Huck Finn in the Present Day

What if Huck Finn took place in the present day?  Well, it is safe to say there will be many changes.  First, Jim would not be a slave because of the time period.  Huck would have probably have been connected to a prison somehow which Jim would be a prisoner.  The prison must have also been in the south because it is one of the only places in the country where blacks have been tangibly discriminated to this day.  Second, the technology and common sense that there is in the world would severely hinder their plans.  There would be cameras and long distance communication available for Miss Watson and the prison warden.  Also, people would probably be alarmed if they see a child floating down a river on a raft.  Third, the population and laws have been greatly changed.  Many people would be looking for Jim and Huck and the Duke and Dauphin would also likely be arrested.  Paps would have also been imprisoned long before.  Jim would have also had to be deliberately falsely accused of something for the morality element of the story to carry any weight.  Finally, the transportation available to them would have made it very easy for them to travel up north, eliminating most of the story and the ending.  So in reality it would just be a child attempting to run away with an escaped prisoner.

A Perfect World?

Many people have been calling for all forms of discrimination to end.  Although this may be a nice thought, it is fundamentally impossible for all forms of discrimination to ever end.  We as humans naturally move away from something or someone that is different, and tend to fight what those differences are.  The best we can do as a society is try to better ourselves and our communities to try to keep an open mind and respect everyone.  This philosophy is perfectly represented in Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  Huck is trying his best to be open to Jim and his ideals and beliefs, but he can't help but also feel the ideals he was taught before meeting Jim, that he was superior just because of his race.  And no matter how much Huck changed, the world around him never did, resulting in a little impact on Jim's well being as a slave.  Huck was also flawed in his own thinking in regards to Jim and all the slaves.  When thought about Jim, he would think, "he was right; he was most always right; he had an uncommon level head" (Twain 87).  This proves Huck would sometimes think Jim had little knowledge and wisdom just because he was slave.  Huck could not fight those thoughts even he mostly knew they were wrong but couldn't fight what he was taught to believe.  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a perfect example of how all forms of discrimination can never be gone from the world and all we can do as people is try to fight it.

Comparison between Crucible movie and play

The Crucible is one of the few times that a movie accurately represents the written work that it intends to replicate.  The movie struck perfectly with casting and setting, as well as giving an authentic feel of what a town like Salem would be in Puritan times.  Daniel Day Lewis is a perfect choice for John Proctor because he depicts a strong willed person on the outside but is very broken on the inside.  The setting of the film feels very real to the time period it is supposed to take place in.  It is an open area which feels like a lively and very religious area.  The plot is also very similar to the plot that was written in the screenplay.  It accurately represents the events in the play and feels very real.  The death of John Proctor is what really makes the movie work so well because it delivers with superb acting as well as great setting and an accurate representation of what occurred in the play as well as in real life when it occurred multiple hundreds of years ago.  The court scene with John Proctor is also very well shot because it captures the intensity of that situation with phenomenal acting on all levels and a fantastic portrayal of the play.  The movie excels on what Arthur Miller created with an accurate way of representing the play and making it one of the most accurate book translated films, as well as using solid acting and great setting and visuals to capture Salem, Massachusetts during the Puritan age of colonial America.

The Crucible and the Red Scare

The Crucible was written during the Red Scare and was a response to all of the witch hunts and distrust going around in the United States.  The Crucible takes place in a Puritan society in Salem, Massachusetts.  The town begins going on a witch hunt, pointing the finger at anyone they suspect to be a witch.  This is exactly like McCarthyism, which was happening during the Red Scare of the Cold War.  It involved turning in anyone who was suspected to be a communist into the national government.  This caused many problems in the United States in the Cold War, as well as in Salem in the 1600s.  People in Salem were constantly pointing the finger at other members of their society and turned them into the church.  They used pretty gruesome torture methods to get anyone they suspected to be a witch to confess.  Many people such as Abigail Williams turned in people without reason, like when she said, "I saw Sarah Good with the Devil!  I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!"(Miller).  This is not exactly what happened during the Salem witch hunt, but it is very similar to the Red Scare.  Many people were tortured or killed not too long ago in our own country with very little reason.  The Crucible is an accurate representation of what was happening during the Red Scare with McCarthyism and communism being very strong messages in the text.

The Pearl Commentary

I have recently read The Pearl by John Steinbeck and I have a lot of thoughts surrounding it.  Basically, the premise of the novel is that a man finds a large pearl and becomes very greedy and protective of it.  I feel like the concept is flawed.  The reason that he needed to find the pearl was because his son became sick and they could not afford a doctor, but he goes diving for a pearl once and finds the greatest one anyone has ever seen?  Additionally, the pearl was of great value making thieves threaten his life and his families lives.  And when he goes to sell the pearl, the buyer offers him a lower price that he thinks is reasonable.  Even though it wasn't as much, the implications and violence he faced because of the pearl should have been enough for him to sell it.  If he really cared about his family, why wouldn't he take the sum of money instead of putting them in even more danger?  This is even further proven by when he says to his wife, "No one shall take our good fortune from us" (Steinbeck 61), making me think that he didn't care about helping his family at all, only with getting the money he desired from the pearl.  He was even willing to kill or destroy anything in his path to make sure he had the pearl.    The Pearl was a novel that really displayed how wealth and power can corrupt anyone's mind and will force them to do anything.