's attitude. He doesn't want this fact getting out, because he does it only because he's hungry, and would not care to do it otherwise. I get that this was the memo back in the old days, but I still don't like it.
Wild West Central
More On Pregnancy and Childbirth
Pregnancy could be a very scary thing. But things were extremely worse because of the lack of knowledge in those days. There were plenty of times when the symptoms of pregnancy hit... but the women wouldn't know that it was due to pregnancy! And they weren't always so eager to talk to other women about their problems, so they didn't always find out right away that their problems were due to pregnancy.
Pregnancy hit women in different ways back in those days. Some women were hit hard, and had a lot of trouble. Some women were not hit so hard, and were able to go along their daily lives.
The attitudes going right up to delivery were different too. Some women dreaded the moment of childbirth, and were sure that they were going to die. But some women were able to have some fun right before their child was born.
Childbirth happened in many different places. In fact, it happened in most of the places in the Wild West, including crowded, cold, and not-so-nice places! This is not because of cleanliness or preference at all... childbirth just happened, and it just happened wherever the pregnant woman happened to be at the time.
Midwives were important back in those days. But midwives often came to their trade by accident, and there were quite a few unofficial midwives in those days. And the midwives often didn't want to get paid for their services.
With the lack of doctors, help was grabbed whenever it could. And help came from many different sources... neighbors would often come to help the women, and not just in childbirth! The children would be cleaned, and all the women's duties would be covered by the neighbors.
The story is similar with medicines. Real medicines didn't really get out into the Wild West in those days. So the people living there used other stuff.
Childbirth and pregnancy were a big source of gossip, especially in small towns. Every day, every detail of the pregnancy was shared. When the child was born, every detail was shared among the folks of the town. When the women was actually delivering, sometimes the neighbors and folks went over to the house and made a big feast!
The boys watch the target tavern for a few days, but never see someone looking like a Spaniard enter or leave the place. There is also no activity at the alley. The nights are also clear, so the boys can't break into the place.
Finally, a storm starts coming, making a dark night. Tom grabs an old latern (sp?) and a towel to mask it, and heads off to join Huck. Tom goes into the alley, and Huck waits. Tom takes a long time, and Huck becomes more and more afraid. Tom suddenly comes out and yells for Huck to run, and the boys take off.
Once they have taken shelter in a shed near an abandoned slaughterhouse, Tom then tells Huck that two of the keys didn't work, but made so much noise that he was afraid. Then Tom tried just turning the knob, and the door opened! And Injun Joe was sleeping right there! Tom grabbed his latern (sp?) and towel and ran away as fast as he could.
The boys then make a new plan. This time, Huck would watch the taverns at night until Injun Joe left. Then he would go get Tom, and the two would search the room while he was gone.
There was not a better opportunity to get Injun Joe caught than right in this chapter!!! The boys should have told the local authorities where Injun Joe was, and that he was drunk! Then the authorities would have caught Injun Joe, and the boys would never have had to worry about Injun Joe, or him trying to kill them (or just Tom), ever again!
This book showed something that I feel is very human indeed. Huck mentions a slave that he knows that likes Huck. Why? Because Huck doesn't act like this slave is lower than he is! That is a very natural thing.
But I don't like Huck's attitude. He doesn't want this fact getting out, because he does it only because he's hungry, and would not care to do it otherwise. I get that this was the memo back in the old days, but I still don't like it.
Wild West Central
More On Pregnancy and Childbirth
Pregnancy could be a very scary thing. But things were extremely worse because of the lack of knowledge in those days. There were plenty of times when the symptoms of pregnancy hit... but the women wouldn't know that it was due to pregnancy! And they weren't always so eager to talk to other women about their problems, so they didn't always find out right away that their problems were due to pregnancy.
Pregnancy hit women in different ways back in those days. Some women were hit hard, and had a lot of trouble. Some women were not hit so hard, and were able to go along their daily lives.
The attitudes going right up to delivery were different too. Some women dreaded the moment of childbirth, and were sure that they were going to die. But some women were able to have some fun right before their child was born.
Childbirth happened in many different places. In fact, it happened in most of the places in the Wild West, including crowded, cold, and not-so-nice places! This is not because of cleanliness or preference at all... childbirth just happened, and it just happened wherever the pregnant woman happened to be at the time.
Midwives were important back in those days. But midwives often came to their trade by accident, and there were quite a few unofficial midwives in those days. And the midwives often didn't want to get paid for their services.
With the lack of doctors, help was grabbed whenever it could. And help came from many different sources... neighbors would often come to help the women, and not just in childbirth! The children would be cleaned, and all the women's duties would be covered by the neighbors.
The story is similar with medicines. Real medicines didn't really get out into the Wild West in those days. So the people living there used other stuff.
Childbirth and pregnancy were a big source of gossip, especially in small towns. Every day, every detail of the pregnancy was shared. When the child was born, every detail was shared among the folks of the town. When the women was actually delivering, sometimes the neighbors and folks went over to the house and made a big feast!
Monday, March 4, 2013
Literature Central: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chapters 25-28
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chapters 25-28
These chapters begin after the trial. Tom is once again a hero of the town. His days are extremely happy, and spent in joy. But his nights are filled with terror and nightmares, because of his fear of Injun Joe. Huck is going through this same problem.
Soon, Tom gets a desire many boys experience... the desire to go and dig up treasure! Tom looks for companions, but a good deal of his friends and chosen playmates aren't around. Tom manages to "recruit" Huckleberry for the job. Tom has to explain a few things to Huck, but Huck's up and raring to go.
They first do some digging under a dead tree with a limb sticking out. They even go back to their chosen spot at night so they can see where the limb's shadow lands at midnight so they can dig there. But they have no luck.
Their next target is a local house that's supposedly haunted. But the next day, they remember it's Friday, which is considered a bad-luck day to do major things. And Huck had a dream which supposedly predicts that trouble is around. These things make the boys decide to put off their expedition off until the next day. Instead, Tom teaches Huck how to play Robin Hood, and the duo play for the rest of the day.
The next day, the boys approach the haunted house, and go inside. They're scared at first, but eventually warm up to the place. They even go upstairs to explore!
Then trouble brews. Two men come to the house. One of them is supposedly a deaf Spaniard who's stupid too, who's been hanging around the town lately. However, it turns out to be Injun Joe!!!
The boys are terrified. They hear the men talk about their next job, and how about they're heading for Texas afterwards. They see through their peepholes in knots in the floor's wood Injun Joe's companion take out a bag with a ton of money. Then they watch as Injun Joe digs up a box full of a lot of money!
The men stay pretty most of the day at the haunted house, mostly sleeping. Tom tries to use this advantage for escape. But the floor gives off a loud creak when he steps, so he goes back to laying on the floor. He can't get back up, due to fear.
Then the men awake while the sun descends. Injun Joe remembers that some of the tools used to dig up the box were found in the house, and had fresh dirt on them (these tools were the boys'). He tries to go upstairs to investigate, but instead falls through the old and messed-up staircase.
The men then leave. Soon afterwards, the boys soon leave as well. They think about following the men, but decide that they've had enough. So they just go on home.
Tom has a rough night. When he wakes the next morning, he's unsure whether or not the whole adventure is a dream. But his conversation with Huck kills that hope.
The duo want the treasure box. They heard a little talk of where Injun Joe took it, but it's mostly just some clues. Tom investigates the town a little, and discovers a possible room at a tavern that might be the spot.
Then the duo make a plan to steal as many keys as possible, and meet at the room's back door. The plan is to try and use those keys to open the door, and Huck is to keep watch for Injun Joe. However, if Huck was to see Injun Joe at night, before the duo met up at the room's back door, he was to follow Injun Joe to the spot the men were talking about.
Once again, the boys made a dumb move. They should have told someone about seeing Injun Joe and his companion, and about the plot of Injun Joe's next move! And since they feared it was Tom who was the next possible victim, that would have been a super-wise move!
The boys' fear made a lot of sense. Injun Joe was a scary man, and they had seen him murder a man. It was totally reasonable that he haunted their dreams, and that they were terrified that Tom may be the next target.
I kind of like one twist that Mark Twain put in. I don't like the level of superstition that existed in those days. But it worked to the boys' advantage this time... Mark Twain puts in clearly that the boys would have been killed if they had indeed gone to the haunted house on Friday! That twist is a clever and cool one on the part of the author.
Tom was clever and smart in this chapter. He didn't need a map or a piece of paper with clues on it to know the best places to look for treasure. He realized that there were certain places that treasure was hidden every time, and figured that they would be the best places to dig.
However, he didn't think of something. There were a ton of places, in his theory, where the treasure could be hidden. If he had a map, piece of paper with clues, a story, or something to help him, he would have dug up a treasure quickly, and not only save time, but also spare him and Huck a lot of work.
There is a big blank, however. Why hasn't been Aunt Polly been showing up? From the rest of the book, I would think she would be upset with Tom being away all day. But there's no sure explanation for her sudden "disappearance" for this little bit.
These chapters begin after the trial. Tom is once again a hero of the town. His days are extremely happy, and spent in joy. But his nights are filled with terror and nightmares, because of his fear of Injun Joe. Huck is going through this same problem.
Soon, Tom gets a desire many boys experience... the desire to go and dig up treasure! Tom looks for companions, but a good deal of his friends and chosen playmates aren't around. Tom manages to "recruit" Huckleberry for the job. Tom has to explain a few things to Huck, but Huck's up and raring to go.
They first do some digging under a dead tree with a limb sticking out. They even go back to their chosen spot at night so they can see where the limb's shadow lands at midnight so they can dig there. But they have no luck.
Their next target is a local house that's supposedly haunted. But the next day, they remember it's Friday, which is considered a bad-luck day to do major things. And Huck had a dream which supposedly predicts that trouble is around. These things make the boys decide to put off their expedition off until the next day. Instead, Tom teaches Huck how to play Robin Hood, and the duo play for the rest of the day.
The next day, the boys approach the haunted house, and go inside. They're scared at first, but eventually warm up to the place. They even go upstairs to explore!
Then trouble brews. Two men come to the house. One of them is supposedly a deaf Spaniard who's stupid too, who's been hanging around the town lately. However, it turns out to be Injun Joe!!!
The boys are terrified. They hear the men talk about their next job, and how about they're heading for Texas afterwards. They see through their peepholes in knots in the floor's wood Injun Joe's companion take out a bag with a ton of money. Then they watch as Injun Joe digs up a box full of a lot of money!
The men stay pretty most of the day at the haunted house, mostly sleeping. Tom tries to use this advantage for escape. But the floor gives off a loud creak when he steps, so he goes back to laying on the floor. He can't get back up, due to fear.
Then the men awake while the sun descends. Injun Joe remembers that some of the tools used to dig up the box were found in the house, and had fresh dirt on them (these tools were the boys'). He tries to go upstairs to investigate, but instead falls through the old and messed-up staircase.
The men then leave. Soon afterwards, the boys soon leave as well. They think about following the men, but decide that they've had enough. So they just go on home.
Tom has a rough night. When he wakes the next morning, he's unsure whether or not the whole adventure is a dream. But his conversation with Huck kills that hope.
The duo want the treasure box. They heard a little talk of where Injun Joe took it, but it's mostly just some clues. Tom investigates the town a little, and discovers a possible room at a tavern that might be the spot.
Then the duo make a plan to steal as many keys as possible, and meet at the room's back door. The plan is to try and use those keys to open the door, and Huck is to keep watch for Injun Joe. However, if Huck was to see Injun Joe at night, before the duo met up at the room's back door, he was to follow Injun Joe to the spot the men were talking about.
Once again, the boys made a dumb move. They should have told someone about seeing Injun Joe and his companion, and about the plot of Injun Joe's next move! And since they feared it was Tom who was the next possible victim, that would have been a super-wise move!
The boys' fear made a lot of sense. Injun Joe was a scary man, and they had seen him murder a man. It was totally reasonable that he haunted their dreams, and that they were terrified that Tom may be the next target.
I kind of like one twist that Mark Twain put in. I don't like the level of superstition that existed in those days. But it worked to the boys' advantage this time... Mark Twain puts in clearly that the boys would have been killed if they had indeed gone to the haunted house on Friday! That twist is a clever and cool one on the part of the author.
Tom was clever and smart in this chapter. He didn't need a map or a piece of paper with clues on it to know the best places to look for treasure. He realized that there were certain places that treasure was hidden every time, and figured that they would be the best places to dig.
However, he didn't think of something. There were a ton of places, in his theory, where the treasure could be hidden. If he had a map, piece of paper with clues, a story, or something to help him, he would have dug up a treasure quickly, and not only save time, but also spare him and Huck a lot of work.
There is a big blank, however. Why hasn't been Aunt Polly been showing up? From the rest of the book, I would think she would be upset with Tom being away all day. But there's no sure explanation for her sudden "disappearance" for this little bit.
Friday, March 1, 2013
Literature and Wild West Central: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chapters 23-24; and: Childbirth--Both Wonderful and Terrible
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chapters 23-24
Chapter 23 starts off when Tom tries to join a club with a cool uniform. But he has to make a promise not to do certain bad things (like smoking and drinking) while he's a member. But the temptation and want of doing those things becomes next to unbearable. Only the hope of wearing his uniform keeps him from resigning. However, the Fourth of the July is too far away.
Tom's only hope is a super-sick justice of the peace, who may die soon. When he does, Tom can wear his uniform at the funeral. But the judge gets better, and Tom resigns. And then the judge dies on the night of Tom's resignation! The club makes Tom envious, and Tom is upset at the judge. He promises not to trust any male so much again.
Chapter 23 then describes the vacation as one big failure. There are a few fun things, mainly parties, but the stretches in-between are boring and painful! Even Fourth of July is a failure, since it rains very hard, and the visiting Senator is not what everyone thinks he is.
Tom gets the measles. He is very sick for two weeks, and does notice the happenings of the world around him. When he's finally ready to get up and walk about, he discovers that everyone but him has had a religious re-awakening, even the kids! Everyone is doing religious stuff, even Huckleberry!
There's a terrible storm that night. Tom is sure that he made someone up high so frustrated and tired that he's sent a storm to take care of him. Tom is terrified. Luckily, the storm passes, and Tom's still safe. He thinks about repenting and reforming, but then decides to wait.
When Tom is given the okay by the doctors, he goes out. But he is scared and miserable, thinking he has no friends. He soon finds Joe and Huckleberry eating stolen melons, however. Turns out that the reform didn't last too long for them!
Chapter 24 returns to the murder plot. There is finally going to be a court. It's the talk of the town, and everyone is set and sure that the murderer is Muff Potter. They are also saying that he has been a villain for a long time, and that he should be hanged.
Tom can't bear to hear the talk, since it causes major guilt attacks. But it's everywhere, and he can't escape it. He eventually goes to talk to Huckleberry Finn, and finds out that he's been going through the same problem.
Both of them want to help Muff Potter, but they know they can't. If they tell, they're sure Injun Joe would kill them. And helping Muff Potter escape is out of the question... he'll only get caught again, and Tom heard that he'll be lynched if that happens!
The two make a visit to the jail, and slip Muff Potter some tobacco and matches. Usually, this helps this consciences. But not this time... Muff Potter talks to them, and it makes them only feel guilty.
The duo stick around the courthouse. Neither of them want to be there, but they are drawn to it. They avoid each other, and fight the impulse to go inside.
The day of the trail comes. The witnesses are called to the stand, but none are questioned by Muff Potter's lawyer. Things look hopeless for Muff Potter.
And then Tom Sawyer is called to the stand. He needs a little encouragement, but he tells what really happened out at the graveyard. The only detail ommitted (sp?) is that Huckleberry Finn was with him, but the lawyer says that he will be revealed at the right time.
Injun Joe has been at that trial, and he sticks around for Tom's story. He gives a start when Tom reveals that he and his then-unnamed companion were very close, but it's a very slight jump, and barely noticeable. He gives no major signs that prove he did it for a lot of the story. However, when Tom reaches the part about Muff Potter being knocked out and Injun Joe jumping while holding the knife, Injun Joe jumps through the window and escapes.
I'm glad that Tom finally spoke up. But there are quite a few unanswered questions that could have been cleared up in this part of the book. For example, why did Tom pick now to tell everyone? I'm guessing that guilt, and the fact that Muff Potter's blood would be on his hands if he didn't were major players, but Mark Twain doesn't make it very clear yet.
