At the end of Chapter XXIV in Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, as "them two frauds…go all to smash" and start blubbering to the townspeople of Hookerville about the loss of his brother Peter Wilks, Huck comments that their display "was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race."(210). Comment on the significance of Huck’s statement, using both the novel and examples from literature, the arts, science and technology, history, current events, or your own experience or observation. -- PJClements

“I knowed what it was about. He was thinking about his wife and his children, away up wonder, and he was low and homesick; because he hadn’t ever been away from home before in his life; and I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks does for theirn. It don’t seem natural, but I reckon it’s so. (201)”

The novel Huck Finn is as much a journey inside the emotions and maturity of a young boy as a makeshift journey down a muddy southern river, and such a connection is vibrantly present in the above passage. While observing Jim “moaning and mourning to himself” one morning on the raft, Huck realizes that he is pining for his lost family and that Jim’s level of emotion is strikingly similar to that which white folks would have felt in his position. Such a realization not only develops the idea of Huck’s “unlearning,” the reversal of his inborn stereotypes, but also emphasizes the wonderfully unconventional relationship between Huck and Jim. Literally, the passage echoes Jim’s pervious lament about missing his wife and children and his woes that he cannot be with them (p. 201), along with his now seemingly futile plans to buy them out of slavery. Figuratively, however, Twain juxtaposes the “current” status of black Americans with Huck’s newfound attitude towards them: although it “don’t seem natural” for Jim to be nursing such strong emotions, Huck accepts this with the recognition that he is acting just as a white man would do. Although Huck does not acknowledge this concluding equality, one can sense it worming its way into his mind. The elevating factor of this whole scenario is the bond between Huck and Jim, and, even thought Huck does not treat Jim like a slave, he is beginning to slowly comprehend that he is a human being and is undeserving of inferiority. Huck’s “unlearning” continues to consume his attitude towards his travel companion and helps Huck escape from the closed-minded world he was accustomed to.

Chapter 18
I was to blame somehow. (153)

This statement, narrated by Huck, comes as the deadly episode of the Sheperdson and Grangerford’s familial war ends with the murder of many members from both parties, including Colonel Grangerford and Buck Grangerford, Huck’s equivalent character. This passage not only suggests the pattern of Huck’s childlike ignorance yet mature reasoning, but also underscores an accidental, unknowing observer’s guilt in an acceptedly violent situation. Huck literally implies his guilty feelings in but this one line, leaving the rest of the paragraph to be mostly understatements of what should be a shell-shocked child (after just watching two boys die at the hands of grown men). Says Huck, “I was mighty down-hearted.” As the reader is not offered access into the trauma that should now reside in Huck, Twain allows this one statement to be Huck’s admittance to holding a major role in this battle. However, Huck plays no major role in the conflict itself, and it is because of this that just as he entered their scene, he leaves. On a larger level, however Twain indicates this breed of situation, not new to protagonists, as a something that has manifested itself to hold greater power than it should. A conflict that no one of the current generation can now remember, battling till death for no reason other than being told can be considered Twain’s satirization of blindly accepting beliefs, such as that of religion and politics, and proceeding to fight to the death for them. Huck is not actually to blame in this story, but with the assumed “Friar” position, that of the messenger and “good”-intender, Huck becomes “to blame.”

I knowed what it was about. He was thinking about his wife and his chilfren, away up wonder, and he weas low and homesick; because he hadn’t ever been away from home before in his life; and I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks does for theirn. It don’t seem natural, but I reckon it’s so. (201)

Huck says this when he is thinking about Jim and how he feels about his family. This passage not only reveals the theme of the unlearning that Huck has done with the stereotype of black people that he has, but also repeats the conflict between what Huck thinks is right and what Huck knows is right. Literally Huck describes the way that Jim felt and spoke about his family and his yearning to be reunited with them. On a larger level however, Huck starts to think of slaves more of people than of property which is important because of the whole countries view of black people and the slaves. When Huck begins to feel that Jim is an actual human who has feeling and emotions, Huck begins to wonder if what he has been wrong in his thinking about slaves. This is tremendously important because it displays the true unlearning that Huck has been doing on his adventure. When Huck said “I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks does for theirn.” We learn that his social perceptions are truly changing.
– LAURA ANN BELL

I got to steal that money, somehow; and I got tot steal it some way that they won’t suspicion that I done it….(226)

Huck says this once he sees that the men are going to trick “this family and this town for all their worth”(226). He plans to steal it and then hide it for Mary Jane, the owner, to find. This passage not only reveals the caring side of Huck, but suggests the importance that other people have to him. Instead of saying that he will take the money for himself, he wants to give it back to Mary Jane since it was taken from the crooks. Literally, the passage shows Huck being a more caring individual. Figuratively, however, it suggests the changes that Huck has gone through on his journey, given that early on, he would have wanted the money for himself. Huck steals the money and gives her a note telling her where it is hidden. This is a big step for Huck in his development throughout the book, and he will continue to change and mature as he continues his wild adventure.

