Transcript Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

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Twain’s trenchant comments
on his fellow creatures
become biting when the
townspeople still believe the
con men’s ruse, even in the
face of overwhelming
evidence that they are frauds.
The people show themselves
to be so thickheaded, so
stupid, and so blind that no
reader could feel much
sympathy for them.
Notes adapted from Joseph Claro in “Mark Twain’s
Huckleberry Finn,” Barron’s Educational Series; and Ronald
Goodrich in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” Living
Literature Series.
 The
situation
becomes a circus
sideshow.
 Twain takes the
townspeople past
stupidity into
ghoulishness (and
then into greed).
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After Huck discovers Jim has been
sold, he goes through more
introspection: He decides at first to
write a letter to Miss Watson telling
her where Jim is, thinking Jim would
be better off with his family. He also
worries about how people will treat
him for helping Jim escape.
He tries to pray but can’t, because he
“was playing double.” He’s trying to
get God to forgive him, when he
doesn’t really feel sorry for helping
Jim: “You can’t pray a lie.”
He then decides Jim is a good person
who really cares for him, and the
feeling is mutual. So he tears up the
note to Miss Watson, takes a deep
breath, and says, “All right, then, I’ll
go to hell.”
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Remember: Huck believes what
he’s been told in Sunday School.
He believes that God will punish
evil people by sending them to
hell for eternity. And he believes
that slavery, like other American
institutions, has the Heavenly
Stamp of Approval.
So he really does believe he will
go to hell – yet he decides to do it
because he feels for Jim as a
human being, even if all the
“good” people – and even if God
– don’t.
If helping the only real friend he
has is wicked according to the
“civilized” people, then he’ll be
wicked and give up all hope of
reforming.
 When
Huck explains
about the exploded
steamboat, he says
no one was hurt, but
it “killed a nigger.”
 How could he say
such a thing, given
what he has
committed to do for
Jim?
Nothing Huck has said
so far has indicated he
is opposed to slavery,
or that he even wants to
see improvement in the
status of black people.
 Huck isn’t challenging
society – he’s simply
choosing to live
outside of it. His
decision to help Jim is
a way of becoming a
permanent outsider.
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Tom’s agreement to help
Huck help Jim escape
shocks Huck, and Tom “fell
considerable in my
estimation.” Of course, Tom
knows Jim is a free man,
and this charade is not
breaking the law at all.
Even after all they’ve done,
Huck still feels for the duke
and king – seeing them
ridden out of town on a rail.
Note his comments on
conscience at the end of
this chapter.
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“Human beings can be
awful cruel to one
another.”
Huck recognizes the
universal tragedy of
man’s inhumanity to man.
He has seen much
cruelty, and it saddens
him. He understands
human nature only too
well and knows that
people often can be
cruel.
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But Huck never becomes cynical;
he remains compassionate toward
all people.
His sympathy is even directed
toward the tarred and feathered
duke and king.
Even those these two have
exploited Huck and Jim horribly,
Huck still feels sorry for them.
So Huck, who sometimes
condemns himself as an
uncivilized outcast, is one of the
truly civilized characters in the
novel.
His compassion for all humanity
exemplifies the pure Christian
ethic to which most of his society
merely gives lip service.
 We
now see some
interesting contrasts
between Huck’s view
of the world and
Tom’s.
 Huck’s plan is
practical,
straightforward, and
based in experience
– all the things that
Tom’s plan is not.
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In spite of all the
questions Huck asks, he
goes along with Tom in
unnecessarily
complicating the escape.
For all of his bravado, for
all his talk about danger
and adventure, Tom is a
rule follower, the
opposite of a rebel.
Huck has shown that
what should be done is of
little concern to him.
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Read Tom and Huck’s
conversation carefully about
morality: There is irony in
Huck’s comment, “He was
always just that particular. Full
of principle.” And notice the
final punch line about coming
up the stairs instead of
climbing the lightening rod.
Twain’s comment on
hypocrisy is sharp and
piercing, but his manner is as
skillful as that of a surgeon
performing a difficult
operation. Huck’s remarks
about Tom are so subtle, that
they could easily be missed.
“Jim, he couldn’t see
no sense in the most of
it, but he allowed we
was white folks and
knowed better than
him.”
 Like Huck, Jim has
been so conditioned
by a slave-holding
society, he never
questions the morality
of slavery.
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Only the threat of
permanent separation
from his family
compels him to run
away.
 Since he believes the
lowliest white person is
still his social superior,
it seems logical to him
that Tom Sawyer must
also be his intellectual
superior.
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Although superstitious,
uneducated, and
generally ignorant of the
world, Jim has displayed
his intelligence and
common sense on many
occasions.
Recall his discussion with
Huck about the wisdom
of Solomon and the logic
of mankind speaking in
diverse languages: His
clear reasoning prompts
Huck to give up.
Now, Jim can’t help but
feel that Tom’s
unnecessarily
complicated escape
plan is downright silly.
 However, he patiently
endures all of the
annoyance and
suffering that Tom’s
grandiose scheme
forces upon him.
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