And then there's the question of the lawyer. Was he just being heartless when he denied the chance to ask any witnesses any questions? Or was Tom's story his plan pretty much the whole time? That much wasn't made clear either.
And then there's the question of when Tom came saying he knew the story. It wasn't at the very beginning, because the lawyer mentions that he had told the judge that he had told him that he was going to do a different plan. But we never know that Tom even tells the lawyer or whoever he told until near the end of the chapter, when the lawyer calls him up to the stand. So the question of when he came up is a big one.
The religious revival scenes did not make great sense in one part. It's the fact that Huckleberry, local thief and all-around trouble-maker, was being religious. The rest of the town made sense, because that's what happens in a religious revival. But the rest of the book makes pretty clear that Huckleberry is a thief and a bad boy, so why was he being religious?
Wild West Central
Childbirth--Both Wonderful and Terrible
In the Wild West, there were a lot of children born. Women sometimes started giving birth as early as being 15 years old, and they kept on going. So many children were born in so short a time, that there were groups of uncles, aunts, nieces, and nephews that would be playmates, and a women might take care of both her own child and a grandchild at the same time!!!
Childbirth was always a moment of great joy. There was often so much joy at a childbirth that all other troubles seemed to just disappear. Even the already-born kids caught the joy, and were very happy to have a new member of the family to come along.
However, childbirth was also dangerous in those days... as well as pregnancy. Illnesses were the culprit. Germs ran rampant in the Wild West in general, but they caused a lot of deaths of both children and mothers. In fact, there were so many deaths due to pregnancy and childbirth, that women were actually afraid when they were pregnant!
"What about the doctors?", you might ask. There were not many official doctors back in those days. Most of the help came from different small-time people that weren't official doctors. In fact, a lot of their help were silly superstitious "cures".
People were very superstitious in those days in many ways, including during pregnancy and childbirth. They feared defects, and there were supposedly many ways that a mother could "make sure" that her child had a defect or mark of some kind, or even lead to their deaths! A lot were silly things things, like looking at a beggar who can't walk, or riding a wagon or automobile. But these silly beliefs were believed in readily in those days, and many women panicked and were afraid.
There were some beliefs that weren't so panicky. For example, there were supposedly ways that one could change the incoming baby's gender. But this belief wasn't acted on very much. Children were an asset back in those days, no matter the gender, so no one truly cared if the baby was a boy or girl.
Chapter 23 starts off when Tom tries to join a club with a cool uniform. But he has to make a promise not to do certain bad things (like smoking and drinking) while he's a member. But the temptation and want of doing those things becomes next to unbearable. Only the hope of wearing his uniform keeps him from resigning. However, the Fourth of the July is too far away.
Tom's only hope is a super-sick justice of the peace, who may die soon. When he does, Tom can wear his uniform at the funeral. But the judge gets better, and Tom resigns. And then the judge dies on the night of Tom's resignation! The club makes Tom envious, and Tom is upset at the judge. He promises not to trust any male so much again.
Chapter 23 then describes the vacation as one big failure. There are a few fun things, mainly parties, but the stretches in-between are boring and painful! Even Fourth of July is a failure, since it rains very hard, and the visiting Senator is not what everyone thinks he is.
Tom gets the measles. He is very sick for two weeks, and does notice the happenings of the world around him. When he's finally ready to get up and walk about, he discovers that everyone but him has had a religious re-awakening, even the kids! Everyone is doing religious stuff, even Huckleberry!
There's a terrible storm that night. Tom is sure that he made someone up high so frustrated and tired that he's sent a storm to take care of him. Tom is terrified. Luckily, the storm passes, and Tom's still safe. He thinks about repenting and reforming, but then decides to wait.
When Tom is given the okay by the doctors, he goes out. But he is scared and miserable, thinking he has no friends. He soon finds Joe and Huckleberry eating stolen melons, however. Turns out that the reform didn't last too long for them!
Chapter 24 returns to the murder plot. There is finally going to be a court. It's the talk of the town, and everyone is set and sure that the murderer is Muff Potter. They are also saying that he has been a villain for a long time, and that he should be hanged.
Tom can't bear to hear the talk, since it causes major guilt attacks. But it's everywhere, and he can't escape it. He eventually goes to talk to Huckleberry Finn, and finds out that he's been going through the same problem.
Both of them want to help Muff Potter, but they know they can't. If they tell, they're sure Injun Joe would kill them. And helping Muff Potter escape is out of the question... he'll only get caught again, and Tom heard that he'll be lynched if that happens!
The two make a visit to the jail, and slip Muff Potter some tobacco and matches. Usually, this helps this consciences. But not this time... Muff Potter talks to them, and it makes them only feel guilty.
The duo stick around the courthouse. Neither of them want to be there, but they are drawn to it. They avoid each other, and fight the impulse to go inside.
The day of the trail comes. The witnesses are called to the stand, but none are questioned by Muff Potter's lawyer. Things look hopeless for Muff Potter.
And then Tom Sawyer is called to the stand. He needs a little encouragement, but he tells what really happened out at the graveyard. The only detail ommitted (sp?) is that Huckleberry Finn was with him, but the lawyer says that he will be revealed at the right time.
Injun Joe has been at that trial, and he sticks around for Tom's story. He gives a start when Tom reveals that he and his then-unnamed companion were very close, but it's a very slight jump, and barely noticeable. He gives no major signs that prove he did it for a lot of the story. However, when Tom reaches the part about Muff Potter being knocked out and Injun Joe jumping while holding the knife, Injun Joe jumps through the window and escapes.
I'm glad that Tom finally spoke up. But there are quite a few unanswered questions that could have been cleared up in this part of the book. For example, why did Tom pick now to tell everyone? I'm guessing that guilt, and the fact that Muff Potter's blood would be on his hands if he didn't were major players, but Mark Twain doesn't make it very clear yet.
And then there's the question of the lawyer. Was he just being heartless when he denied the chance to ask any witnesses any questions? Or was Tom's story his plan pretty much the whole time? That much wasn't made clear either.
And then there's the question of when Tom came saying he knew the story. It wasn't at the very beginning, because the lawyer mentions that he had told the judge that he had told him that he was going to do a different plan. But we never know that Tom even tells the lawyer or whoever he told until near the end of the chapter, when the lawyer calls him up to the stand. So the question of when he came up is a big one.
The religious revival scenes did not make great sense in one part. It's the fact that Huckleberry, local thief and all-around trouble-maker, was being religious. The rest of the town made sense, because that's what happens in a religious revival. But the rest of the book makes pretty clear that Huckleberry is a thief and a bad boy, so why was he being religious?
Wild West Central
Childbirth--Both Wonderful and Terrible
In the Wild West, there were a lot of children born. Women sometimes started giving birth as early as being 15 years old, and they kept on going. So many children were born in so short a time, that there were groups of uncles, aunts, nieces, and nephews that would be playmates, and a women might take care of both her own child and a grandchild at the same time!!!
Childbirth was always a moment of great joy. There was often so much joy at a childbirth that all other troubles seemed to just disappear. Even the already-born kids caught the joy, and were very happy to have a new member of the family to come along.
However, childbirth was also dangerous in those days... as well as pregnancy. Illnesses were the culprit. Germs ran rampant in the Wild West in general, but they caused a lot of deaths of both children and mothers. In fact, there were so many deaths due to pregnancy and childbirth, that women were actually afraid when they were pregnant!
"What about the doctors?", you might ask. There were not many official doctors back in those days. Most of the help came from different small-time people that weren't official doctors. In fact, a lot of their help were silly superstitious "cures".
People were very superstitious in those days in many ways, including during pregnancy and childbirth. They feared defects, and there were supposedly many ways that a mother could "make sure" that her child had a defect or mark of some kind, or even lead to their deaths! A lot were silly things things, like looking at a beggar who can't walk, or riding a wagon or automobile. But these silly beliefs were believed in readily in those days, and many women panicked and were afraid.
There were some beliefs that weren't so panicky. For example, there were supposedly ways that one could change the incoming baby's gender. But this belief wasn't acted on very much. Children were an asset back in those days, no matter the gender, so no one truly cared if the baby was a boy or girl.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Literature Central: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chapters 18-22
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chapters 18-22
Chapters 18-21 begin in the village. Everyone is sad and miserable over the loss of the boys. Becky feels terrible for her attitude towards Tom, and misses him. The local boys talk about them, and give honors to the ones to speak to them.
Sunday finally comes, and everyone gathers in the church for the funeral. The minister gives a moving sermon which makes the boys seem wonderful. Everyone is so moved, and already so sad, they all start crying. Even the minister begins to cry!
Then the boys enter the church, and wait in the back until they were discovered. They had come close to the village last night, slept in the nearby woods, and then snuck (sp?) into the church, and slept in the gallery, which is never used. They listened to their own funeral before coming out.
There is much shock and joy at the discovery of them. A song is sung by everybody, and in a wonderful way. Back home, Tom gets a lot of love and punishment from Aunt Polly, but he can't tell which is the one showing the most love or gratitude.
The next day, everyone treats Tom kindly at breakfast. Aunt Polly makes Tom feel guilty by saying he didn't care for her by not even thinking of leaving a note. Tom tricks her, and says he had a dream the night he actually sneaked into her house. He tells her all the details, and makes her believe he had a vision. Aunt Polly is giddy, and goes to share with her friend, who is Joe's mom, while the kids head to school.
Tom gets a lot of glory. He acts like he doesn't care, but he loves the attention he's getting from everyone. He decides that he doesn't need Becky, but only glory.
He ignores Becky, and starts hanging with Amy Lawrence again. This begins a mini-"war" between Becky and Tom. Becky then ignores Tom, and hangs out with a boy named Albert (which I believe is the new boy introduced to us at the beginning of the book).
Tom feels jealous and angry. He retreats during noon for home. When Becky realizes that she doesn't have an audience, she dumps Albert, and leaves. Albert realizes he has been used, and decides to get even with Tom Sawyer. He sabotages Tom's spelling-book, and leaves. Becky witnesses this, but decides that she wants Tom to get punished as well. She keeps silent.
When Tom gets home, Aunt Polly is there and mad. She has learned from Joe's mom, who learned from Joe, that Tom had been there that night, and there had been no dream. Tom finally admits the truth, even admitting that he had been planning to leave a note to let her know that they were alive, and had just gone off to do pirate stuff.
Aunt Polly doesn't believe at first, but eventually lets Tom go. She then grabs his jacket which he had taken with him. She goes back and forth on deciding to look in it, not wanting to find out it was a lie. She eventually does, and finds the bark piece that had the note. She is very happy.
At school, Becky finds a chance to look at a mystery book that the school-master, Mr. Dobbins, keeps under heavy guard. This is a special opportunity, since every schoolchild wants to see that mystery book. Mr. Dobbins only reads it during certain times, and keeps it locked up otherwise.
Becky opens the drawer which happens to have the key in it this time. She looks through the book until she discovers a well-done picture of a human. To explain this picture, this book was an anatomy book. Mr. Dobbins had wanted to be a doctor, but being-poor issues made him only a school-master.
Tom walks in on her while she's looking at this picture. In her hurry to close the book, Becky rips half of the picture-page. She manages to get it into the drawer, but she's in big trouble. Like, get-whipped trouble! There's a mini-fight, and Becky runs off.
Tom, who was angry with Becky's behavior, decides at first to let her get whipped. But when he discovers his ruined book, he has troubles of his own. No one helps him, and he gets whipped. But he doesn't overly mind... he thinks he may have done it without thinking when he was playing. His denial was him only doing how things were done, and principle is what kept him from going back on his denial.
But the issue of the ripped page stood. Everyone notices Mr. Dobbins getting his book. Tom suddenly wants to save Becky, but can't think of something. He suddenly thinks of grabbing the book and running for it, but he hesitates... and then it's too late.
Mr. Dobbins goes on a warpath. His anger is so great, even the innocent are terrified! He asks the public in general who done it, and then starts asking individuals.
Tom knows that Becky is doomed. Whenever Mr. Dobbins does this, he finds the guilty party, no matter what. Tom wishes he can do something, but knows it's too late.
Suddenly, when Mr. Dobbins is asking Becky if she had done it, Tom gets an idea. He jumps up, and claims to have done the damage himself! Mr. Dobbins whips Tom, and makes him stay extra time at school.
Tom doesn't mind... he knows Becky will be waiting. Becky tells him everything that had happened. Tom begins to plan revenge against Albert, but he is happy to have Becky's eye once more.
Chapter 22 leaves Tom, and goes to more general matters. Vacation is coming, and Mr. Dobbins gets very mean and strict. A gathering called "'Examinations'" is coming, and Mr. Dobbins wants everything to be perfect. Unluckily, this means whippings and beatings for even small stuff. Only the ladies above 18 and big boys avoid these beatings, but it means that the boys who are small are treated terribly, and are kept afraid. These boys constantly try to get revenge, but Mr. Dobbins stays one step ahead. Finally, the boys go to the sign-painter's son for help with a master plan. The sign-painter's son hates Mr. Dobbins too, so he agrees.
Finally, the big gathering arrives. Everyone comes at eight o' clock that afternoon, and the ceremonies begin. First there are speeches and stuff from many people. There are two successful recitations before Tom comes up. He starts out fine, but then fails miserably. There are other school stuff.
And then there are the ladies' papers and stuff. All of them have sermons "pasted" on the end, which is an old tradition by this point. And a lot of subjects are the same as their parents' subjects had been a long time ago.
There are examples of a few. There is an excerpt from a boring one. One girl does a poem that's decent. And then there is a haunting paper, with a powerful sermon at the end which ends all hope for anyone not a Presbyterians. This one paper is the one which wins the first prize.
And then Mr. Dobbins begins drawing a picture of America to begin the geography class's portion of the gathering. He does a bad job, and does it over. Try #2 is not good either. Mr. Dobbins does it once more, and stays intent on the job, though he can hear the increasing muttering.
But he doesn't notice that a cat has been lowered above his head. The cat's head has been wrapped with a rag, so she can't meow. She is lowered by a string tied around her haunches. She tries to cut the string, and even claws empty air. But nothing helps her problem.
She is slowly lowered towards Mr. Dobbins's (sp?) head. She grabs and removes his wig, and then is brought up quickly. Light shines from Mr. Dobbins's (sp?) bald head. And it's not just because he's bald... the sign-painter's son gilded his head sometime earlier! Like anyone can expect, this breaks up the gathering.
I'm impressed with Mark Twain on something here. He put experts of papers in Chapter 22... that were not his own! He adds a note at the end of Chapter 22 that admits that he got the experts from a volume called Prose and Poetry by a Western Lady. I'm impressed that he readily admitted this.
However, I'm not sure on his reasoning of using these quotes. It was confusing in this matter. The only thing that I got was that these quotes were written in school-girl form. I think he then says that this makes them better than imagining it up, but I'm not entirely sure. He could have been more clear in that matter.
I can't believe Aunt Polly's wits here. It was obvious that Tom had sneaked into the house and eavesdropped, not that he had a dream! Even Sid could see that! Yet Aunt Polly needed someone to tell her that Tom had come into the house to see the obvious. And then, when Tom came home at noon, her eventually letting him go and forgiving him them didn't make sense. Why did she do that? There's not really a good reason, and it does not really seem to stick with her character. Aunt Polly is not a believable character all the time.
However, she can be believable sometimes. Her reaction when Tom came home at noon made sense. Her original disbelief at everything he said then made sense. And her reluctance to check his jacket's pockets--in case he had been telling her another lie--made sense as well. Aunt Polly is a character that could have been made better.
Then there's the mini-war. This shows nicely that kids can be mean, and don't always know what they want. But the scenes themselves were uncomfortable at times. And they didn't always make the greatest sense. And sometimes the reasoning didn't come right away--like why Tom was hanging with Amy Lawrence again--and made things confusing.
Mark Twain did better on the desires of the children. A lot of the desires in this area made a lot of sense, and were good reasons. However, there were desires in this area that did not make a lot of sense.
Tom is a confusing character. It stands out that he is very selfish, and basically lives on glory. That much was made clear after his return! Even Aunt Polly said that he was very selfish!
