Huckleberry Finn: Mid Pt

Well I was right and wrong about the book. I was right about how the story gives the reader a lot of insight into the culture of the time period. The story was published in 1885, however I’m assuming that the plot takes place before this, because as I mentioned in the intro post that there is still slavery. I was wrong about the compelling nature of the story. It is easy for me to get lost while reading. The story is told from the perspective of Huck Finn, a 13 year old boy from Missouri. His accent is difficult to decipher at times. Twain writes, “After supper she got out her book and learned me about Moses and the Bulrushers, and I was in a sweat to find out all about him; but by and by she let it out that Moses had been dead a considerable long time; so then I didn’t care no more about him, because I don’t take no stock in dead people” (2). This passage is about Huck’s guardian trying to teach him about Moses and the Bible, but Huck can’t get interested in it.

The main premise is Huck and his guardian’s slave, Jim, are traveling on a raft along the Mississippi. They stop at many different points along the way, marking their “adventures.” It took some research for me to figure why this book was so popular. I didn’t understand at first that Huck was only a kid, and I quickly realized why a kid figuring out that slavery is wrong and attempting to free Jim was so controversial at the time.

Another thing that makes the story confusing is when Jim speaks. As a slave, his English is very broken and also infused with a southern accent, making it exponentially confusing. Jim says, “Well you wouldn’t a ben here ‘f it hadn’t a ben for Jim. You’d a ben down dah in de woods widout any dinner, en gittin mos’ drownded too; dat you would honey. Chickens knows when it’s swine to rain, en so do de birds, chile” (49).

While I’m reading, most of the “adventures” I don’t understand the significance of. After more research, some of them are apparently Mark Twain’s commentary on social matters of the time, such as people’s obsession with stories about feuding families. In chapters 17 and 18, Huck is taken in by the Grangerford family, who Huck learns has a feud with the Shepherdsons. Matters become serious when Buck, the youngest Grangerford who Huck has befriended, is shot and killed by a Shepherson. The whole situation is Mark Twain commenting on the ridiculous ways that people in power use systems of belief to deny others basic humanity. Specifically in the time period, how some anti-Abolitionists would use the Bible as a means for justifying slavery. Abraham, the Patriarch, was a slave owner. They also point to the Ten Commandments, noting that, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, ... nor his manservant, nor his maidservant.”

While the reading can be confusing, after I take a step back and think about the greater meaning of the events in the story, I certainly see how this book is so popular even to this day. I look forward to continued reading despite the end of the project fast approaching!