Huck has really made some huge maturity jumps in these last couple chapters, and I have to admit, I'm extremely proud of him. He has most definitely come a long way; he went from, at the beginning of the book, not wanting to pray and disrupting Sunday School, to realizing, "... now was showing me there's One that's always on the lookout ..."(Twain 212). For this realization, we have to thank Jim. Coming back to the raft, and not finding Jim was what set Huck on his mindset of what's wrong, what's right, and if there really is someone watching over everyone from above. He has really grown up a lot on this adventure, he really understands now, how important Jim was to him, and Tom. He also realizes there are people that aren't as important such as the Duke, and the King, who, speaking of them, got their just comeuppance when they got covered in tar and feathers, so serve them right. I think Huck is prematurely starting to learn lessons some people never learn in life, but should; he's learning the value of people around him. Huck is realizing who is a positive influence on his life, and who seems to bring him down a trail he doesn't wish to go down. Some people never learn that lesson, because it's so hard to learn, but he realized that the King and the Duke were not the type of people he wanted to associate with, and just cut ties with them. That is an impressive quality to have at that age.
Huck also begins to realize that he believes there is someone looking out for him, looking out constantly, seeing the good deeds being done and the bad ones alike and I really like that Twain incorporated that aspect into his novel. Huck's life goes slightly haywire when he realizes that someone found Jim and took him to be a runaway slave, and it brings this moral battle to the front of Huck's mind that he has been avoiding successfully, throughout this novel until now. He views Jim as his only friend out on the water, but he also views Jim as his slave and if Jim is his slave, then, in Huck's mind, he doesn't really count as a person. I know, that sounds awful, but that was the mind set back then, that was how they thought. Huck also thinks the man upstairs will think poorly of him if he sets Jim free because he's another man's property. In this time period, this would be an easy decision to make, obviously, we would go get Jim, but the mindset of the time period is totally different. It's unbelievably hard to wrap our heads around the fact that one man is another man's property but that was the way back then, and it would put Huck in a bit of a tight spot, to steal a piece of property, but that piece of property is the only friend he has. I can totally understand Huck's train of thought at that moment.
My favorite line from this book so far is, "You can't pray a lie--I found that out" (Twain 213). There is so much truth to that statement and, Huck, as a young boy around the age of eight, it's incredibly surprising that he would say something that profound at that age. It's also impressive, because now that I read that, I realize how accurate that statement is. So, far these are my favorite chapters that we have read, and, by far, my favorite to blog about.
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Bantam Dell 1981.
Huck also begins to realize that he believes there is someone looking out for him, looking out constantly, seeing the good deeds being done and the bad ones alike and I really like that Twain incorporated that aspect into his novel. Huck's life goes slightly haywire when he realizes that someone found Jim and took him to be a runaway slave, and it brings this moral battle to the front of Huck's mind that he has been avoiding successfully, throughout this novel until now. He views Jim as his only friend out on the water, but he also views Jim as his slave and if Jim is his slave, then, in Huck's mind, he doesn't really count as a person. I know, that sounds awful, but that was the mind set back then, that was how they thought. Huck also thinks the man upstairs will think poorly of him if he sets Jim free because he's another man's property. In this time period, this would be an easy decision to make, obviously, we would go get Jim, but the mindset of the time period is totally different. It's unbelievably hard to wrap our heads around the fact that one man is another man's property but that was the way back then, and it would put Huck in a bit of a tight spot, to steal a piece of property, but that piece of property is the only friend he has. I can totally understand Huck's train of thought at that moment.
My favorite line from this book so far is, "You can't pray a lie--I found that out" (Twain 213). There is so much truth to that statement and, Huck, as a young boy around the age of eight, it's incredibly surprising that he would say something that profound at that age. It's also impressive, because now that I read that, I realize how accurate that statement is. So, far these are my favorite chapters that we have read, and, by far, my favorite to blog about.
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Bantam Dell 1981.