However, Tom sacrificed himself to save Becky. This was a very unselfish act. It seems pretty obvious that his crush and love were interfering, but this goes against his very-selfish nature. This makes things confusing, and me wondering what kind of character Tom really is.
In this respect, Mark Twain does a good job. Real people are pretty complicated. Mark Twain shows this clearly by his confusing character of Tom Sawyer.
Chapter 22 is my least favorite chapter in this book so far. Only a few parts were really enjoyable, and most of them were around the fact that Mr. Dobbins was being mean, and the whole revenge plan. There were a few other enjoyable parts, but they included Tom being a main character again (for a brief time), and the "prize winning speech". The poem, I think, was decent, and I did enjoy that part somewhat.
Mostly, however, that part of the book was boring. That area of the book was hard to get through, and had me tired of it for a good, long while. And the first speech mentioned was boring. The next two parts were at least decent (the prize-winning speech was better, but it's not my fave thing), but they didn't help much.
I wonder how shocked Mark Twain would be if he saw our modern schools. Religion was a bigger thing in schools back in the time he was writing in. He showed it had a big impact, especially since each girl's piece of writing had a sermon "glued" onto the end. He said he believed that the practice may never end... ho boy, was he sure wrong! It was probably a thought that seemed very much true in his time, but time's passage has changed things. Religious stuff like that isn't allowed anymore in our schools. It would probably be very shocking to Mark Twain, though it's a common fact of life today.
Chapters 18-21 begin in the village. Everyone is sad and miserable over the loss of the boys. Becky feels terrible for her attitude towards Tom, and misses him. The local boys talk about them, and give honors to the ones to speak to them.
Sunday finally comes, and everyone gathers in the church for the funeral. The minister gives a moving sermon which makes the boys seem wonderful. Everyone is so moved, and already so sad, they all start crying. Even the minister begins to cry!
Then the boys enter the church, and wait in the back until they were discovered. They had come close to the village last night, slept in the nearby woods, and then snuck (sp?) into the church, and slept in the gallery, which is never used. They listened to their own funeral before coming out.
There is much shock and joy at the discovery of them. A song is sung by everybody, and in a wonderful way. Back home, Tom gets a lot of love and punishment from Aunt Polly, but he can't tell which is the one showing the most love or gratitude.
The next day, everyone treats Tom kindly at breakfast. Aunt Polly makes Tom feel guilty by saying he didn't care for her by not even thinking of leaving a note. Tom tricks her, and says he had a dream the night he actually sneaked into her house. He tells her all the details, and makes her believe he had a vision. Aunt Polly is giddy, and goes to share with her friend, who is Joe's mom, while the kids head to school.
Tom gets a lot of glory. He acts like he doesn't care, but he loves the attention he's getting from everyone. He decides that he doesn't need Becky, but only glory.
He ignores Becky, and starts hanging with Amy Lawrence again. This begins a mini-"war" between Becky and Tom. Becky then ignores Tom, and hangs out with a boy named Albert (which I believe is the new boy introduced to us at the beginning of the book).
Tom feels jealous and angry. He retreats during noon for home. When Becky realizes that she doesn't have an audience, she dumps Albert, and leaves. Albert realizes he has been used, and decides to get even with Tom Sawyer. He sabotages Tom's spelling-book, and leaves. Becky witnesses this, but decides that she wants Tom to get punished as well. She keeps silent.
When Tom gets home, Aunt Polly is there and mad. She has learned from Joe's mom, who learned from Joe, that Tom had been there that night, and there had been no dream. Tom finally admits the truth, even admitting that he had been planning to leave a note to let her know that they were alive, and had just gone off to do pirate stuff.
Aunt Polly doesn't believe at first, but eventually lets Tom go. She then grabs his jacket which he had taken with him. She goes back and forth on deciding to look in it, not wanting to find out it was a lie. She eventually does, and finds the bark piece that had the note. She is very happy.
At school, Becky finds a chance to look at a mystery book that the school-master, Mr. Dobbins, keeps under heavy guard. This is a special opportunity, since every schoolchild wants to see that mystery book. Mr. Dobbins only reads it during certain times, and keeps it locked up otherwise.
Becky opens the drawer which happens to have the key in it this time. She looks through the book until she discovers a well-done picture of a human. To explain this picture, this book was an anatomy book. Mr. Dobbins had wanted to be a doctor, but being-poor issues made him only a school-master.
Tom walks in on her while she's looking at this picture. In her hurry to close the book, Becky rips half of the picture-page. She manages to get it into the drawer, but she's in big trouble. Like, get-whipped trouble! There's a mini-fight, and Becky runs off.
Tom, who was angry with Becky's behavior, decides at first to let her get whipped. But when he discovers his ruined book, he has troubles of his own. No one helps him, and he gets whipped. But he doesn't overly mind... he thinks he may have done it without thinking when he was playing. His denial was him only doing how things were done, and principle is what kept him from going back on his denial.
But the issue of the ripped page stood. Everyone notices Mr. Dobbins getting his book. Tom suddenly wants to save Becky, but can't think of something. He suddenly thinks of grabbing the book and running for it, but he hesitates... and then it's too late.
Mr. Dobbins goes on a warpath. His anger is so great, even the innocent are terrified! He asks the public in general who done it, and then starts asking individuals.
Tom knows that Becky is doomed. Whenever Mr. Dobbins does this, he finds the guilty party, no matter what. Tom wishes he can do something, but knows it's too late.
Suddenly, when Mr. Dobbins is asking Becky if she had done it, Tom gets an idea. He jumps up, and claims to have done the damage himself! Mr. Dobbins whips Tom, and makes him stay extra time at school.
Tom doesn't mind... he knows Becky will be waiting. Becky tells him everything that had happened. Tom begins to plan revenge against Albert, but he is happy to have Becky's eye once more.
Chapter 22 leaves Tom, and goes to more general matters. Vacation is coming, and Mr. Dobbins gets very mean and strict. A gathering called "'Examinations'" is coming, and Mr. Dobbins wants everything to be perfect. Unluckily, this means whippings and beatings for even small stuff. Only the ladies above 18 and big boys avoid these beatings, but it means that the boys who are small are treated terribly, and are kept afraid. These boys constantly try to get revenge, but Mr. Dobbins stays one step ahead. Finally, the boys go to the sign-painter's son for help with a master plan. The sign-painter's son hates Mr. Dobbins too, so he agrees.
Finally, the big gathering arrives. Everyone comes at eight o' clock that afternoon, and the ceremonies begin. First there are speeches and stuff from many people. There are two successful recitations before Tom comes up. He starts out fine, but then fails miserably. There are other school stuff.
And then there are the ladies' papers and stuff. All of them have sermons "pasted" on the end, which is an old tradition by this point. And a lot of subjects are the same as their parents' subjects had been a long time ago.
There are examples of a few. There is an excerpt from a boring one. One girl does a poem that's decent. And then there is a haunting paper, with a powerful sermon at the end which ends all hope for anyone not a Presbyterians. This one paper is the one which wins the first prize.
And then Mr. Dobbins begins drawing a picture of America to begin the geography class's portion of the gathering. He does a bad job, and does it over. Try #2 is not good either. Mr. Dobbins does it once more, and stays intent on the job, though he can hear the increasing muttering.
But he doesn't notice that a cat has been lowered above his head. The cat's head has been wrapped with a rag, so she can't meow. She is lowered by a string tied around her haunches. She tries to cut the string, and even claws empty air. But nothing helps her problem.
She is slowly lowered towards Mr. Dobbins's (sp?) head. She grabs and removes his wig, and then is brought up quickly. Light shines from Mr. Dobbins's (sp?) bald head. And it's not just because he's bald... the sign-painter's son gilded his head sometime earlier! Like anyone can expect, this breaks up the gathering.
I'm impressed with Mark Twain on something here. He put experts of papers in Chapter 22... that were not his own! He adds a note at the end of Chapter 22 that admits that he got the experts from a volume called Prose and Poetry by a Western Lady. I'm impressed that he readily admitted this.
However, I'm not sure on his reasoning of using these quotes. It was confusing in this matter. The only thing that I got was that these quotes were written in school-girl form. I think he then says that this makes them better than imagining it up, but I'm not entirely sure. He could have been more clear in that matter.
I can't believe Aunt Polly's wits here. It was obvious that Tom had sneaked into the house and eavesdropped, not that he had a dream! Even Sid could see that! Yet Aunt Polly needed someone to tell her that Tom had come into the house to see the obvious. And then, when Tom came home at noon, her eventually letting him go and forgiving him them didn't make sense. Why did she do that? There's not really a good reason, and it does not really seem to stick with her character. Aunt Polly is not a believable character all the time.
However, she can be believable sometimes. Her reaction when Tom came home at noon made sense. Her original disbelief at everything he said then made sense. And her reluctance to check his jacket's pockets--in case he had been telling her another lie--made sense as well. Aunt Polly is a character that could have been made better.
Then there's the mini-war. This shows nicely that kids can be mean, and don't always know what they want. But the scenes themselves were uncomfortable at times. And they didn't always make the greatest sense. And sometimes the reasoning didn't come right away--like why Tom was hanging with Amy Lawrence again--and made things confusing.
Mark Twain did better on the desires of the children. A lot of the desires in this area made a lot of sense, and were good reasons. However, there were desires in this area that did not make a lot of sense.
Tom is a confusing character. It stands out that he is very selfish, and basically lives on glory. That much was made clear after his return! Even Aunt Polly said that he was very selfish!
However, Tom sacrificed himself to save Becky. This was a very unselfish act. It seems pretty obvious that his crush and love were interfering, but this goes against his very-selfish nature. This makes things confusing, and me wondering what kind of character Tom really is.
In this respect, Mark Twain does a good job. Real people are pretty complicated. Mark Twain shows this clearly by his confusing character of Tom Sawyer.
Chapter 22 is my least favorite chapter in this book so far. Only a few parts were really enjoyable, and most of them were around the fact that Mr. Dobbins was being mean, and the whole revenge plan. There were a few other enjoyable parts, but they included Tom being a main character again (for a brief time), and the "prize winning speech". The poem, I think, was decent, and I did enjoy that part somewhat.
Mostly, however, that part of the book was boring. That area of the book was hard to get through, and had me tired of it for a good, long while. And the first speech mentioned was boring. The next two parts were at least decent (the prize-winning speech was better, but it's not my fave thing), but they didn't help much.
I wonder how shocked Mark Twain would be if he saw our modern schools. Religion was a bigger thing in schools back in the time he was writing in. He showed it had a big impact, especially since each girl's piece of writing had a sermon "glued" onto the end. He said he believed that the practice may never end... ho boy, was he sure wrong! It was probably a thought that seemed very much true in his time, but time's passage has changed things. Religious stuff like that isn't allowed anymore in our schools. It would probably be very shocking to Mark Twain, though it's a common fact of life today.
Monday, February 25, 2013
Literarture Central: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chapters 14-17
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chapters 14-17
Chapters 14-17 covers some of the boys' adventures on the island. Tom wakes up very early, and watches a magnificent show of the morning beginning. The other boys wake up, and the trio of "pirates" explore the small island. They discover that the island is only 3 miles long and 1/4 a mile wide, but the exploration still takes a long time, because they go swimming every hour.
Then they hear something from the direction of the village, and they go and check it out. They watch the activities of a ferry, and realize that the village thinks someone has drowned. It doesn't take long for Tom to figure out that it's them that had supposedly drowned! The boys watch the proceedings, and talk about different body-finding-and/or-make-floating techniques, and incantations. Then the ferry goes away.
All the boys are excited for a while at the village's mistake, but it soon dies away. Homesickness attacks. Joe even makes a suggestion about going home (thought not right away). He barely avoids getting in trouble with the other two.
Tom waits until the others are asleep, and then makes notes and a bit of a treasure-chest of Joe's hat. He then sneaks to the village, and his own home. He sneaks inside, somehow without being noticed. He hears Aunt Polly being sorrowful, and Mrs. Harper as well. He learns of how they are thought dead, especially since they hadn't shown up at home in time for supper, and how their raft showed up at the next town empty. He hears how they will delay the funeral until the weekend, and if their bodies aren't found then, the funeral will happen then.
Tom waits until everyone is asleep, including Aunt Polly. He almost leaves the note, and suddenly gets an idea. He then heads back to the island, without leaving the notes. He almost takes the skiff he used to get back, since he's a pirate and pirate take boats, which the skiff was by technicality. But he realizes it will cause searches, and then maybe the discovery of the boys!
He then heads back to the camp. He makes a grand entrance at breakfast-time. He tells the other two about his adventures (and adds some to it). Then, when breakfast is done, he goes to sleep until 12:00 PM, since he was up all night. The others go exploring and fishing while he does this.
After dinner that night, the boys go hunting for turtle eggs. And they find a good amount on the bay of the island. So much so, that they are able to have a big meal that night and it for breakfast in the morning on Friday!
The boys have a lot of fun for a good deal of the day. It's mostly swimming, playing in the water, and being naked. But then homesickness strikes once more... this time, it hits so hard, Joe and Huckleberry almost leave. Tom then lets loose his secret, and convinces the boys to stay longer.
That night, Tom and Joe try smoking. Up to this point, only Huckleberry had smoked an actual pipe, and the other boys only cigars. Things go well for a little while. The boys even talk about smoking and how others they know would react to it.
Then Tom and Joe get sick from overdoing it. They make an excuse of going to find a lost knife, and head off. They are gone for a long while.
Huckleberry eventually goes out to find them. He finds them both fast asleep, a good distance from each other. He decides that they have taken care of any trouble they had run into.
The boys return for dinner. There's no talk, and the not-so-well duo don't look terrific or proud. Afterwards, Huckleberry offers to make them pipes. They turn down the offer, saying that their stomachs didn't agree with one of their dinner items.
That night, Joe wakes up. He senses something terrible very close, and wakes up the other two. Very soon, a terrible storms hits. The boys aren't really ready for this, though they do their best to survive in the storm. But their tent flies off, and they have to take shelter under a great oak.
When the storm finally ends, they find that their campsite had been squished by a fallen sycamore tree. The good news was that they hadn't been there and squished themselves. Their luck continues when they find some dry wood, and manage to make themselves a fire to dry and warm up themselves. But they are unable to sleep for the rest of the night, since everywhere is wet.
The next morning, they manage to sleep on the beach. But they eventually wake up, mainly by the sun scorching them, and they're not in a good mood. Homesickness once again flies in, and Tom has to remind the other two of his secret in order to keep them from completely being depressed and flying the coop.
While their spirits are up, Tom suggests a career change... becoming Indians instead of pirates! This flies very well, and the boys become three chiefs (and then three tribes), and play Indians all day. That night, they gather, but "have" to smoke the peace pipe to make peace and eat with each other. Tom and Joe find that they have a bit of tolerance to smoking this time, and they are delighted. They are careful for the next bit, but then are proud to make the night without having to go lost-knife searching. The rest of the night is very joyful, and full of talk.
Good reason for not smoking! Mark Twain shows a good job of getting sick on smoke. He also shows how something that starts good can end very bad, especially when you overdo it. And he shows how the sickness can carry on for a while. That scene was well-done.
I didn't care for the tolerance level later. I get that no one knew in the old days that smoking was bad. But we know now that smoking is bad, and this scene repulsed me. But it does show one important virtue... "practice makes perfect"! Practicing something can make you get better at it, whether it's a good or a bad thing. In that respect, it was a good scene. I just didn't care for what it was used on.
Mark Twain is getting decisively better as the book goes along. We had two more very good scenes: the morning scene right at the beginning, and the storm scene. Mark Twain made the morning extremely beautiful, and pretty much alive. That was amazing!
The storm scene wasn't as well-done, but it was still very well-done. It seemed real, and described the terrible storm very well. I liked how it described the storm as a fight, and how some trees didn't win. I just think that scene was well-done.
Tom and Joe are way too prideful. They should have admitted that the smoke was making them sick! They did not do a good job hiding it... it was so obvious that the boys were running off to be sick, and not look for a missing knife! And then it was obvious that it was the smoke that was making them sick, and not their dinner! And yet, they continued lying to Huckleberry! And then it was their prides that made them smoke the "peace pipe", though they should have just refused it!
Which brings up a confusing scene... did Huckleberry even know that his friends were sick from the smoke? It was crystal clear to me, but Mark Twain didn't make it clear whether or not Huckleberry knew it. That doesn't make much sense.
