Category: What’s Entertaining?

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

I don’t know what it is like to live somewhere where slaves are. But in the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, it really put into perspective how big of an issue slavery was. I have studied slavery and learned about lynching, but I never really thought about how escaped slaves lived and how or if they made it to their final destination. Huck was the main character and his development throughout the novel made it even more thrilling to read. Jim was with Huck for most of the novel, and he resembled slavery. He was a runaway slave and Huck faked his death to escape his abusive father. They both had one thing in common, they were running away from their fear of society throughout the whole novel. The characters that Huck and Jim’s encounter also helped their character development. The encounter that stuck out to me the most was with the Grangerfords family. This family took Huck in and showed Huck a comfortable way of life that he never experienced before because they had money. But many of the members died because they got into a gun battle with another family who they had been feuding with for a long time. After that encounter, I could feel the impact that family had on Huck, he looked up to many of the family members and witnessing their deaths changed him very subtly, he acted the same as he always did, but from reading his mood felt off and different. With these reasons in mind, this book is a great book to read overall.

Mark Twain wrote many other books like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which happened before The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain’s real name was Samuel Clemens, and during his childhood, he witnesses a lot of violence and death. Some of the actions in the book suggest that Twain had witnessed these things before such as the violence towards slaves. When the was 10 he witnessed a slave die after being stuck with an iron rod. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn book review, the writer addresses the overuse of the N-word, and all of the other slang in the book that could make people believe that it is racist. But in the end, it is up to the reader to determine if it really is meant to express racism or if it is meant o show the journey of an escaped slave and a poor white boy.

I would recommend this book to other students because it is a very interesting book to read. At a certain point in the novel, I felt like I could not put the book down. The tone and voice the author uses to convey Huk and Jim’s characters is very unique, and I haven’t read a book like it before. Some students may find it hard to read because there is a lot of swearing in the book, but I believe that having that language in the novel helped portray where the characters came from and their backgrounds more. It would seem fake if the author did not put this type of language in the book.

The gun goes off, you stride out with many people squished next to you. You fight for a good position, hoping it will be enough to get you on pace for the rest of the race to come. You make it to the first mile, and you’re still high on adrenaline. You keep your head high, remembering all of the practices that have led up to this race, and you accelerate. You’re nearing the end, your legs are feeling stiff, and your arms are more of a burden to move than before. Your torso is cramping, yelling at you to stop, and you see the end in the distance. You push for your final kick of the race, passing those who started to kick too soon and are slowing down, and you finish knowing you gave it your all. Cross country is the most exciting, thrilling, and emotional sport to watch. Someone might say “Isn’t it just running?” but, cross country is more than “just running”, it is entertaining, empowering, and a rollercoaster of emotions. I’m not just talking from a runner’s perspective, I have been on the sidelines of many cross country meets, and nothing compares to the thrill of cheering on cross country runners. The best way to enjoy watching cross country is to understand what athletes go through to compete at their very best.

The average mile time for an everyday person is about 10 minutes. According to Mile split, the nations leading cross country news platform states  “Some of the fastest high school men’s times would be around 13-14 minutes for 3 miles…”(Milesplit US). That is an average of a little above 4-minutes per mile for a three-mile race. So how do these athletes get to this level of conditioning? Well for starters, every day for practice, they do what other sports use as punishment, to make themselves better as runners. For their meets, they use those practices to go as fast as they can, for about three miles depending on the course. Each course is its own monster. Some have gigantic hills, sharp, muddy turns, and sometimes the occasional water hole that runners have to either try and jump over or trudge their way through it. These athletes need to prepare for how they run each course, they need to develop a plan of action. If they were to sprint the first mile, they would burn out and fall behind. They need to have a game plan of how they are going to make moves on each course, and when to accelerate and when to make pace checks to make sure they are not going too fast. Not only does running require physical toughness but it also requires mental toughness. 

Running is a physical and mental game. Running at a very fast pace is painful, your whole body hurts, you can get cramps, and if you are not hydrated or not warmed up, you could be at risk for serious injuries. So how can cross country runners stay in their sport and enjoy it? Mostly because the very best of the best have a very particular personality, where they understand that putting themselves through painful workouts can help them improve and get them to where they want to be to succeed. No one wants to do fast mile repeats on a track, but these athletes know that this is a way that they can get better and improve upon themselves. That is where the mental aspect comes into play. For every workout, runners need to be prepared to hurt, but in the best way possible. As a cross country runner, I have the hardest time mentally than physically. Especially during the races. If you go out too fast, or you don’t go out fast enough, it can mess with how you feel for the rest of the race. Knowing that no matter what, the races are going to hurt, but pushing to the limit and being able to finish knowing everything was put on the line, is the most important and best part of the sport. Other factors, such as weather conditions, also play into how you go into a race mentally. It is very important as a runner to stay focused on what to achieve, and not let these factors get in the way. Knowing what the athletes go through for every race, really puts into perspective how hard it is to be a runner, but also how watching a cross country race can be so thrilling at the same time.

Cross country is not for everyone. To be a runner, they need to be physically strong and conditioned and have a special personality to get through the mental aspect of the sport. People who do not understand cross country have a hard time watching it because all they see is running. When someone understands all the aspects of the sport, they can come to enjoy watching it to its fullest. 

Works cited:

“United States High School Boys Rankings | Cross Country 2019 Leaders.” MileSplit United States. N. p., 2019. Web. 3 Oct. 2019.