Air Pollution and Human Health Abstract

Air pollution and traffic corridors are a problem that has been increasing over the years. Air pollution primarily comes from six different particulate pollutants. These pollutants include: particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone and lead. Traffic corridors are urban neighborhoods that see a lot of traffic. “Traffic corridors can cause air pollution; which will increase the risk of human health problems”(Rincon, Chris). Traffic corridors are often located in lower income neighborhoods, causing habitants to have potentially greater health problems.

Traffic corridors are sometimes referred to as asthma corridors because of the different health issues associated with living in urban areas with heavy traffic. “Nine percent of all childhood asthma cases in Long Beach and six percent in Riverside were attributable to traffic proximity.³” “Approximately 1,400 yearly episodes of asthma-related bronchitis episodes in Long Beach (21 percent of the total) were caused by the contribution of ship emissions to nitrogen dioxide levels in the city.³”

We are burning fossil fuels at an alarming rate, and if we continue, the levels of CO2 will continue to climb. The rising CO2 levels increase air pollution; which contributes to deteriorating human health. We need to find an efficient way to ease off our fossil fuel dependence by looking for alternative fuels. We need to realize that it’s not only the environment we’re hurting; we’re hurting ourselves. We are contributing to the respiratory illnesses, childhood asthma, lung disease, heart disease and so many more human health issues. The worst part is that these illnesses are affecting people that live in traffic corridors, people that don’t necessarily live in the best neighborhoods or have the ability to go to the doctor or have the political power to change their situation.

Pull Quote:

"The rising CO2 levels increase air pollution; which contributes to deteriorating human health."

Recipe

Strawberry and Feta Salad

Ingredients

• 1 cup slivered almonds
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup raspberry vinegar
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 head romaine lettuce, torn
• 1 pint fresh strawberries, sliced
• 1 cup crumbled feta cheese

Directions

1. In a skillet over medium-high heat, cook the almonds, stirring frequently, until lightly toasted. Remove from heat, and set aside.
2. In a bowl, prepare the dressing by whisking together the garlic, honey, Dijon mustard, raspberry vinegar, balsamic vinegar, brown sugar, and vegetable oil.
3. In a large bowl, toss together the toasted almonds, romaine lettuce, strawberries, and feta cheese. Cover with the dressing mixture, and toss to serve.

Nutritional Information

Strawberry and Feta Salad

Servings Per Recipe: 10

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 378

• Total Fat: 34.3g
• Cholesterol: 22mg
• Sodium: 301mg
• Total Carbs: 12.4g
• Dietary Fiber: 2.7g
• Protein: 7.1g

My Abstract Yo.

Air pollution and traffic corridors are a problem that has been increasing over the years. Air pollution primarily comes from six different particulate pollutants. These pollutants include, particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone and lead. Traffic corridors are urban neighborhoods that see a lot of traffic. Traffic corridors can cause air pollution; which will increase the risk of human health problems. Traffic corridors are often located in lower income neighborhoods, causing habitants to have potentially greater health problems. This paper will go in depth about the different pollutants and what kind of negative affects they have on human health.

Traffic corridors are sometimes referred to as asthma corridors because of the different health issues associated with living by urban areas with heavy traffic. “Nine percent of all childhood asthma cases in Long Beach and six percent in Riverside were attributable to traffic proximity.³” “Approximately 1,400 yearly episodes of asthma-related bronchitis episodes in Long Beach (21 percent of the total) were caused by the contribution of ship emissions to nitrogen dioxide levels in the city.³” Air pollution is contributing to an increasing amount of health related issues, and a lot of the air pollution is concentrated in these traffic corridors.

We are burning fossil fuels at an alarming rate, and if we continue, the levels of CO2 will continue to climb. The rising CO2 levels increase air pollution; which contributes to deteriorating human health. We need to find an efficient way to ease off our CO2 dependence by looking for alternative fuels. We need to realize that it’s not only the environment we’re hurting; we’re hurting ourselves. We are contributing to the respiratory illnesses, childhood asthma, lung disease, heart disease and so many more human health issues. The worst part is that these illnesses are affecting people that live in traffic corridors, people that don’t necessarily live in the best neighborhoods or have the ability to go to the doctor all the time.

If traffic corridors continue, the health of nearby residents will dramatically decrease. With less carbon emissions and less pollutants in the air, residents will have less medical problems.

Pull Quote:

"The rising CO2 levels increase air pollution; which contributes to deteriorating human health."

