"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
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
posted by Sean Pankiewicz at 10:58 AM
3 Comments:
I like your clear commentary here, Sean, especially your perception of this moment as an "unlearning" moment for Huck. I wonder about the layers of irony in the "It don't seem natural, but I reckon it's so" line. Clearly HF is revealing here that he understands that a slave caring for children would not match the natural world he sees for white folks, but the evidence here, in Jim, contradicts his learning. Jim's emotions still strike him as not natural, but he does acknowledge their authenticity, and in doing so, seems to place his perceptions of the natural world (I reckon it's so) above those of his learning. He also appears to be doing this slowly and deliberately. Clearly, Twain does not believe what he has the unlettered Huck say, and that dramatic irony is pretty clear to us on a first read of this passage. Where the irony takes on another layer is when we contrast Huck's actual experience of whitefolks taking care of their children (Pap caring for Huck, for example). THAT sure adds another layer of meaning here. While I, clearly one of the white folks, nod knowingly at the "as much as white folks do theirn" I seee Huck elevating Jim to the level he thinks whitefolks hold. However this second irony suggests that that layer isn's very high, and that his use of whitefolks as a defining marker is pretty mistaken. Hmmm... Huck not cared for very well by Pap, the Duke and the King, the rapscallions on the Sir Walter Scott... not a high level to elevate Jim to! But that's Twain, not Huck. Anyway, I liked your commentary, and I like how it aims at a second layer of irony in that passage. -- PJC
This is a very good interpretation of the passage. You have a clear understanding of the way that Huck is thinking and the unlearning that he has been doing. You put many good expamples of the unlearning and the way he was brought up and I can really see that you have read between the lines and that you have searched for the deeper meaningof the passage and the impact race had on relationships with eople during that time.
Although I have yet to finish the book, pJc has made it clear that it is the "unlearning" of Huck. This passage exemplifies this almost entirely.
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