Faust Legend

The night was pitch black and Bethany Smith was having a very difficult time trying to make it out to her car in this type of darkness. The fact that she was carrying nearly everything she owned made it a little bit more challenging. It was around 3’oclock in the morning and Bethany was leaving town in search of a better life. She was a miserable human being and could not stand living in her house any longer. She was not only leaving behind a home but an entire family inside. From the surface it seemed to be a life that nearly anyone would be jealous of. She had 5 beautiful children and what appeared to be a loving and supportive husband. Behind closed doors that image was completely altered. Her children were constantly misbehaving and she had caught her husband cheating numerous times with various women from his office. He was not only a cheater but he was abusive. He abused her as well as the children. They had been put into dangerous situations many times by him. She didn’t have a job since she had to stay home with the children all day long and Marks job was very low paying so they struggled a great deal to provide for their children. Bethany was no longer able to handle the continuous stress of her everyday life. Bethany left her children in bad hands and she knew the consequences would be bad but she was losing her sanity. She knew it was selfish of her to leave her family but she didn’t care her biggest concern was herself at the moment.

Bethany made it out alive and managed to gather together anything of value and all the money in the house. With this she was able to pay for a little run down home in a small town in Maine. It was not as good as she was hoping for but she knew that with her circumstances she couldn’t be picky. She couldn’t afford any furniture but she was lucky to come across an old sofa that someone was throwing out. Bethany took that along home with her so she would not have to sleep on the cold dirty ground of her new home. Time continued to pass and she remained unhappy and without a job. Even though she was yet to find a job she became innovative and found a way to gather a few dollars but still not enough to pay her bills. She was willing to do almost anything for a single dollar.

 Each Sunday she would go to the small church in the town. She would say hello to the priest who waited at the door to greet people as they entered. As soon as the collection basket was passed to her she would make sure no one was looking and take out all the money and place it in her pockets. Another way she managed to survive was going door to door asking for donations. Bethany would go to all the homes in the neighborhood and tell who ever answered the door that she was going around collecting donations for a nearby hospital. At first people seemed skeptical but she always managed to find a way to guilt people into giving her the money. Bethany had almost become a professional at conning people out of their money. What she was doing was giving her enough money to get by but she always felt herself yearning for more. Bethany never remained happy with what she had she needed to find a way to have the life she always longed for and felt that she deserved.

One night she was more tense than normal and went out for a walk hoping that some fresh air would clear her head and maybe she would be able to think of a new way to approach her situation. The night was colder than a typical October evening and there seemed to be a low fog hanging in the air. As she walked down the front steps of her house she saw a figure of into the distance. She continued out to the side walk and being the curious woman she was she made her way towards the person in the distance. Any normal person would listen to their conscious and realize that it was not a good situation and go back inside. She chose to ignore her instinct and go figure out who this person was and what exactly they were doing.

Bethany was making her way out into the fog and it was becoming thicker and thicker. When Bethany looked back she could hardly see her house anymore but as she looked ahead of her she was still able this mystery silhouette. She was able to conclude that it was a man of some sort. His face was becoming clearer and what she saw frightened her. What she thought was a man actually proved to be a creature, something that she had never encountered before. His face almost had a reddish tint to it. His figure was much larger than any normal human being that Bethany had seen before. He had monstrous muscles that rippled down his arms and down his chest. Her eyes remained on his face for a great amount of time and she was trying to make out what seemed to be his nose. It was a type of thick snout that took over the majority of his face. Her eyes continued to the top of his head and something odd caught her attention. Two small black objects shot out of the top of his skull and his coarse long jet black hair ran down until the small of his back. He was dressed in nothing but cut off pants. His legs were thick and strong like tree trunks. He was caught in a streak of moonlight and as his opened his mouth his sharp white teeth were reflected right into her vision of sight. He was very intimidating but she was mesmerized by him and had to find out who he was.

She was staring at him and he was staring back at her. Once she realized he was looking at her her whole body shook and she felt like his eyes were piercing through her skin. Once they were face to face she asked who he was and what he was doing here. He was very upfront and explained to her that he was the devil and he had been searching for her. She was confused and scared for her life once she found out that the devil had been searching for her. The devil proposed a plan to Bethany since he knew how unhappy she was. He told her that she would get all the riches her heart could desire and she would finally have the life that she had been longing for forever. Once he told her his terms she was horrified. She could never imagine killing her old husband and children. Even though she left them she never wanted them all to die. But the idea of being finally wealthy as she had always wished sounded so tempting. She couldn’t make a decision as important as this in a matter of a minute. They agreed on meeting in the exact spot the next night at the same time and Bethany would give the devil his answer. She began walking home and she knew she would have a long night of thinking ahead of her.

The next night she left her home at the same time and sure enough the air was just as foggy and eerie it had been the previous night. The devil was waiting just in the exact same spot as he had promised. She decided that she was willing to do it. The devil added one more term in order for her to get granted what she wanted. To make things more interesting and so he could have proof that she actually went along with the murders he required for her to bring back the hearts of all the victims. She knew it would be hard but she wanted to have all the money in the world and she felt that agreeing to his conditions were worth it. She gave the devil her promise and set out to fulfill it the next night.