Food Inc.

This movie really helped open my eyes to how the food industry is handled and what are the inner workings of it. Immediately I learned that there are only about four major companies that deal with all of our food. I knew that a lot of our food had corn in it but I did not realize that most of it had something to do with corn. After watching the movie, I realized that both cows and humans are being fed corn to gain weight at a staggering pace. This film has definitely given me a new perspective on food and how to go about picking what to eat.

It was really hard to watch what the animals had to go through in the factories. They weren't treated as if they were alive, they were treated as if they were an object with absolutely no feelings. The difference between the animals raised on the farm and the animals that were butchered in the factories is huge. It looked as though the animals on the farm had respect while they were alive, they had a happy little life. The animals in the factories weren't even treated as if they were animals.

I enjoyed how much politics there were in this movie as well. I enjoyed learning about Kevin's Law and what's being done to help prevent things like salmonella and e.coli.

Overall, I enjoyed this movie thoroughly and think we should watch it again!

Peer Readings

Alliance., The Resilience. "Conservation Ecology: Biodiversity, urban areas, and agriculture: locating priority ecoregions for conservation." Ecology and Society. http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol8/iss2/art1/inline.html (accessed February 25, 2010).
This peer review was about the effect urban sprawl has biodiversity. There was a map showing the different ecoregions. There were a lot of maps showing the different effects that urban sprawl can have. Human influence is increasing and for that reason, biodiversity is decreasing.

http://www.foodwebs.org/Sala2000Science.pdf
The above PDF shows the different scenarios that could happen with biodiversity by the year 2100. I thought this article was very useful because it gives scenarios for the future and that's what our senior project is about.

Nathan Lewis Reflection

At first I didn't understand Dr. Lewis' presentation. There was a lot of talk about power units and different complex things that I have yet to understand. Dr. Nathan Lewis also spoke about our use of coal and our dependency on other fossil fuels. I learned that coal was very abundant and very inexpensive so if we want a change to be made, it's going to be hard. Another thing that I found interesting was that even though China and India's populations are going up exponentially, the reason why their CO2 emissions are going up is because they're taking up our kind of energy lifestyle.
Dr. Lewis said a lot of things that actually made me wonder how lucky people feel. There are so many signs directly showing that we have an impact on the environment. We can see that Coral's are bleaching, that glaciers are retreating, sea levels are rising, wildfires are increasing, and so many other signs.
There are three carbon free powers that we could explore, nuclear, carbon sequestration - CO2 burial and renewables. He said that we need cheap solar fuel, and with the information that he gave, I agree. It seems as if it would be a big initial investment but it would pay for itself in the long run.

Three More Annotated Sources

Abdulla, Ameer. "Ecosystem Marketplace - ." Ecosystem Marketplace - . http://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/pages/dynamic/article.page.php?page_id=7443&section=news_articles&eod=1 (accessed February 10, 2010).

This article is mostly about improving marine biodiversity. It gives information on how to keep marine biodiversity high. "Designing an offset entails understanding which of the habitats at the development location have been impacted, and whether that impact is partial, significant or total, then quantifying this per unit area (square meter or square kilometre, for example) while weighting its “biodiversity significance” with a score." This article also talks a lot about biodiversity offsets, “measurable conservation outcomes that are the result of activities designed to compensate for significant and unavoidable impacts on biodiversity”.

Ford, Matt. "Costing the Earth: Investing in protecting the planet - CNN.com." CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/11/01/value.nature.conservation/index.html?iref=allsearch (accessed February 10, 2010).

"These ecosystems are on the point of collapse," said Sukhdev at the conference in South Africa. "Unless we can get the right deal at the [UN Climate Talks in December] in Copenhagen, things look very bleak.

This article mostly talks about how the downfall of biodiversity is making us all lose a lot of money. It is putting business in with the environment. I believe that this article did a really good job at explaining how we need to do something now about biodiversity because if we don't do something now, it will cost us more in the long run. "Apart from a moral obligation to look after our environment, Sukdev believes that even in simple cost benefit terms conservation is good sense and investing $45 billion could secure "nature-based services" worth $4.5 trillion to $5.2 trillion annually." We need to do more than throw money at the problem of biodiversity, ""If you start throwing more money into that context it's like throwing petrol on a fire."

"UN opens Biodiversity Year with plea to save world's ecosystems." Welcome to the United Nations: It's Your World. http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=33393&Cr=envirionment&Cr1= (accessed February 10, 2010).

