Huckleberry Finn Blog #5 - Chapters 31-43

Okay, so now you can watch the video if you'd like :)

Social Responsibility:

     In the rest of our story we see the last glimmers of social responsibility portrayed in Huckleberry Finn. In chapter 31, I was happily surprised to see that Huck had finally made up his mind! He broke away from the thought of slavery being good for Jim and has gone off to save him from his captors! I cheered for Huck when he said, "All right then, I’ll go to hell! ... It was awful thoughts, and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming." (Twain, 242). This showed enormous progress in social responsibility for Huck. Although he was going against all society had taught him, he saw through it all to the man he knew to be Jim. The responsibility of protecting a good, innocent man dominated the need to keep with society's rules.
     In chapter 32, we finally reach the Phelps' place and meet Sally who thinks it is "lucky" that only a nigger died when Huck makes up his story of being Tom delayed by a boat accident. It's really incredible and almost ludicrous of how unimportant blacks are to the white folks in the story. In the next chapter Tom comes back into the story and is more than willing to help Huck free Jim. Huck is surprised by this. When you think about it, does that make Tom the better of the two?At the end of the chapter however we do again come to see Huck show the better side of himself. When the duke and the dauphin go by tarred and feathered followed by a mob Huck admits that he, "...couldn't ever feel any hardness against them any more in the world", (Twain, 259). Huck was truly appalled by what had happened to them but then he goes on to say, " it don't make no difference whether you do right or wrong, a person's conscience ain't got no sense", (Twain, 260). Is he right?
    In the next few chapters, Huck makes Tom seem a great, respectable guy, yet here he is trying to free a slave (oh, the horror!). He even goes on to make Huck give money to the slaves for stealing a watermelon. It's quite odd the way Tom sees his responsibility in society compared to other people. He doesn't seem to view slaves as everyone else. He could steal all the things in the world, but from a slave he finds it wrong. Even Huck finds it odd. In all honesty Tom is kinda crazy to me, but I find him the better man of the two of them even though I like Huck for his overall ideas once he breaks from society.
    After many (not super important) chapters go by, we finally reach Jim, Huck, and Tom's escape! The escape is drawn out and dramatic and poor, sweet Tom gets out of it with a bullet in his leg. Huck recognizes Jim as "white inside" because he says they should get a doctor to check the wound and if one of them were in Tom's position he would've said the same. I assume being white inside would mean being rational and moral? Not really sure, but if that is what consists of being white then I think Jim might be whiter than the two of them.
    In chapter 41, Huck goes to get a doctor, leaving Jim and Tom on the raft. The next morning he runs into Silas and what do you know? He gets taken back to the Phelps place! The thing that bothered me most was that Huck doesn't escape again to find Tom! The story says he stays because he feels bad for Sally and all, but this is his best friend who got shot in the leg!! What?!
    In chapter 42 I believe we reach the almost end to our story. Tom gets taken back to the Phelps' with the doctor and Jim. Tom is nursed back to health and lo' and behold! He tells us that Jim has been free for 2 months now because old Miss Watson has died and left Jim free in her will. I'm sorry, but I wanted to just hit Tom. All the trouble he put Jim and Huck through!! SO terrible. His Aunt Polly returns and yells at the boys for their misadventures as well she should! These boys, smh.
    In the end, we see the white folks treat Jim like a great person, no longer a slave. (Tom even gives Jim money!) It's a fantastic thing and we also find out that Huck's Pap has died. For both Jim and Huck, they have finally obtained their freedom and all that comes with it. Except for Huck's small problem of Sally trying to adopt and sivilize him which he says he "cant stand it,' as he's, 'been there before,"(Twain, 324). So, has Huck evolved as a character in the ways of social responsibility since the beginning of the book? I think he has. He has finally decided what he wants (which is to stay out of society) and now knows that black folk are not bad and slavery comes at a price.
    What do you guys think? Has he evolved in society? Or is he still the same?

