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| Publicity photo from a silent film version of Pudd'nhead Wilson (1916) (Wikimedia) |
Note: We take for granted some of the most common "CSI"-type technology. But there was a time when fingerprint technology was unknown. This combines with a story of racial inequality to make one of Twain's more interesting novels.
Get Ready: What do you think might happen when a child is raised to believe certain things about himself, and discovers in his 20s that they just aren't true?
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| Stage set of Catfish Row (Wikimedia) |
Note: Some of America's greatest tunes have come from the pen of George Gershwin; in popular music, this is his masterpiece.
Get Ready: Do you like jazz music? Classical? How about when they are combined?
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| Gorman reciting "The Hill We Climb" at Joe Biden's inauguration (Wikipedia) |
Note: Amanda Gorman, a 22-year-old from Los Angeles, rocketed to national fame when she read a poem she composed at the presidential inauguration in January, 2022.
Get Ready: Do you like to read poetry? Have you ever written your own poems?
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| "Born and bred in a briar patch, Brer Fox! I was born and bred in a briar patch!" (Archive.org) |
Note: When Brer Fox put Brer Rabbit in the predicament of being stuck to a doll made of tar, it took all of Rabbit's cleverness to get loose again. This is perhaps the most famous of the "Uncle Remus" stories by the American writer Joel Chandler Harris.
Get Ready: Do you know the meaning of "reverse psychology"? It's the idea of suggesting to someone the opposite of what you really want them to do, so--being stubborn--they'll do exactly what you want! Can you think of examples?
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| Brer Rabbit attacking the Tar-Baby (Wikipedia) |
Note: The story we know as "The Tar Baby" has over 250 variants in cultures from all over the world; its antecedents go all the way back to ancient India. In 1881, American author Joel Chandler Harris published in his "Uncle Remus" stories this version he had collected in the American South.
Get Ready: Have you ever had a problem that, the harder you tried to fix it, the worse it got?
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| Huckleberry Finn with a rabbit (Wikipedia) |
Note: A candidate for the Great American Novel, Twain's masterpiece is also a scathing indictment of the practice of slavery.
Get Ready: Is it sometimes all right to help a person out of a terrible situation, even if it meant breaking the law?
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| Mark Twain in later years (Wikipedia) |
Note: Mark Twain's colorful life provided the inspiration for many of his best-known works. Find out where it all came from!
Get Ready: Are there any experiences in your life--something you did, or a true story someone told you--that would make good material for a short story or even a novel?
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| Ahab and Moby Dick (Wikipedia) |
Note: Melville's epic story of the revenge of mad Captain Ahab on the great white whale that took his leg off below the knee.
Get Ready: What obsesses you? Is there a "quest" that drives you forward--for better or for worse?
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| Simon Legree assaults Uncle Tom (Wikipedia) |
Note: Harriet Beecher Stowe's masterpiece had an impact--positive and negative--on American race relations that has lasted to this day. Learn the story in this lesson.
Get Ready: What do you know of the history of slavery in America?
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| Poster from the film version (Wikipedia) |
Note: Happy is the person who has read Harper Lee's 1960 novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, or at least seen its outstanding film adaptation, starring Gregory Peck. It was the only book of Ms Lee's to be published until near the very end of her life. She died in February, 2016; in July, 2015, her sister authorized the publication of an earlier (and, most believe, inferior) draft of the same book titled Go Set a Watchman.
Get Ready: Atticus Finch is a "small-town hero" (to readers, at least). How important are such people, compared to the "grand" national heroes, for example?
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| "Aunt Rachel" (actually Mary Ann Cord) (Chemung County Historical Society) |
Note: Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, is widely known for such impressive books as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. But many of his shorter stories and essays packed a powerful punch as well. Let's read about one.
Get Ready: Is it possible to maintain a positive attitude even though one has experienced great suffering?
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| Hanukkah has nine candles; Kwanzaa, seven. (Wikipedia: top, bottom) |
Note: Two December holidays very similar in some ways--Hanukkah and Kwanzaa--have different origins and serve different communities.
Get Ready: Do you think it's important for members of "sub-cultures" to gather and strengthen their bonds in formal, ritual ways, or is it better for them to allow themselves to be assimilated (be absorbed into the larger culture)?
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| Wikipedia-sponsored Black History Month event (Wikipedia) |
Note: Recognition of the contributions of African Americans to America's success was long overdue. Learn how it finally got started--less than 100 years ago.
Get Ready: Can you name some of the people who helped improve our awareness of Black contributions to America's success?
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| A march in Oregon on Martin Luther King Day (Wikipedia) |
Note: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is widely respected for his civil rights work. But some opposed the establishment of a holiday in his honor, and others even watered it down by including a Confederate general in the celebrations!
Get Ready: How important do you find the issue of civil rights--equal opportunity for all people? Have you ever contributed to the advancement of rights for all?
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