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During class on Friday, we began our discussion in an effort to find similarities and differences in the circumstances of Huck and Jim's escapes. We found that both Huck and Jim are escaping similar circumstances of abuse and captivity. Also, they both have some form of attachment to the authority figure from whom they escape. Both have an interesting relationship to money because both of them are worth something (Jim is worth $800 as a slave and Huck has - or had, $6,000). Huck's escape facilitates Jim's escape but people are also suspicious that Jim killed Huck. They are interdependent upon one another because they rely on each others companionship and survival skills (we also wondered if this interdependence suggested symbiosis). Jim offers a father figure to Huck while Huck provides proof of Jim's innocence as well as the promise of not telling people of Jim's escape. Another similarity is that both rely on the bounty of the river for their escape. The river offers them both transportation and sanctuary. Nature gives both Jim and Huck an escape from both the body and the mind as they seem at home on the island. A difference in the two escapes is that Huck's is much more pre-planned than the immediate and sporadic escape that Jim has. Huck is running from family, but Jim is running from slavery towards his family in a sense.
We then transitioned into the discussion of the question, "Is Twain's depiction of Jim sympathetic?" We found that we like Jim because he likes Huck. Huck is a likeable character to us and the protagonist of the story. The fact that Jim offers a sort of "gentle-giant" and nonviolent father figure to to Huck makes him a likeable character to us. Jim is also connected to his family and has a profound loyalty for them. He seems "simple" in that he has a sophisticated knowledge of nature, but is unsophisticated in the realms of institutionalized education. Both characters also have an uncontrollable part of themselves that holds them back. Twain suggests that Jim's race hold him back while Huck's age holds him back. The similar circumstances make Jim likeable to the reader.
Our discussion was a very thorough one!!!
Yesterday's discussion centered around analyzing deceptive characters influencing Huck and the public in overwhelmingly negative manners. The King and the Duke are players, fakers. They con and swindle the folks of each town they reach and come up with a combination of both wily and low-brow scams. They emerge as new role models for Huck, but their questionable morals and ineptitude at planning, in some circumstances, make them less-than-ideal examples for young Huck.
Next, we discussed Colonel Sherburn, a straight shooter who means what he says and keeps his word about killing Boggs. Huck has no trouble understanding Boggs; his character's archetype resembles that of Pap (the belligerent town drunk). Sherburn lectures the townspeople on their cowardice in failing to punish the wrongdoers justly and equally. In highlighting this corruption in society, Twain offers his opinions on society's horrifying lack of justice and favoring of chaotic lynch mobs.
Finally, we analyzed the effects of the circus upon Huck and the town. The circus plays a little trick on the audience, and Huck is "gobsmacked" by the circus's cleverness. We referred to this moment as an instance of "childish wonder," which reminded us of Huck's youth, and therefore, endeared us to him. The larger take-away behind the circus, however, is that the general public is easily swayed, and that various characters and concepts in chapters 20-24 took full advantage of peoples's gullibility. While swindling, cheating, and fraud abound, Twain seeks to tie these seemingly-unrelated anecdotes together by alluding to the greatest fraud of American History - slavery.
The real kicker of yesterday's discussion, however, was the moment at the end of 23 in which Huck insists that "kings is kings" and that just as commoners have to put up with royalty, blacks have to put up with whites. Jim, however, breaks down and expresses deep remorse and regret for the way he treated someone in his past. Out of all of the characters examined in chapters 20-24, it certainly is curious that the allegedly animalistic, subordinate, unfeeling slave is the only one expressing human emotions.
Today we began class examining how Huck’s (and Twain’s) language in chapter 31 reveals his moral conflict. We discerned early on that this moral conflict he faces is in choosing between his own conscience or the opinions of society to help guide his decisions.
Huck’s language seems slightly out of character; in the past he rejects society and its institutions, yet in this chapter, he accepts the institution of slavery as a powerful authority that he feels inclined to succumb to. He begins to feel “shame[ful],” and his “conscience went to grind[ing] him” because of the conflict he is entrenched in (226). The remorse he feels is the exact quality that had been lacking in the previous chapters we read; the fact that he experiences these emotions suggests that Huck has acknowledge that the rapscallions, the duke and the king especially, are not proper role models and that he has rejected their lifestyles. Additionally, his remorse may serve as Twain’s commentary on the nation’s acceptance of slavery; the fact that Huck is uneasy with the decision to accept slavery suggests that it is in fact not an admirable institution.
Moreover, Huck directly connects the institution of slavery to morals and religion. In order to escape his guilt, Huck expresses his desire to feel “light as a feather…clean…[and] washed of sin” (227). He feels as if his mental turmoil produced by slavery can be justified and fixed through connection with religion. He suggests that his guilt is a result of religion as he exclaims that his “wickedness was being watched all the time from up there in heaven” (226). After he writes the letter to Miss Watson, Huck is relieved for a time, but almost immediately reverts back to confusion once more. We discussed that perhaps Huck is discovering in this moment, that his morality and the version of Christianity he has been taught cannot and do not coincide.
We then transitioned to talking about Huck’s final decision to favor his relationship with Huck over that of society and slavery. The language of the moment seems especially important in this moment. Huck calls the decision he is facing a “close place,” very much in contrast with the ambiguous fog he experiences a few chapters before (228). The closed space offers him two options, choosing Jim or choosing slavery. In this moment, Huck recognizes that this decision is bigger than a decision about Jim’s fate; he realizes he is defining his position on slavery and therefore his morals and beliefs for the rest of his life. When he finally rejects slavery states that he’ll “go to hell,” Twain rejects Southern Christianity, which legitimized and promoted slavery (228). In this moment, Huck chooses his own morals over that of institutionalized religion, therefore suggesting that Christianity is flawed.
Circling back, we noted the emphasis on the n-word in chapter 31. Huck feels uncomfortable with the word early on, stating that it “made [him] squirm,” yet shortly thereafter when talking to the duke, he escalates his usage of the word nonetheless (220). We discussed how Huck feels as if it gives him power in conversation, and perhaps he is only using it as an act in the moment. Regardless, its usage demonstrates the extent to which the word is ingrained in American society. We did not, however, fully reconcile the fact that even in his own thoughts, Huck uses the word numerous times when surveying the decision he has to make.
Discussion component:
Going off the last part of today's discussion, when we speculated why Twain would put such a large emphasis on the n-word, I believe that Twain's considerable use of it was to show the power that the institution of Souther slavery had on Southerners. Huck, who had previously denounced the vile institution, is quoted repeatedly using the n-word in his conversation with the Duke. Even Huck, who had decided to go to hell if it meant a slave's well being, is seduced by slavery's wide-spread power over the minds of Southerners as he works the n-word into his conversation.
The amount of influence that both Southern christianity and southern slavery had over the South was present in that Huck truly believes that he will go to hell because he tries to raise his fellow man from the horrible conditions of being enslaved. His sentiments of being 'clean' and 'washed' after creating the potential to re-enslave his friend by writing the letter are representative of the norms of the Southern mindset in terms of slavery. After Huck agrees that he will go to hell, he decides to free Jim; and if anything came up that would worsen his punishment, he would do that too.
Twain's language in presenting Huck's resolution to help his friend Jim makes his profuse use of the n-word on pg. 230 somewhat surprising. He is demonstrating how the institution of slavery could make someone who had resolved to rebel against the institution still give in to its pressures. Despite Huck's resolve, the Southern norms are still able to make him act in ways that do no reflect his morals and values.