What Huck Is All Along Essay, Research Paper
I agree with Peaches Henry in his explanation of why Huck decided to undermine society’s attitude toward blacks. If Huck had not developed such a close relationship with Jim, then Huck would not have chosen to “go to hell” for him. Huck’s loyalty to Jim is similar to the loyalty he has for Tom; one that is developed over time; and one where Huck decides to let go of what he understands of to be moral for their sake. In Jim’s case, Huck decides not to turn Jim in, although he knows that he should. In Tom’s case, Huck follows Tom’s plan blindly, though he knows it is foolish but remains satisfied with Tom’s rejection of his logical ideas.
Mr. Henry’s reasoning of why Huck still holds the idea of slavery to be right, and only chooses to discard of it for Jim, is incomplete. In addition, I think Mr. Henry’s quick dismissal of Huck’s “crisis of consciene” is brought about abrutly and without further analysis of the story. Huck’s disregard for how society treats blacks is actually another embodiment of his distaste toward civilized society as a whole. By rebeling against the accepted attitude toward blacks he is refusing assimilation. But the scene of Huck’s “crisis of conscience” is one where he finds himself unable to simply dismiss society for the reason of being an outcast
From the beginning of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck proclaims himself to be an outcast among society. Huck explains, with great detail, how the widow Douglas tries to “sivilize” him. But no matter what the widow does, all her actions only increase Huck’s displeasure of society. “Pretty soon I wanted to smoke, and asked the widow to let me. But she wouldn’t.” Huck even explains that he leaves the widow and returns only because he had to in order to join Tom Sawyer’s Gang.
During Huck’s journey down South with Jim, they come across two characters who are also outcasts among society. The two outcasts are the King Dauphin and the Duke of Bilgewater. We discover soon after the meeting, that the King and Duke are fakes. “It didn’t take me long to make up my mind that these lairs warn’t no kings nor dukes.” These two fakes excel at tricking people, and taking their money. But we see much later that these two come to a very unfortunate end.
In chapters 25-29, the king and the duke pose as the brothers to the very wealthy, and deceased Mr. Peter Wilks. Huck tags along, and his role, one that he does not act out well or enjoy, is of a servant boy to the king. Huck does not favor the plans of the king and duke to take the money which belongs to the the three girls, and suddenly Huck has a change of heart. Huck feels sorry for the three girls the king and duke are tricking, and he wants to do some good; so he decides to steal the money back from the king and duke to give back to the three girls. This is very different compared to what Huck does, which is nothing, when the king and duke trick the town Bricksville with their Royal Nonesuch.
Then in chapter 28, when things are not going well for the king and duke, they lost the bag of money, Huck adds further to their bad luck. Huck slips and tells Mary Jane that the slaves, whom the king sold just the day before, would be returning in less than two weeks. But before Husk decides to tell Mary Jane everything, there is a passage on the top of page 239, where Huck wrestles with himself to tell the truth.
In the passage Huck reasons with himself and arrives at two conclusions. Huck realizes that he would be taking many risks by telling the truth. But Huck also sees that in his situation, it is safer to tell the truth. “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.”
The conclusion comes to mind immediately, that Huck has changed somehow since the beginning of the book because now he is telling the truth, and trying to do good. But that is not the case here, Huck has not reached some kind of turning point where he realizes what he’s been doing all along is wrong.
The passage on page 239 simpl