I.
Introduction:
a.
Lead Story: Capture
your reader’s attention in a one or two paragraph lead story (narrative
format). This may include an
example or exploration of your topic or author.
Somehow you must engage your audience in your topic or issue.
America loves to criticize. It’s no secret – criticism is blatantly
posted on every billboard, magazine cover, and website. What people wear, what
people say, what people do; all are subject to the constant influx of opinions.
One opinion, however, stands out when it comes to criticism. Mark Twain was one
of society’s ultimate critics. His reproach was not about what people did, but why they did it. He explored the hypocrisy
of American daily life and “civilized” society as he condemned ideologies such
as imperialism, romanticism, racism, and blind obedience. However, Twain didn’t
write books on the horrors of slavery or armies invading native lands through
brute force. Instead, he employed satire to convey the ridiculousness of what
culture deemed acceptable.
b. Beyond the Lead Transition Paragraph: Transition from your lead story into your
Thesis Statement.
One of the major topics that Twain explored was the role of religion in
society. He didn’t necessarily criticize beliefs, but the way that organized
religion functioned in everyday life. Throughout The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the boys were forced to attend
church meetings, memorize scripture, and obey religious leaders.
c.
Transition
into your Thesis Statement:
However, through Horatian satire, Twain is able to reveal that
the boys learned the most about moral decisions and religious ideologies
outside of society’s formal church setting.
II.
Body Paragraph 1
(You can have more commentary/concrete details than what is shown here).
a.
Topic
Sentence (State your Main Point):
On the 19th century Mississippi River, attending church was
part of what made one “civilized.” But the focus of the organized Christian
religions wasn’t necessarily to understand Christ’s teachings and apply it to
one’s life, but to be a part of the Christian culture and gain the respect of
simply attending church.
b. Commentary (to set
up your Concrete Detail):
In The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn, Twain uses an entire chapter to parody Romeo and Juliet. Not only does his satire mock the play itself,
but he slips in a few scenes to demonstrate how Christianity had become an
“only on Sunday” kind of religion for many of the people in the 19th
century.
c.
Concrete
Detail (to defend your Topic Sentence):
“The men took their guns along, so did Buck, and kept them between
their knees or stood them handy against the wall. The Shepherdsons done the same. It was pretty ornery preaching—all about
brotherly love, and such-like tiresomeness…but everybody said it was a good
sermon, and they all talked it over going home, and had such a powerful lot to
say about faith and good works and free grace and preforeordestination, and I
don't know what all, that it did seem to me to be one of the roughest Sundays I
had run across yet.” (Twain 95-96).
d. Commentary (to
analyze your previous Concrete Detail
and introduce your next one):
Although they do attend church, the two families aren’t practicing what
they preach. The entire sermon on brotherly kindness somehow did not apply to
their daily lives, and in their feud with their neighbors. By juxtaposing the
violence of guns with the peaceful preaching on “faith and good works,” Twain
is able to utilize his satire to prove that their practices aren’t complying
with “beliefs.”
e. Concrete Detail (to
further defend your Topic Sentence
and Commentary):
“Critiquing American Christianity, Twain explains, ‘If Christ were here
now, there is one thing he would not be- a Christian.’” (Taylor 2).
f.
Commentary
(to make sense of your entire paragraph and come back to your Main Point and Thesis):
Christianity in the 19th century, along the Mississippi
River context was no longer about practicing the doctrine they were being
taught at church, but simply attending so that others could see you there.
There was prestige held in being a “church-goer,” but the religion itself
didn’t extend far past the doors of the chapels.
III.
Body Paragraph 2
(You can have more commentary/concrete details than what is shown here).
a.
Topic
Sentence (State your Main Point):
Twain used his satire to depict how society was allowing religious
traditions to replace faith and meaning.
b. Commentary (to set
up your Concrete Detail):
The traditions of Christianity – the rituals, the recitations, the
readings – had become all that was left of the religion in both books.
c.