Huckleberry Finn Blog #4 - Social Responsibility (Chapters 23-30)

Instead of my usual extensive blogs I'm hoping to try something a little different. 
~Might want to stop at 2:26 in the video if you don't want to hear the end to the story.~

So, on to Social Responsibility!!

    In these chapters social responsibility is portrayed in a few ways. In chapter 23, the duke and dauphin continue to swindle the good townspeople of their money and Huck says nothing. He clearly knows they aren't royalty and he understands them to be con-artists when Jim says, "...dese kings o'ourn is regular rapscallions; dat's jist what dey is; dey's regular rapscallions" (Twain, 179), though he knew long before what they were. Yet, he does not speak up and even convinces Jim that this is the way kings usually act. Even in the next two chapters when the two rapscallions go on to do another con job by disguising themselves as relatives of a dead man come to collect money, Huck does not say a word. The only way we know he finds these schemes horrible and repulsive is when he tells the reader of his emotions and thoughts toward these actions. In the end of chapter 24 he says, "It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race" (Twain, 189).
    In chapters 26 and 27, we see the better side of Huck resurface when he steals the $6,000 in gold from the duke and dauphin. Even by his own accident, he ends up keeping the money from everyone and it seems that the problem is solved. After the family sells all its estate and slaves, Huck is comforted that the slaves will be reunited after the con men are exposed, yet he goes on to blame the missing money on them. It goes to show that the slaves are so below Huck that he uses them as his scapegoat instead of any of the other members of the Wilks family.
      Then finally, FINALLY, Huck tells the truth. Granted, by accident, but still. It's a hard thing, too when he finally tells the truth. "I reckon a body that ups and tells the truth when he is in a tight place, is  taking considerable many resks, though I ain't had no experience, and can't say for certain...it's so kind of strange and unregular," (Twain, 213). Obviously Huck doesn't tell truths often. He tells Miss Mary Jane the truth and tells her to wait to give him time to leave because someone else's fate is on the line, too - Jim. Nice to know he's thinking of Jim.
    In the next chapters the real brothers come back and in the excitement of finding the real frauds of the set of brothers, Huck escapes once they reopen the coffin and find the $6,000. Even though we are happy to see him escape, I was a little upset that Huck didn't just expose the duke and dauphin. I think that really would've cleared a lot of issues. So, when he goes back to the raft and leaves with Jim he is ecstatic thinking they got away free. Sadly, the duke and dauphin find them again. The duke and dauphin have a fight on who hid the money and even admit that they had both though to hide it for themselves. Honestly, I think the only innocent person in all of this is Jim.
   

HUCK FINN - SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CHAPTERS 14-22)

~Map of Huckleberry Finn's Adventures~

***So it's safe to say I most definitely needed a map to help me read Huck Finn. Huck seems to be absolutely fearless of the Missouri/Ohio/ Mississippi River so it tends to get hard to keep track of all his adventures.***

****Social Responsibility****

In Chapters 14-22 soooo much social responsibility is presented. For starters we see that Huck and Jim rob from robbers. Was that even correct to do? Would that be morally right since they were robbers anyways? Probably not. In a way it makes Huck and Jim just as bad as them doesn't it?  In Chapter 15, when Huck apologizes to Jim it shows he is still influenced by society. Society has told him that "niggers" are beneath him and to humble himself to one would be unheard of. Yet, he went against society once again by apologizing to one seen as beneath himself. 

When they are approaching Cairo and Huck has second thoughts, he again shows how much society has influence over him still. Their ideas are so deeply ingrained into him that he believes for Jim to want to get his own children back and out of slavery would be a crime. Huck cannot fathom a slave having a family he wants with him and his wife. He cannot see that the slave owner is the one that's wrong.

In the next chapter, when Huck goes to the Grangerford estate and he meets the family he finds extremely pleasant, he sees nothing wrong with them owning so many slaves. Even after spending days and nights with a slave as his sole companion it seems he has learned nothing. For a smart boy, Huck seems to not be able to put two and two together that slaves are just like everybody else.

In the next few chapters we meet the "duke" and the "dauphin" who are really con-artists. Huck and Jim seem to cater and wait on them almost like servants. These two, especially Jim who has been on a quest to freedom, are stuck being slaves to two men who are lower than either one of them. Oh, the irony.

