Free Huckleberry Finn Essays: From Conformity to Manhood :: Adventures Huckleberry Huck Finn Essays

From Conformity to Manhood  Ã‚      In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck is the narrator. The character of Huck Finn was very different than the society that he was born into. Mr. Twain uses Huck’s open mindedness as a window to let humor and the book’s points and morals shine through. Huck always takes things very literally. This not only adds to the humor of the book, but it also lets some of the books deeper messages come through.  Ã‚   The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, traces the story of a young man, Huck Finn, from conformity to the Southern way of thinking, to his own ideas about religion, wealth and slavery. In the first scenes of the book Huck is struggling to understand the concepts of Miss Watson's heaven and hell. He finds her harp strumming view of heaven boring and he wants to be in an exciting place. When Miss Watson tells Huck that he will get anything he prays for, he takes it very literally and decides to pray for fishing line, which he gets. But praying for fishing hooks didn't seem to work, when he asks her to pray for him to get some fishing hooks she calls him an idiot. These are both gentle pokes at southern religion. Christianity practiced a people so very pious, like Miss Watson, who can still treat their human slaves like property. This is an ongoing theme in the book. Twain points out some of the absurd incongruences between Christianity and the lifestyle of most of the south. Huck has not conformed to societies general way of thinking. When he is with the widow and Miss Watson, he begins to change, but Pap steals him away and he reverts back to a much more practical l ifestyle. Huck places very little value on the large sum of money that he has in the bank, while he finds smaller sums more important. Six thousand dollars was a fortune in the time that the book was written, but Huck, unlike the rest of his society wasn't impressed by it. This is again because of his literal mindedness. What could he use six thousand dollars for? He could use ten cents to buy some food, or five cents to buy some fishing line, but he had no use for huge sums of money. Society put value on wealth and property and book learning.

Differences and similarity of living at home and living away from home Essay

In western world, people tend to move out from their domicile home from the age 18 because it is part of their culture which they must learn to live by themselves. For eastern world, some people slightly change their way of culture to the western culture whereas the other people still follow their traditional path; to live with family. Home is a place of domicile where people live together in a group of family. At some moment in life, for any reasons, living away from home is inevitable situation. For example, some students who live away from home by living in dormitory or rent house because they have to study beyond their homeland or they want to live near their college for conveniences. For workers, in order to save time of transportation, they choose to live near their workplace. For some people, they just want to live away from home because they want to live independently from family. As you can see, there are many reasons to live away from home. Living beyond home can be both co nvenience and inconvenience. One way to decide between both living styles is to compare them on your differences and similarity point of views. The first difference you can notice is living condition. Most of your own home is the most comfortable place to live mentally and physically. Living at home creates a feeling of security, relief and family. For example, if you cannot deal with any problem, you can share with your family and they might suggest a quick solution to you which help you feel less stress. If you have siblings, you can have activities with them such as, playing games, cooking or sharing life experiences. Sitting on a Sunday morning watching TV with family , helping your dad organizes his things or having a nice chat with your mom makes you realize how valuable your family really is because these activities can provide you to feel lively without lonely. In contrast, if you live alone beyond your home, you might need some good suggestion from them to help you feel more secure. Otherwise, you might encounter some difficult situation or loneliness. Of course, living at home is not only for a pleasure of feeling but also make you feel physically more convenience. At home you have plenty of home facilities and foods. You never worry about the washing day for your clothes because you might have someone else to do that or you just throw it in your washing machine. You will have a comfortable bed at your own home for relaxing in some exhausted day. For foods, you can  eat your favourite foods as much as you want because your parents will take a responsibility to provide foods for you. On the contrary, living away from home is a little bit inconvenience. For example, if you feel hungry you have to go out to the supermarket to get some food. Moreover, in order to balance your time for daily routine, you have to plan for your foods shopping day and estimate your own consumption. As a consequence, living at home can be different in living condition compared with living away from home. By the way, living away from home does not mean yo u will feel less convenience and less lively. At your own life, you can have your necessary facilities or you will have friends, colleagues, boyfriend or girlfriend to share your emotion. You might never feel lonely from being alone; instead, you might feel more enjoyable with friends. The second difference is independence. It is precisely clear that living away from home is living by your own destiny, you have to steer your own life; that is, you have a freedom. For some family, freedom is limited by parent’s rules; as a result, you have to obey all their rules because it is part of life lessons that they want to provide you. For example, you have to come back home or sleep on time when you live with family. Other rules are such as, table manners, using mobile phone at home and house manners. On the other hand, living on your own far away from family gives you a lot of experiences toward organizing your life. If you live by yourself, you can come back home whenever you want without telling or asking permission from your parents. You can go out for a whole night party and have some drink or enjoy eating fast food as much as you want because of living without parents. It is predictable that you must have a good and strong meaning of responsibility to live by yourself. Otherwise, if you indulge yourself too much, your life can be difficult from being disorganized. The third difference is environment. This factor can be varying which depends on the place you move to, so you might experience the new place where culture and weather are difference from your homeland. This factor can be easily noticed among both foreign students and workers. Some people who live away from home; they don’t culturally familiar with people, fashion and foods; as a consequence, they might encounter some cultural shock, embarrassed outfit or lose weight due to strange foods. Weather is another factor for environmental difference. Living away from home can be different and sometimes uncomfortable for some people who immediately move their residence in the different biome. Some people might consider as an excitement moment, whereas another people can be suffered from unfamiliar climate. Therefore, culture and weather differences are environmental factor which you do not forget to consider before moving. In my opinion, adaptation is the key; that is, to stick to your most important values that according to things or situations and changes those things that you believe they can be improved yourself. The last difference is finance. People who live away from home have difference in financial status from people who live at home; thus, people who live at home might be better in financial situation from people who live away from home. For example, if you are a student who lives at home, you never worry about paying bill for public utilities, renting, mortgages or foods; therefore, you can save money and have a good finance; thus, you can indulge yourself by shopping luxury goods or going out for a foreign trip. On the contrary, people who live away from home have to balance their finance in order to live until the next payment comes out. However, for students, living alone does not mean it difficult to live. There are many organizations which provide you a good financial recommendation; alternatively, you can do a part-time job to earn more money for your living cost. As mentioned earlier, in spite of these differences, there is similarity among living at home and living away from ho me. One similarity is responsibility. If you live at home, you also have responsibility to fulfill, just as people who live away from home; that is, housework. At least, you have to tidy up your bedroom, cleaning up your family’s room if they ask for help unless you have a housewife. Similarly, if you live away from home you will have the same duty as you are at home. Moreover, you have to plan and organize your cleaning day for balancing your schedule. Therefore, two styles of living are similar in responsibility; however, living away from home seems to need more organization for your routine. In conclusion, if you think to move out, you should consider the difference of living condition, independence, environment and finance from your domicile  residence. Moreover, adaptation is the key for success for living by your own. However, responsibility is the one similarity in both styles of living which you should maintain the habit. Otherwise, your life can be out of track.

