Response to Passing Post

One thing that I kept noticing in the first section of Passing was the importance of peoples eyes. Good. This is nice and neat-you've got a clear "what," and you could easily link it to a "so what." Irene kept talking about Clare's eyes. They seemed powerful. They showed emotions even before anyone had a chance to say anything. Evidence? Clare's eyes seemed to control people, like Irene, and her husband. Evidence?Irene and Clare would be talking and Irene would just give in to Clare's request, while mentioning something about her eyes. I think that in this story eyes are a metaphor women being seductive, that nobody can withstand a woman who knows how to make people do what they want. OK, so then does that take you to a queer reading? If eyes represent a woman's seductiveness, and I'd really like to see the textual evidence that suggests this to you, then is the connection between Irene and Clare shaped by this seduction? This certaintly is Clare, even from the begining, when she is living with her aunts and snitching time to go visit her old friends. People always wanted to see Clare and always talked about her afterwards, which is what Clare wanted, to be the center of attention. Later in the story, around the high 180's to low 190's Irene is the one who is having her eyes mentioned, and she is also the one winning. She is not inviting Clare to the dance, and this is a victory for Irene, that she is able to stand up against Clare. Clare is strong character, but also a selfish one. Everything she does is for herself. Irene is different, but also the same. Irene convinced her husband to keep with his profession because it was the best thing for him. But was that really why? No way! She just wants to keep her family intact! If he left what would happen to Irene? Yup! A lot of what Irene does is for herself too, which I think says that it is human nature to want things better for yourself, but that going to extremes, like Clare, is a bad thing. I think you left the eyes motif by the end of this. What you want to do is to keep a staedy what--the eyes--and then come to your "so what." It's possible that what you're saying is that the author uses Irene and Clare's eyes to show that both are selfish creatures who "see" only what is best for them. Exposing human selfishness? That is very different from your earlier motif of woman's seductiveness. Or is this about showing that Irene is every bit as controlling and seductive as Clare, even though she tries to sit in judgment of Clare?
If you write about this, then be SURE that you are doing close reading of lots of passages about eyeballs!