"In a bid to curb the unprecedented loss of the world's species due to human activity – at a rate some experts put at 1,000 times the natural progression." This article is mostly about what the UN plans to do about biodiversity and raising awareness. This article lacks a lot of facts but has a lot of good quotes about what biodiversity does. It helps put things into perspective.“Biodiversity, the variety of life on Earth, is essential to sustaining the living networks and systems that provide us all with health, wealth, food, fuel and the vital services our lives depend on. Human activity is causing the diversity of life on Earth to be lost at a greatly accelerated rate. These losses are irreversible, impoverish us all and damage the life support systems we rely on every day. But we can prevent them.”

Initial Plant Research

1.What sort of plant is it? Vegetable, Fruit, Root crop, tree, bush etc.
I plan on growing a Sugar Baby Watermelon

2.What is the growing season for this plant…remember San Diego has a unique growing climate and some of the information on the internet might say that something won’t grow in the winter but that might not be true for here
The growing season for sugar baby watermelons is anytime when it is sunny. Watermelon need a lot of sun, so it is preferable to plant them when it is sunny. It is hard to determine exactly what season would be good to plant watermelon, as long as it isn't cold, it's a good time to plant watermelon.

3.Should it be grown from seed? If so how long does it take to germinate? Does it require any special preparation? (ex. some seeds need to be frozen before they will germinate?
If there is a long growing season, it is better to directly sow the seeds into the soil.

4.How long does this plant take to go from seed to harvest? Does it make sense for the time scale of this semester?…does it matter? Maybe you would still like to think about how it might benefit the garden in the long term.
Sugar Baby Watermelon generally takes 75-85 days to harvest. I believe that is enough time for it to grow this semester and it can continually be grown because of our beautiful San Diego weather.

5.Does the plant grow best from cuttings, division, grafts or clones? Where can we get these materials?
This plant needs a lot of space to grow.

6.How much space does it require to grow and harvest a reasonable amount?
There should be at least three feet of space between each plant. The hole for the plant should be two feet wide and a food deep.

7.What are the soil requirements for this plant?
Sugar Baby's grow best in sandy loam soil. I wasn't able to find the exact NPK ratio.

8.Water are the watering requirements?
Watering requirements are pretty normal/average for sugar babies. Not too much water but since they are 95% water, they do require regular watering.

9.Can you find any information about good companion plants that should grow along with it?
I would think that any other kinds of melons would grow well with sugar babies.

10. Something unique about my plant.
I think that the plant I'm going to choose is very unique because it is a hybrid and it's edible.

write up

All of the information I collected made the decision harder for me. If I were to pick biodiversity I’m not sure what I would do for my senior project, I think that I would try to go and do something about the international year of biodiversity and try to raise awareness. I thought that the first article and the second article were very interesting. They both gave me information I could use and both had very strong points. To raise awareness for biodiversity I would want to do something for Margaret’s class so that I could make some sort of digital art. I would not want to do a documentary; I would want to do something that shows the drastic affect humans have on biodiversity. I would want to take the side of the animals and explain how humans have an extreme affect on different habitats. I’m not exactly sure that I want to do biodiversity, I want to explore more and make sure that there isn’t something that I’m more interested in.

Initial Research and Write Up

Annotations:

Article 1.)

J. Emmette, Duffy. "Biodiversity - Encyclopedia of Earth." Encyclopedia of Earth. N.p., 28 Dec. 2009. Web. 21 Jan. 2010. http://www.eoearth.org/article/biodiversity#The_magnitude_of_biodiversity>

“Biological diversity is of fundamental importance to the functioning of all natural and human-engineered ecosystems, and by extension to the ecosystem services that nature provides free of charge to human society.” This essay was mostly about how biodiversity is a fundamental and vital part of our existence. A huge reason why biodiversity is decreasing is because of the lack of varied habitat. This article explained what biodiversity was and how it affects us. This article also explains the distribution of biodiversity as well as the human disturbance factors. I found this article very interesting and very helpful. I enjoyed how it explained everything in an easy to understand scientific matter.” Human intervention in ecosystem function have been expressed through habitat destruction, habitat fragmentation, overexploitation, and pollution.” I found this article very reliable and I do not believe that it has a bias.

Article 2.)

Samper, Cristián. "Planetary boundaries: Rethinking biodiversity : article : Nature Reports Climate Change."Nature Publishing Group : science journals, jobs, and information. N.p., 23 Sept. 2009. Web. 22 Jan. 2010. http://www.nature.com/climate/2009.99.html>

This article was mostly about the different theories about biodiversity. It didn’t have many concrete facts, but it did have a lot of interesting theories. One theory that I found really interesting was “extinction of species should not exceed ten species per million per year. If this is exceeded, they argue, we risk irreversible environmental change.” I didn’t find this article very interesting, I do not believe that it was very reliable and it ended up being slightly biased. It did not provide the kind of information that I wanted, and for that reason I say that it wasn’t very helpful.

Article 3.)

"Biodiversity loss a crisis forgotten | Manila Bulletin."mb.com.ph | Manila Bulletin. N.p., 20 Jan. 2010. Web. 22 Jan. 2010. .

This article was interesting because it talked about what we can do about the decreasing biodiversity. It talked about International Year of Biodiversity and how a lot of countries are going to do something to raise awareness about the decreasing biodiversity. It also included information about how every animal matters, “from the smallest insect to the biggest whale. Biodiversity is the web of life that includes the full-range of ecosystems, species living within such ecosystems, and the genetic variety of those species produced by nature or shaped by humans.” I found this article very interesting as well as full of information. I didn’t think that it was very biased and it gave me new information.

Socratic Seminar Reflection

I thought that our socratic seminar went really well. A lot of different points that I had never thought of were brought up. A lot of ideas I had were brought up and I got a deeper understanding of them. I thought the discussion about whether or not we should start with education was a very interesting. Ariana thought that we should do more than educate young kids, she believed that we should enforce regulation as well as working with kids and educating them about what they're eating. Lauren thought that we should start with education and as the young people get older, start enforcing regulation.

I think the idea of putting farm animals back on the farm is a good idea, as well as making sure that we reduce the amount of fossil fuels we use.

Weekend Homework

Our homework this weekend was to ask if anyone in our family was a farmer. When John first asked this question, I tried to think about who in my family was a farmer, I couldn't think of anyone. I came home and I asked my mom if anyone in our family was a farmer. She told me that my great grandfather was a farmer, or as she said, a "campasino." My great grandfather lived of his land and he also fed my grandfathers family of 8. My great uncles also became farmers and lived off their land.
Since my father grew up in Morelia, a bigger city in Mexico, he doesn't recall having any farmers in his family.

Space

While talking about space today in class, I couldn't help but think of how lucky we are. We are lucky that we exist. We're on a small planet that we all have the opportunity to make an impact on. We do not know what else or who else is out there, seeing as how there are so many different galaxies and even that many more planets that are unexplored. Like John said, I think it's important to not waste our only opportunity on this earth. We must all try to make a positive impact on it while we can if we want it to be here for an extended amount of time.

I also found if very interesting that everything has a schedule. Stars become either red planets or red supergiants and can either become white dwarfs or black holes. It's amazing to see that we're all just a physics problem.

Curiosity About the Natural World

There are many things that I am curious about concerning the natural world. I would like to learn more about different ecosystems. Such as the difference between oceanic, forest, meadow and agro-ecosystems. I'm also curious about different plants and why there are so many. I know that there are plants that have no real purpose, as they are commonly referred to as weeds. I also have a strong curiosity about how humans can have such a strong effect on the environment even though we only aquire a small amount of the living biomass. I also want to learn what kind of things we can do to lower the negative impact we have on the world.

Reflection

I learned several things during the magazine project process. I learned that I could use several little tricks to make my writing better and to make my writing more substantial. While the critiquing process was going on I realized that I needed to make my article more urgent instead of full of boring facts. I learned a lot about editing too, I learned that I should pace myself and make sure I spend enough time on everyone’s paper so that I could give them well thought out critiques that they could use. I also learned to explain to them what they needed to fix instead of just giving them a paper that’s marked up. I made a lot of different drafts during the whole process.

At first I was going to use my photo essay but then I decided to write a whole new article based on what I learned at internship and how that opened my eyes to a very important topic. I used pictures from my photo essay because I thought that they effectively represented what I was trying to get across. I simply needed to know how to incorporate the pictures into my writing creatively. I believe that my layout put the two components together well. I learned that the publishing process was not an easy one. I’m glad that we had to weigh in different things and we ultimately selected the right choice. We decided to go with the local printer because we would be able to produce a better product and even though it wasn’t in color it gave us a chance to be creative.

After 11th grade I hope to stay with WiLDCOAST and continue my project with them. Our project at WiLDCOAST was bigger than making a chart, it was about changing something in the government and hopefully changing part of the culture in Mexico.

All of these things are important because it made me once again realize how important this topic is and what kind of affect it’s going to have on Mexico. It also helped with my writing. We made the right choice by choosing to make a magazine, I believe that everyone’s article is their best example of work so far.

Blog Reflection Numero Dos

1. Overall, when you think about the big picture of your writing, what improved? How did it get better? Why?

I believe that my writing did get a lot better as the drafts went on. At first I only had a five paragraph essay that had an intro with a thesis and a conclusion. As it went on, I had several concise paragraphs that had a clear meaning. I believe that the big picture of my article was obvious and it was interesting. The big picture of my article is the start of an incentive program in Baja California that would end the pollution found in the Tijuana River Valley. My writing got better because of the tips that were given in Humanities class. The tips helped me with structure of the article, the concerts not pancakes and the loop structure are the tips that helped me the most.

2. Overall, when you think about the big picture of your writing, what still needs work? What do you think will help you improve? Why?

I think that my writing still needs to be more interesting. I had a lot of facts about my writing but I didn't exactly know how to make the facts interesting. I still need help with adding facts and quotes into the writing. I believe that if I could incorporate the facts and the quotes into the writing my article would be a lot more interesting and make more of an impact.

3. Specifically, show us something that improved and describe the path it took to get better. You can quote your article, your drafts, link to evidence, etc.

In my first draft I had a five paragraph essay that tried to do the loop style structure, but it failed. As I started writing more drafts the loop structure started making more sense and there were a lot more paragraphs to work with. It took a lot of drafts and a lot of critiques for my writing to get better. I had to change a lot of sentences so that they would make sense. I also had to make the introduction more interesting.

4. Describe something specific (or a few things!) that you learned about writing.
All of the tips that were talked about in humanities helped me a lot. We learned about sentence structure and how to use words. I learned not to use Sledgehammer words (completely, extremely, really, etc.) and to have concerts instead of pancakes. I also learned the loop structure.

Magazine Reflection

1. What went well for you during the process of creating this magazine?

The process overall was good for me, it made me understand what is done in the professional world as well as understand how to work with others and take their advice. I knew how to work with indesign a little when I started but as time went on, I learned a lot more about indesign. I took a lot of advice from other people and because of it I believe my project looks a lot better and it looks a lot more professional.

2. What challenges did you face as you moved from an early draft or idea to a final product?
I wrote a whole new article, so I went through about 12 drafts before I believed it was ready to be in the magazine, there were a lot of tweaks made everywhere and during the whole experience. I also had to change things like my pictures and I had to make them different because they had to be black and white as well as change in size.

3. What other examples of work—student and professional—stood out as exemplary and served as a good model for your own work?
I really enjoyed Evan's layout and I really liked Sydney's layout, I tried doing something similar to Evan's layout but it didn't quite work out. I used the Atlantic as a professional example. I tried to do similar headline pages and sub-headlines.

Literature Group Reflection

What worked?
I don't think that much worked in our literature group, some of us could keep up with the writing while others could not. Only Evan, Will and I managed to keep up with the due dates and we were the only ones able to finish the book. When it came to the lit meetings a lot of people didn't have their projects or they just didn't exude any kind of emotion towards their project, most of the time we only did half of the projects or we didn't have enough time for everyone's project. I don't think a lot worked in our lit group.


What would you like to see changed?
I would like to see everyone's project done and I would like to see everyone be able to finish their book so that we could all talk about it and so that we are all able to play everyone's games. Because not a lot of people had finished the part they were supposed to read we were not able to play the games correctly. I would like to see everyone be excited about their projects and not do their projects that morning.

What was your book about?
My book was about the adventures of Huck Finn. Huck lived with a widow that tried to civilize him but he didn't like that so he decided to go with his father who wasn't very nice. He then decided to leave his father and made it look like he had been murdered. He ended up on a little island and soon found Jim, the widow's slave, he had run away because he overheard the widow talking about selling Jim. Jim and Huck soon became friends and decided to head towards New Orleans. They went through a lot of people and Jim ended up getting captured for a reward. Huck ended up going to Aunt Sally's house which was Tom Sawyers Aunt. Tom Sawyer ended up showing up and saying that he was his brother and saying that Huck was Tom. They tried getting Jim out of the back but they all did was plan. They were chased by a crowd of people and they got Jim out because they were running to the raft. Tom ended up getting shot and they let Jim go because Tom told them that he was already a free slave because the widow had died a couple of weeks before and her will said that when she died Jim was free. Jim also told Huck that they saw his dead dad.