Biography Of Rachel Carson

A zoologist, biologist, environmentalist, writer, ecologist and a champion of nature conservation- Rachel Carson was all this and much more. From writing radio scripts during Depression to being the author of the best selling â€Å"Silent Spring† her journey was long, illustrious and motivational. The way she battled all odds, struggled with financial troubles and then later suffered all the indignities thrown at her after the publication of â€Å"Silent Spring† teaches us a lot about life and makes us look up to her with respect and admiration.Her early life was instrumental in making her the person she was. Her interest in nature was kindled during her childhood. Rachel Carson was born on May 27, 1907 of a father who was an ambitious real estate developer and a mother who was a teacher. Her father’s plans for their estate in Springdale, Pennsylvania did not quite materialize and thus from the very childhood, Rachel was no alien to financial difficulties. Her mo ther instilled in Rachel her own love for nature and books.Hence the training of a future environmentalist and a best selling author began early in life. Rachel started writing at a very early age and her publication was for a children’s magazine at the age of ten. Thus the die was cast and she was to follow this course till the very end of her life. After passing out from Parnassus High School, she enrolled in the Pennsylvanian college for Women (now Chatham College). She majored in English but later changed her subject to zoology.In 1932, Carson received her master’s degree. Her financial condition took a turn for the worse during the Depression and especially after the death of her father in 1935. Desperately trying to make ends meet for her family, she accepted the job of a radio writer for a programme on fishery and marine life produced by the United States Bureau of Fisheries. There seemed no end in sight to her miseries on the personal front. Her sister died in 1936, leaving behind two daughters.Carson took the girls in as part of family and they shifted to Silver Spring, Maryland to counter problems like her commutation to her job, the girls’ education and her mother’s old age. Following her excellent performance in the civil services examination, Carson went out to become the first ever female biologist to work at the Bureau. This was the beginning of a career that would see her influence the whole world with her writings.Her essay â€Å"Undersea†, published by Atlantic Monthly in September 1936, was the much needed and richly deserved breakthrough for her dual career. Bringing in rave reviews from scientists as well as literary circles, it lent weight to Carson’s belief that she could synchronize both her interests- of writing as well as nature- successfully. Impressed by her writing flair and lyrical style, famous author Hendrik William Van Loon (â€Å"The Story of Mankind†) persuaded his publisher to contact Rachel Carson who agreed the â€Å"Under the Sea Wind†.Presenting a naturalist’s picture of oceanic life, this book was a beautiful and sensitive description of the struggle for life of aquatic species. Her writing prowess succeeded in making an extremely engrossing reading out of scientific facts. The book was well received in both scientific and literary circuits. However it was not a commercial success as the release clashed with Pearl Harbor and consequently sales dipped.During World War II, she worked in the capacity of the Assistant to the Chief of the Office of Information in the Fish and Wildlife Service. Food was in short supply and her four pamphlets involving information on fish as food served multiple purposes of information source for print as well as radio media. Her series of twelve booklets, four of them authored by her, called â€Å"Conservation in Action† came out in the post war years.They propagated her ideal views of co- existence o f nature and humans and sought to inspire in people a respect for nature and an attitude for conservation. In 1948, she was appointed the editor- in- chief of the information Division- a noteworthy achievement in a male dominated profession. Meanwhile her research on the oceanic world continued in all the leisure time that she could afford. This research was what made the â€Å"The Sea Around Us† the bestseller that it was.