Response to Twain Post

In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Twain brings the attention of child abuse and human needs to readers attentions. Nice job framing the psychological/cultural approach. When the story begins one readers? does not know why Huck is so scared of footprints around the widow's house. Right after Huck sees these footprints he goes and gives all his money, which he has quite a bit of, to an adult he trusts, the judge. When Huck gets back to the widow's house his father is in his room waiting for him. Readers can tell that Huck does not like his father, "I used to be scared of him all the time, he tanned me so much. I reckon I was scared now, too; but in a minute I see I was mistaken. That is, after the first jolt, as you may say, when my breath sort of hitched - he being so unexpected; but right away after, I see I warn't scared of him worth bothering about." Great choice of passages. Remember, when you take this to an analytical essay, you need to read this passage closely. Look at Huck's physical response to this man, especially considering Huck seeks adventure and danger at this point in the story. He says he isn't scared now--do we make anything of that? Huck's father abused him and that is why he gave his money away. If you want to make something big out of this, you'll need to use the exact language--the passage to connect it to abuse. He disliked his father and didn't want him to get his money because he would just use it to buy alcohol with. When Huck and Jim found each other on the island after they both ran away Huck took to Jim because he missed people. Huck kept mentioning being lonely, "When it was dark I set by my camp fire smoking, and feeling pretty satisfied; but by-and-by it got sort of lonesome...and then went to bed; there ain't no better way to put in time when you are lonesome," and when Jim and Huck meet Huck didn't care that Jim was black, he just wanted companionship. You've just shifted topics. The lonesomeness is too much to confont here unless you change that thesis. Throughout the book Jim is characterized as a father figure, always calling Huck honey and being super happy when Huck makes it back to the raft safe after one of his times when he leaves. Huck is always happy to see Jim too, which is a characteristic of abused children, they often "seek comfort in an adult who won't abuse them", according to the Wise Geek article "How Might a Child's Behavior Show Signs of Abuse". Nice. This model will work well, and it will allow you to focus your argument. Your what = Huck demonstrates characteristics typical of abused children. Other than looking for comfort in Jim as a characteristic of being abused, Huck matured very fast. Because Huck's father was an alcoholic and so crazy, Huck had to mature and learn to care for himself at too early of an age. This is another characteristic of abused children, according the same article by Wise Geek, abused children "may display signs of maturity beyond their years. One sign of abuse may be the use of sexual or obscene language." Well, Huck doesn't really use sexual or obscene language, does he? Huck takes care of himself, defends himself from his father, makes sure he has food, smokes, uses profane language, and even fakes his own death to help him run away.
You're now switching models here. You're switching from the Huck is a typical abused kid approach to looking at Hucking through the hierarchy of needs. Because Huck has to take care of himself and had and abusive father, he is at the bottom of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Huck is searching for his basic needs. He sets traps for food and hunts for food, he just has the great outdoors for a shelter, and has to build a fire for warmth. Finding these basic necessities takes up all his time and he cannot get to the next stage, until Jim shows up. When Jim is there they help each other with the basic necessities so that they can move up to the next level, safety needs. Since there are now two of them, they have protection, security, order and stability. Because they are both running they are always worrying about being caught which holds them from the next level of the hierarchy, but on the other hand they have a method of running at night and hiding during the day that sometimes lets them reach the next level. This is true, but it feels like summary. There isn't much "so what" in looking at this.
Huck some nights would find Jim crying about his children and how he missed them and was sad at how they were never going to see their father again. Rather than moving neatly up the pyramid, this is where you can complicate things. Which is the next level, Belongingness and Love needs, such as family, affection, relationships. Aren't both Huck and Jim the product of a society that has so warped family relationships that they can't really demonstrate this level of need? Huck never really felt a family pull because he was abused, but you can tell that as the book progresses there is the hint of a friendship between Jim and Huck. I say hint because evertime Huck is presented with society the friendship is nearly extinguished and the only reason Huck doesn't tell on Jim is because he wants to keep his word. This friendship is and important part in the development of the book. The friendship is around when it is just Huck and Jim on the raft, but as soon as Huck goes to land the friendship is almost forgotten of extinguished. This is demonstrated at the Grangerfords. Huck goes on shore, then he gets accepted by this family and never talks about Jim until he is reunited with him. When it is just Huck and Jim on the raft, and they have their running scheme working and their basic needs met and they are acting as friends, they are ready to move up to the next level. This level is the Esteem needs, such as achievement, status, responsibility and reputation. I agree--I think you can argue that they never progress to this next level of emotional health because they have such warped relationships with others and unfulfilled needs for belonging. This seems to be where Huck and Jim are stuck throughout the book, because there is never a place where it just states that Huck and Jim made achievements. (I didn't think I found any, but since you are going to be responding to this could you tell me if you thought there was a place, besides the begining, where you thought Jim and Huck had made it passed the Esteem needs level?) The only time Huck was above the esteem needs level and onto the Self-actualisation level was way at the begining of the book when he lived with the widow. At the widows the repeated themes were that he needed to be free and his own master, and that he was depressed. Huck was trying to figure out what he was supposed to do with his life, what he was meant to do, and that made him depressed. He was at the top of Maslow's Hierarchy, I'm not sure you can really argue this. The kind of self-actualization that Huck demonstrates isn't the kind of mature, total fulfillment that Maslow is describing. until his father came back and started to abuse him, and he never made it back to the top.
You've done so much great thinking; right now, your issue is that this is gigantic. You want to narrow your "what." Are we looking at Huck or at Jim? You could make this quite neat and tight by focusing on Jim--slavery deprives him of all levels of need and makes it impossible for him to be a fully developed human being. But that doesn't seem to be what you want to do. What about this: Huck's early abuse leave him trying to fulfill the level of love/belongingness needs that you're describing. His journey is a journey to fulfill these needs. Does he succeed with Jim ultimately? I don't know. That could be your question.
So how would you structure this? Intro: you'd set up Maslow and get to your thesis about Huck, what you see and so what--why does this help us understand Huck's character in a new way?
Body: first you prove Huck's connections with others are warped because of the abuse he has suffered. You don't need to use that article you cite here--you've found fine textual evidence.
Then, you show evidence from the different sections (the Grangefords, etc.) showing that what Huck truly seeks is love/belonging.
Then, you ask, does he find that with the least likely character of all, the slave? Or do we overestimate this connection? After all, he gets adopted in the end and is still ready to "light out" for the territories?

Passing Post

One thing that I kept noticing in the first section of Passing was the importance of peoples eyes. Irene kept talking about Clare's eyes. They seemed powerful. They showed emotions even before anyone had a chance to say anything. Clare's eyes seemed to control people, like Irene, and her husband. Irene and Clare would be talking and Irene would just give in to Clare's request, while mentioning something about her eyes. I think that in this story eyes are a metaphor women being seductive, that nobody can withstand a woman who knows how to make people do what they want. This certaintly is Clare, even from the begining, when she is living with her aunts and snitching time to go visit her old friends. People always wanted to see Clare and always talked about her afterwards, which is what Clare wanted, to be the center of attention. Later in the story, around the high 180's to low 190's Irene is the one who is having her eyes mentioned, and she is also the one winning. She is not inviting Clare to the dance, and this is a victory for Irene, that she is able to stand up against Clare. Clare is strong character, but also a selfish one. Everything she does is for herself. Irene is different, but also the same. Irene convinced her husband to keep with his profession because it was the best thing for him. But was that really why? If he left what would happen to Irene? A lot of what Irene does is for herself too, which I think says that it is human nature to want things better for yourself, but that going to extremes, like Clare, is a bad thing.