Concrete
Detail (to defend your Topic Sentence):
“Twain expresses the need to rediscover religion in the debris of traditions
passed off as Christianity” (Taylor 2).
d. Commentary (to
analyze your previous Concrete Detail
and introduce your next one):
Society became so focused on the traditions of religion that they
failed to practice the faith that came along with it. This is a problem seen
time and time again in the bible itself, where the people would fall into
focusing on the customs, and arguing about the nuances of the religious laws,
that they would fail to follow the purpose behind them. Twain satirized the
churches in order to depict the lack of religion in them.
e. Concrete Detail (to
further defend your Topic Sentence
and Commentary):
“’Now,’
said Joe, getting up, ‘you got to let me kill you.
That's fair.’
‘Why,
I can't do that, it ain't in the book’” (Twain 89).
f.
Commentary
(to make sense of your entire paragraph and come back to your Main Point and Thesis):
Tom Sawyer’s obsession with living “by the book,” no matter what book
it was, reflects society’s replacement of religion with tradition. It didn’t
matter that what the book said might be immoral, unjust, or unfair, it had to
be followed strictly. Tom echoes what he had been taught in church – this is
the way things are done in society, it doesn’t matter if they are ethical.
V.
Body Paragraph 3
(You can have more commentary/concrete details than what is shown here).
a.
Topic
Sentence (State your Main Point):
Although the institution of a church is meant to teach religion and
religious practices, Huckleberry Finn learns ethics, morals, and religious
ideologies when he is outside of established religion and in “uncivilized”
society.
b. Commentary (to set
up your Concrete Detail):
When Huck is faced with the dilemma to turn in Jim, the black slave, he
finally decides to go against society as he says, “
c.
Concrete
Detail (to defend your Topic Sentence): à will shorten quote
“It was awful thoughts and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought
no more about reforming. I shoved the
whole thing out of my head, and said I would take up wickedness again, which
was in my line, being brung up to it, and the other warn't. And for a starter I would go to work and
steal Jim out of slavery again; and if I could think up anything worse, I would
do that, too; because as long as I was in, and in for good, I might as well go
the whole hog.”
d. Commentary (to
analyze your previous Concrete Detail
and introduce your next one):
By having Huck condemn himself for making the moral decision to treat
Jim as a human being, Twain satirizes society’s treatment of African American’s
and racism. Religion teaches that decisions based on incorrect morals lead to
Hell, but here, disregarding race and treating people equally is what is
considered wrong. By abandoning what his religious instructors, Widow Douglas,
and Miss Watson have taught him in his trip down the Mississippi River, Huck is
finally able to form his own ethics that actually comply with Christian
teachings.
e. Concrete Detail (to
further defend your Topic Sentence
and Commentary):
“Huck has made his first moral decision: he is not going to try to go
to heaven if heaven is populated by representatives of conventional morality,
such as Miss Watson” (1).
f.
Commentary
(to make sense of your entire paragraph and come back to your Main Point and Thesis):
By separating the Mississippi River Christians from what is actually
considered right or wrong, Huck is finally able to make decisions that follow
the Christ-like teachings. Twain’s satirizes this heaven to represent a place
that those who follow a conventional morality will go, instead of the actual
Christian heaven.
VI.
Conclusion—you may briefly
summarize for your reader, but be sure to extend your analysis and leave your
reader with an intriguing concept that will leave him or her thinking about
your topic.
By depicting the “conventional moralities” as comical through his
satire, Twain is able to show the flaws in society’s logic. Being “sivilized”
does not necessarily make one a good person, but perhaps just one who follows
society’s trends instead of standing up for moral beliefs. Not only were the
boys able to learn more about religion outside of a church, but they were also
able to better understand their place in society when they had abandoned it.
*Probably going to
completely change one of the paragraphs to a different topic sentence. And I
know this needs a lot more depth, especially with identifying the religious
allusions throughout the books and relating the theme of religion to the
Mississippi River.
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