Obama Socialist?

When I googled Obama socialism I started looking for a story about what people thought about Obama and socialism. I read on stjoenews.com that an Alabama congressman said that he knew at least 17 socialist house members, but he refused to give the list of the names. Long however says that there is not even one socialist house members and that if there were, everyone would own a piece of AIG or the auto industry, but they don't. The government is helping out the economy now because of the "hard economic times". I don't think that these allegations are correct because Obama made a stimulus plan to help the people and businesses that need help. Any other president would have done the same thing. Bush had a stimulus plan just a year ago and he was not called a socialist. Obama's slogan was Change and it was Hope but that does not mean the hope or the change to socialism.
"Tea Baggers" are insane! I read a blog about the Tea Bagging march in San Diego and there were a lot of interesting quotes on the page, they say "That's not the fist time the liberals in the media have chosen to ignore and demean you." They claim that all media is controlled by "liberal extremist" and a lot believe that Obama is a socialist. They all agree that Obama's taxes are too high and that they think it needs to stop.
Obama is not the first president to be called a socialist however, plenty of other presidents have been called a socialist. When I googled Socialist presidents in America, I saw a lot about the GOP calling Obama a socialist. They say that his economic plan is going to lead to a large deficit that will last until 2013 and will not start to go up until after that. Everyone seems to be calling Obama a socialist because of his stimulus plan but it seems that they do not take into account Bush's stimulus plan which was proposed just a year and a half ago, remember, point a finger, you have three going back to you.

Citations:
Thomas, Clinton. "stjoenews.net | Obama the socialist, some say." stjoenews.net | St. Joseph News-Press | St. Joseph news, sports, entertainment, business, jobs, cars, yellow pages & classifieds. Serving St. Joseph, MO . http://www.stjoenews.net/news/2009/apr/19/obama-socialist-some-say/ (accessed April 21, 2009).

"Tea Party Success! - San Diego, California Talk Radio Station - 760 KFMB AM - 760kfmb." San Diego, California Talk Radio Station - 760 KFMB AM - 760kfmb - HOME. http://www.760kfmb.com/Global/story.asp?S=10195736 (accessed April 21, 2009).

