Huck Finn Blog Post #2

                Huck and Jim have a father and son relationship; however their roles as father and son can be interchangeable.

                Jim is like a father to Huck right when they find each other in the woods. He took charge and made breakfast for Huck and himself, which is a fatherly action. Jim saved Huck from his miserable loneliness. Jim was also a man that Huck could look up to and a man that he could learn maturity from, a skill that he could not have learned from Pap. Jim was always looking out for Huck and the reader could tell that he cared for Huck as well. “’It’s a dead man. Yes, indeed; naked too. He’s been shot in de back…Come in, Huck, but doan’ look at his face-it’s too gashly’” (Twain 57). When Jim and Huck find the dead body Jim advises Huck not to look at it. Jim does this, as a father would do, to protect Huck from seeing a dead person. Jim wanted to protect Huck from seeing the dead man because he is still a child, even though does not seem like one.

                 Huck is like a father to Jim as well. Huck is also very protective of Jim and Huck tries to teach him everything he knows. “I had got so uneasy I couldn’t set still. I had to do something with my hands; so I took up a needle off of the table and went to threading it. My hands shook, and I was making a bad job of it” (Twain 64). This quote is Huck’s reaction to hearing that there if a reward out for catching Jim. Huck is immediately worried and has to go find Jim so they can go hide. Another way that Huck is fatherly to Jim is when Huck is reading to Jim. “I read considerable to Jim about kings and dukes and earls and such, and how gaudy they dressed, and how much style they put on, and called each other your majesty… ‘stead of mister” (Twain 81). Jim was surprised to hear all about these things that Huck was teaching him. Jim took the story about King Solomon very literally and Huck was helping Jim to understand the reasoning behind it.

                Huck and Jim are not the most conventional father figures to each other, but they are there for one another in more ways than one.

                 

Huck Finn Blog Post #1

At the beginning of the novel, Huck seems to be very superstitious in his ways. Huck kills a spider and is convinced that it is a horrible sign of bad luck. “I got up and turned around in my tracks three times and crossed my breast every time; and then I tied up a little lock of my hair with a thread to keep witches away” (Twain 13). After Huck had killed the spider he turned three times, crossed his breast, and tied up his hair to shoo away the bad luck and witches. He seemed pretty timid compared to the adventurous boy I was expecting to read about. However, later in the novel he is not afraid of a superstition that Jim believes in.  “’You said it was the worst bad luck in the world to touch a snakeskin with my hands’” (Twain 59). After Huck had touched the snakeskin, they had found eight dollars. Then, Huck believed that the snakeskin had brought them great luck. But, later in the chapter the bad luck found them when Jim was bitten by a rattlesnake and was not able to walk for a few days.

Another impression I had about Huck is that he wanted to be independent but he could not make a decision without thinking about what Tom Sawyer would have done first. Tom always led Huck to make bad decisions though. Huck joined Tom’s gang of robbers and murderers, and Huck was ready to live that life just because it was one of Tom’s grand ideas. Huck also said that if Tom was going to Hell so was he. Even though Huck wanted to live on his own and be independent, he was always so lonely. “I was ever so glad to see Jim. I warn’t lonesome now” (Twain 49). Huck was so happy to see Jim just so he could have someone to talk to, someone to confide in. Jim and Huck seemed like a good team and I was happy for Huck to have some company and help living in the woods. However, I thought that it was kind of ironic that Huck did not want anyone to know where he was but, he was miserable and lonely until he found Jim on the island.