"They say, I say" post #1

Exercise 1 :

The term "smoking" tends to be synonymous with "relaxation" in some people's minds. They see smoking as a harmless habit used to relieve stress and lose weight. However, some people choose to smoke because they believe it looks "cool" and want to be accepted. On the contrary, smoking is very addictive, unhealthy, and can cause cancer and other life threatening diseases. For the truth is that it does not look cool or relieve stress. It causes people to age quicker, smell like smoke, turn their teeth yellow, and turn their lungs black. In this essay, then, closely examining a smoker with a non smoker, I can show the audience how harmful smoking actually is and what it can do to your body.

Exercise 2:

In the introduction to "They Say / I Say": The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing, Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein provide templates designed to help students to be creative. Specifically, Graff and Birkenstein argue that the types of writing templates they offer help students improve the creativity in their writing. As the authors themselves put it, the templates "will actually help your writing become more original and creative, not less." Although some people believe templates will cause everyone's writing to be similar, Graff and Birkenstein insist that it is actually just a tool to outline your work. In sum, their view is that your creativity will be improved if you use these templates as a skeleton to start your assignment.

I agree with Graff and Birkenstein; in my view, the types of templates that the authors recommend give me a solid base to begin from. For instance, this assignment seems much simpler since we have somewhere to go from. In addition, while reading other students' essays where they followed the same topic as I did, ours ended up very different from each other. Some might object, of course, on the grounds that they enjoyed free writing instead of being told how to write. Yet I would argue that by using these templates, our essays are much more organized, yet still creative in their own ways. Overall, then I believe Graff and Birkenstein's opinions are true--an important part to make given hile writing an essay.

June 24: Journal 1

Chapter 2:

p.11 "Yes, he's got a father, but you can't never find him, these days. He used to lay drunk with the hogs in the tanyard, but he hain't been seen in these parts for a year or more."

Comments and questions:

This passage is describing Huck’s father. The boys in the gang agreed if they hurt one another they would have to kill their own families; if Huck’s father is not around, it won’t be possible to kill him. This quote discusses how long Huck’s father has been away and shows his character by how often he is drunk and never with his son. This is also foreshadowing and contains irony because later in the story, Huck encounters his father again.

Chapter 3:

p.14 “Well, about this time he was found in the river drowned, about twelve mile up town, so people said…I knowed mighty well that a drowned man don’t float on his back, but on his face. So I was uncomfortable again. I judged the old man would turn up again by-and-by, though I wished he wouldn’t.”

Comments and questions:

Huck is talking once again about his father in this passage. His father made it seem that he drowned in the river so everyone would think he was dead; however, he really just escaped for a year where no one knew where he was. The tone of this passage is a little irritated at the fact his father may come back, because Huck did not want to see him again. This also reveals some about Huck’s character; Huck was able to determine that his father set up the entire scene on purpose which shows how observant Huck is.

Chapter 5:

p.21 “I’ll take you down a peg before I get done with you. You’re educated, too, they say; can read and write. You think you’re better’n your father, now, don’t you, because he can’t? I’ll take it out of you. Who told you you might meddle with such hifalut’n foolishness, hey?—who told you you could?”

Comments and questions:

This quote was said by Huck’s father; they are having a conversation about Huck’s ability to read and write. His father is clearly not being supportive to him and making assumptions. He is selfish, inconsiderate, and does not deserve to be a father with the way he is treating his son. Instead of making assumptions, why didn’t Huck’s father ask him about his reading and writing? Then he also accuses Huck of thinking he is better than him.

Chapter 8:

p.38 “‘Stand away!’ and the cannon let off such a blast right before me that it made me deef with the noise and pretty near blind with the smoke, and I judged I was gone. If they’d a had some bullets in, I reckon they’d a got the corpse they was after.”

Comments and questions:

Since Huck ran away, cannons were being fired in order to find him; however, he planned nearly the same scheme his father did so people would believe he died. This passage has a powerful and semi-frightening tone. Huck was hit so hard by the sound of the cannon and the smoke from when it was fired that he thought he was dead. He concluded that if any more bullets were fired, the people searching for him would find him in the exact form they thought he was in.

Chapter 11:

p.58 “You do a girl tolerable poor, but you might fool men, maybe. Bless you, child, when you set out to thread a needle, don’t hold the thread still and fetch the needle up to it; hold the needle still and poke the thread at it—that’s the way a woman most always does; but a man always does it ‘tother way.”

Comments and questions:

This passage is when Huck dresses up like a girl and leaves Jim in order to find information. He comes across a house and meets a kind lady who plays along with Huck attempting to be a girl at first, but says this quote once they finish their conversation. This quote displays a tone of women power and how much smarter women can be than men. The lady in the house gives great comparisons to Huck about how men and women take action differently. However, the lady still does not know that she is talking to Huckleberry Finn, the boy everyone has been searching for.

Chapter 12:

p.66 “...there’s a gang of murderers in yonder, and if we don’t hunt up their boat and set her drifting down the river so these fellows can’t get away from the wreck, there’s one of ‘em going to be in a bad fix. But if we find their boat we can put all of ‘em in a bad fix—for the Sheriff ‘ll get ‘em.”

Comments and questions:

Huck is telling Jim his smart plan of blaming the gang for the wreck; they will do this by letting their boat flow down the river so they cannot escape. Then the Sheriff will catch them and they will all be in trouble. Although I was wondering, what was Huck’s purpose for wanting to do this? I may have missed a part in the story or need clarification somewhere to help me understand. Is it possible Huck did not have a purpose at all?

Chapter 14:

p.72 “Well, he was right; he was most always right; he had an uncommon level head, for a nigger.”

Comments and questions:

Huck said Jim is always right, even while being a black man. I found this quote unique because during the time period this book took place in there was much slavery and segregation toward black people, so Huck is still friends with and is kind to Jim although he is different than he is.