The Raft, the River, and The Weird Ending of Huckleberry Finn: Crash Course Literature 303

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  • čas přidán 30. 06. 2024
  • This week, we're continuing our discussion of Mark Twain's 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.' This is part two of our talk about Huck Finn, and this time we're looking at the metaphors in the book, a little bit about what the metaphors like the Island and the River and the Raft might mean, and why you should pay attention to said metaphors. We'll also look at the ending of the book, which a lot of people (including us) believe isn't up to the standards of the rest of the novel.
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Komentáře • 564

  • @bikibird
    @bikibird Před 8 lety +217

    The ending is outrageous and rough to read, but I think that's the point. Twain provides a glimpse of how dehumanizing slavery is. He intends us to be angry at Tom's pranks and identify with Jim. Basically, he's trying to get the same emotional response out of the reader that Huck has to Jim and it works.

    • @Northychen
      @Northychen Před 5 lety +4

      Jennifer Schmidt very well said

  • @mckayleepugmire9947
    @mckayleepugmire9947 Před 5 lety +118

    I loved the ending. Endings are supposed to solve or at least address all the conflicts in the story, and this one does that not only for the plot issues but for the one conflict that people seem to ignore (you did it less so, but I feel this deserves more emphasis). The book begins with Huck in Tom's gang where they act out robber stories, with Tom as the charismatic leader with all the plans. Every boy in town seems to follow his lead on these adventures, and Huck not only admires Tom's education and privilege but also the fact that he always has a plan, a way to get out of trouble so when Huck goes on his quest and encounters actual trouble he constantly wishes Tom were there or that he was Tom both inwardly and out-loud so the smart but woefully ignorant Jim ends up believing the praise Huck gives Tom, so I understood Huck's relief to see Tom and get his input on the break out, and I am happy to point out that it says in the book Huck was horrified by Tom's ideas, and Jim recognized the impracticality, yet both believed wholeheartedly that Tom knew best because he is the alpha personality ideas man so they went along with it. I saw the bit with Tom as Huck's final ascension, Huck only started trying to be civilized in the beginning because he wanted to be like Tom, and realizing Tom's sociopathic betrayal was the final straw that finally inspired Huck to reject civilization "I been there before." Therefore, Tom is civilization itself and Huck finally sees how overrated and below him it is, and at the same time the audience is shown how far Huck has come because Tom is a stupid kid as well as a sociopath while Huck has become a Man.

  • @BiPaganMan
    @BiPaganMan Před 8 lety +261

    To me the ending serves two purposes
    1. Show how much Huck had changed during the story, at the beginning he wouldn't have seen any problem with Tom's plan, by the end he realizes that Tom is very immature.
    2. Show how easy it is to fall back to prejudice attitudes, and very quickly. When he first shows up he tells a story about an explosion on the boat. When asked if anyone was hurt he said "No, kilt a n*****", a phrase I have a hard time convincing myself he would have said a few days earlier on the raft.

  • @sophiathelast
    @sophiathelast Před 4 lety +61

    I see the ending of the novel to be a satire towards the Jim Crow Laws. Even after Jim is technically free, he is forced to go through unnecessary procedures by Tom. This shows how white people controlled blacks even after they were free through the Jim Crow laws. The fact that Tom threw rats and bugs into the shed with Jim shows how white people believed that blacks were "dirty" and it was "okay" for them to suffer. Along with this, the problem could be so easily solved (they could steal the key and free him) but Tom decides that it is okay to control him purely for his own amusement.

  • @adamd0ggg2
    @adamd0ggg2 Před 8 lety +119

    Did you know that Mark Twain also wrote the ending to Mass Effect 3.

    • @StephySon
      @StephySon Před 8 lety

      Nah at least that Jim was free at the end, Shepard was still dead at the end.

    • @RaitoYagami88
      @RaitoYagami88 Před 8 lety +1

      Haha. So true.
      Both endings are universally hated and contrary to the spirit and direction of the rest of the work.

    • @Fearofthemonster
      @Fearofthemonster Před 7 lety

      you can save shepard actually. But you need to blow up the earth.

