Research

For my research I chose to write about the change in huckleberry Finn as he changes and grows older. Do his views on what is right and wrong change?  I will also explore his change of beliefs and feelings as he changes.  For example, how he acts in chapter sixteen versus chapter thirty one.  I will do this by explaining literary elements and researching them.

In chapter sixteen he was about to tell on Jim to the men on the shore. Instead, Huck made up a lie to protect Jim without even thinking. In chapter thirty on consciously made a decision with all things on his mind and decided “alright, then I’ll go to hell.” He also said “I might as well go the whole hog.” By this statement, you can tell that he is absolutely sure about what he has decided to do. I do not feel like there is a doubt in his mind. He has discovered that Jim is as much of a person as he is. It is in this moment where I feel that Huck Finn changes the most. I feel that this is the most pivotal point in the story and their adventure to freedom.

Another point I will address is the question “Is it completely possible to be your whole true self in society?” Do they fully achieve freedom? My take on this is that they do not. Yes, the town accepts Jim a bit more but even at the end of the book Huck leaves his homes because people were trying to get him some manners. They wanted to teach him to be right. He said he was not happy and that he was going to move out to another state. I also know that a person can not truly be themselves in society due to personal experiences I have had in my lifetime as I’ve grown older and tried to do my own thing.

Huck Finn

During the Socratic seminar we mainly talked about the controversial language in the novel Huckleberry Finn. Genevieve talked about how we automatically censor our speech when we quote lines from the book. I know that’s because we are not comfortable saying some of the things Mark Twain said in the novel. That is because times have changed.

During the time of this novel they had not been changed. People acted exactly like those people in the story did. Mark Twain wanted the people pf that time period and now to see how wrong that was. He wanted to stand up for the people who were being treated unfairly. The only way to do that is to speak the truth and that is exactly what Twain did. If you alter the book it is like removing truth and history.  If the words were removed and replaced the book would loose part of its essence of truth and unfair treatment. If publishers published new versions of the story, the people who read those versions would probably not see as much of the cruelty Mark Twain meant for us to see. Quite honestly, if I read a censored version of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn I would just see it as a little boy’s adventures out of curiosity. I would just see a strange little boy breaking into bible studies and building rafts and I would completely miss the mob mentality and human cruelty references. If that happened it would totally defeat Mark twains whole purpose and reasoning behind writing the novel.

Hucks Change

In chapter 16 Huck is feeling bad because he helped a slave escape from his rightful owner Ms. Watson. He feels worse and worse as Jim talks the free states and what he is going to do when he gets there. He talks about his plan to earn money to buy his wife and children back. And how they are gonna live free. If he can’t get this family on his own he will get the abolitionists to do it. Huck feels like he has done wrong and contemplates turning Jim but his heart would not let him. He would go to tell on Jim and he’d just make up some lie to protect him. He tells the boat men that the people on the bout are his family member and they have small pox. The men decide not to search the raft and give Huck forty dollars in gold. They send him on down the river.

In chapter 31 Jim is sold and Huck thinks about telling Ms Watson where Jim is so she can get him back and Jim could be home, but Huck soon realizes that Ms Watson would just sell him. Huck writes a letter that says “Miss Watson your runaway slave Jim is down here two mile below Pikesville and Mr. Phelps has got him and he will give him up for the reward if you send.” He thinks “It was awful thoughts, and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming. I shoved the whole thing out of my head; and said I would take up wickedness again, which was in my line, being brung up to it, and the other warn't. And for a starter, I would go to work and steal Jim out of slavery again; and if I could think up anything worse, I would do that, too; because as long as I was in, and in for good, I might as well go the whole hog.” This is the line where I see the biggest change in Huck. It shows me that he really cares for Jim and he does not care about society’s lame rules. Jim feels just like he does and Jim loves just like any white person does. At  this point in the story Huck just realizes the unfairness of Jims treatment and realizes a man should be allowed to  roam free.

Huckleberry Finn

I think the book Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain was out down for several years because the author got stuck. I believe that he felt the book was going nowhere. They got lost, they were separated, their raft was gone; where could the story go? I thin Mark Twain did not just want to write solely about Huck’s adventures. He wanted there to be a purpose. In the first few chapters of the novel after Twain picked it back up and set out to finish it, you see Huck realizing the seriousness of the adventure for Jim. Jim was “all over trembly and feverish to be so close to freedom”, but Huck never understood. Now, he sort of saw that. When Huck and Jim approach the land, Huck lies that Jim is white and then the man gives him Money to get down the river more. I think at this point we start to really see that Jim is serious and it’s not just a fun adventure for him. In chapter eighteen, while Huck was livin’ it up with Buck Jim was hard at work. “"No, she warn't. She was tore up a good deal --one en' of her was; but dey warn't no great harm done, on'y our traps was mos' all los'. Ef we hadn' dive' so deep en swum so fur under water, en de night hadn' ben so dark, en we warn't so sk'yerd, en bensich punkin-heads, as de sayin' is, we'd a seed de raf'. But it's jis' as well we didn't, 'kase now she's all fixed up agin mos' as good as new, en we's got a new lot o'stuff, in de place o' what 'uz los'." He fixed up the raft and searched and searched so they could get on with the journey and get to freedom.