CHAPTER 1
In the beginning of Huckleberry Finn,Huck is the narrative voice and Twain is the voice as the author. From the beginning of the book, Huck speaks to us in a conversational way and also as the voice for Mark Twain. When Huck says “Mr. Mark Twain” , he immediately gains shows there is 2 narrators, as if he can mention his author, then obviously he must exist on the same level that the author does. Also, Huck links Twain’s new novel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, although he's careful to say that the two works are different from each other and that we don't need to have read the previous novel to understand this novel.
The first paragraph shows Huck’s inner personality. Huck is not just a poor boy with a humor; he's also a thoughtful young man who is willing to question the facts of life and stuff about the human personality, like lying. Although he's white, he's poor and therefore out of touch with everyone in the society. Huck’s observations on his society are pretty funny and smart.Even though Huck is always ready to learn, he never listens to anyone unless he thinks its true or not, and he doesn't think he has to follow his towns rules. Despite all that he is still a very kind hearted boy. Like for example, he mentions that though the "widow cried over me, and called me a poor lost lamb . . . she never meant no harm by it.”
We see quickly that, in the town of St. Petersburg; where Huck Finn lives, owning slaves is considered to be something normal. The slaves in the novel are said to be “household slaves,” slaves who worked on small farms and in homes where the master owned only a few slaves. The author tries to show this type of slavery with a more brutal approach of slavery, where hundreds of slaves worked for a single master.Also, Mark Twain uses the word "nigger" a lot throughout the book. The word probably wasn't disturbing in Mark Twain’s time, but it is now and it is kind of needed if the author wanted the reader to know how cruel the world was in those times. In the novel, Huck encounters a lot of good people who happen to own slaves. Widow Douglas for example wasn't meant to look evil, but people like the Widow serve as problems for Huck as he tries to sort out the value of everything. Also, Huck seems to think that going to hell would be better then going to heaven, as HELL seems to be more risk taking and "different", which is showing that he has a very "artistic" and "brave" personality. Overall, Chapter 1 is just one chapter out of all the other 42 chapters to come to tell us about the cruel society of then.
CHAPTERS 2-3
Chapter 2 and 3 are mostly all about Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer and their relationship between each other and their cruel view on society. Tom insists that his make-believe adventures be conducted “by the book." Since, Tom himself admits to his gang’s oath that he gets many of his ideas from fiction. Like for example, Tom admits to getting most of his ideas from romantic novels. While that, Huck seizes to not believe in almost anything.Pretty much Huck Finn doesn't believe in any sort of faith. The reason is because when ever he asks for something practicing the faith, it never comes to him and angers him causing him to lose faith. Huck and Tom both enjoy cussing and pranks. Yet Huck’s feelings about society are based on his negative experiences mostly with his abusive father.The author shows that Tom can afford to accept the nonsense of society and romantic literature, but Huck can't. Overall, Huck’s life away from the the adult world is a bit sadder then Tom's.
The novel that Tom mentions is the model for his actions is Don Quixote. Its a book that has a quite similar plot to Huck Finn and it has all the absurdity and seriousness and adventure a book needs and it must have been a favourite of Mark Twain. In this chapter, for instance, Mark Twain tells us about Tom’s absurdity by basing his actions on a novel. Tom, who is interested in the whole rich people thing, believes in these crazy ideas despite the fact that there's no common sense involved. He cares more about crazy stylistic idea's more than he does about people. For instance, he makes the members of his gang sign an oath in their own blood and tell them to swear to not expose the group’s secrets, but when a boy threatens to betray that promise, Tom simply offers him a bribe. That kind of reflects on the actual governments of those times, but in a smaller way.
CHAPTERS 4-6
In chapters 4-6, Mark Twain points out a lot of things about the society of his time and its attempts at starting over. The novel shows us a bunch of people performing some very foolish and even cruel minded things, which would surprise the reader. There is a new judge in town who refuses to give custody of Huck to his proper guardians and instead to his crazy old Pap, despite all of Pap’s history of neglect and abuse. After the new judge makes this decision many of us all wonder how corrupted the society is of that time. The new judge returns Huck to Pap because he likes Pap’s rights over Huck’s welfare, which is very related to the business of slaves, as they are returned to their proper owner no matter how abused they are. Pretty much the new judge is very misguided, and needs to open his eyes to all the dangerous things happening around him. In these chapters, Huck suffers from various failures, yet he manages to maintain his status. OK, so Huck’s family, the legal system, and the community all had failed to protect him. When Huck is captured and imprisoned by his cruel father, it's expected that the reader will definitely feel sorry for Huck, even though Huck himself doesn't. Although Pap is an ugly, cruel man, Huck doesn't immediately leave him when given the chance. Pap is, after all, Huck’s father, and Huck is still a very young boy. Thus finally, Pap’s kidnapping of Huck provides an opportunity for Huck to break from the society that has hurt him.