    • @sukindiamuzik
      @sukindiamuzik Před 7 lety +1

      Adam Ranieri And Assassins Creed 3

  • @davidwinn8236
    @davidwinn8236 Před 8 lety +18

    If any of y'all have the opportunity, you should look into George Saunders' essay on this book. The key paragraph:
    " …Tom and Huck represent two viable models of the American character. They exist side by side in every American and every American action. America is, and always has been, undecided about whether it will be the United States of Tom or the United States of Huck. The United States of Tom looks at misery and says: Hey, I didn’t do it. It looks at inequity and says: All my life I have busted my butt to get where I am, so don’t come crying to me. Tom likes kings, codified nobility, unquestioned privilege. Huck likes people, fair play, spreading the truck around. Whereas Tom knows, Huck wonders. Whereas Huck hopes, Tom presumes. Whereas Huck cares, Tom denies. These two parts of the American Psyche have been at war since the beginning of the nation, and come to think of it, these two parts of the World Psyche have been at war since the beginning of the world, and the hope of the nation and the world is to embrace the Huck part and send the Tom part back up the river, where it belongs. "

  • @nashkijoseph5795
    @nashkijoseph5795 Před 8 lety +374

    Waiting for Crash Course Music Theory.

  • @James-Specter
    @James-Specter Před 6 lety +11

    The "Safe travels, Huck godspeed" gave me the feels because reading it is one of my fondest childhood memories.

  • @daffodil-lamentations
    @daffodil-lamentations Před 5 lety +11

    The ending is so funny to me because Tom sees Huck when he gets to the farm and is like "oh no it's a ghost!" but if I remember correctly aunt Polly gets to the farm and sees Huck and she's just like "I should have freaking known."

  • @andrewb1921
    @andrewb1921 Před 8 lety +7

    Every discussion I have ever heard about the ending of Huck Finn has always chalked up the ending to the fact that Twain sat on the manuscript for years unsure how to finish it. Your point that it might simply be Twain taking his trademark cynical view of human nature is very interesting
    ... in a "why didn't I think of this before" way.

  • @nikkib1509
    @nikkib1509 Před 8 lety +8

    This is hands down my favorite series on CZcams.

  • @cas_thefriendlyghost2156
    @cas_thefriendlyghost2156 Před 8 lety +8

    I'm really loving all the little improvements in this edition of crash course, especially in the thought bubble. Tom and Huck talking via emojis was perfect. XD I also honestly can't wait to see John's interpretation of Lord of the Flies. It was the worst book I've ever been forced to read. Keep up the amazing work, John!

  • @TheVengo111
    @TheVengo111 Před 8 lety +2

    Man, that crash course was an awesome one! I'd love to see even more videos on the topic. I feel like initiating a discussion group! Already got myself the ebook of hucks adventures, thanks John!

  • @JamesPeach
    @JamesPeach Před 8 lety +3

    Great analysis of the book and at perfect time to contemplate these thoughts.

  • @fromscratchauntybindy9743

    Thank you for helping me understand this novel in a much more complex way - can't wait for the sonnets next week! :)

  • @ImpossibleAsymptote
    @ImpossibleAsymptote Před 8 lety +195

    I just see the ending as an old Twain staple: cynicism.

    • @Aleph-Noll
      @Aleph-Noll Před 8 lety +43

      rick and morty sums it up really well when morty says "Nobody exists on purpose, nobody belongs anywhere, everybody's gonna die. Come watch TV"

    • @BoboTalkClown
      @BoboTalkClown Před 8 lety

      +

    • @Eris-_
      @Eris-_ Před 8 lety +5

      No. Huck knew what kind of life he would have there and that he didn't want it, and he knew to get out before he got trapped in it. And he knew there had to be something better for him out there.

    • @zasgat
      @zasgat Před 8 lety

      +

  • @varsitydanni
    @varsitydanni Před 8 lety +4

    Great interpretation! I remember reading this & Tom Sawyer in middle school and being thoroughly bored. Thanks for making it exciting again!

  • @desertrose0601
    @desertrose0601 Před 6 lety +11

    I’ve never found the ending odd. I guess as an adult, I can see where the thematic differences lie, but when I read this as a kid, I just saw an adventure ending and reality starting again. Which makes sense to kid’s brain. The river was a pipe dream and almost a fantastical adventure that had to end sometime. The end of the book was just reality setting back in, adventure time over.

  • @salemkitty99
    @salemkitty99 Před 8 lety +1

    I've been waiting for this episode!

  • @phandao5404
    @phandao5404 Před 8 lety +1

    Thanks John Green ! This course is so interesting .

  • @D1Trini4u
    @D1Trini4u Před 8 lety +6

    10:14 "Safe Travels Huck, and Godspeed,".
    Poetic, from a poet, about one.

