Huck Finn 2-Page Short Paper Assignment
{50-point grade in Papers, Projects, and Presentations Category}
· Start your paper with a one-sentence paragraph comprised only of an assertive, focused thesis statement.

· You should have 3 body paragraphs in which you provide solid support and detailed examples, including the use of multiple quotes from the passage **Focusing on specific parts of the text and using them in your response is a crucial part of this assessment!

· End your response with 1-2 concluding statements that concisely summarize and reflect on the main points of your response.

· While you should use mainly the passage given in your response, you may refer to other parts of the text – your response should reflect not only a solid understanding of the context of the passage, but Twain’s novel so far.

· Make sure you remain in the present tense, use 3rd person POV only (no “I think” statements), and use active verbs in your analysis of the passage and prompt.
Rubric
Assertive Thesis Statement __ / 4

Body Paragraph One
Topic Sentence __ / 2
Examples and details used as evidence __ / 3
Integration of quotes in analysis __ / 3
Level of analysis and argument provided __ / 3
Smooth transitions and organization of paragraph __ / 2

Body Paragraph Two
Topic Sentence __ / 2
Examples and details used as evidence __ / 3
Integration of quotes in analysis __ / 3
Level of analysis and argument provided __ / 3
Smooth transitions and organization of paragraph __ / 2

Body Paragraph Three
Topic Sentence __ / 2
Examples and details used as evidence __ / 3
Integration of quotes in analysis __ / 3
Level of analysis and argument provided __ / 3
Smooth transitions and organization of paragraph __ / 2

Concluding Remarks __ / 2

Grammar, usage, and mechanics __ / 5

TOTAL __ 50 points

Prompt: How does Colonel Sherburn’s speech, below, reflect Twain’s thoughts on society’s behavior? In what ways are Sherburn’s words ironic, and what is Twain’s point in portraying this irony?

“The idea of YOU lynching anybody! It’s amusing. The idea of you thinking you had pluck enough to lynch a MAN! Because you’re brave enough to tar and feather poor friendless cast-out women that come along here, did that make you think you had grit enough to lay your hands on a MAN? Why, a MAN’S safe in the hands of ten thousand of your kind — as long as it’s daytime and you’re not behind him.
“Do I know you? I know you clear through was born and raised in the South, and I’ve lived in the North; so I know the average all around. The average man’s a coward. In the North he lets anybody walk over him that wants to, and goes home and prays for a humble spirit to bear it. In the South one man all by himself, has stopped a stage full of men in the daytime, and robbed the lot. Your newspapers call you a brave people so much that you think you are braver than any other people — whereas you’re just AS brave, and no braver. Why don’t your juries hang murderers? Because they’re afraid the man’s friends will shoot them in the back, in the dark — and it’s just what they WOULD do.
“So they always acquit; and then a MAN goes in the night, with a hundred masked cowards at his back and lynches the rascal. Your mistake is, that you didn’t bring a man with you; that’s one mistake, and the other is that you didn’t come in the dark and fetch your masks. You brought PART of a man — Buck Harkness, there — and if you hadn’t had him to start you, you’d a taken it out in blowing.
“You didn’t want to come. The average man don’t like trouble and danger. YOU don’t like trouble and danger. But if only HALF a man — like Buck Harkness, there — shouts ‘Lynch him! lynch him!’ you’re afraid to back down — afraid you’ll be found out to be what you are — COWARDS — and so you raise a yell, and hang yourselves on to that half-a-man’s coat-tail, and come raging up here, swearing what big things you’re going to do. The pitifulest thing out is a mob; that’s what an army is — a mob; they don’t fight with courage that’s born in them, but with courage that’s borrowed from their mass, and from their officers. But a mob without any MAN at the head of it is BENEATH pitifulness. Now the thing for YOU to do is to droop your tails and go home and crawl in a hole. If any real lynching’s going to be done it will be done in the dark, Southern fashion; and when they come they’ll bring their masks, and fetch a MAN along. Now LEAVE — and take your half-a-man with you” — tossing his gun up across his left arm and cocking it when he says this.