Impressions
At the starting of the book, I got the Impression that Huck Finn was a little immature, not well disciplined and was racist against black people as this book takes place when there was slavery in the United States. As the book progressed, the impressions I had of Huck Finn started to change. In chapters thirty two to the end of the book, Jim (A black slave and Huck’s friend) was captured as a runaway slave. Huck Finn decides to help free Jim and help him get to freedom. This decision of Huck Finn changed my impression of him being discriminative against black people and made me look at him like he was one of the few white people during that time period that looked at the slaves as people too. I also got the impression that even though Huck Finn likes adventures, he likes to do things in a simpler and realistic way unlike his friend Tom. Huck Finn seems to be more of a follower then a leader and is sometimes ignorant while following a person whose ideas lack intelligence.
Tom Sawyer had a small introduction in the starting of the book which gave me the impression that he was an extremely adventurous person and also quite dangerous due to some of the plans he had. In the starting, like Huck, I felt that Tom was also racist towards black people. As more of Tom’s character is revealed in chapters thirty two to the end, I got the impression that he is little crazy and insane due to some of the ideas he presented. I felt that he was overly influenced by books about, gangs, robbers, pirates, prisoners and such kind. I thought that he highly believed in stereotypes presented in those books about prisons, gangs, robbers, etc. and was always eager to do things the way that they were done in books which were usually very unrealistic and practically impossible. For a while my impression of him being racist changed when he decided to help free Jim, but again it changed back to how it was before when I realized that Tom knew that Jim was set free by his owner from who he had run away from and was just trying to set up an adventure for himself by acting to free Jim when Jim was already supposed to be free.
From chapter thirty two till the end the book takes place in Arkansas at Phelp’s (Tom’s uncle) home. I got the impression that the house is very big and it is located in a big farm from how Huck describes the place. I also got the feeling that the place was isolated and there wasn’t easy access to resources for the family. I also thought that there weren’t many slaves and slave cabins at their place as compared to other big farms.
Character Analysis
The most influential characters during chapters thirty two to the end were Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer and Aunt Sally.
Huck Finn
Huck Finn is born into a lower class family in the white community. His father is not a very good parental figure, he drinks a lot and is gone to faraway places most of the time. There is a widow there that acts as his guardian and tries to discipline him but without much success. After that he runs away from home and faces many adventures before he arrives at Phelp’s house. In his society where he was living with the widow, he had been taught many things about society, life and what is right. He had been taught things like, it is right for them to have slaves, it’s their right to have them and they can be sold and bought. Huck decides that he does not feel that these teachings are right and that it would be right for him to help a slave become free. He decides to go against the society because his conscience tells him that it is not right to have slaves and treat them like items by buying and selling them. As he experiences the adventures with Jim, his goal eventually becomes to free Jim from slavery and take him to a state where slavery is not allowed. Huck Finn is greatly influenced by Tom Sawyer and often looks at him like a role model to deal with situations. Sometimes you get the feeling that Tom is the leader and Huck chooses to follow him and stays ignorant when he knows that Tom has made a ridiculous plan instead of convincing him to make a change the plan. Overall, Huck Finn is a character who thinks and decides what is right himself instead of following the society and their beliefs.Tom Sawyer
Tom Sawyer is Huck’s best friend. As he grew up, he had a lot of interest in adventure books and read many throughout his childhood. Since he was too young while reading these books, he was unable to understand that actions and facts that are mentioned in such books are not realistic. He, instead, takes the things done in the book and thinks that they are the right ways to do things and any other ways are wrong. Tom is usually a leader and often comes up with bizarre ideas that he had read about in books and tries to apply those ideas to real life. When he is coming to his Aunt’s home, he meets Huck Finn and agrees to help Huck free Jim. Tom’s character also shows the cruelty in the society because he knew that Jim’s owner had freed Jim out of slavery but he still decides to have his own fun by keeping Jim locked up and making his weird and unusual plans to free him. Unlike Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer is a character that follows what the society believes and teaches him.Aunt Sally
Aunt Sally is the aunt of Tom Sawyer. She mistakes Huck for Tom and treats Huck very well. As the book goes on, we find out that she has a racist attitude towards black people as well. When Huck uses the excuse that the cylinder head blew out for him coming late, Aunt Sally asks if anyone got hurt and when Huck says a black person was killed, she replies by saying, “Well, it’s lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt.” This shows how cruelly Aunt Sally discriminated black people. She did not even consider them people by saying that ‘people’ get hurt sometimes when Huck said that a black man was hurt. She also has a tendency to overreact to things like when things are misplaced or if there are insects in the house, etc. She is very protective of Huck (who she thinks is Tom) and Tom (who she thinks is Sid, Tom’s brother) and is very loving to them. Most Memorable Moment