The homesickness thing was something that made better sense. When you move off, homesickness strikes, especially when you run away. You miss how things were!
Mark Twain does a good job at this, showing that even Huckleberry missed his old way of life, though I'm pretty sure that this new life was actually somewhat better for him. But Mark Twain didn't do the best job with the homesickness scenes... for example, he didn't show why Joe missed his mom. It didn't make the greatest of sense then. And there were some other parts of the homesickness scenes that didn't make the greatest of sense.
And I don't get the worm scene. Why was Tom so excited when the worm went over his clothes? Mark Twain did not make that clear. He added something about pirates and their clothing, but his explanation was not a good or understandable one.
One thing was cool, though. Tom says a very old saying to a ladybug that's still around today! It's "Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home,/your house is on fire, and your children's alone." It's cool to learn that the saying is still around today.
Tom Sawyer is definitely a very clever boy. His cleverness has been shown many times throughout the book. It was shown again and again during these chapters, however. He was clever in using his secret to get the other boys to stay. It was then clever how he used the secret to perk up their spirits, and then suggest something that kept them happy and on the island for the rest of the day.
Chapters 14-17 covers some of the boys' adventures on the island. Tom wakes up very early, and watches a magnificent show of the morning beginning. The other boys wake up, and the trio of "pirates" explore the small island. They discover that the island is only 3 miles long and 1/4 a mile wide, but the exploration still takes a long time, because they go swimming every hour.
Then they hear something from the direction of the village, and they go and check it out. They watch the activities of a ferry, and realize that the village thinks someone has drowned. It doesn't take long for Tom to figure out that it's them that had supposedly drowned! The boys watch the proceedings, and talk about different body-finding-and/or-make-floating techniques, and incantations. Then the ferry goes away.
All the boys are excited for a while at the village's mistake, but it soon dies away. Homesickness attacks. Joe even makes a suggestion about going home (thought not right away). He barely avoids getting in trouble with the other two.
Tom waits until the others are asleep, and then makes notes and a bit of a treasure-chest of Joe's hat. He then sneaks to the village, and his own home. He sneaks inside, somehow without being noticed. He hears Aunt Polly being sorrowful, and Mrs. Harper as well. He learns of how they are thought dead, especially since they hadn't shown up at home in time for supper, and how their raft showed up at the next town empty. He hears how they will delay the funeral until the weekend, and if their bodies aren't found then, the funeral will happen then.
Tom waits until everyone is asleep, including Aunt Polly. He almost leaves the note, and suddenly gets an idea. He then heads back to the island, without leaving the notes. He almost takes the skiff he used to get back, since he's a pirate and pirate take boats, which the skiff was by technicality. But he realizes it will cause searches, and then maybe the discovery of the boys!
He then heads back to the camp. He makes a grand entrance at breakfast-time. He tells the other two about his adventures (and adds some to it). Then, when breakfast is done, he goes to sleep until 12:00 PM, since he was up all night. The others go exploring and fishing while he does this.
After dinner that night, the boys go hunting for turtle eggs. And they find a good amount on the bay of the island. So much so, that they are able to have a big meal that night and it for breakfast in the morning on Friday!
The boys have a lot of fun for a good deal of the day. It's mostly swimming, playing in the water, and being naked. But then homesickness strikes once more... this time, it hits so hard, Joe and Huckleberry almost leave. Tom then lets loose his secret, and convinces the boys to stay longer.
That night, Tom and Joe try smoking. Up to this point, only Huckleberry had smoked an actual pipe, and the other boys only cigars. Things go well for a little while. The boys even talk about smoking and how others they know would react to it.
Then Tom and Joe get sick from overdoing it. They make an excuse of going to find a lost knife, and head off. They are gone for a long while.
Huckleberry eventually goes out to find them. He finds them both fast asleep, a good distance from each other. He decides that they have taken care of any trouble they had run into.
The boys return for dinner. There's no talk, and the not-so-well duo don't look terrific or proud. Afterwards, Huckleberry offers to make them pipes. They turn down the offer, saying that their stomachs didn't agree with one of their dinner items.
That night, Joe wakes up. He senses something terrible very close, and wakes up the other two. Very soon, a terrible storms hits. The boys aren't really ready for this, though they do their best to survive in the storm. But their tent flies off, and they have to take shelter under a great oak.
When the storm finally ends, they find that their campsite had been squished by a fallen sycamore tree. The good news was that they hadn't been there and squished themselves. Their luck continues when they find some dry wood, and manage to make themselves a fire to dry and warm up themselves. But they are unable to sleep for the rest of the night, since everywhere is wet.
The next morning, they manage to sleep on the beach. But they eventually wake up, mainly by the sun scorching them, and they're not in a good mood. Homesickness once again flies in, and Tom has to remind the other two of his secret in order to keep them from completely being depressed and flying the coop.
While their spirits are up, Tom suggests a career change... becoming Indians instead of pirates! This flies very well, and the boys become three chiefs (and then three tribes), and play Indians all day. That night, they gather, but "have" to smoke the peace pipe to make peace and eat with each other. Tom and Joe find that they have a bit of tolerance to smoking this time, and they are delighted. They are careful for the next bit, but then are proud to make the night without having to go lost-knife searching. The rest of the night is very joyful, and full of talk.
Good reason for not smoking! Mark Twain shows a good job of getting sick on smoke. He also shows how something that starts good can end very bad, especially when you overdo it. And he shows how the sickness can carry on for a while. That scene was well-done.
I didn't care for the tolerance level later. I get that no one knew in the old days that smoking was bad. But we know now that smoking is bad, and this scene repulsed me. But it does show one important virtue... "practice makes perfect"! Practicing something can make you get better at it, whether it's a good or a bad thing. In that respect, it was a good scene. I just didn't care for what it was used on.
Mark Twain is getting decisively better as the book goes along. We had two more very good scenes: the morning scene right at the beginning, and the storm scene. Mark Twain made the morning extremely beautiful, and pretty much alive. That was amazing!
The storm scene wasn't as well-done, but it was still very well-done. It seemed real, and described the terrible storm very well. I liked how it described the storm as a fight, and how some trees didn't win. I just think that scene was well-done.
Tom and Joe are way too prideful. They should have admitted that the smoke was making them sick! They did not do a good job hiding it... it was so obvious that the boys were running off to be sick, and not look for a missing knife! And then it was obvious that it was the smoke that was making them sick, and not their dinner! And yet, they continued lying to Huckleberry! And then it was their prides that made them smoke the "peace pipe", though they should have just refused it!
Which brings up a confusing scene... did Huckleberry even know that his friends were sick from the smoke? It was crystal clear to me, but Mark Twain didn't make it clear whether or not Huckleberry knew it. That doesn't make much sense.
The homesickness thing was something that made better sense. When you move off, homesickness strikes, especially when you run away. You miss how things were!
Mark Twain does a good job at this, showing that even Huckleberry missed his old way of life, though I'm pretty sure that this new life was actually somewhat better for him. But Mark Twain didn't do the best job with the homesickness scenes... for example, he didn't show why Joe missed his mom. It didn't make the greatest of sense then. And there were some other parts of the homesickness scenes that didn't make the greatest of sense.
And I don't get the worm scene. Why was Tom so excited when the worm went over his clothes? Mark Twain did not make that clear. He added something about pirates and their clothing, but his explanation was not a good or understandable one.
One thing was cool, though. Tom says a very old saying to a ladybug that's still around today! It's "Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home,/your house is on fire, and your children's alone." It's cool to learn that the saying is still around today.
Tom Sawyer is definitely a very clever boy. His cleverness has been shown many times throughout the book. It was shown again and again during these chapters, however. He was clever in using his secret to get the other boys to stay. It was then clever how he used the secret to perk up their spirits, and then suggest something that kept them happy and on the island for the rest of the day.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Literature and Wild West Centeral: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Chapter 13, and Life In Wagon Trains
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Chapter 13
We return to the pirating theme in Chapter 13. Tom is so upset and glum, he feels like he has been cast out into the world. He decides to become a pirate again.
He meets up with Joe Harper, and tries to say good-bye. However, Joe has been punished for a crime he didn't commit, or even heard of the objects of which the crime was involved, and he is in as bad as a mood as Tom. He had decided to become a hermit, but changes his mind and decides to become a pirate as well.
The boys hunt down Huckleberry Finn, and he agrees to join the group. They decide to meet that night, and gather supplies throughout the day. Everyone manages to get something, but Huckleberry gets the biggest and best load.
They steal a raft near midnight, while the rafters are in town. They go down the Mississippi River until they reach a small island that's near the farther shore of the river, named Jackson's Island. There's only forests, and no people.
The boys set up a tent to protect their supplies, and then have dinner. Afterwards, Huckleberry smoke using some of the stuff he stole. Then the boys start talking about their new "job", and about the "job" of a hermit. Huckleberry is the first to actually go to sleep.
But Joe and Tom can't quite yet. They still do their prayers, though lying down instead of kneeling. Then their consciences bug them for running away.
And then they are heavily bothered by the fact that they stole important stuff, like food. They try to fight it by reminding said consciences that they had stolen little treats before. But they eventually realize that stealing little stuff is not really "stealing", and that their stealing big food items was. And that there's a command against stealing in the Bible, so it must be bad!
They eventually decide that they would not steal for the rest of their pirate actions. That's when their consciences finally leave them alone. The boys finally go to sleep.
Some things didn't make sense here. Why were the boys bothered with stealing the major food stuffs when they stole treats all the time? Stealing is still stealing, no matter how important or major the item is. So why did the big theft bother the boys, and not the minor stuff?
However, Mark Twain did do a good job with the conscience issue with Huckleberry Finn. Earlier, Mark Twain made it clear that Huckleberry stole stuff pretty much 24/7, and I believe a lot of it is for survival. So it made sense that Huckleberry was able to go to sleep that night without his conscience bothering him.
I still think that Joe needs better work as a character. Admittedly, Joe hasn't been a big character up to this point, but if he was going to be a bigger one, Mark Twain should have used him more. Then we would know his character better, and know if the conscience issue was indeed part of his character, or not.
Tom is definitely not the best-built character. He's shown as the bad boy pretty often. But this soft side has been showing as of late. But this conscience attack, and him doing some good stuff, though quietly, doesn't make the greatest sense. He pulls off big stuff pretty often, but stealing bugs him, especially when he grabs little stuff constantly? And he does his prayers, even when he doesn't have to? It does not make the best sense.
People seem to have major stereotypes even back in those days. At least the boys did! The talk of what a hermit should do seem to point that out pretty well. They were saying that hermits need to do this and that, but I'm pretty sure that they were mixing up some stuff in Bible. And the rest doesn't seem overly likely for a hermit, or really any person, to do.
The boys didn't think in the right terms of time. They were planning for the future, but they forget many major points. Their plans of being pirates needed them to be at sea, and it sounded like they were sticking around that little island! And what did they plan to do once their supplies ran out, or winter came? That was not the best-planned adventure.
Life In Wagon Trains
In the 1800s, as early as the 1840s, people went to the West. Most of them went in wagon trains. The wagons were covered, and were stuffed full of stuff people had brought. There were even pockets sown into the walls to hold stuff!
However, this made the wagons hard to carry, even by healthy oxen. Plus, there were often distractions, like a women giving birth. Therefore, the going was slow. One of the best distances made by a wagon train in one day was only 10 miles!!!
There were a ton of kids in the wagon trains. They were everywhere, and women often fell pregnant and gave birth along the way. The huge amount of kids in the wagon trains actually affected the behavior of the people in those trains. Food was cooked better than it would have usually been. The trains were protected better at night. And it's all because there were kids to take care of in the group.
Group behavior was a major thing in wagon train life. Everyone was one huge family, and shared and tried to take care of each other. But there were downsides... Sometimes, children would go missing and no one truly knew what happened (though they would presume stuff). The group would make the parents continue on and leave the missing kids to whatever fate they truly shared.
Wagon train life was hard and dangerous, especially for kids. Kids could get thrown off the bouncing wagons. The place where the kids could pretend to "drive" was about 5 feet off the ground, so it could hurt when they were thrown off. The kids could even be run over by the wagons! Even common household supplies could be dangerous... if one wasn't careful, even medicine that was just left within the reach of the kids could be lethal!
Weather was a big and obvious other problem. The seasons all had their big problems. Heat was extreme in the summer... so bad, that even a breeze was only heat being blasted about, and even the nights were hot! And the mountain trails could have very bad winters... so bad, that not everyone could get through the very deep snow!
Hunger was a super-major problem. People often starved, and sometimes even to death! Even the kids suffered, though everyone tried to help. Even the kids helped some. In the mountain passes, sometimes the food problem was so major that survivors of one problem would eat the humans who had died in that same problem!!!
The problems were so severe, not everyone made it through. And I don't just mean deaths! Some people came down with very bad mental problems. Some folks would get violent.
Some of these mental problems were more due to strain and stress. But they would have big effects. People would stop trusting others. The changes were sometimes so major, that even the kids would be afraid, even when it was their own parents!
Things seemed to let up somewhat at night. Music would be played around the campfire, and people would dance. Sometimes animal impressions were made. It seems like surviving one more day out in the wilderness made folks feel like they should celebrate.
We return to the pirating theme in Chapter 13. Tom is so upset and glum, he feels like he has been cast out into the world. He decides to become a pirate again.
He meets up with Joe Harper, and tries to say good-bye. However, Joe has been punished for a crime he didn't commit, or even heard of the objects of which the crime was involved, and he is in as bad as a mood as Tom. He had decided to become a hermit, but changes his mind and decides to become a pirate as well.
The boys hunt down Huckleberry Finn, and he agrees to join the group. They decide to meet that night, and gather supplies throughout the day. Everyone manages to get something, but Huckleberry gets the biggest and best load.
They steal a raft near midnight, while the rafters are in town. They go down the Mississippi River until they reach a small island that's near the farther shore of the river, named Jackson's Island. There's only forests, and no people.
The boys set up a tent to protect their supplies, and then have dinner. Afterwards, Huckleberry smoke using some of the stuff he stole. Then the boys start talking about their new "job", and about the "job" of a hermit. Huckleberry is the first to actually go to sleep.
But Joe and Tom can't quite yet. They still do their prayers, though lying down instead of kneeling. Then their consciences bug them for running away.
And then they are heavily bothered by the fact that they stole important stuff, like food. They try to fight it by reminding said consciences that they had stolen little treats before. But they eventually realize that stealing little stuff is not really "stealing", and that their stealing big food items was. And that there's a command against stealing in the Bible, so it must be bad!
They eventually decide that they would not steal for the rest of their pirate actions. That's when their consciences finally leave them alone. The boys finally go to sleep.
Some things didn't make sense here. Why were the boys bothered with stealing the major food stuffs when they stole treats all the time? Stealing is still stealing, no matter how important or major the item is. So why did the big theft bother the boys, and not the minor stuff?
However, Mark Twain did do a good job with the conscience issue with Huckleberry Finn. Earlier, Mark Twain made it clear that Huckleberry stole stuff pretty much 24/7, and I believe a lot of it is for survival. So it made sense that Huckleberry was able to go to sleep that night without his conscience bothering him.
I still think that Joe needs better work as a character. Admittedly, Joe hasn't been a big character up to this point, but if he was going to be a bigger one, Mark Twain should have used him more. Then we would know his character better, and know if the conscience issue was indeed part of his character, or not.
Tom is definitely not the best-built character. He's shown as the bad boy pretty often. But this soft side has been showing as of late. But this conscience attack, and him doing some good stuff, though quietly, doesn't make the greatest sense. He pulls off big stuff pretty often, but stealing bugs him, especially when he grabs little stuff constantly? And he does his prayers, even when he doesn't have to? It does not make the best sense.
People seem to have major stereotypes even back in those days. At least the boys did! The talk of what a hermit should do seem to point that out pretty well. They were saying that hermits need to do this and that, but I'm pretty sure that they were mixing up some stuff in Bible. And the rest doesn't seem overly likely for a hermit, or really any person, to do.
The boys didn't think in the right terms of time. They were planning for the future, but they forget many major points. Their plans of being pirates needed them to be at sea, and it sounded like they were sticking around that little island! And what did they plan to do once their supplies ran out, or winter came? That was not the best-planned adventure.
