Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (2)

It seems my prediction of Huck's rebellion is true, as the next series of chapters begin with him escaping his past life with an elaborate plan. He kills a pig and breaks down the cabin door to mask his escape with a seemed robbery. But my predictions of Tom and Huck are incorrect as Huck finds Jim hiding on the Island he escapes to. This, I feel is the beginning of the plot of the story, both Jim and Huck escaping society for personal reasons, Jim for racism and being sold to another family, and Huck for his life as a whole (and previously described in my last post). They both realize that the Island isn't completely isolated from society discovering a murdered man, the house floating down the river, and the snake bite Jim received. Jim hiding the dead man's face from Huck sends me the message that this developing relationship will succeed, since the murdered man is Pap. Huck may act like a child, but Jim's wisdom proves strong through every mishap.

Throughout the next few chapters, Huck's lying seems to be a beneficiary to both him and Jim. He lies to a woman about his origins, then lies on top of that when the woman discovers he is a boy. He then lies to the watchmen, but for a good cause this time, to save the robbers aboard the ferry. But his "adventure" on the sunken ferry both shows that he still has his childish Tom Sawyer-like impulses, and although they escape, both shows he is still a child and that Jim and Huck still are not safe from the violence of their society. Jim's allowance of Huck's shenanigans show that he is still scared to be turned in, even though Huck is his friend, he could, at any time, turn him in, especially since Huck has the lying skills of Jim Carrey in Liar Liar. These suspicions of turning Jim in are tested in the next several chapters, when Huck lies to some white men on shore about his family having smallpox and they ask if he is harboring a runaway slave. He says no, but afterwards pieces together different happenings to assure he did the right thing. He considers Miss Watson being a slave owner and being a good person, all the things he was taught growing up, and his time spent with Jim, then begins to question all the things white society taught him growing up. After this, Huck shows a large step forward in his maturity, as he learns to follow his conscience rather than the rules of white society he has been taught to enforce.

When Huck and Jim are split up, Huck is saved from a pack of dogs ashore by a man who invites him to his estate, owning over 100 slaves. Huck sees a large range of contradictions within this family during his stay including: A dead daughter who, when alive, wrote poems and illustrations about death, a feud between two white families, who held guns between their legs during church services while the pastor talked about loving your brother, and a white killing another white who Huck has become close with, Buck. Aside from the story, I do appreciate Mark Twain's mix of Romeo and Juliet into his story, with Sophia and Harney. Sadly, Huck's stay with this family comes to an end when Buck is killed by the feuding family, he drags his body from the river, crying, and runs off to find Jim, who followed him ashore but didn't want to get caught. They continue in the raft downstream. Two con-artist get on the raft to escape as well and lie saying they are a Duke and the Dauphin. These experiences, I feel, completely twist Huck's view of the world. The contradictions within the family he stayed with, the other slaves Jim threatens while ashore waiting for Huck, and the duke and dauphin. Jim is racist within his own race, and these two criminals, who still remain free white men seem to confuse and blur Huck's view of the world, also worsening it.

The following chapters are a series of adventures with the duke and dauphin, putting on Shakespearean plays for people. These chapters are a little confusing since a man is killed, then they go to lynch the killer, and run away when he comes to the door with a rifle. I do know, though, that the duke and dauphin pose as a large threat to Jim and Huck, even though they seem to be funny men. The circus that Huck attends seems to distort Huck's view of the world even further, since Huck can no longer tell the difference between what is real and what isn't.

I must admit, I'm a little scared for what might happen to Jim and Huck while they are "dragged" around by the duke and dauphin, especially because of their last experience with the two. I hope they can use their combined wits to escape them and continue on their path to freedom. We'll see what happens.