Tom Sawyer, the Innocent Purveyor of Evil

The ending of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain has many, many different ways to be analyzed and inspected. However, to the general audience, the "happy" ending leaves the readers satisified that everything has been tied up, as we see Huck staring into the sunset, vowing to go on another adventure to the West. However, upon closer examination, the ending is incredibly unsatisifactory, and layers upon layers can be unearthed each and every time it is analyzed. After thinking more about the ending, it is evident that Tom represents the evil in society, as exposed by his selfish motivations to have a grand ol' adventure rather than just tell everyone that Jim is free. However, Tom is still a representative of that time period, and he is also a child who lacks a strong moral guidance because of society's ideas during that time. 

Another way that the ending of Huck Finn can be looked at is by viewing Mark Twain as the ultimate manipulator. Twain uses satiric deceit in the ending, as seen with the emotional dissatisifaction caused by Twain's "cheating." In the literary criticism by David Kaufman, "Satiric Deceit in the Ending of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," he claims that "how we perceive Twain's relationship with his readers and himself affects our evaluation of the ending's relationship to the rest of the novel, and our viewpoint at the end" (Kaufman 67). An interesting thing is that Twain makes a distinct difference between the speaker, Huck, and himself, evident ever from the beginning of the novel. This causes the end to become more real, in a way, because eventually the audience realizes Twain's purpose and message: to reveal the extent of cruelty that humans can do to each other, more specifically blacks, which was more relevant during that time period.

Twain's ending of Huck Finn can be compared to the interesting theory of Ash Ketchum being in a coma the whole time in the TV series adaptation of Pokemon. To summarize, the theory suggests that ever since Pikachu released its power and shocked Ash, he was then in a coma, so all the following episodes are just his dreams. This is sort of like when Tom reveals that Jim was free all along and Jim reveals that Pap was dead all along, as then Huck and Jim's travels were sort of wasted, even though the journey helped Huck grow emotionally and psychologically. 

One thing that can be compared to Tom's elaborate and useless plans to free Jim are these following images. They depict random time signature changes, key changes, and even clef changes, all with the singular purpose of confusing the musician and/or for satirical purposes. 

Fun piece for beginning musicians!

Happy birthday to music theory!

Fun rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

In band we received this one song, titled "Postcard" composed by Frank Ticheli for his friend's mother who recently passed away. He wanted to commemorate her life, which makes me think what kind of life she must've had in order to have this mumble jumble of time signatures and difficult, random rhythms. Apparently this song is also a palindrome, so it sounds the same played backwards or forwards. More info on this song here. Maybe perhaps after listening to it, you can see why we turned it back in at the end of class.

Liberty and Justice For All?

Every day at school, in the beginning of second hour, we tune in to the morning announcements and stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance. Ever since we were children, it has been drilled into our heads: "I pledge allegiance, to the flag, of the United States of America...and liberty and justice for all." However, is that really a true statement? 

In the time period in which The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is set in, Antebellum America, before the start of the Civil War, slavery was legal and blacks were viewed as inferior towards whites. Liberty and justice was definitely not for all citizens, even though the United States was founded upon the basis of freedom from the tyrannical rule of Great Britain. Huck himself was born and raised with this viewpoint of oppressing blacks, but as he matures and begins to think more for himself than from society's expectations and norms, he comes into conflict with himself. His views on slavery drastically change as a result of having Jim as a companion as they adventure along the Mississippi River. This is evident when they encounter several slave hunters looking for escaped slaves, and Huck is deciding whether to turn Jim in or not. He decides not to, saying, "Then I thought a minute, and says to myself, hold on: s'pose you'd 'a' done right and give Jim up, would you feel better than what you do now? No, says I, I'd feel bad-I'd feel just the same way I do now" (Twain 102). He realizes that Jim is his friend and they care of each other, even though associating with blacks results in alienation from society during that time. Back then, freedom was definitely not obtainable for all people.

In today's society, freedom is more achievable to many, but still not for all. For example, even though prejudiced ideas against blacks have diminished by a large amount, there are still many individuals who have racist mindsets, especially among those of the older generations. There has been an increase in discrimination towards Muslims, the LGBTQ community, and some other minority groups. Even though they may be discriminated against, they are still able to achieve freedom, as today's society mostly allows individuals to fully express themselves. As history has shown, there will continue to be less and less discrimination as time passes and ideals change.

Now for the music part! In my freshman year, in symphonic band we played this piece of music titled "Freedom Road," written by James Curnow. This song was inspired by tales of slaves escaping to freedom along the Underground Railroad. Themes include a solemn flute and bassoon duet, which give impressions of sneaking along the Underground Railroad while "following the drinking gourd (Big Dipper)." After, there is a dramatic shift towards achieving freedom, as they have reached the northern states. I'll let you have a listen yourself, and you can interpret what the song means.

Real life Freedom Road

Note: I was not able to find an actual whole recording of the song, but there are some parts that you can listen to. 
Beginning and Middle
Beginning and End
Beginning and End (Press the play button above the purple currently viewing box)

Another song about the Underground Railroad that I found interesting: