Huckleberry Finn- Blog #3

Huck has slowly but surely matured greatly for the better when we read further into the book. His maturity shows when he gets confronted with problems. Him and Jim had faced many challenges together but as they continue together Huck now thinks and reacts in a more adult manor than he did in the beginning of the book like when playing games with Tom Sawyer.  Examples in chapter 24 when Huck witnesses two con men steal from the Wilks sisters. He says he is ashamed to be a part of the human race. The sad part is that people still do that today. Even though Huck knows it is wrong of them to do that he takes the money from them and indirectly gives it back to the Wilks sisters without telling them they had it stolen in the first place and who stole it. This proves that Huck knows right from wrong but is not brave enough or know enough to do the right thing and tell them the whole story.

Does Huck turn Jim in as a slave and get money or does he travel with him and do the right thing? As Huck slowly sees Jim as an actual person and not as a slave he realizes that he needs to protect him from outside people that only think of him as a worker. This internal conflict that arises in Huck will fight between his heart and mind. He will need to decide more on what is right and what is wrong, not what other people think.

Huck finally has dropped religion and praying when Jim gets captured and he realizes praying to God will not help him. This personality trait Huck learned from the white part of society that God will give you everything did not work well with Huck. This shows Huck’s innocence and child-like part that is still inside of him because he does not get that praying is not like wishing. Right now Huck is not fully matured yet.

Huckleberry Finn- Blog #2

What Mark Twain is trying to tell his readers at the beginning of this reading is how Huck’s father “pap” is like society. This satire is since Pap tried to convince the judge that he is not a drunk and he has changed from a bad non-caring father to one that now cares for his son. When he finally hangs around Huck but treats him horribly judge finds out and tries to take Huck away from his abusive father. Pap takes him away by hiding him in the woods so no one can take him away. Anyway he only took Huck because he has a lot of money that he gave to judge so his father could not take it. This represents society because people are like this. Humans mooch off other humans to get what they want. They are greedy and most do not like change.

All the superstitions that Jim comes up with or grew up with all come out one by one during the reading of Huckleberry Finn. The rattlesnake prank, the burnt spider, and now the dead body floating down the river are all superstitions that have appeared. When Huck and Jim found that body in the shore house Jim knew it was Huck’s dad but did not tell Huck because he did not want to make him upset. It happens once more when Jim and Huck see a dead body floating down the river. Jim again says not to look at it because it says it will bring him bad luck. This is also satire because it is like people in the world covering up the truth. Jim makes up the superstition so Huck will believe him and not get suspicious. People in the word avoid heartbreak and pain by covering up the truth and lying so they do not hurt themselves or other people.

What I thought to be humorous and also hypocritical was the Gangerford and Shepardson families seemed to be so religious but yet did a lot of things against God. The Ten Commandments were rarely followed or even mentioned and they carried guns with them everywhere, even to church. And a family murder seemed to be families past time as if it was like going on vacation. I found reading this about these two families a little like our world. It has people that are against gun control but then blame the people on shooting and murders or the other way around.

In this reading Jim makes himself vulnerable to Huck by confessing his flaws and errors that he had done to his family. He also spoke to Huck as if he was part of his family. He tells Huck the story of when he beat his daughter even though she did not deserve it in the first place. I am predicting that reading even farther in the book Jim will release more and more of his emotions and feelings to Huck. The result of this is Huck will think of Jim less as a slave or more as an actual person like himself.

Huckleberry Finn- Blog #1

Starting the reading in chapter one I found out that Huckleberry is simply a boy that has a troublesome dad, Miss Watson who should be his actual guardian, and so far his friends including Tom Sawyer who are all in a robber club destined to kidnap and steal treasure and women. Huck is young maybe about ten years old and lives with Miss Watson who, you could say, trains him to be a good boy. She is religious and teaches Huck about heaven and hell. I found this to be humorous in chapter one on page 8 when Huck said he wanted to smoke. Asking Miss Watson if he could she returns the answer no because she said “it’s a mean practice and wasn’t clean.” But of course, Widow or Miss Watson takes snuff which is ok in her mind. Just by reading this I came up with a hypothesis that throughout the book nothing will really seem to go in the favor of Huckleberry.

Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry are young, naive, and gullible. Anything Tom reads in books he believes will come true. The gang/ club they have with other boys think a ransom is when you keep someone kidnapped until they die. This proves that having Huckleberry Fin as the narrator of the book is and will be hard for readers to believe in him. He would be called an unreliable narrator.

I also learned that throughout this reading people back then were very superstitious. In chapter one when huckleberry accidentally flicked a spider into a candle and burned it he didn’t know if that was a sign that bad luck was coming his way. Another superstitious event is when Huck accidentally spilt salt on the table and threw it over his shoulder and widow yelled at him. This further proves my point that Huckleberry is an unlucky boy.

Fast forwarding through the reading, I come to the part when Huck’s pap comes and takes him away from widow and school so he had control of him. Maybe he is intimidated by the fact that he’s a drunk and his son is smarter than him by going to school. Or maybe he just likes the feeling of being in control. Either or, Huck and is pap now live down the river away from everyone and everything and slowly Huck began liking the feeling of living on their own and fending for themselves. He wonders why he even liked being polite and sophisticated in the first place. The only downside to living down the river with his pap was that his pap was a drunk and abused him. Whenever he left for town to get more liquor there was a chance he would not be back for days while Huck was locked up inside. Huck comes up with this plan to escape and runaway but to frame it to look like someone killed him and dumped his body in the river. He pulled it off and ended up on an island.  

While on the island a known but unknown friend appears on the same island. Miss Watson’s Jim or slave has runaway also because Miss Watson could not afford him anymore so he was going to be lynched or killed. Through chapter 8 through 11 Huck and Jim runaway together and face challenges together including finding a house with a dead man in it. I thought this was strange that a random dead man was in the house but they didn’t think anything of it. Back then it must have been not a rare thing to walk into a home with a dead man on the floor because then they continue to steal items from the house.

I noticed satire in chapter 8 when Mark Twain makes fun of religious people who think whenever you pray to God he will make it happen. When the search for Huck was on people put out loaves of bread to see where his body would have floated to. When a loaf reaches Huck he eats it and says,” I reckon the widow or the parson or somebody prayed that this bread would find me and it has gone and done it.” Twain fools around with the idea that religious people who pray for something to happen think it will happen. In this case it did just not in favor of the person praying. I thought this event was quite humorous.