Because I Could not Stop for Death

Because I could not stop for Death – He kindly stopped for me – The carriage held but just Ourselves – And Immortality.   We slowly drove – He knew no haste And I had put away My labor and my leisure too, For His Civility –   We passed the School, where Children strove At Recess – in the Ring – We passed the Fields of Gazing Crain – We passed the Setting Sun –   Or rather – He passed Us – The Dews drew quivering and chill – For only Gossamer, my Gown – My tippet – only Tulle –   We paused before a House that seemed A Swelling^12 of the Ground – The Roof was scarcely visible – The Cornice – in the Ground –   Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet Feels shorter than the Day I first surmised the Horses' Heads Were toward Eternity –

 

† General understanding

The poem describes a journey by carriage. Who is in the carriage with the poet?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________How does Death behave towards the poet?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________What does the carriage pass as it proceeds on its journey?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________What is the poet wearing?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________What is unusual about the house that they stop before?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________How long has passed since the poet made this journey?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

† Literary analysis:

1. Identify the use of personification in the opening stanza of the poem.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

2. Underline the words and expressions that are associated with death in the opening two stanzas. Death is traditionally personified as 'the grim reaper'. Why is the personification of death in this poem particularly striking? What does it reveal about the poet's attitude to death?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

3. Which line in the second stanza sums up the activities the poet was involved in during her lifetime? Does the break with life seem traumatic for the poet? How is this conveyed?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

4. On her last journey the poet passes the school. The children at play during recess strive to do something which is not specified. What might playing children find it hard to do as they watch a funeral pass by?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

5. In a striking example of personification the poet says that grain was gazing. What visual image is conjured up by this expression?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

6. The poet passes a school, a field of grain and the setting sun. Could these elements be associated with different phases of the poet's life?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

7. Line 13 introduces a change in the poem which is marked by a change in rhythm. The opening three stanzas have lines of four stressed syllables followed by three stressed syllables:

Because I could not stop for Death –

He kindly stopped for me –

The carriage held but just Ourselves –

And Immortality.

How is this pattern changed in the fourth stanza?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8. In the fourth stanza the poet expresses for the first time a sense of discomfort. What is her discomfort due to? What associations do you make with the way the poet is dressed?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

9. In the fifth stanza the poet thinks she is looking at a house. What is she in fact looking at? In what way has it become a 'house'?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

10. The final stanza is a reflection on time in the afterlife. What conclusion does the poet draw?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

11. How would you define the tone of the poem? What attitude does the poet seem to have towards her own death?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

12. The term style refers to the characteristic way a writer uses the resources of language. A writer's style is created by his choice and arrangement of words. Analysing style involves examining the writer's diction and syntax, as well as such devices as rhythm and sound, allusion, irony, paradox and figurative language.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

13. Emily Dickinson's style is startlingly original. It is characterised by dramatic openings, striking visual images, widespread personification, dense metaphors and great economy of language. Her poems are usually written in quatrains with ABAB or ABCB rhymes or half rhymes, and often contain rhythmic devices such as interrupted metre and run-on lines. Further technical eccentricities include capitalisation of nouns and frequent use of dashes. Find examples of these stylistic features in the poems you have read.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Dramatic openings are one of the main stylistic features of Emily Dickinson's poetry, for example:

'I taste a liquor never brewed…',

"Hope" is the thing with feathers – That perches in the soul...',

'I felt a funeral, in my Brain,...'

The drama is often created by linking the abstract to the concrete or by creating paradoxes. Try to write the opening line of a poem in Emily Dickinson's style. For example: Fear is a small, furry animal, running.