The most memorable moment in this section for me was when Tom Sawyer reveals that Jim was set free by his master Miss Watson. He reveals this after he has had his fun by making an adventure out of freeing Jim by torturing and doing all sorts of cruel things to Jim. This moment was the most memorable for me because it shows the cruelty that the slaves faced and how an ignorant person can let such cruelty happen. Tom knew from the start that Jim was set free but he decided to not say it and did many kinds of cruel things. He rejected Huck’s plan of a short and easy plan and made sure the plan was as long as possible so he can do many things that would make Jim uncomfortable and torture him as much as possible. He makes it longer by doing pointless things such as creating a rope ladder that Jim has to hide and he makes the excuse that they do that in books. Then he gets a shirt for Jim to write on even though he knows Jim can’t write so he just tells him to make marks on the shirt and he has to do it with blood. Tom just wants Jim to hurt himself so he doesn’t change the plan when he realizes Jim can’t write. Tom decides to dig a hole from under the cabin where Jim is instead of just stealing the key so his plan can go longer so he can have ‘fun’ while Jim has to stay like a prisoner. Tom also makes Jim write on a rock, when first of all he can’t write, and now he has to do it on a rock when he is trying for the first time. When all of that was not fun enough for Tom, he decide that they need to put snakes, spiders and other animals and insects in Jim’s cabin to make it more like prison and further torture Jim. All of the things mentioned in the above paragraph could have been stopped if Huck was not being ignorant and a blind follower. When Tom tells Huck that they should make a longer and a more complex plan, Huck just agrees even though he knows that there is no necessity for a long plan. When Tom said that they need to get a shirt for Jim to write a journal on and a rope ladder to hide because it is how it is done it books, Huck does not try to go against those ideas and just does as Tom said. Even when Tom said that Jim would write with his blood, Huck just went along without much rejection. When Tom rejected Huck’s idea to steal the key, Huck does not try to convince him but instead just plays along with his pointless plan. Also, when Tom tells Jim to write some lines on a rock, Huck agrees to go along after a few arguments. Huck could have also stopped Tom from putting snakes and spiders in the cabin as all of that was not needed and Huck knew that very well but he just stayed ignorant. Huck, in a way, was just as responsible for all the things that happened to Jim. When Tom Sawyer revealed that he had known that Jim was freed from slavery during that whole plan to free him it really shocked me and made me realize the cruelty and discrimination towards slaves and also the effects of being ignorant and became my most memorable moment.Setting
The book takes place in the 1800s. In chapters thirty two to the end, the story takes place at Phelps’ home which is in Arkansas. Their home is in a fairly isolated area. 
Style and Structure
The book is written in the point of view of Huck Finn. The author frequently uses the Southern and black dialects during that time period. The use of these dialects helps the reader get more into the novel and help the reader imagine how the lines were said.Some examples of the usage of dialects in this section of the book are: Jim: “De goodness gracious alive, Mars Tom! Why, if dey was a rattlesnake to come heah, I’d take en bust right out thoo dat log wall, I would, wid my head.” Another slave: “Hannel ‘m Mars Sid? What is you a talkin’ ‘bout? I wouldn’ lay de weight er my finger on um, not f’r ten hund’d thous’n’ billion dollars, I wouldn’t.” Another technique that the author uses is to italicize to put emphasis on a certain word in the sentence.This really helps the reader get the right understanding of what the author meant to say in the line. A lot of times this technique is used to show irony which makes the novel enjoyable and adds a little humour once in a while.Examples of this technique from the book: Tom: “I’ll help you steal him!” Huck: “Tom Sawyer a nigger stealer!. The above example of Huck calling Tom a nigger stealer has a sarcastic tone as Huck knows, and the author has also made it quite clear to us, that helping free a slave is not anything close to what Tom would do. The italics help convey the tone effectively.Contemporary Relevance - Newspaper Article
Questions
1. Do you think that Tom Sawyer was actually that much into books that he took all the rules in them and tried to use them in helping Jim escape, or do you think that it was an act of cruelty towards Jim and Tom just wanted to have fun by torturing him? Explain why.2. What do you think the author is trying to say about the white people’s perspective towards slavery in that time period by the characters Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer?3. In the book, Huck says, “No’m. Killed a nigger.” Then Aunt Sally relies by saying, “Well, it’s lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt.” Analyze Aunt Sally’s response. What does this say about the whole theme of slavery and discrimination?4. In what ways is Huck Finn a strong character and in what ways is he a weak character?
