Huck Finn

“Then I thought a minute, and says to myself, hold on- s’pose you’d a done right and give Jim up; would you felt better than what you do now? No, says I, I’d feel bad- I’d feel just the same way I do now. Well, then, says I, what’s the use learning to do right, when it’s troublesome to do right and ain’t no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same? I was struck. I couldn’t answer that. So I reckoned I wouldn’t bother no more about it, but after this always do whichever come handiest at the time” (Twain 104).

The passage that I chose was from a prominent event within the sixteenth chapter among the novel of Huckleberry Finn. Twain presented a big obstacle for Huck in this chapter, due to the men questioning him about runaway slaves. Huckleberry caught himself wondering what he should do, either to turn Jim in or to lie to the men and keep Jim safe. This is a major point in Huckleberry’s morality and whether the reader sees it as a good moral choice or not. I believe Twain wanted to show the reader how Huckleberry was maturing by presenting us with his stream of conscious. Twain presents this by stating, “No, says I, I’d feel bad- I’d feel just the same way I do now. Well, then, says I, what’s the use learning to do right, when it’s troublesome to do right and ain’t no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same? (104). While Huck understands that it is wrong to help free Jim, he also feels obligated to help him because he is his friend. In this particular passage he struggles with understanding which is more morally wrong, turning Jim in or help freeing him. He thinks about the options but decides that either way they are morally wrong and that the wages of both options are detrimental. He quickly decides to not think about it too much more in hopes that he will find the answer later.

            I believe that by Huckleberry questioning whether it is right or wrong to be freeing Jim is a huge question in morality and largely ironic, given the circumstances. While turning him in and enslaving his best friend would be morally wrong to himself, it is also seen as morally wrong among societal standards to lead a slave to freedom as well. I think Twain does a great job as to showing the reader what a conflict this truly is and gave an insight to what Twain thought was morally right of Huck, which was to lie to the officers and continue to bring Jim to freedom. The fact that Huck decides to leave his thoughts where they lay in the moment is also a true telling of Huck’s character. “I was struck. I couldn’t answer that. So I reckoned I wouldn’t bother no more about it, but after this always do whichever come handiest at the time” (Twain 104). It brings the reader back to the fact that Huckleberry is just a little boy, and makes decisions in the moment instead of a clear thought out plan. While Huck is freeing himself from the oppression of “sivilization” he also is out there for adventure and this plays true to the quote because he knows realizes how serious this “adventure” is. In all, I believe that this passage among the story is a key factor in understanding Huck’s conscious and realizing that he is just a boy but also understanding that there is a moral conflict that truly bothers him.

Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

            “I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever felt so in my life, and I knowed I could pray now.  But I didn’t do it straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking—thinking how good it was all this happened so, and how near I come to being lost and going to hell.  And went on thinking.  And got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me, all the time, in the day, and in the nighttime, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a floating along, talking, and singing, and laughing.  But somehow I couldn’t seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind.  I’d see him standing my watch on top of his’n, stead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how glad he was when I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him again in the swamp, up there where the feud was; and suchlike times; and would always call me honey, and pet me, and do everything he could think of for me, and how good he always was; and at last I struck the time I saved him by telling the men we had small-pox aboard, and he was so grateful, and said I was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the only one he’s got now; and then I happened to look around, and see that paper.

            It was a close place.  I took it up, and held it in my hand.  I was trembling, because I’d got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it.  I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself:

            ‘All right, then, I’ll go to hell’—and tore it up.” (Twain 227-228)

            This passage is a strong turning point in the novel where Huck is finally realizing what his relationship with Jim means to him.  Throughout the novel Huck denies his feelings for Jim, by always referring to him as a “nigger” or “my nigger” around other people.  This is the way the relationship goes in society, but over the course of their adventure, Jim becomes more than just “a nigger” he becomes Huck’s friend.  The first time we really see this relationship twist is when Huck plays the trick on Jim by pretending they never got separated in the fog.  He tells Jim he’s crazy and is making it up, partly because he doesn’t want to admit his feelings that he missed Jim, and the other part because admitting their relationship is a friendly one is not the way of things.  The two encounter many changes on the raft and live a supposed “free life,” that is, free from society’s restrictions.  No religion, church, or “right way of living” for Huck, and no slavery for Jim.

            Jim opens up to Huck about his family too, a strong moment where he tells about his daughter being deaf and dumb and him feeling badly.  Hearing Jim talk about his family and open up about his life, makes him more real to Huck.