 

† Extra task:

What happens to the human spirit after death has always been a matter for speculation, and many religions have tried to explain it. Emily Dickinson, being a Christian, believed that the human soul lived on forever after death. Think of another religion or cult and say what its followers believe happens after a person dies. For example: Some eastern religions profess the belief that people are reincarnated in a later life.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mark Twain

 

Slavery was a way of life for much of the nineteenth century in the southern United States, where white farmers literally owned their black workers and their families. From your knowledge of history, think of other countries and cultures where slavery was an accepted practice (for example, Ancient Greece). Although slavery has now been officially abolished, do you think there are places in the world today where people still work under slave-like conditions?

 

† Characters:

· Huck, a young boy

· The Widow Douglas, his adoptive mother

· Jim, a black slave

· Tom Sawyer;

· Miss Watson, Jim's owner

 

† The story: Huck, a young teenage boy, is adopted by the Widow Douglas. He does not tike staying at home very much but prefers to be out and about in search of adventure. One day, his drunken, violent father comes to get him but he manages to escape. Along with a runaway slave, Jim, he sails down the Mississippi on a raft. On their journey they meet many interesting characters including two conmen, the 'Duke' and the 'Dauphin', who sell Jim back into slavery. Huck then meets up with his old friend Tom Sawyer, and together they construct an elaborate plan to free Jim. As it turns out, all their scheming is unnecessary because Jim has already been given his freedom by his owner.

Polly-Voo-Franzy

Huck tries to explain to Jim that French people speak a different language from theirs.

Chapter 14 (...) I told about Louis Sixteenth that got his head cut off in France long time ago; and about his little boy the dolphin, that would a been a king, but they took and shut him up in jail, and some say he died there. 'Po' little chap.' 'But some says he got out and got away, and come to America.' 'Dat's good! But he'll be pooty lonesome – dey ain' no kings here, is dey, Huck?' 'No.' 'Den he cain't git no situation. What he gwyne to do?' 'Well, I don't know. Some of them gels on the police, and some of them learns people how to talk French.' 'Why, Huck, doan' de French people talk de same way we does?' 'No, Jim; you couldn't understand a word they said – not a single word.' 'Well, now, I be ding-busted! How do dat come?' 'I don't know; but it's so. I got some of their jabber out of a book. S'pose a man was to come to you and say Polly-voo-franzy – what would you think?' 'I wouldn' think nuff'n; I'd take en bust him over de head – dat is, if he warn't white. I wouldn't 'low no nigger to call me dat.' 'Shucks, it ain't calling you anything. It's only saying, do you know how to talk French?' 'Well, den, why couldn't he say it?' 'Why, he is a-saying it. That's a Frenchman's way of saying it.' 'Well, it's ablame ridicklous wav, en I doan' want to hear no mo' 'bout it. Dey ain' no sense in it.' 'I.ooky here, Jim; does a cat talk like we do?' 'No, a cat don't.' 'Well, does a cow?' 'No, a cow don't, nuther.' 'Does a cat talk like a cow, or a cow talk like a cat?' 'No, dey don't.' 'It's natural and right for 'em to talk different from each other, ain't it?' 'Course.' 'And ain't it natural and right for a cat and a cow to talk different from us?' 'Why, mos' sholy it is.' 'Well, then, why ain't it natural and right for a Frenchman to talk different from us? You answer me that.' 'Is a cat a man, Huck?' 'No.' 'Well, den, dey ain't no sense in a cat talkin' like a man. Is a cow a man? – er is a cow a cat?' 'No, she ain't either of them.' 'Well, den, she ain't got no business to talk like either one er the yuther of 'em. Is a Frenchman a man?' 'Yes.' 'Well, den! Dad blame it, why doan' he talk like a man? You answer me dat! ' I see it warn't no use wasting words – you can't learn a nigger to argue. So I quit.

 

† General understanding

 

1. What according to Huck, happened to Louis Sixteenth and his son? Underline the sentences where Jim shows his concern for the French dauphin.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. What does Jim understand the expression ‘Polly-voo-franzy’ to be?

