While I was reading these first few chapters, I was really questioning why Huck is so hard on himself. I think he's just very lonely, and he seems to feel misunderstood in the house he lives in. For example, he says "I felt so lonesome I most wished I was dead "( Twain 3). He isn't a bad kid, I don't think he is, he just thinks he is because he doesn't live up to the standards that the Widow wants him too. But what can you expect from a young boy in those times? It's hard to expect much from a young boy now! They want to go out and play, not be cooped in a house, praying and singing all day long. He's just a boy that wants adventure and doesn't know how to go get it. I think that's why he spends so much time around Tom, even though he doesn't really believe the same things that Tom does, he sticks around Tom because Tom has wild and crazy imagination. Huck envies that, I think.
There were only a couple things that I didn't really like about this book so far. The first is how it's much harder to understand if it's just read, and not narrated. The way the characters speak, especially Jim, is hard to comprehend unless the text is spoken out loud. In a way, that could be on the pros and cons list, because it is a great story to be read out loud, however, trying to read this book in a quiet area proves difficult. The other thing that more confused rather than irritated, was the first chapter when Huck was talking about how he knew Tom, and the readers should know a little bit about him from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as if he just assumed we had read the other story when that's not necessarily the case. I know I wouldn't pick that book off the shelves to read for fun, but that's just me.
So far, my main take away from the book is that Huck looks up to Tom for his incredible imagination but does not have the same moral values that Tom does. Huck calls his care taker the widow, she is the Widow Douglas, and he also lives with Miss Watson, Widow Douglas' sister, and sometimes he feels bad about being such a bad child when he can tell that the widow is disappointed in him. In chapter three he says, "... but the widow she didn't scold, but only cleaned off the grease and clay, and looked so sorry that I thought I would behave awhile if I could" ( Twain 10).
I really like these types of books, the old fashioned ones and I think that's why I like this book so much. It's got the same things that newer books do, but it has that added something, like this book helped shape our culture and our society, it made a difference in History and I really really want to make that same sort of difference in our history. Twain left behind an impeccable legacy and if I could do something, even half as spectacular, I would be more than satisfied.
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Bantam Dell 1981.
There were only a couple things that I didn't really like about this book so far. The first is how it's much harder to understand if it's just read, and not narrated. The way the characters speak, especially Jim, is hard to comprehend unless the text is spoken out loud. In a way, that could be on the pros and cons list, because it is a great story to be read out loud, however, trying to read this book in a quiet area proves difficult. The other thing that more confused rather than irritated, was the first chapter when Huck was talking about how he knew Tom, and the readers should know a little bit about him from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as if he just assumed we had read the other story when that's not necessarily the case. I know I wouldn't pick that book off the shelves to read for fun, but that's just me.
So far, my main take away from the book is that Huck looks up to Tom for his incredible imagination but does not have the same moral values that Tom does. Huck calls his care taker the widow, she is the Widow Douglas, and he also lives with Miss Watson, Widow Douglas' sister, and sometimes he feels bad about being such a bad child when he can tell that the widow is disappointed in him. In chapter three he says, "... but the widow she didn't scold, but only cleaned off the grease and clay, and looked so sorry that I thought I would behave awhile if I could" ( Twain 10).
I really like these types of books, the old fashioned ones and I think that's why I like this book so much. It's got the same things that newer books do, but it has that added something, like this book helped shape our culture and our society, it made a difference in History and I really really want to make that same sort of difference in our history. Twain left behind an impeccable legacy and if I could do something, even half as spectacular, I would be more than satisfied.
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Bantam Dell 1981.