  • @ton3016
    @ton3016 Před 8 lety +1

    I love these sections you add on. Wishing I could back to college.

  • @jinellsorich7179
    @jinellsorich7179 Před 7 lety +19

    You should do Of Mice and Men.

  • @TASmith10
    @TASmith10 Před 8 lety +21

    Why would Huck follow Tom at the end? Because kids have leaders and followers. It's a matter of charisma, and I saw it happen in my own childhood all the time. Some kids just dominate, because they seem to know best, have all the answers, etc. And kids like Tom don't usually think ethically. I remember some of the nasty things these kids did to me just for fun. This part of the book rings true for me. Remember, they're kids not adults, so they don't have the same developed conscience that adults have, well at least some adults.

    • @SerpentStare
      @SerpentStare Před 4 lety +2

      "...well at least some adults" indeed. Hopefully, at any age we can grow and develop a respect for conscience, as Huck does by being confronted with conflicts within himself during his adventures, although he is by no means refined into a perfect person.
      It is never too early, and hopefully never too late.

  • @Shakespeare563
    @Shakespeare563 Před 8 lety +1

    I love the David Foster Wallace-esque response to the you-from-the-past interjection

  • @zogfotpik8848
    @zogfotpik8848 Před 8 lety +72

    Do 1984!

  • @Venom1846
    @Venom1846 Před 8 lety +58

    Anyone else really want to see some Lovecraft on Crash Course Literature?

  • @yellowhazeproductions
    @yellowhazeproductions Před 5 lety +7

    The ending is the Civil War. The Civil War was the "adventure" to free Jim, AKA the slaves.
    Remember, Mark Twain fought in the Civil War for two weeks before deserting. Tom knowing that Jim was already free was a basic Northerner knowledge, however Mark Twain decides to satirize the "escape." The disruption in Aunt Sally's house, the missing sheets and the missing spoons, represents the damage done to the South during the war, and Tom being shot by the mob was representing how brothers, neighbors and friends were turned against each other.
    You may think that Mark Twain, the man who criticized his own homeland, wouldn't do the same to the North, but you have to remember that Mark Twain was a satirist and he would have criticized anyone, mostly if he went against his own region.
    Another thing worth noting is Huck lighting out for Indian Territory, which would be Oklahoma. He would be going west, which coincides with Mark Twain deserting the Confederate army after serving for two weeks and going west to his brother. It took Twain only two weeks in the war to unveil the hypocrisy of the North and South, and realizing how he didn't want to be "sivilized."
    This is my theory of the ending. I based most of it off of Mark Twain's life himself.

  • @InfiniteProdu
    @InfiniteProdu Před 8 lety +1

    Please cover the Mark Twain's The Mysterious Stranger. I'd love you for it so much, John! :D

  • @15stefannie
    @15stefannie Před 5 lety

    I really loved your channel. So now you have a new follower.

  • @tracy2919
    @tracy2919 Před 7 lety +11

    Perhaps the ending was a way a satirist might bring back down to Earth the reader's perspective of a now open future. Maybe it's Twain's way to remind the reader that though the world might change its ideals in small ways, change is not that simple. Human nature (the way Huck makes moral decisions) will not change quickly, and in fact most people are not entirely free from the influence of the opinions of others they envy or admire. Society will not change that easily, it has too much inertia to, realistically, change over the little time that the book takes place. This "going back" on the principles he discussed are evidence of a world and a person that is just beginning to change, or thinking about changing, but for whom the world won't let them off that easily.

  • @BadgerPride89
    @BadgerPride89 Před 8 lety +3

    I always felt that the ending was to showcase just how far Huck had come, how much he'd grown up, by putting him side by side with Tom, who is behaving childishly and cruelly. Huck still has more growing up to do, as the line about heading west and his complacency in the face of Tom's scheming show, but he has made progress.

  • @heelona_appadoo
    @heelona_appadoo Před rokem

    This was an amazing crash course and most of all have helped me so much! I was wondering if one could be done about Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. It's a great book but i want to see the deeper sides to the story.
    ps. Great work! Looking forward for many more

  • @williamkibler592
    @williamkibler592 Před 4 lety

    this was eye-opening

  • @52BLUE
    @52BLUE Před 8 lety +4

    You were the first host I came to watch through Crash Course, John. We have a lot of history. :D get it?

  • @justicar347
    @justicar347 Před 8 lety +29

    I liked the ending. It showed how far Huck had come by placing him next to his friend he admired.