£ a greeting £ a curse £ an offensive name

3. What distinction does he make between how he would react to a white man and a black man in lines 19-21?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. What reasoning does Huck use to convince Jim that speaking a foreign language is not unnatural?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. Is Jim convinced by Huck’s reasoning? How does he respond to Huck’s argument?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6. Why, according to Huck, is Jim unable to argue?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

† Literary analysis

1. How are the characters presented? Through:

£ action £ dialogue £ description

2. Does the author openly guide the reader’s response to the characters or is he left to form his own opinion of them?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. Focus on the character of Huck.

a. Find evidence in the text that Huck is more educated than Jim.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

b. Although Huck is more informed than Jim, his information is incomplete. Find examples in the text of mistakes he makes or misinformed views he expresses.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

c. Huck lives in a society where white people are considered superior to blacks. Where is the influence of racist views evident in the text?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. Focus on the character of Jim.

a. Find evidence in the text that Jim is sensitive to the suffering of others.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

b. Jim is also the product of a racist society. Find evidence in the text that he believes blacks and whites must be treated differently.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. Consider the relationship between the two boys. Is Jim intimidated by Huck? Is Huck’s racist comment at the end of the passage motivated by hatred towards blacks or by his frustration at Jim’s refusal to agree with him?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6. What is the overall impression of Huck created in the passage?

£ A good-natured, if flawed, product of a deeply divided and racist society.

£ An arrogant, domineering and threatening racist who feels superior to his black companion.

7. Which of the two boys ‘wins’ the argument? Why is Huck’s comment ‘you can’t learn a nigger to argue’ ironic (Line 46)?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8. Mark Twain was the first American writer to present regional speech in his work without being condescending. Find some examples of non-standard use of English and regional expressions in the text. Which of the two characters deviates most from standard English in his speech?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9. What effect does the use of regional speech patterns have on the work? It makes:

£ the language seem more authentic

£ the language more colorful

£ the characters come to life

£ the language easier to understand

 

† Extra task

In the passage you have read Jim wins the argument with Huck, even though logically Huck has by far the stronger argument. In English the weaker of two opponents in a contest is known as ‘the underdog’, so in the verbal contest between Huck and Jim, the underdog is the winner.

Do you know any books, films or TV programmes where the underdog emerges victorious? Can you remember any famous sporting events where the underdog won?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

'I'll Go to Hell'

Huck wrestles with his conscience as he asks himself if it's right or wrong to free j from slavery.

 

Chapter 31 (...) It would get all around that Huck Finn helped a nigger to get his freedom; and if I was ever to see anybody from that town again I'd be ready to get down and lick his boots for shame. That's just the way: a person does a low-down thing, and then he don't want to take no consequences of it. Thinks as long as he can hide, it ain't no disgrace. That was my fixexactly. The more I studied about this the more my conscience went to grinding me, and the more wicked and low-down and ornery I got to feeling. And at last, when it hit me all of a sudden that here was the plain hand of Providence slapping me in the face and letting me know my wickedness (...) I was so scared. (...) It made me shiver. And I about made up my mind to pray, and see if I couldn't try to quit being the kind of a boy I was and be better. So I kneeled down. But the words wouldn't come. Why wouldn't they? It warn't no use to try and hide it from Him. Nor from me, neither. I knowed very well why they wouldn't come. It was because my heart wain't right; it was because I warn't square; it was because I was playing double. I was letting on to give up sin, but away inside of me I was holding on to the biggest one of all. I was trying to make my mouth say I would do the right thing and the clean thing, and go and write to that nigger's owner and tell where he was; but deep down in me I knowed it was a lie, and He knowed it. You can't pray a lie – I found that out. So I was full of trouble, full as I could be; and didn't know what to do. At last I had an idea; and I says, I'll go and write the letter – and then see if I can pray. Why, it was astonishing the way I felt as light as a feather right straight off, and my troubles all gone. So I got a piece of paper and a pencil, all glad and excited, and set down and wrote:   Miss Watson, your runaway nigger Jim is down here two mile below Pikesville, and Mr Phelps has got him and he will give him up for the reward if you send. HUCK FINN.   I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever felt so in my life, and I knowed I could pray now. But I didn't do it straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking – thinking how good it was all this happened so, and how near I come to being lost and going to hell. And went on thinking. And got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me all the time: in the day and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a-floating along, talking and singing and laughing. But somehow I couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind. I'd see him standing my watch on top of his'n, 'stead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how glad he was when I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him again in the swamp, up there where the feud was: and such-like times'; and would always call me honey, and pet me and do everything he could think of for me, and how good he always was; and at last I struck the time I saved him by telling the men we had small-pox aboard, and he was so grateful, and said I was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the only one he's got now; and then I happened to look around and see that paper. It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a-trembling, because I’d got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: 'All right, then, I'll go to hell' – and tore it up. It was awful thoughts and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming. I shoved the whole thing out of my head, and said I would take up wickedness again, which was in my line, being brung up to it, and the other wam't. And is for a starrer I would go to work and steal Jim out of slavery again; and if I could think up anything worse, I would do that, too; because as long as I was in, and in for good". I might as well go the whole hog'.

