Chapter 16, there is a part in this book that I wouldn't necessarily say is my favorite.....but I felt strongly about it, this chapter had brought up some strong emotion. Huck and Jim are looking for
If you indeed read this: the part when Huck is saying how it wasn't right that Jim was going to steal his children if he didn't pay for them—Oooo, did this ever make me mad especially when Huck got this idea, the underlined italicized section is where I felt some steam dribble out...
“I was sorry to hear Jim say that, it was such a lowering of him. My conscience got to stirring me up hotter than ever, until at last I says to it, "Let up on me -- it ain't too late yet -- I'll paddle ashore at the first light and tell." I felt easy and happy and light as a feather right off. All my troubles was gone. I went to looking out sharp for a light, and sort of singing to myself. By and by one showed.”
This utterly made me feel even more disgusted with this book, I despised Huck, I felt he was such a little bastard. Really, it wasn’t just Huck or what he said, it was the way of thinking from the time. Mark Twain does a good job of bringing to the surface how it was ok to treat blacks the way they did, with no second thought. That’s how it was. This angered and saddens me, most defiantly when Jim was saying……..
"Pooty soon I'll be a-shout'n' for joy, en I'll say, it's all on accounts o' Huck; I's a free man, en I couldn't ever ben free ef it hadn' ben for Huck; Huck done it. Jim won't ever forgit you, Huck; you's de bes' fren' Jim's ever had; en you's de only fren' ole Jim's got now."
Can’t Huck see how Jim feels? Jim’s intentions? Jim had even said he was going to first try to pay for his children. When Jim said this and Huck was still thinking what he was, I just thought: “You cold hearted bastard, how could you do this to him.” Jim had always been so loyal and hadn’t ever tricked Huck, i.e.—Huck asked Jim to go and prepare the canoe and he gone an’ done it right away. The way Jim expresses himself reminds me of a dog in the sense that he is happy, kind, and loyal. Why would someone want to just cut the feet of off a dog that a had been nothing but good to you? Jim doesn’t deserve to be turned in.
It was relieving that Huck ended up not doing as he first thought he should, but him thinking as he did resonated with me. I still wonder—with all the lies Huck’s been whooping out to people’s ears—if he is going to end up two facing Jim and handing him over to the widow and such.
To go back to where I mentioned that it was the state of mind back when, well it is no excuse for Huck. Huck may have been brought up to think of right and wrong in the way he does, but he has showed us he is still a free mind thinking for himself such as Huck deciding he still planned to go to school vs. what his dad wanted. Or when the Widow is telling him about hell and doing good and bad, instead of gobbling up the words or fearing hell he contemplates about it and makes his own decision. Huck faked his own death--before he goes and points the finger of shame on Jim he needs to look upon himself and the situation he had up and underdog. He said going on an adventure, well he just dipped out on responsibility, he couldn’t handle what was happening to him. Who is Huck to decide Jim has done wrong or not?
