Respone to Hemingway Post

Throughout his short story "In Another Country" Ernest Hemingway repeatedly brings up the machines and experiences him Whoa--don't assume the narrator/protagonist is Hemingway and the people he was with in the hospital had with the machines. Personally I think that the machines are a symbol for war in this particular work. This has potential as a thesis. I believe this because of multiple reasons. First off, doing a reading based on Hemingway's background, he went to war and was injured very early on in the war. He criticized war from that point on and really became one of the liberal artists that were extremely prevalent in this era. Hemingway wrote this short story as a criticism of war and how people mindlessly follow what their leaders tell them and go to war, not because they want to, and not because they believe in what the war is being fought over, but just because they are told to go to war. Interesting biographical element here. You could certainly use this to foreground your argument. Secondly, as I have already stated, the people who are using the machines in the short story don't believe the machines work, they don't know what the machines are doing, they are just using the machines because the doctor tells them too. You would need specific textual evidence that supports this claim that the soldiers who follow the doctor are the equivalent of soldiers following orders. Also, with this being a short story based on WWI, there weren't any wars of the magnitude of WWI that had occurred prior to WWI. It is highly likely that the machines are a symbol for not only war, but WWI because, as Hemingway repeats throughout the story, there were pictures that were supposed to be of hands that had been completely restored by the machines, although that did not follow what the doctor had told them which was that they were the first people to use the machines. This is very similar to what the world leaders were saying going into WWI. They were saying that WWI would be the war to end all wars and that after WWI the world would be at peace, but they had not evidence to base those claims on because like the men using the machines, WWI was the first time that the nearly the entire world would be engulfed in war. Like the fake pictures hanging above the machines and the doctors claims, the evidence the world leaders during WWI were using was false and unconvincing, although people still went to war. Hemingway and his friends used the machines because they were told to, and not because they thought the machines would work like people went to war in WWI because they were told to, not because they actually believed it would be the war to end all wars. Interesting conclusion. The key to proving this will be strong, convincing textual evidence. You'll need to find language from the story that supports your interpretation of the machines as a metaphor for war. Last year I had a student argue something similar about Old Man and the Sea. I'll show you her essay, if you're interested; you'd need the same kind of convincing support that she offered.

Response to Huck Finn Post

Cam, My apologies for not finding you before I left school Friday. Long story, but the gist is my ninth graders ran over taking a test, and I ran out of time before I had to get to daycare to get my kid. Anyway...
Huck Finn is a story full of satire and repeated images worth mention and further investigation. Above all, the recurring theme present throughout Huck Finn that really deserves investigation and analyzing is the developement if Huck Finn relative to Tom Sawyer throughout the novel. In the beginning of the novel, Huck is seen as Tom's sidekick. Tom creates ridiculous adventures based on stories that he may or may not have read and Huck follows along as Tom creates his imaginary adventure that Huck doesn't understand because he looks at things from a non-romantic, realistic perspective where Tom looks at things from a very romantic perspective. This contrast in ways of thinking was a dimension of the novel that Mark Twain added as an acknowledgement that writers in his time period were moving away from romanticism and towards realism. As the story progresses, and Huck procedes to have many adventures with Jim, he develops into what he saw Tom as at the beginning of the novel. He becomes the adventurer that Tom always was in his imagination. As the novel begins to wrap up, and Tom and Huck come in contact with each other again, Huck reverts to his position as Tom's sidekick, but only in the manner that he acts. Tom is allowed to create the plan to free Jim, but instead of just mindlessly trusting Tom as he did in the beginning, Huck constantly speaks out and questions Tom. This is different because in the beginning of the novel, Huck would wonder why he didn't see the elephants that Tom did I don't recall--does Tom actually say he sees the elephants? , for example, but he wouldn't come out and tell Tom that there were no elephants and his plans were ridiculous. At the end of the novel, as Huck has developed into a wiser, more experienced adventurer than Tom, Huck constantly questions Tom and his romantic ideas. In the end, Twain not only shows the development of Huck relative to Tom based on the adventures that Huck experiences, but he also shows the progression of realism past romanticism based on the progression of Huck, the realist, past Tom, the romanticist. You're going to have to use some stellar evidence to suggest that Huck has in fact surpassed Tom. The stuff I put in green is a grammatical FYI: one goal for you is to tighten up your prose. You pair a lot of words when one would do. Also, watch those passive verbs.
This will certainly work as a topic. The way you'd structure this would likely be to show the evolution of Huck's responses to Tom. But what do you do with the fact that Tom is ultimately in charge? Huck may protest, but he still follows.

