1. Continuing Huck Cognitive Dissonance, Morality, and Huck’s Decision

2. Cognitive Dissonance O Twain uses Huck as a master satiric voice; but he also uses the idea of cognitive dissonance O Definition: The feeling of discomfort accompanied by holding two contradictory ideas at once

3. Freewrite O Nobody wants to be in an abusive relationship. But people continue to be in them. This is a form of cognitive dissonance. How do people deal with this?

4. CD Examples O Dieting O Relationships O Unemployed boyfriend O Unstable/abusive boyfriend O Office supplies from work O Premarital sex

5. Cognitive Dissonance and Racism O If you accept that “other” people are human persons, then you’re essentially arguing for their equality O But this means you can’t treat them as less than human – but people did, and people do

6. Dealing with racist cognitive dissonance O How do people deal with this? O Option one: Convince yourself that your ideas and actions aren’t actually treating them as unequal O Segregation O Option two: Convince yourself, consciously or unconsciously, that you are indeed somehow better than people of a specific race O “They’re human too, but more prone to theft, etc.”

7. Huck’s Racism? O What about Huck? Does he recognize Jim’s humanity? O Yes! (Read end of chapter 23) O Is Huck racist? Does he disagree with slavery? O Yes and no! (read the book) O So he is involved in cognitive dissonance: O On the one hand, he recognizes Jim’s humanity O But on the other hand, he is OK with slavery

8. Climax of Cognitive Dissonance in Huck O Psychologically speaking, you can’t be involved in cognitive dissonance for too long – you either “correct” the problem, or go crazy O Where do we see this cognitive dissonance (this feeling of discomfort) coming to a climax? (Hint: In some ways, it’s also the climax of the novel.)

9. Why the Dissonance? Society O On the one hand, Huck has society’s morals, and everything they have taught him: slavery is OK; helping a slave is wrong; you go to hell for doing bad things O But on the other hand, we see that Huck, even if unconsciously, wants to help Jim because he is a person and friend

10. Huck’s Decision O He resolves this by rejecting society’s morals: ripping up the letter, saying he’d go to hell, etc.

11. Twain’s Points O So what is Twain saying to his times? O You can’t recognize others’ humanity while involving yourself in racist practices O You can step outside of your society’s morality and recognize morals more important