Question 1 (All answer this):

Each of the works you have read was difficult to read in one way or another. Describe the difficulty of each, as if you are writing to a student next semester. To encourage the student to persevere and overcome the difficulty, explain how each work is enriched by whatever you found difficult, and perhaps you might add how you coped with the difficulty in each case.

Part I: Huckleberry Finn

1. Huck says that Twain "told the truth, mainly," in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, yet we know that the story is fiction (i.e., technically a pack of lies). Huck himself also tells lies. Compare several of these lies. Are any of them at all like the lies told by a writer of fiction?

2. Although Huck is a kind of social outcast, he is not without a concern for morality. Demonstrate that he cares about right and wrong even if he isn't always perfectly sure (or else is perfectly sure but isn't perfectly right) which is which.

3. Huck Finn has proven time and again that he is crafty and able to think on his feet. Give a few examples of times when this talent comes in handy.

4. Tom Sawyer's gang play at being criminals and create imaginary dangers to test their courage, but Huck Finn after leaving th egang faces real dangers and real criminals. He does not shake off his boyish enthusiasm for "adventures" all at once, but he more than once finds himself in the world of adult reality, where the stakes are higher than those he has been used to. Mentioning specific examples of episodes in the novel, demonstrate that Huck's life is leading him away from the innocence of childhood and into the dangerous world of adult experience. Do you think he is progressing towards manhood?

5. Mark Twain had a gift for finding humor in situations that were otherwise serious. Find examples in Huckleberry Finn.

Part 2: Frankenstein

6. Think about the earliest experiences of Victor and his creature, both recounted in the first person. Think also of the circumstances under which the narrators tell their tales and to whom. How do the similarities and differences you perceive enrich the stories?

7. Compare the interests of Elizabeth, Henry, and Victor, explaining how these complement one another.

8. Friendship is a main theme in Frankenstein. Friends repair faults and help shape the personality. Victor quite rightly refers to all of his family members as well as Henry as his "friends." The creature has come to Victor specifically to demand a friend, a bosom companion, a wife. He will claim this service as a right. Has the novel up to this point demonstrated that people have a fundamental need for friendship and a right to have friends? How have Victor's friends helped to shape him? You might consider the fact that current penal laws permit spousal visitation for prisoners of the state, so our own country regards the spousal relationship as an inalienable right like nourishment, air, clothing, and shelter.

9. Mary Shelley uses contrasting pairs—characters, events, settings—throughout Frankenstein. For example, the two letters opening Chapters 6 and 7 have similarities and differences. Find two contrasting pairs (you may use the letters as one) and examine how the author uses the contrasts to direct a reader's attention and make points which she cannot make in her own person because the narrators are all characters in the novel. How do mirror images work to communicate between author and reader?