In the very last chapter (22) we read an extremely moving speech given by a murderer, Sherburn. The murder talks about the cowardice and deplorable nature of humans and how they only find their courage in a mass of people (society). Although all said could be true, we again must see the irony that the speech so strongly voiced was said by a man who has just shot a defenseless drunk. Is this not enough to show how corrupt this story's society truly is? 

NOTE: Here is the end of the social responsibility section. The next section is just a summary of each chapter and doesn't necessarily need to be read, but it does touch on the main points and quotes of the chapters. 

In a "quick" summary of chapters 14-22 here's what happens: 

CHAPTER 14: Jim & Huck find a wreck with robbers on it and end up robbing the robbers of their skiff when they lose their raft. They talk about kings - mention of King Solomon from the Bible - and Jim seems adamant that he knows what he's talking about. Huck gives up trying to make him see any other way but his own.

CHAPTER 15: Their goal is to get to the Ohio River to the Free States. Huck gets separated from Jim on a foggy night but finds him the next day. He plays a prank on him telling him he was never lost to begin with. Jim finds out and gets extremely upset. Huck apologizes in the end. 

" It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself to go and humble myself to a nigger - but I done it, and warn't ever sorry for it afterwards, neither," (Twain, 94).

CHAPTER 16: As they approach Cairo, Huck begins to have second thoughts about helping Jim because he is a slave that belonged to Miss Watson and she was nothing but good to him. Jim talks about his plan once he is free. Huck plans on giving him up, but later changes his mind when Jim tells him he is his only friend. Men come looking for escaped slaves but Huck makes up a story about a family with smallpox that scares them off. The raft gets broken apart by a steamboat and the two are separated. 

"Here was a nigger which I had as good as helped to run away, coming right out flat-footed and saying he would steal his children - children that belonged to a man I didn't even know; a man that hadn't ever done me no harm," (Twain, 110). 

CHAPTER 17: Huck arrives on shore and is surrounded by dogs but they are called off by a man, Buck Grangerford. He ushers him into his home where they give him clothes and offer him a place to stay as long as he wants. 

CHAPTER 18: There is a feud between the Grangerfords' and Shepherdsons'. They are constantly trying to kill one another. The Grangerfords own many slaves on their estate. A slave from the house takes him to the river and he finds Jim. Jim followed Huck ashore the night they were wrecked. Huck witnesses a gun fight in the woods between the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons and the Grangerfords are killed. Disturbed, Huck leaves and finds Jim; they leave on the raft. 

CHAPTER 19: Huck and Jim continue down the river and Huck comes across two con-artists running from trouble. The two con Huck into thinking they are royalty and Huck and Jim begin to wait on them (almost like slaves?). Huck figures out they are liars but doesn't let them know. 

CHAPTER 20: The "duke" and the "dauphin" ask Jim if he is a runaway slave and Huck makes up a story. They reach a town that is away on a religious revival meeting and the dauphin makes up a story of his own and cons the townspeople who give him money as he claims to be a pirate turned missionary. The duke takes over a print office and makes his own money selling advertisement, subscriptions, etc. He puts out a handbill offering a reward for Jim so they can travel freely during the day. Jim tries to get the dauphin to speak French but he says he has forgotten the language

CHAPTER 21: The duke and dauphin practice scenes from plays. They come along to a town in Arkansas where the duke posts handbills for their performance and Huck witnesses the killing of a man by another named Sherburn. The crowd goes to see the dying man and then go off to lynch Sherburn.

CHAPTER 22: The lynch mob goes to Sherburn's house and greets them with a rifle. He delivers a speech about human nature and the mob leaves. Huck goes to the circus. 

Huckleberry Finn (Chapters 6-10) - SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Huckleberry Finn (Chapters 6-10) Pages 24- 61

CHAPTER 6

Fact: Huckleberry gets kidnapped by his father. He is taken to a cabin in the woods and is forced to revert back to his old ways of living. Progression -> Regression.  