            Getting to this passage, when Huck finally loses Jim he begins to truly see how important Jim’s relationship is to him.  He reflects, “and would always call me honey, and pet me, and do everything he could think of for me…” (Twain 228), and sees the paternal relationship and amount of care Jim had for him as a friend.  Huck debates between praying and changing his ways to be like the good folk, in order to pray for his friend, or continuing with his normal life and go to hell by doing the opposite of what society expects of him.  Being at a low point, where he has no control of his friends fate, and seems like he has no other option but to pray and change causes him to question his morals and beliefs.  He challenges himself and his character for the sake of his friend.  In the end, he ends up to go on like he always does because even though that’s not the “good way,” its his way and its what he believes is honest to himself.  “I was trying to make my mouth say I would do the right thing and the clean thing, and go and write to that nigger’s owner and tell where he was; but deep down in me I knowed it was a lie—and He knowed it.  You can’t pray a lie—I found that out.”  Huck realized any attempt to change or pray wouldn’t be honest of his character, and even if he’s not an honest to good person in society’s standards, he was at least honest to himself. 

            As Huck learns more about himself and has revelations like these, he begins to understand who he is and what matters most to him.  This passage gives us as readers a good insight into what’s in Huck’s mind and the way he thinks and grows.

Works Cited

Twain, Mark.  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  New York:  Penguin, 1985.

            

To lie or not to lie

The following writing is in response to this passage from Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:

“I see I had spoke too sudden and said too much, and was in a close place. I asked her to let me think a minute; and she set there, very impatient and excited and handsome, but looking kind of happy and eased-up, like a person that’s had a tooth pulled out. So I went to studying it out. I says to myself, 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; but it looks so to me, anyway; and yet here’s a case where I’m blest if it don’t look to me like the truth is better and actuly safer than a lie. I must lay it by in my mind , and think it over some time or other, it’s so kind of strange and unregular. I never see nothing like it. Well, I says to myself at last, I’m a-going to chance it; I’ll up and tell the truth this time, though it does seem most like setting down on a kag of powder and touching it off just to see where you’ll go to” (Twain, 204-205).

           

            Huckleberry Finn’s (Huck) morality and conscious is constantly developing throughout his whole adventure on the raft. Most people believe that Huck is a bad child. He hangs out with Tom Sawyer who is always getting into every kind of mischief he can. Plus he defies the widow most any chance he gets. This belief is one that is a product of misunderstanding Huck as a character. I believe that Huck does most of these things either out of boredom or because he has spent so much time in his life pretending to be something he isn’t, that lying and things of that nature come easy. Almost as if lying and being a bad child was the easy way out for him.

            The adventures he has with Tom Sawyer and the gang at the beginning of the story are evidence of this. He wants to find an escape from the civilized person the widow is trying to make him become so he joins this make-believe band of robbers to do so. Once he realizes that everything Tom says to him, is essentially a lie or something he pretends to be true in Tom’s own head, Huck quits the gang along with all its other members. These are just a couple examples where Huck uses lies to because it is easy. He can lie about his identity by playing all these roles or defying the widow but I believe that deep down, Huck is a genuinely good kid that is misunderstood in some sense.

            Huck first realizes his own goodness in himself upon being an outsider looking in at the deceitfulness of the King and the Duke. This comes out during his conversation with Mary Jane over his plot to expose the Kind and the Duke for the frauds they are. Upon Huck thinking to himself about what his next steps should be, this thought comes to his mind, “here’s a case where I’m blest if it don’t look to me like the truth is better and actuly safer than a lie” (Twain, 205). This statement to me is essentially the culmination of all the moral dilemmas that have been going the Huck’s head throughout his journey. At this moment, Huck acknowledges two things: the first being that lying is actually a bad thing, the second being that contrary to how he usually thought the truth not only better but safer! Now the idea of the truth being safer is important because Huck told lies to get out of every situation because it was convenient, easy, or safe. He even goes further to say that the truth is “kind of strange and unregular” (Twain, 205). Providing more evidence that lying was something that was normal and natural to Huck, like it is his preferred way of communicating with other people. Here, he recognizes that the truth will provide these same results and decides take a risk. He even goes as far as to compare telling the truth as “setting down on a kag of powder and touching it off just to see where you’ll go” (Twain, 205).

            This passage shows the maturation process of Huck coming close to its end. He is tired of lying to people and living his life as one big masquerade, a big show for everyone to watch and be in awe of. Even after analyzing this passage, I still am unsure what makes Huck lie throughout the book. I understand some of it is out of necessity to protect Jim, but wouldn’t it have been easier to just tell the truth about Jim and turn him in? This brings me back to my original point of lying because it’s convenient and easy. Are those really the reasons or is more a nurture argument? Everyone around him lies all the way from Pap to the widow, so is he just a product of his environment? To me, this is the biggest dilemma when it comes to Huck. Where does his sense of right and wrong come from and does he really even a sense of it? Is the slave society he lives in the reason why the lines are so blurred for him? Questions like these are what make this book so intriguing and why it’s one of the greatest books in American Literature.