Honors Blog

1. Huck Finn is about 13 years old, t he doesn't have an excellent posture. Jim is a big man that was almost traded for being so big ahe is quite thin because he doesn't eat a lot and he's always running around. He's about the average size of an 13 year old, he's not too tall but he's not short. I'm not quite sure about Huck's posture but I'm sure that he's strong. He's really big and he usually sits around on the raft because he can't go out during the day time, they only travel at night because they don't want to get caught. The duke and the king are different, the king is an old skinny man while the duke is a younger man, they're isn't a lot said about what they look like except the king is an older man.
2. Huck has dark short hair, I believe he has brown eyes and he has no prominent scars. Jim is a big black man that doesn't have too many prominent features, he has black hair, he's big, black and strong. The duke and the king are small and manipulative. They appear a more respectable type, but the truth is that they are manipulative men that don't care about what other people have to go through as long as they get money out of it. They are the quintessential
3. Huck Finn has an old timer way of dressing, he wears the long white shirts and he wears the pants with the suspenders, he only wears that when he's in town, when Huck is on the raft with Jim he doesn't wear any clothes, both Jim and Huck believe there is no reason to wear clothes. I don't remember them ever talking about Huck's shoes, but I'm sure that they weren't the nicest. Huck wears a hat and he always carries around a pipe because he's always smoked. Jim also wears old clothes that isn't always the cleanest, he wears the long shirts and every time I see a picture of him drawn he has overalls on. He doesn't necessarily care about what he looks like and he is usually naked when Huck and him are on the raft, while they're on the raft they are both naked because they both feel as if though they are more comfortable like that, if they fall into the river, they don't take as long to dry because they are naked. Like Huck, Jim usually has a pipe on him and I believe that he as well has a hat. The Duke and the King are usually dressed because they don't feel as comfortable around each other as Jim and Huck do. The king and the duke usually try to dress better when they are in town to make a good impression, they try to con people so they have to dress a certain way, they have to look respectable. When the duke and the king are on the raft they dress more casually because they don't have to impress anyone.
4. What distinguishing behavior does the character have? Include habits, preferences (music, food, literature, etc.), speech (sayings, stalling words, etc), and demeanor.
In the beginning of the book the widow tries to turn Huck into a responsible citizen, however Huck runs away with his father and soon runs away from his father as well. Huck is responsible for himself and for that reason he never tried to learn anything new. Huck did not have the best vocabulary and he wasn't the most articulate but he was more articulate than Jim. Huck also didn't have the best manners, he always spent his time going out and didn't really have time to go to school. Jim never went to school, he had no education and it wasn't necessarily needed for him. Jim was the widows slave so he didn't really need to know anything except how to work and what to do around the house, he was more street smart, he knew what to do and he usually had really good ideas. He was a very compassionate man, he always took care of Huck as if he were his child and he missed his own children very much, both his wife and his children were seperated and that made Jim quite depressed some of the time, sometimes Huck would find Jim crying in the middle of the night. The duke and the king said that they were really into important things such as saying that they were into plays like Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, they said that they were into Shakespeare's plays because they wanted to put a more sophisticated front up. They wanted to seem more educated and impressive because they were supposed to be a duke and a king.
5. Huck Finn was "the lowest levels of white society", since he didn't have a set home and he didn't have an education, he wasn’t thought of highly at all. He had an abusive drunk father who was never around and he didn’t care about being civil or people respecting him. Huck liked smoking out of his pipe and he liked going around in his raft, it seemed as if though he also liked dressing like a woman, maybe not liked it, but he seemed to do it quite often. He knew how to steer a raft pretty well and he didn’t seem to mind being on his own, he was also really good at lying. Jim was a respectable man and he had a lot of good ideas, he had ideas of looking sick and not letting anyone get close to him because he was a runaway slave. Jim didn’t really know anything but being a slave until he left and he joined Huck on his trip. Jim was very superstitious, he believed in snakes being bad luck and he had a lucky hairball. Overall, Jim was sometimes gullible but he always had Huck’s best intentions at heart. The duke and the king however, did not have good intentions for anyone but themselves. They did not think of anyone as a person, they thought of them as a part of their scheme. The duke and the king spent the remainder of their lives trying to trick people into giving them money. They tried getting money from unsuspecting town people, from the Wilks sisters and from more town people, until they were discovered. They were mere con-artists.

6. Huck didn’t really have a religion or philosophy; he was a unique boy because although he was white and had a social life with the white people around him, he did not believe in turning in his good friend Jim. At that time it was not acceptable for him to not turn in Jim because he was a runaway slave, because of that, it’s easy to believe that Huck thought for himself and sometimes disagreed with the morals that were around during that time. Jim was very superstitious, he believed that if you touched a snake skin it was extremely bad luck and something really bad would happen, when he was a slave he believed that he had a hairball that would bring good luck or could tell the future if you would roll it, people from all around would come to see the “good luck hair ball”. Because Jim was so gullible and wasn’t as capable in believing in his ideas, when Tom Sawyer came around, he went along with all his crazy ideas that took him a long time to get out of the hut he was stuck in. The duke and the king had no moral standards at all, and for that reason they were always tricking people and making a fool out of themselves. At the Wilks house they almost got hung because they were lying about being Peter’s brothers and taking all of the money. The duke and the king had no moral standards and because of that they didn’t get far with their trickery.
7.The book says that Huck is a boy that doesn’t want to be “sivilized”, he’s comfortable with the way he is and how he’s lived his life. Huck doesn’t want to go to school and he’s gullible. He enjoys the company of his best friend Tom Sawyer, which isn’t always a good thing. The book says that Jim is quite gullible and that he doesn’t do the best job at thinking for himself. Jim really tries to be the best person he can be, whenever he sees Huck he always treats him compassionately and he calls him “honey” and gushy things like that. Jim always wants the best for people. The book says that Jim is a man that only wants to find his kids and wife and be happy. The book says that the duke and the king are poo-heads that don’t know anything but to scam people into thinking that they’re respectable people that will help them in some way, but in the end they get discovered and they end up getting hung.
8. What connections does this character have to history, established religion or the world beyond the book?
9. What does the character's name suggest? Authors rarely (if ever) name characters at random. What could the name symbolize? What evidence do you have for this?
10. How does the character develop during the plot? How does he/she change?