 

† General understanding

1. How, according to Huck, would society react to the fact that he has helped a black man?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Why is Huck unable to pray?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. What does he decide to do to resolve his dilemma?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. What memories does Huck have of Jim during their trip down the river?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. Huck wants to 'harden' himself against Jim. (Line 35)

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6. What does he mean by this expression? Does he succeed in doing it?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

7. What does Huck believe will happen to him if he helps Jim?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8. What is Huck's final decision?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

† Literary analysis

1. In the opening paragraph Huck outlines how society will react to the fact that he has helped a black man escape. What kind of society is revealed through his fears?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

2. In the second paragraph Huck says, 'I about made up my mind to pray, and see if I couldn't try to quit being the kind of a boy I was and be better' (lines 11-12). What kind of boy has Huck been led to believe he is? Is this the view of Huck that has been conveyed in the passages you have read?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

3. In the third paragraph Huck reminisces about his adventures with Jim. What are the qualities in Jim that soften Huck's heart and lead him finally to decide not to betray him?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

4. Which of the following adjectives would you use to describe Huck in this passage?

£ Confused £ Naive

£ Disloyal £ Sincere

£ Incoherent £ Other:___________________

5. Huck ultimately decides to help his friend Jim to freedom. As a reader, how do you interpret this decision?

£ As an evil act.

£ As a betrayal of his social values.

£ As a triumph of friendship and humanity.

£ As the confused act of a desperate young boy.

6. The naïve or innocent narrator tells a story whose significance he does not fully understand. He is often a child or a not very perceptive adult whose understanding of the reality he is describing is limited. Writers often use naive or innocent narrators to add humor or irony to their work. This type of first-person narrator is also commonly used when the writer wishes to persuade the reader of a point of view without appearing pedantic or overbearing.

What evidence can you find in the texts that you have read that Huck is a naive narrator?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

In the extract Huck believes that his decision to stand by Jim is wicked and will result in his going to hell. As a reader, are you expected to share Huck's point of view on this issue or are you encouraged to interpret Huck's choice of action in a different manner? Is this indirect way of persuasion effective?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Does the use of a naive narrator add humor to the text?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Do you know any novels or short stories where the narrator is naive or innocent? Why do you think the writer chose this type of narrator?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

† Extra task

When Huck tears up his letter, he is saying that Jim is first and foremost his friend, and the fact that he is black and a slave makes no difference to him.

Can simple acts of solidarity between people help to break down barriers in racially divided societies?

From books, films or real life try to think of situations where people build up relationships despite living in divided societies.

For example: In the film 'Driving Miss Daisy' the white heroine and her black chauffeur become great friends.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

MODULE 8

MODERNISM