As an introduction to the style and satire of Mark Twain, we last session read Twain's humorous essay,"Advice to Youth". Today, Katya examined the text and identified areas of satire and the techniques used by Twain to humorously criticize accepted social conventions such as getting up early, always telling the truth, and always obeying one's parents. With respect to telling the truth, we then turned to first paragraph of the novel ,"Huck Finn" where Huck, as narrator, tells the reader that most of what was written in the earlier novel,"Tom Sawyer" was true except for a few lies which Huck explains is acceptable as a trait of human nature. We then discussed when an " untruth was a lie" and the difference between not telling the truth to protect oneself and not telling the truth to protect another. This led to an examination of all fiction- itself an untruth by definition- as a paradoxical means of instilling a greater truth to the reader. Katya participated in class discussion about how art, like fiction, distorts reality ,to show people something new or to emotionally impact the viewer. She exhibited a strong understanding of how conventional values-which Twain disdains- can become less fixed upon close examination . Last, we reviewed Katya's answers to the comprehension exercise that accompanied the essay .Katya's work showed a strong understanding of the essay. For homework ,I assigned reading the first 3 chapters of the novel.