Ernest Hemingway Post

Throughout his short story "In Another Country" Ernest Hemingway repeatedly brings up the machines and experiences him and the people he was with in the hospital had with the machines. Personally I think that the machines are a symbol for war in this particular work. I believe this because of multiple reasons. First off, doing a reading based on Hemingway's background, he went to war and was injured very early on in the war. He criticized war from that point on and really became one of the liberal artists that were extremely prevalent in this era. Hemingway wrote this short story as a criticism of war and how people mindlessly follow what their leaders tell them and go to war, not because they want to, and not because they believe in what the war is being fought over, but just because they are told to go to war. Secondly, as I have already stated, the people who are using the machines in the short story don't believe the machines work, they don't know what the machines are doing, they are just using the machines because the doctor tells them too. Also, with this being a short story based on WWI, there weren't any wars of the magnitude of WWI that had occurred prior to WWI. It is highly likely that the machines are a symbol for not only war, but WWI because, as Hemingway repeats throughout the story, there were pictures that were supposed to be of hands that had been completely restored by the machines, although that did not follow what the doctor had told them which was that they were the first people to use the machines. This is very similar to what the world leaders were saying going into WWI. They were saying that WWI would be the war to end all wars and that after WWI the world would be at peace, but they had not evidence to base those claims on because like the men using the machines, WWI was the first time that the nearly the entire world would be engulfed in war. Like the fake pictures hanging above the machines and the doctors claims, the evidence the world leaders during WWI were using was false and unconvincing, although people still went to war. Hemingway and his friends used the machines because they were told to, and not because they thought the machines would work like people went to war in WWI because they were told to, not because they actually believed it would be the war to end all wars.

Huck Finn Post

Huck Finn is a story full of satire and repeated images worth mention and further investigation. Above all, the recurring theme present throughout Huck Finn that really deserves investigation and analyzing is the developement if Huck Finn relative to Tom Sawyer throughout the novel. In the beginning of the novel, Huck is seen as Tom's sidekick. Tom creates ridiculous adventures based on stories that he may or may not have read and Huck follows along as Tom creates his imaginary adventure that Huck doesn't understand because he looks at things from a non-romantic, realistic perspective where Tom looks at things from a very romantic perspective. This contrast in ways of thinking was a dimension of the novel that Mark Twain added as an acknowledgement that writers in his time period were moving away from romanticism and towards realism. As the story progresses, and Huck procedes to have many adventures with Jim, he develops into what he saw Tom as at the beginning of the novel. He becomes the adventurer that Tom always was in his imagination. As the novel begins to wrap up, and Tom and Huck come in contact with each other again, Huck reverts to his position as Tom's sidekick, but only in the manner that he acts. Tom is allowed to create the plan to free Jim, but instead of just mindlessly trusting Tom as he did in the beginning, Huck constantly speaks out and questions Tom. This is different because in the beginning of the novel, Huck would wonder why he didn't see the elephants that Tom did, for example, but he wouldn't come out and tell Tom that there were no elephants and his plans were ridiculous. At the end of the novel, as Huck has developed into a wiser, more experienced adventurer than Tom, Huck constantly questions Tom and his romantic ideas. In the end, Twain not only shows the development of Huck relative to Tom based on the adventures that Huck experiences, but he also shows the progression of realism past romanticism based on the progression of Huck, the realist, past Tom, the romanticist.