Pap is one of Mark Twain’s most unforgettable characters. The reader isn't given any background info on Pap but his past life must have been bad, judging by his actions towards Huck. His skin was said to be sickening to Huck, due to all its whiteness. Unfortunately, Pap is illiterate, violent, and very racist. The author shows the reader that there is no evil or good but just choices.
CHAPTERS 7-10
These couple chapters are a lot more focused on romance. Huck and Jim’s meeting on the island begins the main story plot of the novel. Huck and Jim, both thrown away from society in different ways, find themselves sharing a dreamlike place: a safe, peaceful island where food is always there. Huck and Jim were both in peril, Huck and Jim have had to break with society. Freed from the injustice of society, they find themselves in what seems a paradise, smoking whenever they want to, watching the river, and eating catfish and wild berries.
A couple of things happen to them both that remind them that this "wonderland" isn't going to last long. The first involves the house that floats down the river past the island. The man inside the house has clearly been murdered, and the house is seen with other marks of human availability as there were: playing cards, whiskey bottles, and graffiti. Although Huck and Jim gather some useful stuff from the house, it reminds them that Jackson’s Island is not completely isolated from the outside world. Another incident involves Jim’s rattlesnake bite, which was stupid prank Huck tries to play on Jim. Once again, Huck and Jim are reminded that the place isn't safe for them.
These two incidents also show us some important things about the relationship between Huck and Jim. In the scene with the rattlesnake, Huck acts like a kid, and Jim gets hurt. In both incidents, Jim uses his knowledge to help both of them but also wants to protect Huck as he doesn't let Huck see the body in the floating house, as it was Huck's fathers dead body. Jim is an intelligent and caring adult who escaped out of love for his family and he shows this same emotions toward Huck. While Huck’s actions are good he still does some really dumb and childish things. So really, Jim and Huck together make up a sort of a little family in the place of their choice.
CHAPTERS 11-13
Mrs. Loftus is one of the more good people Huck encounters throughout the novel, but her attitude toward Jim makes her goodness go away. Mrs. Loftus seems to be a clever woman, as she designs to unmask Huck by doing tests with him. Despite the fact that she was nice towards Huck, however, Mrs. Loftus and her husband are happy to get money from capturing Jim, and her husband plans to bring a gun to hunt Jim like an animal. Mrs. Loftus splits Huck and Jim apart in her opinions as Huck who is white, who tells her he has run away from a mean farmer, and Jim whose black, has done the same thing by running away from an owner who is considering on selling him.
Mrs. Loftus and the rest of white society think differently between an abused runaway slave and an abused runaway boy, Huck doesn't. Huck and Jim’s raft becomes a sort of symbol of brotherhood and equality, as both find peace from their cruel society.
Huck’s childishness getting both himself and Jim into trouble continues in these chapters, as Huck follows his boyish and nearly has a fight with the robbers on the wrecked steamboat. Huck’s attempts to change the situation show that he is learning, despite his immaturity. When Huck acts like Tom Sawyer, trouble follows, but when he acts like himself hen he seeks to understand and react in a practical manner things generally turn out fine.
The fact that Jim sees the foolishness of many of Huck’s actions are never restrained and remind us of Jim's position as a good escaped slave.In the novel, Jim protests when Huck formulates a foolish plan, but eventually gives in to the boy. There's no good explanation of Jim's choice other then Jim’s having a constant fear of being caught and returned to his former owner. After all, Huck is a free, white child who could turn in Jim at any time and collect a large reward. Although this idea seems never to cross Huck’s mind, it is certainly something that Jim thinks about and always is on the look with Huck.
CHAPTER 14
We see in this chapter that Huck still follows the whites perspective of blacks. When Jim talks about their adventure, Huck admits that he's acted foolishly and caused some major problems for Jim’s safety, but he qualifies his explanation by adding that Jim is smart for a black person. Huck also struggles with the thought if he should turn over Jim to the white men who ask if he has any runaway slaves. So really, Huck still believes that turning Jim in would be the right thing to do, and he struggles with the idea that Miss Watson is a slave owner yet still seems to be a good person. As he spends more time with Jim, Huck is forced to question many of the things that were said about Blacks from the whites perspective.
The arguments Huck and Jim have over Huck’s stories provide some really crazy facts about slavery and race. When Huck tells the tale of King Solomon, who threatened to chop a baby in half, Jim argues that Solomon had so many children that he became unable to value human life properly. Later, Huck tells Jim that people in France don’t speak English. Huck tries to convince the angry Jim by pointing out that cats and cows don’t talk the same, and that neither should French people and American people. Jim points out that both are men. Although Jim is wrong in a way, he is correct in his opinion of Huck. Jim’s argument provides yet another reminder that, in society at the time, not all men are treated as men. Although Jim’s discussion with Huck shows that both are smart, we see that Jim has is alot more experience wisdom than Huck, who has grown up at least partly listening to white society.
POSTED BY: Alexson Philipiah