  • @spencerdougan1113
    @spencerdougan1113 Před 8 lety +1

    Loved the video John, thank you for doing what you do and making such thoughtful, well crafted content, you've inspired so much of my life. Keep doing what you're doing, Nerdfighterias behind you ! DFTBA

  • @ProfessorSyndicateFranklai

    This is so useful.

  • @huckfinn9225
    @huckfinn9225 Před 4 lety

    Nice review...

  • @99lunalupis
    @99lunalupis Před 8 lety +1

    oh my Goddess! just found this CZcams channel. Brilliant! love these wonderful reviews!

  • @richielomas9564
    @richielomas9564 Před 8 lety +1

    I think you nailed the ending pretty well. Individuals may manage to find ways of transcending socially ingrained prejudices, but eventually they have to come back to that same society, and there individual progress is not sufficient to change conditions. Ultimately I think it's a rejection of the American myth of the individual (or a small scrappy band) to better their condition as a solution to wider systemic problems.

  • @imei2006
    @imei2006 Před 8 lety +1

    I'm of the camp that Twain used the ending of Huckleberry Finn to show no matter how a few people can grow and change, society can still feel more like the same. We see that during reconstruction in which there's a brief period of African-Americans holding office in the South, gaining equal footing with their white counterparts, but as Twain saw, and we see in history, deep rooted racism that goes back to our foundation of what it meant to be "civilized" in the 19th century made it difficult and nigh impossible for African-Americans to attain true equality at the time. In essence, I think Twain's ending doesn't work as a good ending for a book, but it does make good on commenting on the times, in which he was known very much to do so.

  • @oathblade
    @oathblade Před 8 lety

    Episode 3, no 2, wait...gah! (Somebody did a number on us with the graphics :)
    But in all seriousness thanks for your in depth look at the book. I never thought about it this way. Thats the greatest gift you give me. To take something worn and known and show the marvelous depths I am overlooking.
    Thank you John. DTFBA and + for good comments :D

  • @harrisjohnson4048
    @harrisjohnson4048 Před 8 lety +1

    The only thing this has cleared up for me is that Huck and Tom are not the same person which is actually very helpful, so thank you.

  • @sebevans7922
    @sebevans7922 Před 8 lety

    Not only is this really informative, but honestly the way that the script is written is simply put amazing. I really wish teachers at high schools could at least try to behave with a little more enthusiasm and compassion. Keep it up guys!

  • @ShaunMcMillan
    @ShaunMcMillan Před 8 lety

    i do love me some good ol Mark Twain quotes

  • @joelgeer496
    @joelgeer496 Před 8 lety +1

    I kind of wish crash course would release a list of the books they are going to cover before hand so we could read them previous to watching these videos... just a thought :D

  • @randalalansmith9883
    @randalalansmith9883 Před 5 lety +1

    It's good that there's cliff-notes like this, so that I can get a glimpse of what society finds important about literature.
    Most of the time I try to read fiction, I'll be like, "Wait, that's the end already? What happened? I saw people who went places and said things to other people, but I didn't really get the plot."
    When I tried this title at age 11, I think I might have gotten hung up on the vernacular speech. And my comprehension for fiction hasn't improved much since then.
    So I get my Lit credits on CZcams now.

  • @stephenlouis3908
    @stephenlouis3908 Před 8 lety

    Nice David Foster Wallace allusion, John. :)

  • @MichiruEll
    @MichiruEll Před 8 lety +20

    I find John-from-the-past's comment on 'why can't it just be a river?' and present-John's answer quite interesting. It made me think quite a bit...
    See, I have the same reaction as past-John; I get quite annoyed by symbolism. My reaction is always "Seriously, it's a damn river! Pretty river and difficult river, but a river!"
    And then John says "You're gonna worship something". And I think we've hit the point. For me 'it's a damn river', because I worship facts, reality, Science.
    I may have missed the point here. I don't have much of a literature or philosophy oriented mind, but this was my immediate reaction, and I found it quite revealing about who I am as a person.