Works Cited

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Haper & Brothers, 1896. Print.

Raft Symbolism

“I never felt easy till the raft was two mile below there and out in the middle of the Mississippi. Then we hung up our signal lantern, and judged that we was free and safe once more. I hadn’t had a bite to eat since yesterday; so Jim he got out some corn-dodgers and buttermilk, and pork and cabbage, and greens- there ain’t nothing in the world so good, when its cooked right- and whilst I eat my supper we talked, and had a good time. I was powerful glad to get away from the feuds, and so was Jim to get away from the swamp. We said there cramped up and smothery, but a raft don’t. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft” (Twain, 128).

I really like this passage because it interprets the raft in many ways. “I was powerful glad to get away from the feuds, and so was Jim to get away from the swamp” (Twain, 128). In chapter 18, it is when Huck escapes from the Grangerford and Shepardson family feud and heads for Jim and the raft, where they go downstream. It explains how Huck and Jim are “escaping” from society in a way. I was interpreting how Twain used going ‘downstream’ as one cannot go ‘upstream’, meaning you cannot go back in life, only forward.  “You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft” (twain, 128). From this quote, I feel like the raft depicts a sort of utopia, as we discussed in class, for Huck and Jim. They do not need to worry about anything else when they are on the raft and it is where they have their moments of just being ‘friends’ and conversing. “I hadn’t had a bite to eat since yesterday; so Jim he got out some corn-dodgers and buttermilk, and pork and cabbage, and greens- there ain’t nothing in the world so good, when its cooked right- and whilst I eat my supper we talked, and had a good time” (Twain, 128). Jim offers Huck the most basic food there is, pork and cabbage, and Huck sees the food as delicious, almost praising it. I think he feels this way due to the fact that he is in a free space where he is most comfortable, which is the raft.  Also, I feel like the raft is where Huck first treats Jim as a man, instead of a slave.

  When reading this passage, I also thought of the Garden of Eden. I think the raft represents a paradise and freedom, while the outside world is full of evil and danger. For example, in chapter 10, Jim gets bit by a snake when they got off the raft, which is caused by one of Huck’s pranks. Jim thinks of this as how a snake bites the unwisely and one will receive bad luck. Is Twain trying portray a different message about the raft? Is there irony tied to the raft symbolism?

However, as the novel goes on, the duke and dauphin come aboard the raft, making the raft not so comfortable and free anymore. “We said there cramped up and smothery, but a raft don’t” (Twain, 128).  Is this where the irony sets in? Huck and Jim do not feel the same freedom from the raft as they did before. Jim gets tied up by his hands and feet when no one is with him on the raft; is this showing freedom? Of course not. This example shows how status is part of the raft. Basically, Jim is held hostage by the two frauds. Who really has the power? In this case, everyone has power over Jim.

     Throughout the novel, Puddn'head Wilson, Twain uses many themes. Two major ones being identity and reputation. Twain also uses irony as a big part of the story line. An example of irony would be how Roxy, when she was a freed women, was sold by her son "Tom", who is a slave. Twain reminds the reader what has motivated Roxy's actions, which is clear that she feared "Tom" would be sold "down the river". "…I will not only sell all four of you, but-I will sell you down the rover!" (Twain, 68). The narrator describes this phrase as being equal, or even worse than hell. Whats is better, to be sold "down the river" or life imprisonment? I thought Twain did a great job of bringing up the importance and dramatic effect that being sold "down the river" meant to the characters in the novel.
      By the end of the novel, I did not know what to think. As we discussed in class, there could have been a plethora of different endings. Why did Twain convict Tom instead of making Puddn'head the fool? In Twain's ending, Puddn'head wins. At first, he was the town's fool and by the end of the novel, became mayor. He was the only honest character in the novel and I think he got what he deserved. Although Chambers was also an honest character, he was pretty much isolated from the story. Chambers was trained to take insult at a young age, however, it was not easy for him. We see him try to fight back, but things obviously didn't go his way. Yes he becomes a freed man and an heir, but he could not read/write and "his speech was the basest dialect of the negro quarter" (Twain, 225). Puddn'head ends up stepping up into society. I really enjoyed how Twain brought up the plot twist. While reading the novel, I didn't know how the ending would be; Twain always kept me on the edge of my seat. 
   

The Identity Search

                In my blog post for this week, I will talk about Twain’s questioning of one’s self and identity. He is constantly makes people think who or what their own identity is. Is it tied to your race? Your background? Your upbringing? Throughout Mark Twain’s novel, The Tragedy of Puddn’head Wilson he is continuously switching up the roles of individuals in the novel by using Tom and Chambers especially. The book is set pre-Civil War when slavery was a booming economy in the United States. A slave named Roxy, who cared for the children around the plantation, had a child that looked identical to the slave owner’s child. Roxy felt like in order to give her child a better life; she would switch the children in the crib. This meant a slave owner would become a slave and a slave would become a slave owner. The identity crises that follow in these two children all stem from Roxy’s decision. Twain uses these two characters to explore where one’s identity comes from, whether that is nature or nurture. Each character supports a different side of the argument. Tom supports the side that nurture is stronger than nature while Chambers represents the opposite.