Huck Finn Posting

In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Twain brings the attention of child abuse and human needs to readers attentions. When the story begins one does not know why Huck is so scared of footprints around the widow's house. Right after Huck sees these footprints he goes and gives all his money, which he has quite a bit of, to an adult he trusts, the judge. When Huck gets back to the widow's house his father is in his room waiting for him. Readers can tell that Huck does not like his father, "I used to be scared of him all the time, he tanned me so much. I reckon I was scared now, too; but in a minute I see I was mistaken. That is, after the first jolt, as you may say, when my breath sort of hitched - he being so unexpected; but right away after, I see I warn't scared of him worth bothering about." Huck's father abused him and that is why he gave his money away. He disliked his father and didn't want him to get his money because he would just use it to buy alcohol with. When Huck and Jim found each other on the island after they both ran away Huck took to Jim because he missed people. Huck kept mentioning being lonely, "When it was dark I set by my camp fire smoking, and feeling pretty satisfied; but by-and-by it got sort of lonesome...and then went to bed; there ain't no better way to put in time when you are lonesome," and when Jim and Huck meet Huck didn't care that Jim was black, he just wanted companionship. Throughout the book Jim is characterized as a father figure, always calling Huck honey and being super happy when Huck makes it back to the raft safe after one of his times when he leaves. Huck is always happy to see Jim too, which is a characteristic of abused children, they often "seek comfort in an adult who won't abuse them", according to the Wise Geek article "How Might a Child's Behavior Show Signs of Abuse". Other than looking for comfort in Jim as a characteristic of being abused, Huck matured very fast. Because Huck's father was an alcoholic and so crazy, Huck had to mature and learn to care for himself at too early of an age. This is another characteristic of abused children, according the same article by Wise Geek, abused children "may display signs of maturity beyond their years. One sign of abuse may be the use of sexual or obscene language." Huck takes care of himself, defends himself from his father, makes sure he has food, smokes, uses profane language, and even fakes his own death to help him run away. Because Huck has to take care of himself and had and abusive father, he is at the bottom of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Huck is searching for his basic needs. He sets traps for food and hunts for food, he just has the great outdoors for a shelter, and has to build a fire for warmth. Finding these basic necessities takes up all his time and he cannot get to the next stage, until Jim shows up. When Jim is there they help each other with the basic necessities so that they can move up to the next level, safety needs. Since there are now two of them, they have protection, security, order and stability. Because they are both running they are always worrying about being caught which holds them from the next level of the hierarchy, but on the other hand they have a method of running at night and hiding during the day that sometimes lets them reach the next level. Huck some nights would find Jim crying about his children and how he missed them and was sad at how they were never going to see their father again. Which is the next level, Belongingness and Love needs, such as family, affection, relationships. Huck never really felt a family pull because he was abused, but you can tell that as the book progresses there is the hint of a friendship between Jim and Huck. I say hint because evertime Huck is presented with society the friendship is nearly extinguished and the only reason Huck doesn't tell on Jim is because he wants to keep his word. This friendship is and important part in the development of the book. The friendship is around when it is just Huck and Jim on the raft, but as soon as Huck goes to land the friendship is almost forgotten of extinguished. This is demonstrated at the Grangerfords. Huck goes on shore, then he gets accepted by this family and never talks about Jim until he is reunited with him. When it is just Huck and Jim on the raft, and they have their running scheme working and their basic needs met and they are acting as friends, they are ready to move up to the next level. This level is the Esteem needs, such as achievement, status, responsibility and reputation. This seems to be where Huck and Jim are stuck throughout the book, because there is never a place where it just states that Huck and Jim made achievements. (I didn't think I found any, but since you are going to be responding to this could you tell me if you thought there was a place, besides the begining, where you thought Jim and Huck had made it passed the Esteem needs level?) The only time Huck was above the esteem needs level and onto the Self-actualisation level was way at the begining of the book when he lived with the widow. At the widows the repeated themes were that he needed to be free and his own master, and that he was depressed. Huck was trying to figure out what he was supposed to do with his life, what he was meant to do, and that made him depressed. He was at the top of Maslow's Hierarchy, until his father came back and started to abuse him, and he never made it back to the top.