Outside Reading Digital Journal #3

         At one point in the book, Huck begins to question religion. Miss Watson continues to tell Huck about how he should believe, and tells him that if he prays every day, God will give him anything he asks for. Huck says that he tried asking God for things, but they were never given to him. Miss Watson calls Huck a fool when he asks her about why God didn't give him what he asked for, and Huck doesn't know why.

          I made a connection to both Puritanism and Rationalism through this, but mostly to Rationalism. The only reason it connects to Puritanism is really just because of the idea of God. There is a deeper connection to Rationalism, though. Although most questions and reasoning of rationalism usually wasn't focused around religion, the kinds of questions that Huck asks connect to rationalism in general. He wonders that if anyone get get anything they pray for, then why can't "Deacon Winn get the money back he lost on pork? Why can't the widow get back her silver snuff-box that was stole?" These questions are completely logical. Why doesn't everybody have all that they want if it is that easy to get? This is a significant connection to rationalism because he keeps searching for answers to what he doesn't clearly understand.

Outside Reading Digital Journal #2

          At one point in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, one of the widows is talking again to Huck about the "bad place." She tells him about how she would never do or say the things that Huck was, particularly when Huck said he didn't care if he went to the "bad place." Huck says that he just wants to go somewhere, and that he doesn't care where.
          Huck says that he does not like Miss Watson the widow at all. Since Miss Watson says that she is going to the good place, Huck says that he wants to go to bad place so he can get away from Miss Watson forever. This idea connects to rationalism because it is simple reasoning. If Miss Watson tries to be good to get to the good place, the if Huck tries to be bad, then he will go to the bad place and not have to be around her anymore. It involves a simple plan of reason, which can be found in rationalist works.

Outside Reading Digital Journal #1

          This quarter, I have been reading Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I have found some connections to what we have been studying in this book about Puritanism. One thing I found that connects to Puritanism is that the women who took care of Huck were constantly telling him that he should have good manners and be respectful. This connects to Puritanism because a big concept of Puritanism was the importance of living a proper lifestyle. Puritans focused all the time on trying to live perfectly.

          I was able to make another connection with Puritanism in this book when it talked about religion. One aspect of religion found in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was simply when the widow would say a blessing before meals. Something else I noticed in the book involving religion was when the widows were telling Huck about how he should do good things on Earth so he could go to the "good place" and stay away from the "bad place." This must be referring to Heaven and Hell, which ties in with the idea of predestination in Puritanism. However, there is a difference between the Puritan idea of predestination and the idea of the "good place" and "bad place" in this book. According to Puritan belief, predestination is thought to be determined before life on Earth, while in the book, it is thought that how you act on Earth reflects on where you go after death.