â€Å"The Sea Around Us† was a bestseller beyond everyone’s imaginations. The pre- publication release of the first chapter by Yale Review was just the beginning of the fanfare. Carson won the George Washington Science Writing Award. When it was finally released by Oxford University Press in 1951, it was already a bestseller and topped charts for the following 81 weeks. In th euphoria created by â€Å"The Sea Around Us† , her publisher decided to re release â€Å"Under the Sea Wind†.This book also got the success it deserved, tho ugh a little belated. The phenomenal success of both the books helped Carson get her finances in order and she was able to quit her job at Fish and Wildlife Service to devote all her time to writing. â€Å"The Edge of the Sea† was published in 1955 and instantly became a huge success and remained so for the twenty- three weeks to come. It was a straight- from- the- heart account of the aquatic life on the sea shores.Again her writing capability and the deep seated feelings for oceanic species made it much more than a mere collection of scientific data and a dull set of guidelines. Around the same time, her article â€Å"Help your Child to Wonder† written for the women’s Home Companion, was another mover and shaker. In this article she gave directions to the parents to make their children aware of the wonders of nature and make them conscious of their natural environment.The personal touch that made the article strike a chord among the readers came from her own a ffection for her nieces and her grandnephew who she later adopted legally. An unmarried woman, with no children of her own, wrote the piece with all the nuances of a mother inspiring her children to look around with curiosity. In 1962, came the book that made the world sit up and notice. â€Å"Silent Spring† attracted many opinions; not all of them were flattering.Based on her research on the ill effects of pesticides on animal and human world, it brought a deluge of savage comments from those whose interests clashed with the ideas expressed in the book. Agricultural and trade journals, pesticide producers and owners of chemical factories- all attacked Carson and generated a lot of negative publicity. But nevertheless, â€Å"Silent Spring† appealed to the public and became a best seller. It generated a wave of environmental concerns. Even President John F.Kennedy was moved by the book and appointed a special panel to examine the various points the book raised. All the research, investigation and hard work that Carson had put in the book bore results and even the Presidential Committee confirmed Rachel’s concerns about the pesticides. The book raised genuine concerns about the concentration of DDT in the food chain and these timely concerns led to early action and averted what could have been a catastrophe after a few years.But what Carson had to suffer for making her views public was unbelievable. Her health failed her and yet she endured the barrage of ill meaning comments thrown at her after publication of â€Å"Silent Spring†. Breast cancer finally took its toll on her life and Rachel Carson died o April 14, 1964. Many laurels were bestowed on her during her lifetime and she deserved each one of them. She was presented with the Schweitzer Medal of the Animal Welfare Institute.She was also given the National Wildlife Federation’s â€Å"Conservationist of the Year†. But perhaps the greatest award was the response her readers gave her. Their admiration, adulation and their applause made her into an icon, a status she richly deserved. Her ideas of environmental concerns became really famous and common after her death. She was never against technology and development; it was only indiscriminate and reckless progress that irked her.She campaigned for controlled and calculated use of pesticides through her book â€Å"Silent Spring† Rachel Carson was responsible for environmental concern becoming the household term that it is now. Her revolutionary ideas set the trail for others to follow. Now the whole world has woken up to the harmful effects of pesticides to food chains. At that time, however she had been saddled with negative comments and personal humiliation. Her personal life was also littered with losses throughout.A spinster till death, she had to suffer a lot of speculation over her long and intimate friendship with Dorothy Freeman. A lot can be learnt from her life which was a roller coaster ride with many twists and turns. A rich and true tribute to her persona will be our waking up to the damage being done to our fragile eco- system and our efforts to rectify that. WORKS CITED â€Å"Breaking Nature’s Silence: Pennsylvania’s Rachel Carson† Lisa Budwig â€Å"Rachel Carson Dies of Cancer: ‘Silent Spring’ author was 56† Obituary, The New York Times. .