Quote: “I guessed I wouldn’t stay in one place, but just tramp right across the country, mostly night times, and hunt and fish to keep alive, and so get so far away that the old man (pap) nor the widow couldn’t ever find me any more.” (Twain, 27) 

Opinion:  So I think I’m going to start this post with the first question that came to mind when I first started chapter six. That question was: WHO IN THERE RIGHT MIND KIDNAPS THEIR OWN CHILD?? But I guess that’s the point. If you were in a right state of mind you wouldn’t be kidnapping anyone now would you? I was more than upset reading this chapter because as I continued to read, I felt more sympathetic to Huck and his father’s constant “hidings” on him. Poor, poor Huckleberry.

 His father talks about unjust society and “govment” and yet he here is, mistreating his all too-innocent son. Huck didn’t deserve the treatment he got from his father and the fact that he witnessed his drunkard father hallucinating must be frightening. To have your own father try to kill you is traumatic as it is, but to have it happen as a kid is even more appalling. Having even endured his father for so long was more than surprising, but I guess it turned out that patience had its reward after all.

His idea to escape brought great relief from the horrors of this chapter. In the ways of social responsibility we see Huck has evolved rapidly in just one chapter. He has gone from good school-boy back to grimy, gritty Huck and altogether leaves both behind to become “Huck 2.0”. He no longer cares about the lives he has lived, he plans to start his own life alone and away from both of them – who have both essentially caused all the problems in his life.

CHAPTER 7

Fact: Huckleberry makes his escape. He stages his own ingenious, fool-proof death (slaughters a wild pig, sticks pieces of his hair on the blood, disposes of the carcass in the river, and leaves a trail to throw them off) and then makes his great escape on a drift-canoe.

Opinion: In our readings thus far, chapter seven is my favorite by far. Chapter 7 brought about the freedom Huck has needed for quite some time. This Huck throws society and its morals out the window and becomes his own person outside the boundaries of the society he has known. His escape from his father is a sort of beautiful and poetic symbolism. Huck escapes from the stern and harsh hand of his father and the stern, yet nurturing hand of the widow (GOVERNMENT/SOCIETY)and stages his own death before leaving on a canoe (ABSOLUTE FREEDOM-ONLY TRUE FREEDOM COMES THROUGH DEATH)down a river (rivers=ever flowing and changing/ water=full of life, potential; purifying). As no more than a child, Huck finds his own way of living, completely on his own. He becomes self-sufficient with not a need or care for a society bound by rules or responsibility. The only responsibility he has is to himself and for himself. As long as people believe him to be dead, he is 100% a free man.

 

CHAPTER 8

FACT: Huckleberry wakes up on Jackson’s Island to the sounds of cannons. Boats of people from the town are looking for him in the river. They don’t find anything and leave. Huck finds Jim on the island. Jim confesses he has ran away. He also brings with him many superstitions and talks of luck and money. He says he will one day be rich again.

QUOTE: “Yes – en I’s rich now, come to look at it. I owns mysef, en I’s wuth eight hund’d dollars. I wisht I had de money, I wouldn’ want no mo’.” (Twain, 49)

OPINION: Nothing in this world, not even your weight in gold, is worth what freedom is – priceless.

CHAPTER 9

FACT: There is a storm raging and Huck and Jim seek shelter in a cavern. Huck asks why lightning has no shadow if it’s light and Jim reckons it’s made out of ghosts or the ghosts are made out of lightning. He tells him a story of a run in with a dead body (not a real ghost). Days go by and they find a house with a dead body (man shot in the back) and a bunch of miscellaneous supplies and things.

CHAPTER 10

FACT: Huck has “bad-luck” after handling snake skin and Jim gets bitten by a rattle snake. He is healed after a few days. Jim says there is more bad luck to come. Huckleberry is bored and decides to go to town to see what’s going on. He goes in disguise as a girl. 

OPINION: Jim is influencing Huck’s thinking little by little. Jim’s superstitious ways are seeping into Huck’s mind and although Huck doesn’t give much credence to it at first he slowly begins to follow him on his beliefs.