    • @thecdnwanderer
      @thecdnwanderer Před 8 lety +5

      I spent all of my schooling thumping the "why does everything have to be a symbol" line... and now have come around to a deeper appreciation in later life. You don't always have to acknowledge the symbols, you can read for enjoyment and carry the gold from the straight-up read. But sometimes there IS an attempt to dig deeper at the less concrete elements of humanity, and the author has (sometimes consciously, sometimes not) woven symbolism into the surface story. Spotting them and rolling them around in your head. (I suspect John's sharing of poetry on Dear John and Hank has opened me up to this more.)
      As an agnostic who doesn't believe in god (I don't believe in it, but I'm open to the possibility that I'm wrong), I frequently find it useful to see GOD itself as a symbol. That the idea of worshipping something doesn't have to literally mean worshipping a dude in the sky who created things. The idea of the river as a god might simply be a shorthand for talking about the river as a sense of something bigger than oneself, of being free, yet not totally under one's own control. Of being small in the universe of complexities we can only ever grasp slivers of.
      These are just some ideas that crossed my mind as I read your comments. Maybe they're useful. If not, thanks for reading at least! :)

    • @thecdnwanderer
      @thecdnwanderer Před 8 lety

      Just to clarify, this wasn't meant to be any sort of refutation of your revelation. It's always neat to encounter a little "click" in understanding oneself a bit better!

    • @swtipie412
      @swtipie412 Před 7 lety +1

      @michiruEll that's a really good point! My brother is the same way. He is currently a junior in high school and constantly complains about how much english classes obsess over symbolism. I will definitely pass on your POV to him, maybe it'll help his frustration too. :)

    • @MegaGodfather12
      @MegaGodfather12 Před 7 lety +1

      My problem is how subjective symbolism like this is. The river is simply a force of nature.

  • @MrMonkeytastic200
    @MrMonkeytastic200 Před 8 lety

    Hmmm... this video needed to come out... 11 years ago... So wish I had this when i did my GCSE English course

  • @kenziemclean6574
    @kenziemclean6574 Před 8 lety +2

    I've always believed that the ending is symbolic of the civil war. Jim was freed (emancipation proclamation) but before that freeing had any effect, before he was free in reality, there had to be a struggle (the civil war.)

  • @JasiiJasii
    @JasiiJasii Před 8 lety +1

    I need to read this book 😍📚

  • @pxstxlotaku8674
    @pxstxlotaku8674 Před 7 lety

    When I have a test on Huck Finn tomorrow, and I'm rewriting the notes while listening.

  • @donnachibobini6487
    @donnachibobini6487 Před 8 lety

    Please consider making video for
    Transit by Anna Seghers
    It took place during WWII!

  • @MrsKAndFam
    @MrsKAndFam Před 8 lety

    @crashcourse Minute 3:48 "You're gonna worship something" insert Bob Dylan song here. Best line in your literature series yet.

  • @NostalgiaChubby
    @NostalgiaChubby Před 8 lety +2

    did you just wake up, John? comb that puff!
    :D

  • @ieltslisteningbyemma
    @ieltslisteningbyemma Před 8 lety

    Mr.Green can you please make a video on the story ''As you like it.''Soon my school exam will start and I don't want to fail.

  • @raginbakin1430
    @raginbakin1430 Před 4 lety +3

    Twain must have written the ending to the last episode of Game of Thrones

  • @ricebaby
    @ricebaby Před 6 lety

    You should put the page numbers to the little passages you referred to...It would be helpful

  • @lakeamateur
    @lakeamateur Před 5 lety +6

    this is the video you watch when you don't read the book and you have a paper due on it that night

    • @autumnmuse1793
      @autumnmuse1793 Před 5 lety

      and the comments are very helpful heheh

    • @mqvtheone
      @mqvtheone Před 4 lety

      Lol I’m going through it rn 💀

  • @aureliecremers1952
    @aureliecremers1952 Před 5 lety

    We discussed this book (and its ending) in class, and the professor made this remarkable comment about the relationship between Huck and Tom being closely related to that of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Tom, like Don Quixote, loses himself through reading these adventurous novels while Huck/Sancho Panza is the guy who stays more down to earth and proposes more simple approaches to life, instead of losing himself in a fantasy. It's so cool when you think about it this way!

  • @GoodVolition
    @GoodVolition Před 8 lety +2

    Actually, I enjoyed the ending. What I mean is ultimately on the river away from traditional civilization he can become a friend to Jim. Once back with Tom in the more civilized world this freedom collapses. It becomes a show of indignity. Traditional values overcome the liberation Huck and Jim had developed on their travels. Even Huck is overcome by the institutional racism found in their civilization. The novel ends where it begins in a moral round trip.

  • @rachidbenfraj5183
    @rachidbenfraj5183 Před rokem +1

    My MA thesis was about Twain's Huck Finn and that's exactly how I defended the book and criticized Hemingway's words. Twain wanted to show that no matter how genuine and truthful it is for a friendship to occur between a black and a white person during post civil war times, it can only exist outside of society and especially away from an antebellum setting, far from it, and also under the worst possible circumstances ever.