Life In Wagon Trains
In the 1800s, as early as the 1840s, people went to the West. Most of them went in wagon trains. The wagons were covered, and were stuffed full of stuff people had brought. There were even pockets sown into the walls to hold stuff!
However, this made the wagons hard to carry, even by healthy oxen. Plus, there were often distractions, like a women giving birth. Therefore, the going was slow. One of the best distances made by a wagon train in one day was only 10 miles!!!
There were a ton of kids in the wagon trains. They were everywhere, and women often fell pregnant and gave birth along the way. The huge amount of kids in the wagon trains actually affected the behavior of the people in those trains. Food was cooked better than it would have usually been. The trains were protected better at night. And it's all because there were kids to take care of in the group.
Group behavior was a major thing in wagon train life. Everyone was one huge family, and shared and tried to take care of each other. But there were downsides... Sometimes, children would go missing and no one truly knew what happened (though they would presume stuff). The group would make the parents continue on and leave the missing kids to whatever fate they truly shared.
Wagon train life was hard and dangerous, especially for kids. Kids could get thrown off the bouncing wagons. The place where the kids could pretend to "drive" was about 5 feet off the ground, so it could hurt when they were thrown off. The kids could even be run over by the wagons! Even common household supplies could be dangerous... if one wasn't careful, even medicine that was just left within the reach of the kids could be lethal!
Weather was a big and obvious other problem. The seasons all had their big problems. Heat was extreme in the summer... so bad, that even a breeze was only heat being blasted about, and even the nights were hot! And the mountain trails could have very bad winters... so bad, that not everyone could get through the very deep snow!
Hunger was a super-major problem. People often starved, and sometimes even to death! Even the kids suffered, though everyone tried to help. Even the kids helped some. In the mountain passes, sometimes the food problem was so major that survivors of one problem would eat the humans who had died in that same problem!!!
The problems were so severe, not everyone made it through. And I don't just mean deaths! Some people came down with very bad mental problems. Some folks would get violent.
Some of these mental problems were more due to strain and stress. But they would have big effects. People would stop trusting others. The changes were sometimes so major, that even the kids would be afraid, even when it was their own parents!
Things seemed to let up somewhat at night. Music would be played around the campfire, and people would dance. Sometimes animal impressions were made. It seems like surviving one more day out in the wilderness made folks feel like they should celebrate.
Friday, February 22, 2013
Literature Central: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chapters 9-12
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chapters 9-12
Chapter 9 adds an exciting element. Tom and Huckleberry head for the graveyard like they had planned, though it is late at night (Tom had to be woken up from a doze). They wait a while, and the graveyard is scary. Of course, the boys are freaked out.
Three beings come into sight. At first, the boys think that these beings are demons, but they all turn out to be humans. One is a Dr. Robinson, one is Injun Joe (who I'm guessing is half Indian), and the other is Muff Potter, who is drunk almost all the time. The later two dig up the recently-dead body that the boys were near, and then demand payment. And then, when Dr. Robinson doesn't agree, Injun Joe reminds the doctor of an old grievance and oath for vengeance. A fight soon ensues. Dr. Robinson manages to knock out Muff Potter, but he ends up losing the battle... forever. Injun Joe uses Muff Potter's dropped knife to kill the doctor. The boys flee at this, but somehow stay unseen by the murderer.
When Muff Potter awakes, Injun Joe has set it up so it looks like Muff Potter did it. He even lies and says that Muff Potter killed Dr. Robinson! Muff Potter believes it, and quickly begins to run.
Chapter 10 returns to the boys. They run into an old tannery. They are positive that if they tell, Injun Joe might get away from a hanging, and come to kill them. So they decide to be silent about all this. They make a blood oath. Tom writes the oath on a piece of wood, and then the boys use their blood, from a needle-prick in their thumbs, to sign their initials. They bury the oath, and do some ceremonies and incantations.
They are soon frightened by a stray dog. They think they're in big trouble, and are very frightened, for their lives and the afterlives. But, luckily, it wasn't barking at them. They soon discover a sleeping Muff Potter, and figure out that the dog is barking at him.
The boys part ways. Tom gets home, but doesn't notice that Sid's awake. He goes to sleep, and Sid goes to tattle. Tom wakes up late, and soon discovers that he has been ratted out.
But nothing happens until after breakfast. Aunt Polly takes him to the side, and says stuff that makes Tom feel very guilty. He begs for forgiveness, but doesn't leave with a light heart at all, though it felt like he had the victory. His guilt and heavy heart follow him all the way to school. Finding his special prize (the one he tried to give Becky) wrapped up at his desk only makes things worse.
In Chapter 11, the news of the murder gets out. Mark Twain notes that there were no telegraphs then, but the word still spreads quickly. It's well-known by noon. School takes the afternoon off.
Tom follows everyone to the graveyard to see the sight. Muff Potter returns there and is captured. He says he tried to run, but could only come here. He claims not to have done it (though he believed the lie Injun Joe had told him the night before). He looks to Injun Joe for help, but Injun Joe only lies.
Huckleberry is there as well, and both boys feel guilty. But they stay silent... part of it is that they feel like Injun Joe has sold his soul to Satan. And they both want lightning to come and strike Injun Joe, but no luck. They then feel fascinated, and even decide mentally to start watching him at night to see if they can see the devil himself!
Tom's mind and guilt starts to bug him constantly. Sid even starts hearing his brother talk in his sleep! Polly is the unexpected rescuer, saying that the murder has been giving everyone nightmares. But Tom begins to talk of a toothache so he can wear a bandage when he sleeps. Sid secretly takes off the bandage when his brother sleeps so he can hear the mutterings, but puts it back and doesn't say a word. And Tom eventually gets tired of it, and decides it doesn't matter if Sid hears it. He figures his brother won't be able to figure it out.
But Tom still feels guilty. He starts sneaking off to the jail every day or every other day. Once there, he slips in small stuff through to Muff Potter to help him. This helps to ease his conscience. Luckily, there's no guards to stop or see him do this.
The people want to dunk Injun Joe in tar and feathers, and then do something else, because of the grave-robbery. But Injun Joe has been careful in his statements. And he has such a formidable, no one wants to take charge of dealing with this case. The matter is put down. No one truly wants to deal with it in courts, or take it there yet.
Chapter 12 shows Tom in a sorrowful mood. He has new worries. Becky hasn't come to school in a long time, and it's upsetting Tom.
We learn something about Aunt Polly here. Aunt Polly is a nut about health-stuff and medicines. She has ton of medical periodicals (which I'm guessing are like magazines). She uses all sorts of cures and medicines... though never on herself, since she doesn't fall sick somehow. She doesn't even care if the periodicals contradict what the last issue states... she believes every word!
Then Tom starts acting weird because of his emotional issues, and he doesn't tell what's wrong. Aunt Polly then brings out the "weapons" of medicine. She uses a new water technique she's learned. And, when Tom doesn't get better, she brings out more and more stuff.
Then she learns of a new medicine. She stops all the other techniques, and starts using that. Tom starts perking up, though it's because he's decided to start doing so. But he needs a good ploy. So he bugs Aunt Polly for the medicine, saying he needs it. Aunt Polly eventually tells him to have as much as he wants, and watches the bottle. The medicine level decreases, but she doesn't know Tom is spilling it down a crack in the floor.
Then the cat, Peter, wants some of the medicine. After making sure it's what the cat wants and the cat is sure, Tom gives him some. The cat immediately goes hyper, and basically wrecks the house in a super-happy cat-fit.
Polly comes home, and demands to know what happened. Tom doesn't tell at first, but Aunt Polly soon sees the tattle-tell spoon. There's a bit of an interaction, which ends with Aunt Polly realizing that what may be cruel to a cat may also be cruel to a boy. She lets Tom go after this.
Home isn't the only place where Tom has been acting weird. He's been acting weird at school. He comes early instead of late. And instead of playing with his friends, he's hanging out at the gate and looking out for Becky. He checks every girl, and is mad when it isn't the right one.
Tom gets a delightful surprise at school. Becky finally comes back! He starts to show off and stuff to get her attention. But she ignores him for a good, long while. When Tom finally gets a response, it's a prideful and mean one. He's hurt, of course.
The boys did not make a good move! When they saw the murder, they should have told an adult! However, Mark Twain does a very good job at giving a reason for this wrong decision. The fact that they were afraid for their lives was a very believable reason for not telling anyone. Mark Twain did a very good job in that respect.
Mark Twain does a very good job at showing how gullible Aunt Polly is when it comes to the health stuff. He shows very clearly that she is a victim and heavily addicted to this stuff. And he even mentions that she's so into it, that she believes everything, even if the last issue of the "magazine" (which is the closest I think the modern world has to a periodical) contradicts what the current issue says!
Mark Twain also does a good job on Tom Sawyer. He shows Tom's guilt, and actions due to the guilt, very nicely. He also does a good job showing how Tom was distracted by the Becky problem. He also did a good job showing Tom's cleverness once again with the whole "need-medicine" plan.
Mark Twain did not do a good job on every character, though. I did not get the attitude change in Becky. She was not a prideful and mean girl during the rest of the book. And there was no explanation for the sudden change. However, it might have just been because the main character didn't know. But I still feel like we, the readers, should have been given a reason. Mark Twain has done this before, and it's annoying he decided not to now!
And that's not the only thing Mark Twain doesn't give a reason for the actions, for whatever unknown reason. For example, I didn't get the sudden change in attitude when Tom started perking up. Why did he decide to perk up? I feel like if the reason was given, it wasn't given clearly. But it was more like no reason was given. And, unlike the Becky scene, I don't feel like this was just because the main character didn't know, because it was about the main character! It was annoying, and it made things confusing and odd!
And that was not a good move for Mark Twain... while I get that making things confusing can be a ploy to get you to stick in the book, but it's a risky ploy. Plus, this was not a scene where a ploy like that should have been played. It should have been explained, and, if a reason was given, explained better. This helps not only for us to understand the character's reasoning, but it makes the book more enjoyable, because we understand. But when we don't understand, we don't enjoy it nearly as much as we could if we understood it.
And Mark Twain has a slight head-hopping problem. I've noticed this before, but Mark Twain manages to switch viewpoints, but with no visible signs, like paragraph spaces or a line of asterisks. He does mention which character we're looking through in the actual paragraph, however, but I sometimes have to check back to make sure that we're looking through this guy's eyes now. For example, in the murder aftermath scene, I had to check back to make sure the boys ran away, and we were now looking through Injun Joe's viewpoint. This is kind of annoying, though I know that this problem could have been ten times worse.
Chapter 9 adds an exciting element. Tom and Huckleberry head for the graveyard like they had planned, though it is late at night (Tom had to be woken up from a doze). They wait a while, and the graveyard is scary. Of course, the boys are freaked out.
Three beings come into sight. At first, the boys think that these beings are demons, but they all turn out to be humans. One is a Dr. Robinson, one is Injun Joe (who I'm guessing is half Indian), and the other is Muff Potter, who is drunk almost all the time. The later two dig up the recently-dead body that the boys were near, and then demand payment. And then, when Dr. Robinson doesn't agree, Injun Joe reminds the doctor of an old grievance and oath for vengeance. A fight soon ensues. Dr. Robinson manages to knock out Muff Potter, but he ends up losing the battle... forever. Injun Joe uses Muff Potter's dropped knife to kill the doctor. The boys flee at this, but somehow stay unseen by the murderer.
When Muff Potter awakes, Injun Joe has set it up so it looks like Muff Potter did it. He even lies and says that Muff Potter killed Dr. Robinson! Muff Potter believes it, and quickly begins to run.
Chapter 10 returns to the boys. They run into an old tannery. They are positive that if they tell, Injun Joe might get away from a hanging, and come to kill them. So they decide to be silent about all this. They make a blood oath. Tom writes the oath on a piece of wood, and then the boys use their blood, from a needle-prick in their thumbs, to sign their initials. They bury the oath, and do some ceremonies and incantations.
They are soon frightened by a stray dog. They think they're in big trouble, and are very frightened, for their lives and the afterlives. But, luckily, it wasn't barking at them. They soon discover a sleeping Muff Potter, and figure out that the dog is barking at him.
The boys part ways. Tom gets home, but doesn't notice that Sid's awake. He goes to sleep, and Sid goes to tattle. Tom wakes up late, and soon discovers that he has been ratted out.
But nothing happens until after breakfast. Aunt Polly takes him to the side, and says stuff that makes Tom feel very guilty. He begs for forgiveness, but doesn't leave with a light heart at all, though it felt like he had the victory. His guilt and heavy heart follow him all the way to school. Finding his special prize (the one he tried to give Becky) wrapped up at his desk only makes things worse.
In Chapter 11, the news of the murder gets out. Mark Twain notes that there were no telegraphs then, but the word still spreads quickly. It's well-known by noon. School takes the afternoon off.
Tom follows everyone to the graveyard to see the sight. Muff Potter returns there and is captured. He says he tried to run, but could only come here. He claims not to have done it (though he believed the lie Injun Joe had told him the night before). He looks to Injun Joe for help, but Injun Joe only lies.
Huckleberry is there as well, and both boys feel guilty. But they stay silent... part of it is that they feel like Injun Joe has sold his soul to Satan. And they both want lightning to come and strike Injun Joe, but no luck. They then feel fascinated, and even decide mentally to start watching him at night to see if they can see the devil himself!
Tom's mind and guilt starts to bug him constantly. Sid even starts hearing his brother talk in his sleep! Polly is the unexpected rescuer, saying that the murder has been giving everyone nightmares. But Tom begins to talk of a toothache so he can wear a bandage when he sleeps. Sid secretly takes off the bandage when his brother sleeps so he can hear the mutterings, but puts it back and doesn't say a word. And Tom eventually gets tired of it, and decides it doesn't matter if Sid hears it. He figures his brother won't be able to figure it out.
But Tom still feels guilty. He starts sneaking off to the jail every day or every other day. Once there, he slips in small stuff through to Muff Potter to help him. This helps to ease his conscience. Luckily, there's no guards to stop or see him do this.
The people want to dunk Injun Joe in tar and feathers, and then do something else, because of the grave-robbery. But Injun Joe has been careful in his statements. And he has such a formidable, no one wants to take charge of dealing with this case. The matter is put down. No one truly wants to deal with it in courts, or take it there yet.
Chapter 12 shows Tom in a sorrowful mood. He has new worries. Becky hasn't come to school in a long time, and it's upsetting Tom.
We learn something about Aunt Polly here. Aunt Polly is a nut about health-stuff and medicines. She has ton of medical periodicals (which I'm guessing are like magazines). She uses all sorts of cures and medicines... though never on herself, since she doesn't fall sick somehow. She doesn't even care if the periodicals contradict what the last issue states... she believes every word!
Then Tom starts acting weird because of his emotional issues, and he doesn't tell what's wrong. Aunt Polly then brings out the "weapons" of medicine. She uses a new water technique she's learned. And, when Tom doesn't get better, she brings out more and more stuff.
Then she learns of a new medicine. She stops all the other techniques, and starts using that. Tom starts perking up, though it's because he's decided to start doing so. But he needs a good ploy. So he bugs Aunt Polly for the medicine, saying he needs it. Aunt Polly eventually tells him to have as much as he wants, and watches the bottle. The medicine level decreases, but she doesn't know Tom is spilling it down a crack in the floor.
Then the cat, Peter, wants some of the medicine. After making sure it's what the cat wants and the cat is sure, Tom gives him some. The cat immediately goes hyper, and basically wrecks the house in a super-happy cat-fit.
Polly comes home, and demands to know what happened. Tom doesn't tell at first, but Aunt Polly soon sees the tattle-tell spoon. There's a bit of an interaction, which ends with Aunt Polly realizing that what may be cruel to a cat may also be cruel to a boy. She lets Tom go after this.
Home isn't the only place where Tom has been acting weird. He's been acting weird at school. He comes early instead of late. And instead of playing with his friends, he's hanging out at the gate and looking out for Becky. He checks every girl, and is mad when it isn't the right one.
Tom gets a delightful surprise at school. Becky finally comes back! He starts to show off and stuff to get her attention. But she ignores him for a good, long while. When Tom finally gets a response, it's a prideful and mean one. He's hurt, of course.
