Midterm Essay Questions.

Hi Everyone: Please remember that you need to choose ONE of the following questions, and we will be writing the essays this Thursday and Friday, Jan. 23-4.  These are the same questions that were handed out in hard copy last week.

Question #1: Mark Twain once described The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as a novel in which “a sound heart & a deformed conscience come into collision & conscience suffers a defeat.”

Using the novel, explain what you think Twain means in this statement and why this conflict is important to the book as a whole.  Be sure not to ignore or smooth-over what is complicated about Huck’s inner self.  To put it another way: why is it not always clear if the heart or the conscience should be trusted?  Select scenes and quotations to help illustrate your argument.  

Question #2: 

In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the film Modern Times, the main character is an outsider who can not fit into the society of his time and is forced to wander restlessly, without a clear goal.  In a well developed essay, explain how the characters’ journeys are used to either a) show a development or change in the characters that is meaningful, or b) reveal significant truths about the characters’ social environments.  An excellent response will use specific details and scenes from the novel and the film – not just those discussed in class – and will explain why the characters’ reactions to their environments are meaningful.