  • @gregmiller9710
    @gregmiller9710 Před 8 lety +2

    ...good shoe John Green..

  • @Xidnaf
    @Xidnaf Před 8 lety +86

    "I would argue that you're going to worship something. Maybe it'll be a god, maybe it'll be money or power or fame but there's going to be something that orients your humanness in a particular direction."
    ...what??? This needs elaboration.

    • @geosustento8894
      @geosustento8894 Před 8 lety +47

      I think it's basically this: you'll always find a reason to live. This may be religion, money, fame, love. But there would always be something.

    • @oathblade
      @oathblade Před 8 lety +1

      +

    • @KyPaMac
      @KyPaMac Před 8 lety +7

      Yeah, this was a lazy, or at least hasty, argument on John's part. Money, power, fame etc. are clearly different from gods. We do, however, make sacrifices for the sake of money (working lousy jobs, etc) in order to stay alive and reasonably happy. This is broadly the relationship that religious folks have with various deities via prayer, tithe, and other religious duties; it is important to recognize that for those us who believe, these duties are no less real than secular ones. As John puts it, "for Huck, hell is an actual place". Religious duties and secular goals, moreover, are rarely ends in themselves, but rather are usually observed and pursued because we want the best for ourselves and the people around us. That phrase, "something that orients your humanness in a particular direction," refers to the higher powers that you acknowledge and decide to appeal to in the hope of a better life for yourself and those you care about. ("Higher" here means "higher than you", so things like money and patriotism qualify.) That's how I would salvage the claim, anyway.

    • @KyPaMac
      @KyPaMac Před 8 lety +1

      I also think his reply to Past John can be simplified, though, in a way that doesn't involve this argument. Why read religion into the river? Because it gives a new layer to the book that you wouldn't have otherwise. It allows the setting to interact with the religious tensions that Huck experiences.

    • @Dave451996
      @Dave451996 Před 8 lety +13

      "worship" is no exclusively religious term. Everybody neads something to work towards, to protect, to worship and therefor to give himself a reason. It may be money, art, a special woman or man, a political idea, a true friendship, making great videos about languages or whatever else the heart desires.

  • @victoresan
    @victoresan Před 8 lety +1

    blimey, it's a bright shirt!

  • @yaumelepire6310
    @yaumelepire6310 Před 7 lety

    It's generally progress and equity that have directed my life

  • @lelesjp295
    @lelesjp295 Před 8 lety

    I saw Love in the Time of Cholera on the desk! Please do Love in the Time of Cholera!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • @imk9633
    @imk9633 Před 8 lety

    hey crash course! please analyse "no longer at ease" by chinua Achebe it is the continuation of "things fall apart"

  • @GabrielKnightz
    @GabrielKnightz Před 8 lety +1

    If there was a law that compelled the great writers to include a thesis at the end of their own works clearly explaining the themes and motives and such to be published, would you be For or Against that law? Why?

  • @flyingfshsndwch
    @flyingfshsndwch Před 8 lety +3

    "You're going to worship something." To which I expect many would reply: I bow before nothing. Then I push them to their knees and yell: GROVEL BEFORE GRAVITY!

    • @danielsalgado5454
      @danielsalgado5454 Před 8 lety +16

      The statement I bow for nothing shows a deep worship of independence.

  • @johnbyun8009
    @johnbyun8009 Před 8 lety

    Can you do a discussion on huxleys Brave New World, please?

  • @albertogalvan3325
    @albertogalvan3325 Před 8 lety

    Do 'The Catcher in the Rye'! It has a lot 'theories' to talk about.

  • @65Drums
    @65Drums Před 8 lety +52

    But to be fair, the ending was hilarious when you actually read it. It's comedy ending, not a deep philosophical ending. All be it a cruel type of comedy.

    • @doctorx3
      @doctorx3 Před 8 lety +17

      For Twain, comedy is never *just* comedy. He's making a deeper point about the persistent sadism, violence, and oppression of American society.
      Twain believed in laughing to keep himself from crying. You get that in a lot of his best work.