The boys did not make a good move! When they saw the murder, they should have told an adult! However, Mark Twain does a very good job at giving a reason for this wrong decision. The fact that they were afraid for their lives was a very believable reason for not telling anyone. Mark Twain did a very good job in that respect.
Mark Twain does a very good job at showing how gullible Aunt Polly is when it comes to the health stuff. He shows very clearly that she is a victim and heavily addicted to this stuff. And he even mentions that she's so into it, that she believes everything, even if the last issue of the "magazine" (which is the closest I think the modern world has to a periodical) contradicts what the current issue says!
Mark Twain also does a good job on Tom Sawyer. He shows Tom's guilt, and actions due to the guilt, very nicely. He also does a good job showing how Tom was distracted by the Becky problem. He also did a good job showing Tom's cleverness once again with the whole "need-medicine" plan.
Mark Twain did not do a good job on every character, though. I did not get the attitude change in Becky. She was not a prideful and mean girl during the rest of the book. And there was no explanation for the sudden change. However, it might have just been because the main character didn't know. But I still feel like we, the readers, should have been given a reason. Mark Twain has done this before, and it's annoying he decided not to now!
And that's not the only thing Mark Twain doesn't give a reason for the actions, for whatever unknown reason. For example, I didn't get the sudden change in attitude when Tom started perking up. Why did he decide to perk up? I feel like if the reason was given, it wasn't given clearly. But it was more like no reason was given. And, unlike the Becky scene, I don't feel like this was just because the main character didn't know, because it was about the main character! It was annoying, and it made things confusing and odd!
And that was not a good move for Mark Twain... while I get that making things confusing can be a ploy to get you to stick in the book, but it's a risky ploy. Plus, this was not a scene where a ploy like that should have been played. It should have been explained, and, if a reason was given, explained better. This helps not only for us to understand the character's reasoning, but it makes the book more enjoyable, because we understand. But when we don't understand, we don't enjoy it nearly as much as we could if we understood it.
And Mark Twain has a slight head-hopping problem. I've noticed this before, but Mark Twain manages to switch viewpoints, but with no visible signs, like paragraph spaces or a line of asterisks. He does mention which character we're looking through in the actual paragraph, however, but I sometimes have to check back to make sure that we're looking through this guy's eyes now. For example, in the murder aftermath scene, I had to check back to make sure the boys ran away, and we were now looking through Injun Joe's viewpoint. This is kind of annoying, though I know that this problem could have been ten times worse.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Literature Cental: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chapters 5-8
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chapters 5-8
Chapter 5 continues the story in church. After Sunday School, the bell rings, and everyone gathers for the morning sermon. Polly joins the kids, and they sit together. Tom is put at the end of the pew so he won't be distracted by the summer scene outside the window.
The minister does notices, and then a long prayer. Tom barely listens, but manages to note the changes and hate the change in total routine. A fly cleaning and preening itself on the pew in front of Tom bothers him, but Tom can't move, because he believes his soul will be destroyed if he catches the fly or moves in mid-prayer. When the prayer finally ends, Tom catches the fly, but Polly makes him release it.
The sermon itself is long and boring, and is about an old topic, though it's of terrible things. Only one scene catches Tom's interest, of the nations looking on a lamb and lion together, and a boy leading them. Of course, Tom wants to be that boy.
The rest of the sermon, however, even has the rest of the congregation bored and tired. Tom remembers he has a beetle with some impressive jaws, and takes it out. But the beetle pinches him, and the resulting "toss" from natural reaction sends the bug flying. It lands on his back, can't move, and Tom can't leave the pew to get it back.
A poodle notices the beetle, and begins having some fun with it, since it's bored too. The beetle pinches the poodle, goes flying once more from a natural-reaction "toss", and lands again on its back. The poodle goes after it with careful vengeance, and then goes after other stuff, forgetting the beetle. Then it promptly sits on the beetle, and begins flying itself all over the church.
By now, a good amount of people are watching and enjoying the distraction. When the poodle finally jumps onto its master's lap, and the said master gets it out via the window, the sermon loses its touch. Everyone is trying to hold in laughter, and a loose chuckle makes it sound like the minister said something funny. Eventually, everyone leaves. Tom doesn't mind that the poodle has played with the beetle, but he doesn't care for the poodle taking his beetle away.
Chapter 6 begins when Tom wakes up Monday. He tries to get out of school by faking sickness and pain. And he even tries to use his loose tooth to his advantage, but Polly is having none of it... the tooth is pulled out, and Tom ends up going to school. However, he ends up coming to school a "hero" of sorts, and the last person with attention because of a finger that was cut ends up being cast out.
We meet Huckleberry Finn, son of the local drunk. He's everything a boy can dream of... free with no rules at all, doesn't have to go to school, and is pretty wild. Since he's forbidden to play with Huckleberry, Tom plays with him as often as possible.
Huckleberry has a dead cat at the moment, and the duo end up talking about "cures" (more like spells) for warts with different stuff, including one with the dead cat. The duo decided to meet up to test the cat "cure" (which includes going into a graveyard, and listening to demons talk to a dead man), and agree on a signal, meowing. It didn't work last time, since Polly had her eye on Tom, but Tom promises to let loose the signal this time.
After the meeting is agreed upon, Tom then makes a trade with Huckleberry. Tom gives Huckleberry his tooth, and gets a tick in return. Both really like their new objects when they part ways.
And then we get to school. The headmaster notices Tom was late (though it doesn't seem like it at first), and demands an answer. Tom notices an empty spot next to his new crush on the girl's side of the school, and answers with the truth. Since Huckleberry is generally not liked at all by the adults, this helps get Tom punished. After being beaten, he's sent to the girl's side... right next to his crush!
Tom and the crush, who we learn is named Becky Thatcher, have some interactions. Tom shows her drawings, and agrees to help her learn to draw. Then he admits to loving her by writing his tablet. Becky pretends to be insulted, but was blushing and looked pleased the whole time.
Then the headmaster makes Tom move back to the other side, causing people to giggle. Tom tries to study, but is heavily distracted. He just makes messes of things.
Chapter 7 continues on where Chapter 6 left off. Tom eventually becomes so bored and ideas begin to wander so much, he gives up studying. He remembers the tick he got, and takes it out. He begins to route the bug around with a pin.
He's sitting next to his best friend, and Saturday-battle-enemy, Joe Harper. Joe is as bored as Tom is, and soon begins to play with the bug with his own pin. Soon Tom says that they're getting in each other's way, and draws a line down his board. When the bug was on one boy's side, the boy could play with it without interference from his friend. But when it got to the other boy's side, that boy could play without interference from the other one. This is fun for a while, but Joe soon eventually keeps it on his side, and Tom interfers with his pin. A fight, luckily only in words, ensues. The headmaster jumps in at this point, after having watched for a bit, and thwacks the boys. Dust flies for about two minutes.
Lunch eventually comes. Most of the folks head home, but Tom and Becky leave their groups and comes back to the school (Tom gave Becky instructions how). They do art lessons for a while, and then start doing other things.
Tom explains "engagement", meaning loving only each other and no one else, marrying only their partner, inviting each other to parties, and kissing each other. Tom gets Becky to say she loves him, and then they chase each other around. Then they kiss, and make an "engagement".
But then Tom lets it slip that he loved another girl before, Amy Lawrence. Becky gets upset and cries, thinking the other duo were "engaged" and that Tom still has feelings for Amy. Tom tries to make things right and make it known that he loves only her now, but no luck. He even tries to give her his special object, and she slaps it down to the floor.
Then Tom leaves, and he's not coming back. Becky eventually comes out, tries to find him, and even tries calling for him. But he's nowhere. The students are coming back by now. Becky is sad, lonely, and has no one to share her feelings with.
Chapter 8 comes back to Tom. He lane-hops until he can avoid the other students. Then he goes deep into the woods, and begins to think. He thinks life's one big trouble, and the dead lucky that they can sleep and dream all the day long, without life bothering them. He wishes he could be dead... if he had a clean Sunday-School plate.
He eventually begins to think of other things. He wonders about his careers, though all involve running away and coming back a hero or well-known. He eventually decides on being a pirate, and decides to start the next day. He knows he has to prepare today.
He then digs up a special box, and gets a marble after saying an incantation. But he is disappointed... he had buried the marble 2 weeks or so ago, and made different incantations. When he said the incantation he had just said, he was supposed to have all of his lost marbles, even the ones super-widely-spread. He is upset, and tosses the marble away. But, instead of deciding the obvious of "that doesn't work", he decides a witch interfered. He even gets a "bug" to "admit" by "not telling" (after saying an incantation, of course).
Then he works on finding the marble he tossed away. He then uses his smarts after just blindly searching, and tosses another marble. He stands in the same spot he was in when he tossed the first one, and tosses the new marble the same way. It takes three tries, but he eventually finds his marble.
And then Joe Harper sounds a tin trumpet, and the two begin to play Robin Hood... after undressing a good deal (including their pants!!!). They try to stay super-loyal to the book, and even have a fight because Joe doesn't want to "die" when he's supposed to. But they take turns, and make sure the fun's all around and evenly shared, until Robin Hood dies... and Tom (who's Robin Hood) ends up on a nettle and jumps up, which is too gaily for a corpse to do!
Then the boys dress, and head back. They discuss that there's no more criminals anymore, and don't care for it. They both say they'd rather spend a year as criminals in Sherwood Forest than to forever be the USA's President.
The last tibbit was cute. It's amazing to think that, when one is little, a bad-guy life can seem better than a good guy's. In their minds, it means more adventure and action, which seems better than sitting behind a desk all day and doing nothing, even if that job is supposedly important. It was cool for Mark Twain to add that nice piece of data, and in the right mind.
And Mark Twain points another common motif as well for youth. Basically, "if it's forbidden, it is done as often as possible"! I'm talking about the relationship between Huckleberry and Tom, of course. Since it was forbidden, Tom played with Huckleberry as often as possible. This only proved what I said above. While it is not true for all kids, it is true often enough, even in the modern world.
And the job changes! All kept a similar theme of "running away and then coming back and showing them years later". All were done while Tom was grumpy. That was a well-done scene. And all being done after Tom had decided not to be a clown, like he had told Becky. And it showed that all these job decisions were influenced heavily by feelings.
In these respects, Mark Twain does a good job showing a child's mind. They are pretty common facts at times. And a bunch of these are modern issues and tibbits! And Mark Twain manages to do a good show showing these to us, even if the main characters don't always realize it.
Stuff in a kid's mind wasn't the only thing Mark Twain showed that is still a modern issue. The boring sermon is another. Some sermons today are boring, and done in monotones. Sermons shouldn't be boring or done in a monotone! You lose your audience, and no one listens. And when something else comes along, people pay more attention to that when they should be listening to your sermon! And sometimes that same something else messes up your sermon and/or how your sermon is taken.
Kids apparently were very superstious (sp?) in those days. There was talk of incantations, demons, witches, and "cures" which were really more like spells! And there were weird little beliefs, like the bug-telling-answers-and-when-it-didn't-it-was-because-a-witch-had-been-around motif. And the soul-being-destroyed-because-of-movement-during-prayer (or catching a bug during prayer) was not a good belief, and seemed silly to me.
Mark Twain may have been a wonder, but his book still needs some work. There were things I was unsure on. The whole "Tom couldn't move during prayer" instance, for example. I'm still not sure if the problem was moving during prayer, or doing actions like catching bugs during prayer. I thought the former at first, but then Tom began to move near the end of the prayer, which got me wondering.
And there were some character surprises. Tom was actually trying to study! That caught me off-guard. Tom is such a bad boy, and he was trying to do something good that was not crush-related. I did not get that, and wish that a reason had shown for this unexpected act. At the very least, Mark Twain should have done that!
However, there were very-well-done parts! The whole scene between the dog and the beetle, for example. I feel like that was a very well-done scene. It kept my attention, was highly enjoyable, and Mark Twain did a good job explaining what the dog was doing. There were other good and very-good scenes, but that scene was a super one and one of my favorites.
Chapter 5 continues the story in church. After Sunday School, the bell rings, and everyone gathers for the morning sermon. Polly joins the kids, and they sit together. Tom is put at the end of the pew so he won't be distracted by the summer scene outside the window.
The minister does notices, and then a long prayer. Tom barely listens, but manages to note the changes and hate the change in total routine. A fly cleaning and preening itself on the pew in front of Tom bothers him, but Tom can't move, because he believes his soul will be destroyed if he catches the fly or moves in mid-prayer. When the prayer finally ends, Tom catches the fly, but Polly makes him release it.
The sermon itself is long and boring, and is about an old topic, though it's of terrible things. Only one scene catches Tom's interest, of the nations looking on a lamb and lion together, and a boy leading them. Of course, Tom wants to be that boy.
The rest of the sermon, however, even has the rest of the congregation bored and tired. Tom remembers he has a beetle with some impressive jaws, and takes it out. But the beetle pinches him, and the resulting "toss" from natural reaction sends the bug flying. It lands on his back, can't move, and Tom can't leave the pew to get it back.
A poodle notices the beetle, and begins having some fun with it, since it's bored too. The beetle pinches the poodle, goes flying once more from a natural-reaction "toss", and lands again on its back. The poodle goes after it with careful vengeance, and then goes after other stuff, forgetting the beetle. Then it promptly sits on the beetle, and begins flying itself all over the church.
By now, a good amount of people are watching and enjoying the distraction. When the poodle finally jumps onto its master's lap, and the said master gets it out via the window, the sermon loses its touch. Everyone is trying to hold in laughter, and a loose chuckle makes it sound like the minister said something funny. Eventually, everyone leaves. Tom doesn't mind that the poodle has played with the beetle, but he doesn't care for the poodle taking his beetle away.
Chapter 6 begins when Tom wakes up Monday. He tries to get out of school by faking sickness and pain. And he even tries to use his loose tooth to his advantage, but Polly is having none of it... the tooth is pulled out, and Tom ends up going to school. However, he ends up coming to school a "hero" of sorts, and the last person with attention because of a finger that was cut ends up being cast out.
We meet Huckleberry Finn, son of the local drunk. He's everything a boy can dream of... free with no rules at all, doesn't have to go to school, and is pretty wild. Since he's forbidden to play with Huckleberry, Tom plays with him as often as possible.
Huckleberry has a dead cat at the moment, and the duo end up talking about "cures" (more like spells) for warts with different stuff, including one with the dead cat. The duo decided to meet up to test the cat "cure" (which includes going into a graveyard, and listening to demons talk to a dead man), and agree on a signal, meowing. It didn't work last time, since Polly had her eye on Tom, but Tom promises to let loose the signal this time.
After the meeting is agreed upon, Tom then makes a trade with Huckleberry. Tom gives Huckleberry his tooth, and gets a tick in return. Both really like their new objects when they part ways.
And then we get to school. The headmaster notices Tom was late (though it doesn't seem like it at first), and demands an answer. Tom notices an empty spot next to his new crush on the girl's side of the school, and answers with the truth. Since Huckleberry is generally not liked at all by the adults, this helps get Tom punished. After being beaten, he's sent to the girl's side... right next to his crush!
Tom and the crush, who we learn is named Becky Thatcher, have some interactions. Tom shows her drawings, and agrees to help her learn to draw. Then he admits to loving her by writing his tablet. Becky pretends to be insulted, but was blushing and looked pleased the whole time.
Then the headmaster makes Tom move back to the other side, causing people to giggle. Tom tries to study, but is heavily distracted. He just makes messes of things.
Chapter 7 continues on where Chapter 6 left off. Tom eventually becomes so bored and ideas begin to wander so much, he gives up studying. He remembers the tick he got, and takes it out. He begins to route the bug around with a pin.
He's sitting next to his best friend, and Saturday-battle-enemy, Joe Harper. Joe is as bored as Tom is, and soon begins to play with the bug with his own pin. Soon Tom says that they're getting in each other's way, and draws a line down his board. When the bug was on one boy's side, the boy could play with it without interference from his friend. But when it got to the other boy's side, that boy could play without interference from the other one. This is fun for a while, but Joe soon eventually keeps it on his side, and Tom interfers with his pin. A fight, luckily only in words, ensues. The headmaster jumps in at this point, after having watched for a bit, and thwacks the boys. Dust flies for about two minutes.
Lunch eventually comes. Most of the folks head home, but Tom and Becky leave their groups and comes back to the school (Tom gave Becky instructions how). They do art lessons for a while, and then start doing other things.
