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Gamma: I’m not sure, but it seems to me that an author cannot dislike his characters.
Kappa: Thus, Mark Twain likes Sid and Indian Joe?
Gamma: I believe so.
Kappa: Do they like him?
Alpha: What? People! You’ve gotten completely derailed.
Beta: Why? Remember, I said I felt like Tom Sawyer was coming alive in my mind. He still is. The more we talk, the more alive he becomes.
Alpha: Ah, I remember. He was knocking on your skull. He did succeed, I admit.
Delta: Well, Alpha, if he did succeed then he is alive after all?
Kappa: All right, is everyone done joking? I am not sure Beta finished his idea.
Beta: I didn’t. . . . Where did I stop?
Teacher: You said Mark Twain made us like Tom Sawyer.
Beta: Oh yes, I remember. Now, when I said that ideas affect us like people do, I did not actually know what I meant. It just jumped off my tongue. But now, I’m starting to see it better. I want to move on to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Alpha: Just the same . . .
Beta: Not quite, but I want to single out one moment—the time when two crooks sold Jim back into slavery for forty bucks. I felt as if I was going to cry along with Huck!
Alpha: OK, slavery is evil. What’s your point?
Beta: My point now is closer to yours in a way. It is not that Mark Twain taught me that slavery is bad, but he made me feel really, really, really bad about slavery at that moment. I felt despair. So now, I do not just love Huck, but I started thinking about slavery, and believe me, it still bothers me.
Gamma: I think I owe you all another summary now.