    • @Pfhorrest
      @Pfhorrest Před 8 lety +8

      Yeah, the jarring shift in tone struck me as a comedic note too. Which isn't to say the whole work is a comedy, because a given work can be serious and frivolous in turns, and the shift from seriousness to comedy can often both punctuate the seriousness and serve as a comedic rimshot.
      A character starts waxing philosophic and saying some deeply true stuff or asking some real serious questions, and then a goofball character makes a fart sound and runs off to have wacky hijinks. Hilarity ensues, and the audience is left with a lingering "but wait what about all that meaning of life stuff?"
      ("Do you ever wonder why we're here?" "One of life's great mysteries isn't it? Why are we here? I mean, are we the product of some cosmic coincidence? Or is there really a God, watching everything. You know, with a plan for us and stuff. I don't know man, but it keeps me up at night." "What? I mean why are we out here, in this canyon." "Uh... Oh... Yeah..." "What's all this stuff about God?" "Uh... um... Nothing.")

    • @doctorx3
      @doctorx3 Před 8 lety +5

      Pfhorrest
      "I’ve had a team working on this over the past few weeks, and what we’ve come up with can be reduced to two fundamental concepts. One, people are not wearing enough hats. Two, matter is energy. In the Universe there are many energy fields which we cannot normally perceive. Some energies have a spiritual source which act upon a person’s soul. However, this soul does not exist ab initio as orthodox Christianity teaches; it has to be brought into existence by a process of guided self-observation. However, this is rarely achieved owing to man’s unique ability to be distracted from spiritual matters by everyday trivia."
      "What was that about hats again?"
      ~Monty Python~

  • @Gallalad1
    @Gallalad1 Před 8 lety +11

    John green, just a strange idea about the end..... What if Twain was trying to say that the more things change, the more they stay the same? Just an idea

    • @chekubechukwuma4307
      @chekubechukwuma4307 Před 8 lety +1

      That's an interesting thought. I thought it shows that true change happens achingly slow.

    • @chelseaspence6259
      @chelseaspence6259 Před 8 lety

      +

    • @eustatic3832
      @eustatic3832 Před 8 lety +1

      i think that's what he is saying, about the inability to escape white supremacy, and the american attitudes that black people aren't people

  • @tommyculver6771
    @tommyculver6771 Před 8 lety +1

    I'd always surmised that the ending simply meant that, no matter how well intentioned, people are largely fickle in the end. But that's just my fickle opinion. I'd like to hear your thoughts on Eudora Welty, "The Life You Save May be Your Own".

  • @zachholms
    @zachholms Před 8 lety

    Do a video on the Brothers Karamazov

  • @masugoupil
    @masugoupil Před 8 lety

    Could you please put these videos in the CC Literature playlist?

  • @chrisf247
    @chrisf247 Před 8 lety +31

    I didn't read the river as a god, but as the absence of one. By contrast the land is full of people and religion, and is a terrible place for it. I think arguing the river has to be god because their has to be something you worship (i.e. a god of some form) is circular reasoning.I'm not complaining though, I just think analysis of literature almost always reveals more about the reader and their beliefs than the text itself.

  • @antnauman
    @antnauman Před 7 lety +1

    For me, the whole story had SOO many points. Some of them are mentioned in the video, and others are in my mind.
    About the ending chapters, it showed 2 things:
    1. How 'educated' people are above 'intelligent' people, just because they think you have to 'go by the book', and define complex protocols for something, instead of just doing something right away, no matter how much it affects the others.
    2. Even if blacks were already free (as a human being), and even if top white people knew it, they HAD to make them pass through terrible scenarios, and made them suffer, and do useless things (campaigns and votes etc), just to make some history out of it.

  • @gomagoma313
    @gomagoma313 Před 8 lety

    John, what is the name of a tiny elephant on your red shirt? Thanks.

  • @athenanguyen7990
    @athenanguyen7990 Před 8 lety +1

    Are you doing A Tale of Two Cities?

  • @SexyBakanishi
    @SexyBakanishi Před 8 lety

    None of the new videos for cc literature are in the literature playlist!

  • @elaine-nm4fl
    @elaine-nm4fl Před 8 lety

    Which playlist is crash course literature two in? I can't find them.

  • @TApelicandude
    @TApelicandude Před 8 lety +3

    I've always felt that when Huck says "I knew then that Jim was white inside" at the end of the book as Huck realizing that there was no difference between himself and Jim, or by extension no difference between white people and black people. Not that it's a good way to say it, it's a terrible wording, but it might have been the only way Huck could think of how to articulate it. That is just my opinion though.

  • @jimothy_hue
    @jimothy_hue Před 8 lety +2

    our travels are safer the sooner we remember we are not one, but all. together, we prosper and divided we fall.

