Free Essays on Huck Finn Facets Of Lies

The Many Facets of Lies In Mark Twain’s novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck begins by stating that he â€Å"never seen anybody but lied, one time or another† (Twain 13). By stating this, Huck is implying that he himself also lies. However, in Huck’s life, there are several different facets of lying. There are ‘stretching the truth’ lies, lies made out of ignorance or misunderstandings, lies made for survival, and malicious lies designed to harm people. Mark Twain once stated that â€Å"Truth is more of a stranger than fiction† (Notebook 1898). To Huck Finn, this is the way that he lives his life. His best friend, Tom Sawyer is an example of someone who stretches the truth. Tom does this to create excitement in his life and live out the romantic novels of adventure that he reads. Tom leads his friends in creating a gang of robbers. When they first form their club, the boys â€Å"take an oath, and write their names in blood† (Twain 20). The entire point of the gang is to ransom people and kill all but women and children (Twain 21). This gang fulfills Tom’s fantasies of adventure and wild times without his family holding him down it is an escape from civilization. Jim is another character in Twain’s novel that habitually stretches the truth to build him up. Jim’s lies are harmless though and are only done for his own amusement or gratification. When the gang of boys plays a joke on Jim in the beginning of the novel, Tom â€Å"slipped Jim’s hat off of his head and hung it on a limb† above Jim’s head (Twain 19). When Jim wakes up in the woods, he is convinced that witches enchanted him and â€Å"rode him all over the State;† however, as Jim continues to tell the story to more people, he exaggerates it to build it up in impressiveness and thus build his own importance (Twain 19). By the time that Jim has told most everyone about the witches, he claims to have been ridden â€Å"all over the world, and t... Free Essays on Huck Finn Facets Of Lies Free Essays on Huck Finn Facets Of Lies The Many Facets of Lies In Mark Twain’s novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck begins by stating that he â€Å"never seen anybody but lied, one time or another† (Twain 13). By stating this, Huck is implying that he himself also lies. However, in Huck’s life, there are several different facets of lying. There are ‘stretching the truth’ lies, lies made out of ignorance or misunderstandings, lies made for survival, and malicious lies designed to harm people. Mark Twain once stated that â€Å"Truth is more of a stranger than fiction† (Notebook 1898). To Huck Finn, this is the way that he lives his life. His best friend, Tom Sawyer is an example of someone who stretches the truth. Tom does this to create excitement in his life and live out the romantic novels of adventure that he reads. Tom leads his friends in creating a gang of robbers. When they first form their club, the boys â€Å"take an oath, and write their names in blood† (Twain 20). The entire point of the gang is to ransom people and kill all but women and children (Twain 21). This gang fulfills Tom’s fantasies of adventure and wild times without his family holding him down it is an escape from civilization. Jim is another character in Twain’s novel that habitually stretches the truth to build him up. Jim’s lies are harmless though and are only done for his own amusement or gratification. When the gang of boys plays a joke on Jim in the beginning of the novel, Tom â€Å"slipped Jim’s hat off of his head and hung it on a limb† above Jim’s head (Twain 19). When Jim wakes up in the woods, he is convinced that witches enchanted him and â€Å"rode him all over the State;† however, as Jim continues to tell the story to more people, he exaggerates it to build it up in impressiveness and thus build his own importance (Twain 19). By the time that Jim has told most everyone about the witches, he claims to have been ridden â€Å"all over the world, and t...

Down With the Five Paragraph Essay!

Down With the Five Paragraph Essay! Writing essays is a skill that will serve kids well throughout their lives. Knowing how to present facts and opinions in an interesting, understandable way is valuable regardless of whether they attend college or go directly into the workforce.   Unfortunately, the current trend  is to focus on a type of writing called the Five Paragraph Essay. This fill-in-the-blank style of writing has one main goal - training students to write essays that are easy to grade in the classroom and on standardized tests. As a homeschooling parent, you can help your children learn to produce informational writing that is meaningful and alive.   The Problem with the Five Paragraph Essay In the real world, people write essays to inform, persuade, and entertain. The Five Paragraph Essay allows writers to  do that but only in a limited way. The structure of the Five Paragraph Essay consists of: An introductory paragraph that states the point to be made.Three paragraphs of exposition that each lay out one point of the argument.A conclusion that sums up the essays content. For beginning writers, this formula can be a good starting place. The Five Paragraph Essay can help young students get beyond the one-paragraph page, and encourage them to come up with multiple facts or arguments. But beyond fifth grade or so, the Five Paragraph Essay becomes an obstacle to quality writing. Instead of learning to develop and vary their arguments, students remain stuck in the same old formula. According to Chicago Public School English teacher Ray Salazar, The five-paragraph essay is rudimentary, unengaging, and useless. SAT Prep Trains Students to Write Poorly The SAT essay format is even worse. It values speed over accuracy and depth of thought. Students are conditioned to turn out a large number of words quickly, rather than to take the time to present their arguments well. Ironically, the Five Paragraph Essay works against the SAT essay format. In 2005, Les Perelman of MIT found that he could predict the score on an SAT essay solely on the basis of how many paragraphs it contained. So to get a top score of six, a test taker would have to write six paragraphs, not five. Teaching Informational Writing Dont feel you need to assign your children school-type writing projects. Real-life writing is often more valuable and more meaningful to them. Suggestions include: Keep a journal. Many kids enjoy keeping a journal or notebook to capture their thoughts. It can be something to share with you (some teachers use journals to communicate with their students; you can do the same) or a private record. Either way provides useful writing practice.Start a blog. Even reluctant writers can become enthusiastic when writing has a purpose. Writing for an audience provides purpose. There are many options for starting a free blog and privacy features offer parents and students control over who reads the content.Write a review. Ask your kids to review their favorite books, video games, movies, restaurants -  the list is endless. Unlike most school-type reports, reviews have to be written with the audience in mind, and they have to be entertaining. They also help kids learn to express opinions and present valid arguments to the reader.Do a research paper. Give your kids essay-writing a purpose by integrating it into a history project or science topic. Let them c hoose an area that interests them and explore it in depth. Writing research papers also gives students practice in critical thinking and evaluating and crediting source material. Essay Writing Resources If you need some guidance, there are some fantastic online resources for writing essays.   How to Write an Essay: 10 Easy Steps. This hyperlinked guide by writer Tom Johnson is a particularly easy-to-follow explanation of essay-writing techniques for tweens and teens. Purdue OWL. Purdue Universitys Online Writing Lab contains sections on the writing process, how to understand an assignment, grammar, language mechanics, visual presentation and more. About.coms Grammar and Composition site has an entire section on Developing Effective Essays. Research Paper Handbook. A handy textbook by James D. Lester Sr. and Jim D. Lester Jr. The Five Paragraph Essay has its place, but students need to using it as a stepping stone, not the final result of their writing instruction. Updated Kris Bales.