-Jarrett Kunze

"I knowed what it was about. He was thinking about his wife and his children, away up wonder, and he was low and homesick; because he hadn’t ever been away from home before in his life; and I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks does for theirn. It don’t seem natural, but I reckon it’s so. (201)"

Huck says this about Jim after Jim yet again takes Huck’s night shift in order to let Huck Finn sleep in. This passage not only reveals how much Jim wants to hold his wife and children in his arms again, but also reiterates how Huck is unlearning all of the prejudices that he gained through his life as a southern country boy. Literally, the author displays how Jim loves his family dearly and wants them back to the point of him crying. On a larger level, however, the narrator reveals how Jim “cared just as much for his people as white folks does for theirn.”(201). This revelation of Huckleberry Finn shows how Huck is beginning to understand how similar Jim is to any other white person and is the catalyst for Huck’s process of unlearning his past prejudices. Because of Huck’s close relation to Jim, Huck begins to notice how loving and considerate Jim really is and he begins to move past his past narrow-mindedness and progresses towards understanding the commonly misinterpreted African American race.


-Sean Pankiewicz

"It warn't the grounding -- that didn't keep us back but a little. We blowed out a cylinder-head."
"Good gracious! anybody hurt?"
"No'm. Killed a nigger."
"Well, it's lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt. -HF, P. 279

This is a conversation between Huck and Aunt Sally, after Huck and Jim part ways and Huck travels on his own. This passage not only echoes Huck’s ever changing position on slavery and African-American rights but also juxtaposes the prevailing belief that slaves are not people, merely chattel. Literally, the passage displays the common disregard for African-Americans at this period in time, where their lives are counted strictly on a monetary basis. On a larger level, Twain writes these lines loaded with sarcasm and irony, predicting that future readers will comprehend the impropriety with which this scene is crafted. Also, possibly inadvertently, the term “Aunt Sally” is also a metaphorical phrase to mean something that is a target for criticism; in this case, Twain is criticizing her attitude toward the African American race.In addition, Twain satirizes the uncouth mentality which Aunt Sally so absolutely portrays in this scene. “Sometimes people do get hurt,” directly exposes and explicates the white Southern attitude toward slavery; their belief of their own righteousness and virtuosity despite their apparent mistreatment of other beings.
                                                                                                               –Kristofer Kalas

“Do I know you? I know you clear through. I was born and raised in the south, and I’ve lived in the north; so I know the average all around. The average man’s a coward…Why don’t your juries hang murderers? Because they’re afraid the man’s friends will shoot them in the back, in the dark – and it’s just what they would do.”(190)

Sherburn gives this powerful speech to the angry mob that wants to kill him after Sherburn kills Boggs. He is infuriated by the fact that these people are trying to act tough and angry when they are scared to do anything by themselves. This passage not only develops the idea of the cowardice of men but also satirizes the self preserving decisions of society. Literally Sherburn is exclaiming that all men are cowards, from north to south, and that is why an entire group of people can get robbed without one brave person to stand up to the robber. On a larger level however, Sherburn is revealing how men will make decisions that are wrong and unjust so that their own situation will stay safe. He exemplifies this idea by talking about juries. The juries, he feels, are so cowardice, selfish, and self interested people that they will not even put a murderer to death. Doing the right thing comes after one’s own health. In this passage Twain satirizes the cowardice of all men and how everyone thinks only of themselves.

English 11 compeers:

Today we will begin working as a community on a fresh new level, writing and reaction to HF on this weblog. We'll warm up with passage commentary on this Saturday morning. Our work together comes from these passages, and others you thought to be worth examination. In fresh posts above, select one of the passages, and add your commentary. Then, as read your colleagues work and respond! Click here for the 1st edition text at U.Va. The pagination below comes from the University of California definitive edition we use in class. -- PJClements


ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN -- Passage Commentary
Chapter 18.........."I was to blame somehow." (153)
Chapter 22.........."Do I know you? I know you clear through. I was born and raised in the south, and I’ve lived in the north; so I know the average all around. The average man’s a coward…"(190)
Chapter 23.........."I knowed what it was about. He was thinking about his wife and his chilfren, away up wonder, and he weas low and homesick; because he hadn’t ever been away from home before in his life; and I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks does for theirn. It don’t seem natural, but I reckon it’s so." (201)
Chapter 26.........."I got to steal that money, somehow; and I got tot steal it some way that they won’t suspicion that I done it…."(226)
Chaper 27.........."I thought them poor girls and the niggers would break their hearts for grief; they cried around each other, and took on so it most made ne down sick to see it. The girls said they hadn’t ever dreamed of seeing the family separated or sold away from the town. I can’t ever get it out of my memory… "(234)