  • @thecroseknows
    @thecroseknows Před 8 lety +1

    To me, the ending explores the question: how do you free someone who is already free? A paradoxical question seeing how slaves were not truly free after the Civil War.

  • @TheDeist100
    @TheDeist100 Před 8 lety

    Yes. Someone already said it and yes, mispronunciation is kinda your thing; but the people here in Southern Illinois pronounce the city "Karo" like the syrup. Don't ask me why, I'm originally from "Chicawgo."

  • @cookiesncream244
    @cookiesncream244 Před 8 lety

    waiting for crash course sociology and crash course anthropology!

  • @JaredOnYT
    @JaredOnYT Před 8 lety +133

    I'm disappointed in this comment section. I'm a Christian, yet I accept that the world I live in doesn't always share my views. I have to accept when people make content that is not aligned with my beliefs, because we are living in a very atheist society. And you know what, I'm okay with that. But I'm seeing a lot of comments of people feeling either upset or outright despondent by John's use of the word "worship".
    Regardless of the connotations of the word, it's a WORD. I'm just puzzled by the anger and bitterness these people are feeling.
    "I don't worship anything, how could you say that?"
    And I get it, everyone has their own opinion, but I'm honestly taken aback by this sort of phobia towards religion and any words associated with it. Why does religion make people so uncomfortable? Leave a response below, I'm actually curious. No hate, just want to get to the bottom of all this.

    • @black300tt
      @black300tt Před 8 lety +1

      +

    • @hiraethsystem3001
      @hiraethsystem3001 Před 8 lety

      +

    • @Pfhorrest
      @Pfhorrest Před 8 lety +16

      I'm an atheist -- no, more than that an anti-theist -- and I agree. Religious language is part of the cultural milieu of the West and is very often used metaphorically, poetically, or otherwise figuratively. For example, to refer to a hypothetical omniscient neutral perspective as a "God's eye view" sounds perfectly natural and acceptable to me. John's obviously using "worship" here in a sense much less narrow than what people do in churches, following from the material he's talking about which is obviously not literally saying that the Mississippi River in Huck Finn IS LITERALLY A GOD, but that it is in poetic and literary ways "god-like".

    • @kodra22
      @kodra22 Před 8 lety +10

      I haven't seen any of those comments yet, but I do think it's noteworthy that John authoritatively states that everyone worships something, when many people feel that they don't worship anything.
      I'd love to see how John defines worship such that the statement "all people worship something" is valid. Is "worship" mean 'aspire to a set of principles'? Because in that case I agree that all humans aspire to something, but in this story I would say the 'god' they worship isn't the river as much as it is the concept of freedom.
      Or does worship have to be more active, as in "I am worshipping this god". In that case, the active concept is what I imagine a lot of people, myself included, would argue that not everyone does.

    • @andrelee7081
      @andrelee7081 Před 8 lety +3

      +
      I'm a Christian too and sometimes I wonder that myself. Maybe society depicts religion as the antithesis of liberty, that submission to something greater is a something that is never truly right, who knows. People tend to avoid that which they fear, and fear that which is unknown. Do words like "worship" conjure up images of the abyss, or perhaps the idea that any so-called "leap of faith" is a leap into a darkness into which humans cannot see? I don't know either.

  • @kubash4979
    @kubash4979 Před 7 lety

    Does anyone have a piece of evidence that represents the return phase of a hero's journey in huck finn? also, the scene must involve water or the Mississippi river.

  • @johndurack2442
    @johndurack2442 Před 6 lety

    thx

  • @nillyfrickers
    @nillyfrickers Před 8 lety

    My brother and I never missed an episode as a kids. Is the box set of this out there anywhere for my 7 year old to watch. Of corse I don't want to pay for it

  • @DavidErdody
    @DavidErdody Před 6 lety +1

    MrGreenMrGreen!!...Its Kay-row Illinois. DFTBA!

  • @art-is-awen8842
    @art-is-awen8842 Před 7 lety +1

    Please do a Sociology and an Art History crash course!!!! DFTBA - Don't Forget, That'd Be Awesome

  • @rainyjay4232
    @rainyjay4232 Před 8 lety

    Save travels Huck.

  • @gigigardner8999
    @gigigardner8999 Před 4 lety

    Anyone know the two literary devices that are in the quote at 6:19 I can only find one

  • @flippyfish4622
    @flippyfish4622 Před 6 lety

    I want a Mongol "we're the exception" shirt