Night had fallen yet again and she knew what had to be done. She got into her car and drove all the way back to her old home with a dagger resting in the passenger seat. She could feel herself getting cold feet but she knew what she was doing would all be worth it in the end. She had arrived to the house and let herself in trying not to make a peep. She quietly crept up into her husband’s room first and stood over him with the knife. Just as she was about to drive the knife through his chest he made a noise and rolled over. She knew that she couldn’t go along with it. Bethany had done many bad things. She stole, lied, and abandoned her family but she was no murderer. She ran out of the house and into the back yard. She remembered that her old neighbors had been dog breeders and she could hear the dogs barking. She snuck over the fence and took 6 of the puppies. She killed them all and removed their hearts.

She sped back to meet with the devil because she knew that dawn would be coming soon. At this point Bethany was feeling very satisfied with herself she didn’t have to kill her old family and she would still get the riches she was promised. She would simply give the 6 puppy hearts to the devil and he would think they were the hearts of her family members and she would get everything she ever dreamed of. She pulled out onto the street that they would be meeting on and once again the fog crept up. This time it appeared to be thicker than ever. It felt almost as if it were taking her over. The devil was standing directly in front of her headlights and Bethany was forced to make an abrupt stop. He looked angry and Bethany began to get very worried. She got out of the car ready to give him the hearts. He knew she was lying before she even got there. She not only went back on her promise with the devil but tried to trick him as well. He was furious and no one can ever get away with upsetting the devil. Bethany Smith met her very tragic fate that night and was forced to burn in Hell for eternity.

Reaction to the Verdict

The verdict of the Jury was disappointing but predictable.  The Jury decided in 
favor of the defense that Mark Twain was not a racist. The vote was also unanimous. The defense deserved to win because they used good evidence and choose characters to support their side for the most part.One thing I wish we had done differently was chosen different characters for our witnesses. A lot of the people in the Jury said we didn’t choose good witnesses because they were not believable characters which is true because Pap was drunk and the King was a conman. The Jury said that for the most part they ignored what the King and Pap had to say because they were not believable characters.  However, Jim was a good character to use in favor of our argument. We had him talk about how he didn’t think that the n-word was a bad word and how he didn’t think there was anything wrong with him being mistreated. The Jury thought that that hurt our case a great deal. It is actually what we wanted Jim to do because we thought it would show that he had a lack of education and was ignorant to his surroundings because that was what he always had to deal with. I think we should have made that more clear to the Jury instead of just assuming that they would all interpret it the same way we meant for it to appear.

Another thing that I wish we did differently was our cross examination as well as the questioning of our own witnesses.  We should have asked more questions that would help prove our case that Mark Twain was racist. I feel we actually did a very good job with the questioning of Aunt Sally and Huck because we got both of them to contradict themselves in what they were previously saying. The character that we should have focused on much more was Mark Twain. He was the most important character and the one that left the biggest impact on the Jury. We had good quotes that he had written in letters that outlined how he felt that blacks and whites were different. We talked a good amount about how he was part of the confederacy but not enough to really convince the Jury. The defense argued that the only reason that he joined the confederate side of the war was because he had no other option but they gave no evidence to what they were saying about that. I think it would have been a good move to expand upon that. We should have just done much more research on Mark Twain to find things that would really make the Jury think that he was guilty.

One thing that disappointed me was how every single person in the Jury voted in favor of the defense. It wouldn’t have bothered me but each person gave almost the exact same reason. That made it seem almost like each person did just because everyone else was. Im sure that was not the case but I would just of like to have heard a variety of different reasons why we were wrong instead of the same one repeatedly. The Jury still brought up good points that gave me an idea of what we could have done differently. It was a hard case to prove and I would defiantly do things differently if I was given the opportunity. The defense did a very good job at proving Twains innocence. They deserved to win.

Is Huck Racist?

A big question throughout this novel is whether or not Huckleberry Finn is a racist. It is a difficult question because of his actions towards Jim and then his actions towards all other African Americans. Many would say he is not a racist because that is how everyone was in his society during that time period and that is how he was raised. Even if Huck was raised to think less of blacks and he couldn’t help it that does not mean he is not a racist. A racist is a person who thinks someone from a different race is inferior to another. “ It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I warn’t ever sorry for it afterward, neither” ( Twain 89). This is what Huck said to himself after he played a mean joke on Jim and realized he had to apologize. It is obvious that he thinks less of African Americans since he almost wasn’t even able to apologize. Huck would have been able to apologize much easier if it was a white person. But because it was Jim and he is black he had to humble himself to be down on the same level as him which shows his racist thoughts. Even though Huck was born into that society and it influenced his thoughts and he didn’t have control over what he was brought into he is still a racist.

Huck could still be considered a racist even if he is kind to Jim. He thought of Jim to be an exception to black people which shows that he thought less of them all as a group.  “He was thinking about his wife and his children, away up yonder, and he was low and homesick;  because he hadn’t ever been away from home before in his life;  and I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks does for their’n . It don’t seem natural, but I reckon it’s so” (Twain153). Huck found Jim moaning and crying upset one night because he was homesick and missed his family. Huck was very surprised by this.  Huck thought that only white people loved their families but this showed Huck that Jim even though he was black could love his family just as much as a white man does. He thought it would be impossible for a black man to have feelings or care about something like a white man does. Huck also thought of blacks to be unintelligent and worth less than himself. These thoughts of his match the definition of a racist perfectly. One could argue that Huck isn’t a racist because of his love and compassion for Jim but he is only one African American and Huck still thinks of all others as not having the same ability to do things as him and inferior in society.