                Tom (originally born Chambers but I will call Tom throughout this blog) plays his whole life in the role of the slave owner. Everything that he knows or does is based off of how he was brought up as a white slave owner. This brings up the debate as to whether his spoiled “white” upbringing is the determinant actions or is the black blood in him that makes him act this way. Twain never seems to actually answer this question but only poses it to the reader in an attempt for them to think about the issue of identity in a new way. When it comes to Tom, nurture triumphing over nature is apparent in the way he treats his own birth mother, Roxy. After Roxy is set free from slavery, she starts working on a steamboat as a chambermaid. The bank she was saving all her money fell apart and she started to reminisce about her son. Roxy was able to “put the vile side of him out of her mind, and dwelt only on recollections of his occasional acts of kindness to her” (Twain, 33). This quote just shows that how Tom treated Roxy but was this because of his upbringing or some biological trait?

                Twain continues fueling this dilemma in the character of Tom. He does the exact opposite of Tom. He takes a legally “white” child and puts him a “black” environment. By doing this he tests whether or not Chambers’ white background will trump the “black” upbringing. Throughout the story, Chambers is a kind and caring person even saving Tom from drowning in the very beginning of the story. One would assume that someone brought up a slave wouldn’t take the opportunity to save their abusive white master but he does anyway. Now why is this? Is this attributed to something biological? Why would Chambers want to save someone who treats him like Tom does? Not only this but Chambers treats his mother or who he thinks is his mother with the utmost respect and adoration.

                In typical Twain fashion I feel he leaves us with more questions than he answers. Is Twain saying that whites are innately more inclined to be good people as opposed to blacks? Based off of Twain’s previous works, I don’t believe he would be in support of this because in reinforces the institution of slavery which he is adamantly opposed to. What I believe Twain is saying in reality is that no matter how you’ve been brought up or what blood you have running through your veins, the individual determines their own identity. One shouldn’t something as horrible as slavery define you there for why Chambers is still a loving son. In addition to that, don’t let your surroundings dictate your actions like Tom fell victim to and became a product of his surroundings.  

Works Cited

Twain, Mark, and Malcolm Bradbury. Pudd'nhead Wilson ; and Those Extraordinary Twins. London: Penguin, 1986. Print.

Pudd'nhead Wilson and his Calendar

Throughout Twain’s novel on Pudd’nhead Wilson we are swarmed with troubling themes and ironic events. What some readers miss is the importance in Pudd’head Wilson’s calendar statements at the beginning of each chapter. A small statement at the beginning of each chapter wouldn’t normally allow for inference and foreshadowing, but Twain makes a strong attempt to do so. I believe that these messages before each chapter are very important to the story and provide a proper set up to the novel. There are a few things in which make them important to the novel, it’s connection to Pudd’nhead’s character, connection to the narrator, the function of framework to the story, and the relative thematic ideas. The connection that Twain makes within the character and the calendar is pretty compatible when analyzed. Although these are just a few short sentences at the beginning of each paragraph, take them not as foolish but smart. The connection made between the calendar and Wilson is that they are taken foolish but make the most influential claims and ultimately are the smartest portions of the story. Although these statements are not the majority of the story, one can infer and utilize the legitimacy of the claims in order to understand the events that are going to happen. As well as a connection with Wilson, the calendar makes another connection with the narrator as he tells us this adventurous story. It is a consistent relationship between the two of three ideas with their own embodiment of the story: various forms of fiction making, the stubbornness of humanity and existence, and the unexpected happenings. The last relative connection that the calendar statements have is a relation to the proposed themes within each chapter. Within the story, Twain exclaims, “Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education” (84). Twain presents this comment in Pudd’nhead Wilson’s calendar to express the importance of a thematic idea that runs through this book, nature versus nurture. I believe that the book has a lot to do with the nurture aspect of childhood and that people are trained to be who they are supposed to be. As with the ending to the story, the real Chambers is of black background but succeeds with the education and privileges of white childhood and upbringing. On the contrary, the real Tom is left a free man but is kept in a trap because of the way he was raised among the black slave community. He is unable to be the “white man” that he is because of the nurtured childhood he grew up in. He is uneducated and unable to thrive in a white world as a free “slave” because he had endured the repercussions of slavery itself. I believe Twain does a great job in presenting these two contrasting futures of Tom and Chambers and correlates the calendar accordingly to the framework of the novel.