Tom explains "engagement", meaning loving only each other and no one else, marrying only their partner, inviting each other to parties, and kissing each other. Tom gets Becky to say she loves him, and then they chase each other around. Then they kiss, and make an "engagement".
But then Tom lets it slip that he loved another girl before, Amy Lawrence. Becky gets upset and cries, thinking the other duo were "engaged" and that Tom still has feelings for Amy. Tom tries to make things right and make it known that he loves only her now, but no luck. He even tries to give her his special object, and she slaps it down to the floor.
Then Tom leaves, and he's not coming back. Becky eventually comes out, tries to find him, and even tries calling for him. But he's nowhere. The students are coming back by now. Becky is sad, lonely, and has no one to share her feelings with.
Chapter 8 comes back to Tom. He lane-hops until he can avoid the other students. Then he goes deep into the woods, and begins to think. He thinks life's one big trouble, and the dead lucky that they can sleep and dream all the day long, without life bothering them. He wishes he could be dead... if he had a clean Sunday-School plate.
He eventually begins to think of other things. He wonders about his careers, though all involve running away and coming back a hero or well-known. He eventually decides on being a pirate, and decides to start the next day. He knows he has to prepare today.
He then digs up a special box, and gets a marble after saying an incantation. But he is disappointed... he had buried the marble 2 weeks or so ago, and made different incantations. When he said the incantation he had just said, he was supposed to have all of his lost marbles, even the ones super-widely-spread. He is upset, and tosses the marble away. But, instead of deciding the obvious of "that doesn't work", he decides a witch interfered. He even gets a "bug" to "admit" by "not telling" (after saying an incantation, of course).
Then he works on finding the marble he tossed away. He then uses his smarts after just blindly searching, and tosses another marble. He stands in the same spot he was in when he tossed the first one, and tosses the new marble the same way. It takes three tries, but he eventually finds his marble.
And then Joe Harper sounds a tin trumpet, and the two begin to play Robin Hood... after undressing a good deal (including their pants!!!). They try to stay super-loyal to the book, and even have a fight because Joe doesn't want to "die" when he's supposed to. But they take turns, and make sure the fun's all around and evenly shared, until Robin Hood dies... and Tom (who's Robin Hood) ends up on a nettle and jumps up, which is too gaily for a corpse to do!
Then the boys dress, and head back. They discuss that there's no more criminals anymore, and don't care for it. They both say they'd rather spend a year as criminals in Sherwood Forest than to forever be the USA's President.
The last tibbit was cute. It's amazing to think that, when one is little, a bad-guy life can seem better than a good guy's. In their minds, it means more adventure and action, which seems better than sitting behind a desk all day and doing nothing, even if that job is supposedly important. It was cool for Mark Twain to add that nice piece of data, and in the right mind.
And Mark Twain points another common motif as well for youth. Basically, "if it's forbidden, it is done as often as possible"! I'm talking about the relationship between Huckleberry and Tom, of course. Since it was forbidden, Tom played with Huckleberry as often as possible. This only proved what I said above. While it is not true for all kids, it is true often enough, even in the modern world.
And the job changes! All kept a similar theme of "running away and then coming back and showing them years later". All were done while Tom was grumpy. That was a well-done scene. And all being done after Tom had decided not to be a clown, like he had told Becky. And it showed that all these job decisions were influenced heavily by feelings.
In these respects, Mark Twain does a good job showing a child's mind. They are pretty common facts at times. And a bunch of these are modern issues and tibbits! And Mark Twain manages to do a good show showing these to us, even if the main characters don't always realize it.
Stuff in a kid's mind wasn't the only thing Mark Twain showed that is still a modern issue. The boring sermon is another. Some sermons today are boring, and done in monotones. Sermons shouldn't be boring or done in a monotone! You lose your audience, and no one listens. And when something else comes along, people pay more attention to that when they should be listening to your sermon! And sometimes that same something else messes up your sermon and/or how your sermon is taken.
Kids apparently were very superstious (sp?) in those days. There was talk of incantations, demons, witches, and "cures" which were really more like spells! And there were weird little beliefs, like the bug-telling-answers-and-when-it-didn't-it-was-because-a-witch-had-been-around motif. And the soul-being-destroyed-because-of-movement-during-prayer (or catching a bug during prayer) was not a good belief, and seemed silly to me.
Mark Twain may have been a wonder, but his book still needs some work. There were things I was unsure on. The whole "Tom couldn't move during prayer" instance, for example. I'm still not sure if the problem was moving during prayer, or doing actions like catching bugs during prayer. I thought the former at first, but then Tom began to move near the end of the prayer, which got me wondering.
And there were some character surprises. Tom was actually trying to study! That caught me off-guard. Tom is such a bad boy, and he was trying to do something good that was not crush-related. I did not get that, and wish that a reason had shown for this unexpected act. At the very least, Mark Twain should have done that!
However, there were very-well-done parts! The whole scene between the dog and the beetle, for example. I feel like that was a very well-done scene. It kept my attention, was highly enjoyable, and Mark Twain did a good job explaining what the dog was doing. There were other good and very-good scenes, but that scene was a super one and one of my favorites.
Friday, February 15, 2013
Literature Central: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chapters 1-4
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chapters 1-4
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was written by the infamous Mark Twain over a hundred years ago. The preface written by him is dated 1876. However, he says that the book takes place 30-40 years even before that, in the west. He says that Huck Finn was real-life drawn, but the actual character--Tom Sawyer--was drawn from multiple people's personalities. And he said that, while he wrote it for kids, he also wanted adults to enjoy it, so they have pleasant memories of their youth, their feelings, and the odd stuffs and jobs they sometimes got into and wrapped themselves in.
In Chapter 1, we meet Tom and his Aunt Polly. We learn that Tom's mom, Polly's sister, is dead. Tom is caught after eating forbidden jam in the closet, but he manages to escape Polly after the first capture with a trick. We learn that Polly never uses the switch (beating device) on Tom... her heart can't bear it. But she is determined to get him to work on Saturday.
Tom sneaks off for the rest of the afternoon, swimming being a big activity. At dinner, Polly tries to get him to admit it, but fails. Then Tom's younger brother, Sid, points out an important detail that Polly missed and reveals Tom. Yet Tom manages to get away again.
At the end of the chapter, Tom meets a new.boy who just moved to Tom's home village of St. Petersburg (sp?). He is fancily dressed. Tom quickly hates the new boy, who is not named. The two circle each other, taunting each other and having a "word fight". When the new boy finally offers two coins for Tom to prove his claim that he can beat the new boy up, a fight begins. Tom wins, but when the boy is retreating, he tosses a stone, and Tom chases him to his house. Tom sticks around a while, but the new boy's mom eventually gets him to leave. Once Polly sees the state of Tom's clothes, she becomes set and determined to have him work on Saturday.
Now we come to Chapter 2, which is about this Saturday work. Now, it is a beautiful summer day, and everyone is happy. Tom starts out happy... but when he reaches the 30 yards of fence he has to whitewash, his spirit drops. He tries to get Jim, the colored boy who I think is the family's slave, to do it, but Jim has his orders. Tom tries to banter, but Polly intervenes... Jim manages to get away with a prize, however.
Tom then gets very clever. He knows boys will stop to make fun of him of working on a Saturday, but he quickly thinks up a plan. He makes whitewashing look like something desirable, and then refuses to let others work on it. Then he trades them the work for certain objects of value to a young boy, like marbles and something called "white alleys", along with a kite and pieces of a jew's (sp?) harp to boot. He relaxes, all the while, and the fence manages to get at least three coatings of whitewash, and he has a ton of stuff. But the only reason the plan stops is because the whitewash runs out... or else he would have done this to every boy in town!
Chapter 3 begins when Tom tells Aunt Polly he's done, and tricks her into thinking it was all his doing. She actually buys it, and rewards him (of course, he sneaks off a treat as well). He goes to play with his friends then. He leads an army, and his friend leads another. They issue orders, which are carried to the armies, and a "battle" begins. Tom wins this round, and certain formalities are done, and then the date for the next "necessary" battle is set.
On the way home, Tom sees a new girl in town. He falls in love with her, forgetting totally about the last girl he fell in love with (and got to admit love back). He does a ton of goofy things to impress her, while pretending not to care. He manages to get a flower from her, but no more. But Tom is very happy about this anyway.
Trouble comes at home. Polly raps his knuckles for stealing from the sugar bowl, and we learn that Sid is not punished for these things. But, while Polly off somewhere else, Sid actually breaks the bowl while stealing from it! But does he get punished? NO... at least, I think not. But Polly immediately slaps (I think, most likely possibility) Tom for the offense! Now, he was admittedly going to rat on his brother, but it's still not fair. Polly does not apologize (and, as far as I can tell, does not punish Sid).
Tom knows that Polly is feeling guilty in her mind, but it does not help his mood. He falls into a sorrowful lapse, and goes out for a while. He even stops by his new crush's house at night, and lies outside the window. But a maid dumps water all over him, and a grumpy Tom comes home.
Chapter 4 covers the following Sunday. Polly leads a family sermon, and then the kids go off to memorize verses. Tom does not do so well, until encouraged by his cousin Mary (who came in the last chapter), and manages to get all 5 of his verses. He gets a knife for it. It's not one that can do damage, but he's excited about it all the same.
Then he washes his head (helped by Mary), and gets his "other clothes" (AKA, Sunday clothes, but that's what they were called by the family) on. Surprisingly, these have lasted him two years, wearing them only on Sunday. Also, we learn that this is the only time Tom wears shoes. His temper snapped when he had to put them on, so he must not like it.
When he gets to Sunday School, he sticks outside the door to do some bantering. There's a ticket system here... for every two verses one memorized, they got a blue ticket. 10 blues could be traded in for a red, and then 10 reds for a yellow, and then 10 yellow got a Bible. Since these were so difficult to get, it came with a lot of glory and attention. And Tom wanted that glory and attention! He did some bantering.
Then some visitors came in while the "Superintendent" (Tom's nickname for Mr. Walters, the main teacher) was doing his thing (mainly, a big speech, possible sermon). One was a new Judge, who was the brother of the Lawyer Thatcher (who came too). Also, this Judge was the father of the girl who Tom was now crushing on! Since the girl came along, Tom's last crush, Amy Lawrence, figured out the new love situation, and was filled with anger and hate... especially for Tom!
Everyone began to "show off" a little. Tom had already started for his girl, but everyone joined in for the Judge, since he was radiating such an aura. But even he was doing it!
But then Tom pulled off a major stunt. He had gathered enough tickets to get a Bible! While Mr. Walters had been wanting to give a Bible in front of the Judge, this took everyone by surprise. And Judge Thatcher suspected something as well. Some of the boys, who Tom had bantered with both during the whitewashing and for the tickets, felt miserable, and angry at themselves. Judge Thatcher made a speech about how Tom would grow up a great and good man, how he would look back, and be thankful for Sunday School, the teachers, his good raising, and the knowledge he had. Judge Thatcher said he would be grateful, and not trade the verses supposedly memorized (which, if Tom had been telling the truth, would be around 2 thousand!) for even money.
And then Judge Thatcher asked a question that was supposedly simple. Of course, Tom couldn't answer it. He was silent for a while, but then when he did answer, he got it totally wrong!
Polly is not a good parent. While I'm no fan of beating, I did think that Tom got off way too easy too many times. Of course, I believe that is the point.
But she made many other mistakes... she knew how much of a bad boy Tom was. She should have gone out to check on his progress on the whitewashing a couple of times. And then he wouldn't have been able to pull the wool over her eyes!
And then there came the Sugar Bowl Incident. She shouldn't have hit Tom! I understand her mind-setting, but I believe that she should have taken the time to find out the situation. At the very least, she should have apologized when she found out she was in the wrong!
Then the book makes no mention of Sid getting punished for the Sugar Bowl Incident. Polly was not fair in that situation! If Tom got in trouble for stuff, Sid should be treated the same way! But he got away with stuff that Tom didn't... and then was never punished for the major stuff, like breaking the sugar bowl, even though his brother Tom got slapped for it (or, at least, I think it was a slap...).
I believe Mary was a better "parent" than Polly. The book makes Mary sound like an older girl, though there is no definite age as of yet. Mary can actually make Tom do stuff without resorting to punishing or anything. But she's no parent yet... I do believe that correct discipline must be in order. But Polly takes it to not-good levels, either being too easy, too hard, or not fair in the slightest.
Tom, on the other hand, is an amazing character in some ways. He is extremely clever, at least part of the time. The Whitewashing Plan was very well-done and impressive. However, he is nothing but trouble. And I can't totally blame Polly for her mind-set, though I think she should be a better parent.
Judge Thatcher, in his own respect, is very clever. That plan to reveal Tom was very well-done. However, I cannot say if it was intentional or not. But the whole scene was well-done and well-played. And I did not care for how he was basking in glory.
In general, the characters are, so far, well-rounded, and make degrees of sense. There are side-characters, like Jim, who we don't get very much about... at least, not yet. But the characters had a lot of work put into them, and make some degrees of sense.
But some actions don't. The doing-goofy-stuff-while-ignoring-girl bit seemed a little outlandish, and too much. I mean... if you like someone, go and at least introduce yourself! Don't show off and do whacky things! Those may attract some girls, but they don't attract everybody! And why do bad stuff to attract girls? That was outlandish, though it may have only been the mindset of a young boy.
Some things, however, made sense. I felt totally for the boys who realized in church how they had gotten swindled, and tricked into an elaborate scheme. I totally got how they felt guilty and angry at themselves for falling for Tom's scheme, and getting him to power when they shouldn't have. I totally get that!
The book itself... could use work. I did not get 24/7 what was going on... like whether or not Polly did slap Tom, or did something else (I'm pretty sure it was a slap, though...). While it was mainly minor stuff that I got lost on, I had to go back and re-read some things to figure out even partially what happened.
I will say that the accent was pretty well-written, if it was truly the accent of the day. It was transferred very well on paper. But it made the dialogue hard, sometimes very hard, to read sometimes! So much so, it was hard to tell what the characters were saying sometimes!
The slang didn't help. There was only one explained slang-term. But the old slang made things hard to understand sometimes. And some of the slang, and shortenings of words in the dialogue, didn't always make the best of sense... in fact, there's some I can't figure out!
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was written by the infamous Mark Twain over a hundred years ago. The preface written by him is dated 1876. However, he says that the book takes place 30-40 years even before that, in the west. He says that Huck Finn was real-life drawn, but the actual character--Tom Sawyer--was drawn from multiple people's personalities. And he said that, while he wrote it for kids, he also wanted adults to enjoy it, so they have pleasant memories of their youth, their feelings, and the odd stuffs and jobs they sometimes got into and wrapped themselves in.
In Chapter 1, we meet Tom and his Aunt Polly. We learn that Tom's mom, Polly's sister, is dead. Tom is caught after eating forbidden jam in the closet, but he manages to escape Polly after the first capture with a trick. We learn that Polly never uses the switch (beating device) on Tom... her heart can't bear it. But she is determined to get him to work on Saturday.
Tom sneaks off for the rest of the afternoon, swimming being a big activity. At dinner, Polly tries to get him to admit it, but fails. Then Tom's younger brother, Sid, points out an important detail that Polly missed and reveals Tom. Yet Tom manages to get away again.
At the end of the chapter, Tom meets a new.boy who just moved to Tom's home village of St. Petersburg (sp?). He is fancily dressed. Tom quickly hates the new boy, who is not named. The two circle each other, taunting each other and having a "word fight". When the new boy finally offers two coins for Tom to prove his claim that he can beat the new boy up, a fight begins. Tom wins, but when the boy is retreating, he tosses a stone, and Tom chases him to his house. Tom sticks around a while, but the new boy's mom eventually gets him to leave. Once Polly sees the state of Tom's clothes, she becomes set and determined to have him work on Saturday.
Now we come to Chapter 2, which is about this Saturday work. Now, it is a beautiful summer day, and everyone is happy. Tom starts out happy... but when he reaches the 30 yards of fence he has to whitewash, his spirit drops. He tries to get Jim, the colored boy who I think is the family's slave, to do it, but Jim has his orders. Tom tries to banter, but Polly intervenes... Jim manages to get away with a prize, however.
