Use these questions and prompts to guide you in your research of prejudice and class in the novel. Don't be satisfied with the clean, easy answer . . . push your thinking further to a genuine study of prejudice and class. From your observations of prejudice and class, what comments do you want to make? Are you getting a definite idea of Twain's position, or is he ambiguous (offering the reader the chance to decide how to feel on these issues)? Note any particularly hot quotations that capture your point.

PREJUDICE:

• Who is prejudiced in this novel? What are his/her/their preconceptions?
• Is anyone void of prejudice?
• How do the preconceptions affect their behavior?
• In what scenes does prejudice play a role? What role does it play?

CLASS:

• Are you able to break down the character cast by class? Are there some "gray area" characters (can't be fit easily into a category?)
• How mobile is this society? In other words, is one born into a class (permanent) or is s/he earning his/her spot (mobile)?
• What generalizations can you make about the behaviors/attitudes of each particular class?