Tom then gets very clever. He knows boys will stop to make fun of him of working on a Saturday, but he quickly thinks up a plan. He makes whitewashing look like something desirable, and then refuses to let others work on it. Then he trades them the work for certain objects of value to a young boy, like marbles and something called "white alleys", along with a kite and pieces of a jew's (sp?) harp to boot. He relaxes, all the while, and the fence manages to get at least three coatings of whitewash, and he has a ton of stuff. But the only reason the plan stops is because the whitewash runs out... or else he would have done this to every boy in town!
Chapter 3 begins when Tom tells Aunt Polly he's done, and tricks her into thinking it was all his doing. She actually buys it, and rewards him (of course, he sneaks off a treat as well). He goes to play with his friends then. He leads an army, and his friend leads another. They issue orders, which are carried to the armies, and a "battle" begins. Tom wins this round, and certain formalities are done, and then the date for the next "necessary" battle is set.
On the way home, Tom sees a new girl in town. He falls in love with her, forgetting totally about the last girl he fell in love with (and got to admit love back). He does a ton of goofy things to impress her, while pretending not to care. He manages to get a flower from her, but no more. But Tom is very happy about this anyway.
Trouble comes at home. Polly raps his knuckles for stealing from the sugar bowl, and we learn that Sid is not punished for these things. But, while Polly off somewhere else, Sid actually breaks the bowl while stealing from it! But does he get punished? NO... at least, I think not. But Polly immediately slaps (I think, most likely possibility) Tom for the offense! Now, he was admittedly going to rat on his brother, but it's still not fair. Polly does not apologize (and, as far as I can tell, does not punish Sid).
Tom knows that Polly is feeling guilty in her mind, but it does not help his mood. He falls into a sorrowful lapse, and goes out for a while. He even stops by his new crush's house at night, and lies outside the window. But a maid dumps water all over him, and a grumpy Tom comes home.
Chapter 4 covers the following Sunday. Polly leads a family sermon, and then the kids go off to memorize verses. Tom does not do so well, until encouraged by his cousin Mary (who came in the last chapter), and manages to get all 5 of his verses. He gets a knife for it. It's not one that can do damage, but he's excited about it all the same.
Then he washes his head (helped by Mary), and gets his "other clothes" (AKA, Sunday clothes, but that's what they were called by the family) on. Surprisingly, these have lasted him two years, wearing them only on Sunday. Also, we learn that this is the only time Tom wears shoes. His temper snapped when he had to put them on, so he must not like it.
When he gets to Sunday School, he sticks outside the door to do some bantering. There's a ticket system here... for every two verses one memorized, they got a blue ticket. 10 blues could be traded in for a red, and then 10 reds for a yellow, and then 10 yellow got a Bible. Since these were so difficult to get, it came with a lot of glory and attention. And Tom wanted that glory and attention! He did some bantering.
Then some visitors came in while the "Superintendent" (Tom's nickname for Mr. Walters, the main teacher) was doing his thing (mainly, a big speech, possible sermon). One was a new Judge, who was the brother of the Lawyer Thatcher (who came too). Also, this Judge was the father of the girl who Tom was now crushing on! Since the girl came along, Tom's last crush, Amy Lawrence, figured out the new love situation, and was filled with anger and hate... especially for Tom!
Everyone began to "show off" a little. Tom had already started for his girl, but everyone joined in for the Judge, since he was radiating such an aura. But even he was doing it!
But then Tom pulled off a major stunt. He had gathered enough tickets to get a Bible! While Mr. Walters had been wanting to give a Bible in front of the Judge, this took everyone by surprise. And Judge Thatcher suspected something as well. Some of the boys, who Tom had bantered with both during the whitewashing and for the tickets, felt miserable, and angry at themselves. Judge Thatcher made a speech about how Tom would grow up a great and good man, how he would look back, and be thankful for Sunday School, the teachers, his good raising, and the knowledge he had. Judge Thatcher said he would be grateful, and not trade the verses supposedly memorized (which, if Tom had been telling the truth, would be around 2 thousand!) for even money.
And then Judge Thatcher asked a question that was supposedly simple. Of course, Tom couldn't answer it. He was silent for a while, but then when he did answer, he got it totally wrong!
Polly is not a good parent. While I'm no fan of beating, I did think that Tom got off way too easy too many times. Of course, I believe that is the point.
But she made many other mistakes... she knew how much of a bad boy Tom was. She should have gone out to check on his progress on the whitewashing a couple of times. And then he wouldn't have been able to pull the wool over her eyes!
And then there came the Sugar Bowl Incident. She shouldn't have hit Tom! I understand her mind-setting, but I believe that she should have taken the time to find out the situation. At the very least, she should have apologized when she found out she was in the wrong!
Then the book makes no mention of Sid getting punished for the Sugar Bowl Incident. Polly was not fair in that situation! If Tom got in trouble for stuff, Sid should be treated the same way! But he got away with stuff that Tom didn't... and then was never punished for the major stuff, like breaking the sugar bowl, even though his brother Tom got slapped for it (or, at least, I think it was a slap...).
I believe Mary was a better "parent" than Polly. The book makes Mary sound like an older girl, though there is no definite age as of yet. Mary can actually make Tom do stuff without resorting to punishing or anything. But she's no parent yet... I do believe that correct discipline must be in order. But Polly takes it to not-good levels, either being too easy, too hard, or not fair in the slightest.
Tom, on the other hand, is an amazing character in some ways. He is extremely clever, at least part of the time. The Whitewashing Plan was very well-done and impressive. However, he is nothing but trouble. And I can't totally blame Polly for her mind-set, though I think she should be a better parent.
Judge Thatcher, in his own respect, is very clever. That plan to reveal Tom was very well-done. However, I cannot say if it was intentional or not. But the whole scene was well-done and well-played. And I did not care for how he was basking in glory.
In general, the characters are, so far, well-rounded, and make degrees of sense. There are side-characters, like Jim, who we don't get very much about... at least, not yet. But the characters had a lot of work put into them, and make some degrees of sense.
But some actions don't. The doing-goofy-stuff-while-ignoring-girl bit seemed a little outlandish, and too much. I mean... if you like someone, go and at least introduce yourself! Don't show off and do whacky things! Those may attract some girls, but they don't attract everybody! And why do bad stuff to attract girls? That was outlandish, though it may have only been the mindset of a young boy.
Some things, however, made sense. I felt totally for the boys who realized in church how they had gotten swindled, and tricked into an elaborate scheme. I totally got how they felt guilty and angry at themselves for falling for Tom's scheme, and getting him to power when they shouldn't have. I totally get that!
The book itself... could use work. I did not get 24/7 what was going on... like whether or not Polly did slap Tom, or did something else (I'm pretty sure it was a slap, though...). While it was mainly minor stuff that I got lost on, I had to go back and re-read some things to figure out even partially what happened.
I will say that the accent was pretty well-written, if it was truly the accent of the day. It was transferred very well on paper. But it made the dialogue hard, sometimes very hard, to read sometimes! So much so, it was hard to tell what the characters were saying sometimes!
The slang didn't help. There was only one explained slang-term. But the old slang made things hard to understand sometimes. And some of the slang, and shortenings of words in the dialogue, didn't always make the best of sense... in fact, there's some I can't figure out!
Monday, February 11, 2013
Owl Central: Northern Hawk-Owls
Northern Hawk-Owls
Northern Hawk-Owls are called Northern Hawk-Owls for a reason! They live in North America and Eurasia, but most of them live way up north. So high north, in fact, that there's "midnight suns" and long nights. The Northern Hawk-Owl is able to survive, however, because it is very good at hunting in both daylight and darkness!
However, some northern species move down south. And there are some southern species. But these still live in cold habitats... one known set of these owls lives in the end of the Rockies!
During the breeding season, Northern Hawk-Owls like different areas. Some choices are open areas with plenty of nest sites, coniferous forests, and (better yet for these guys) a combo of a coniferous-and-deciduous tree forests. However, during the non-breeding season, Northern Hawk-Owls prefer pretty open areas with trees nearby. There's a variety of these spots, but one example is farmland with trees growing along the edge.
The breeding is around April to early May. Like usual, the actual starting point depends on the climatic conditions. Climatic range also plays with this date.
Northern Hawk-Owls can lay the usual egg-amount of 3 eggs. However, these owls can also give off very big clutches, especially for birds! Northern Hawk-Owls can lay up to ten eggs in a clutch!!!
Like usual, incubation begins when Egg 1 is laid. Momma does it all at this point. When the eggs hatch, however, things go slightly off-track. It is said that Dada incubates the chicks sometimes. But it's Momma most of the time, and Dada concetrates (sp?) on getting food for Momma, the chicks, and even himself!
Northern Hawk-Owl chicks do a lot. They eat a ton of food, and gain weight at an enormous rate... probably because Dada can hunt day and night. They leave the nest pretty quickly, but they stay nearby. The chicks can soon fly, but they stay in vinicity (sp?) of the nest. Despite being very active and growing up very quickly, the chicks are not fully independent until they are 2 months old.
Northern Hawk-Owls use a few different calls. Most of them sound like whistles. But the kind of whistle can be different... a bubbling whistle (or a trilled whistle) is what's usually used for getting a mate while doing display flights. Prolonged whistles done in a series is for territorial calls. But the call is not always a whistle... whenever the Northern Hawk-Owl feels alarmed, or are trying to intimidate something, they let loose repeated shriek-calls that last for a long time. Humans often get this shriek-call treatment.
Northern Hawk-Owls are predators, like every other owl. They go after the usual small mammals like voles, shrews, mice and whatnot. They also eat birds, like grouse. In fact, they'll eat any mammal or bird that can be subdued!
Northern Hawk-Owls have many similarities to hawks. They have calls which go "kee kee kee", which is similar to a hawk's call. The Northern Hawk-Owl's low hunting flights are also like a hawk's. Also, when perched on a treetop, the Northern Hawk-Owl resembles a broad-winged hawk.
What does the Northern Hawk-Owl look like? The Northern Hawk-Owl has chocolate-brown feathers with white barring on the undersides. It has white "eyebrows" over its lemon-yellow pupil eyes. There are white semi-circles around these eyes as well. The beak is yellow, though its hue is softer. The feet are light-brown, and the claws are black.
Northern Hawk-Owls are called Northern Hawk-Owls for a reason! They live in North America and Eurasia, but most of them live way up north. So high north, in fact, that there's "midnight suns" and long nights. The Northern Hawk-Owl is able to survive, however, because it is very good at hunting in both daylight and darkness!
However, some northern species move down south. And there are some southern species. But these still live in cold habitats... one known set of these owls lives in the end of the Rockies!
During the breeding season, Northern Hawk-Owls like different areas. Some choices are open areas with plenty of nest sites, coniferous forests, and (better yet for these guys) a combo of a coniferous-and-deciduous tree forests. However, during the non-breeding season, Northern Hawk-Owls prefer pretty open areas with trees nearby. There's a variety of these spots, but one example is farmland with trees growing along the edge.
The breeding is around April to early May. Like usual, the actual starting point depends on the climatic conditions. Climatic range also plays with this date.
Northern Hawk-Owls can lay the usual egg-amount of 3 eggs. However, these owls can also give off very big clutches, especially for birds! Northern Hawk-Owls can lay up to ten eggs in a clutch!!!
Like usual, incubation begins when Egg 1 is laid. Momma does it all at this point. When the eggs hatch, however, things go slightly off-track. It is said that Dada incubates the chicks sometimes. But it's Momma most of the time, and Dada concetrates (sp?) on getting food for Momma, the chicks, and even himself!
Northern Hawk-Owl chicks do a lot. They eat a ton of food, and gain weight at an enormous rate... probably because Dada can hunt day and night. They leave the nest pretty quickly, but they stay nearby. The chicks can soon fly, but they stay in vinicity (sp?) of the nest. Despite being very active and growing up very quickly, the chicks are not fully independent until they are 2 months old.
Northern Hawk-Owls use a few different calls. Most of them sound like whistles. But the kind of whistle can be different... a bubbling whistle (or a trilled whistle) is what's usually used for getting a mate while doing display flights. Prolonged whistles done in a series is for territorial calls. But the call is not always a whistle... whenever the Northern Hawk-Owl feels alarmed, or are trying to intimidate something, they let loose repeated shriek-calls that last for a long time. Humans often get this shriek-call treatment.
Northern Hawk-Owls are predators, like every other owl. They go after the usual small mammals like voles, shrews, mice and whatnot. They also eat birds, like grouse. In fact, they'll eat any mammal or bird that can be subdued!
Northern Hawk-Owls have many similarities to hawks. They have calls which go "kee kee kee", which is similar to a hawk's call. The Northern Hawk-Owl's low hunting flights are also like a hawk's. Also, when perched on a treetop, the Northern Hawk-Owl resembles a broad-winged hawk.
What does the Northern Hawk-Owl look like? The Northern Hawk-Owl has chocolate-brown feathers with white barring on the undersides. It has white "eyebrows" over its lemon-yellow pupil eyes. There are white semi-circles around these eyes as well. The beak is yellow, though its hue is softer. The feet are light-brown, and the claws are black.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Owl Central: Flammulated Owls
Flammulated Owls
Flammuted Owls live in quite a few places, a lot being near and/or at the western coast of North America. Some of these places are British Columbia, certain states of the USA, and Mexico. However, these owls have a wintering range. This adds South America to the list.
Flammulated Owls are small owls. The females are the larger of the two genders, but they only grow to 7 inches tall. The males are technically shorter, but only by half an inch.
Like Eastern Screech Owls, Flammulated Owls have two color phases. There's the gray phase, in which the owls are a gray-brownish color, often with a darkish hue. The other phase is the red phase, where the top of these owls are a cinnamon-red color.
The breeding season begins later for these birds, starting around mid-May. Unlike some other owls I've mentioned, incubation begins after the second egg is laid, not the first! Momma stays on the eggs most of the time, while Dada goes hunting to feed her. However, she does go on short trips out.
Flammulated Owls don't make big calls. They hoot, but it sometimes sounds more like boo, and they usually do it in one-syllable calls at regular intervals. However, this jumps up to two-syllables for finding mates. And hoots are their only call... Flammulated Owl parents let loose sounds that can sound like a kitten's mewling. But the quiet sounds of the parents are made up for by the chicks... they loose out noises that can be heard up to 110 yards away!!!
As you can except, these small owls don't really eat big things most of the time. Like the Whiskered Screech Owl, Flammulated Owls eat bugs. However, these birds do eat something surprising... sometimes they eat small birds! Wow!
Flammulated Owls are not the most secure owls in the world. They're protected in British Columbia, but in the USA they're under "Vulnerable" status. Like usual, habitat loss is one culprit. But habitat modification is a threat too, as well the pesticides used for controlling spruce budworms!
Flammuted Owls live in quite a few places, a lot being near and/or at the western coast of North America. Some of these places are British Columbia, certain states of the USA, and Mexico. However, these owls have a wintering range. This adds South America to the list.
Flammulated Owls are small owls. The females are the larger of the two genders, but they only grow to 7 inches tall. The males are technically shorter, but only by half an inch.
Like Eastern Screech Owls, Flammulated Owls have two color phases. There's the gray phase, in which the owls are a gray-brownish color, often with a darkish hue. The other phase is the red phase, where the top of these owls are a cinnamon-red color.
The breeding season begins later for these birds, starting around mid-May. Unlike some other owls I've mentioned, incubation begins after the second egg is laid, not the first! Momma stays on the eggs most of the time, while Dada goes hunting to feed her. However, she does go on short trips out.
Flammulated Owls don't make big calls. They hoot, but it sometimes sounds more like boo, and they usually do it in one-syllable calls at regular intervals. However, this jumps up to two-syllables for finding mates. And hoots are their only call... Flammulated Owl parents let loose sounds that can sound like a kitten's mewling. But the quiet sounds of the parents are made up for by the chicks... they loose out noises that can be heard up to 110 yards away!!!
As you can except, these small owls don't really eat big things most of the time. Like the Whiskered Screech Owl, Flammulated Owls eat bugs. However, these birds do eat something surprising... sometimes they eat small birds! Wow!
Flammulated Owls are not the most secure owls in the world. They're protected in British Columbia, but in the USA they're under "Vulnerable" status. Like usual, habitat loss is one culprit. But habitat modification is a threat too, as well the pesticides used for controlling spruce budworms!
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