By:
Shivad
Alexsons Response to Shivads Questions :
1. I don't believe that Tom was acting very cruel to Jim just because he was following rules from a book. He wanted to just torture Jim, and there are many reasons why but here are some. One would be that, Jim is a slave and a black person, so he is a major minority in their country. Tom must have been a racist minded person, and when he saw that Huck was helping a Black person he probably felt ashamed and wanted to make Jim feel unwanted and all. Another reason could be that, Tom himself is a very rude boy with a heart. He is a good person but he at the same time is pretty mischevious and enjoys watching other people in pain and do his work for him. As that is what Tom does to alot of children in Mark Twains previous novel, Tom Sawyer. Overall, Tom may have done it all for just his amusement but that doesn't mean he isn't a good person.
2. What the author is trying to say from the whites perspective of slavery is that, it is a job and many people can do it. It is a degrading job, though and most slaves are all black as blacks do not deserve to be in the same employment areas as white people. Also that Slaves do not have the right to speak their opinion and they must follow what ever their masters tell them to do. An example of this would be, When Jim tells Huck about how Miss Watson had been planning on giving him away to somewhere else, Jim asks and Miss Watson gets outraged and doesn't listen to his opinion. Overall, Jim and Huck both had a very bad perspective of slavery, well that is until they meet Jim who changes their perspectives of slavery in a very shocking way.
3.That shows that blacks were not even considered being human beings at all, kind of like what Hitler did to the Jews, but I am sure many do not want to be even related to him or said to be something like him. Well then why did they act like this?Media and brain washing historical people.Overall, it was a very bad time for the blacks, and it has changed alot now.
4. Huck is a strong character because he thinks very broadly about the facts of life and nature. He questions god and many things that surprise and outrage many people such as his foster parent. He is still a very michevious boy but he still does have a lot more humanity in him then Huck and he likes listening to stories and other things that make him more intelligent, such as education being taught to him by Miss Watson. He is a weak person because he trusts in his freinds way to much, and he lets them choose his paths to take in life. Like when Tom was hurting Jim with very crude manual labour, Huck who likes Jim likes Tom better and so he lets Tom do all those thing and says nothng about it. Overall, Huck is a god person but he has a weakness that can cause him alot of emotional damage.
Shivad, your blog is very good, and I enjoyed reading it, as you made it interesting and very informative. There are pictures and some quotes to make me think. Overall, you did alot of work and it shows through your blog. Good job.
-Alexson Philipiah
Huck Finn
Huck Finn is born into a lower class family in the white community. His father is not a very good parental figure, he drinks a lot and is gone to faraway places most of the time. There is a widow there that acts as his guardian and tries to discipline him but without much success. After that he runs away from home and faces many adventures before he arrives at Phelp’s house. In his society where he was living with the widow, he had been taught many things about society, life and what is right. He had been taught things like, it is right for them to have slaves, it’s their right to have them and they can be sold and bought. Huck decides that he does not feel that these teachings are right and that it would be right for him to help a slave become free. He decides to go against the society because his conscience tells him that it is not right to have slaves and treat them like items by buying and selling them. As he experiences the adventures with Jim, his goal eventually becomes to free Jim from slavery and take him to a state where slavery is not allowed. Huck Finn is greatly influenced by Tom Sawyer and often looks at him like a role model to deal with situations. Sometimes you get the feeling that Tom is the leader and Huck chooses to follow him and stays ignorant when he knows that Tom has made a ridiculous plan instead of convincing him to make a change the plan. Overall, Huck Finn is a character who thinks and decides what is right himself instead of following the society and their beliefs.
Tom Sawyer
Tom Sawyer is Huck’s best friend. As he grew up, he had a lot of interest in adventure books and read many throughout his childhood. Since he was too young while reading these books, he was unable to understand that actions and facts that are mentioned in such books are not realistic. He, instead, takes the things done in the book and thinks that they are the right ways to do things and any other ways are wrong. Tom is usually a leader and often comes up with bizarre ideas that he had read about in books and tries to apply those ideas to real life. When he is coming to his Aunt’s home, he meets Huck Finn and agrees to help Huck free Jim. Tom’s character also shows the cruelty in the society because he knew that Jim’s owner had freed Jim out of slavery but he still decides to have his own fun by keeping Jim locked up and making his weird and unusual plans to free him. Unlike Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer is a character that follows what the society believes and teaches him.
Aunt Sally
Aunt Sally is the aunt of Tom Sawyer. She mistakes Huck for Tom and treats Huck very well. As the book goes on, we find out that she has a racist attitude towards black people as well. When Huck uses the excuse that the cylinder head blew out for him coming late, Aunt Sally asks if anyone got hurt and when Huck says a black person was killed, she replies by saying, “Well, it’s lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt.” This shows how cruelly Aunt Sally discriminated black people. She did not even consider them people by saying that ‘people’ get hurt sometimes when Huck said that a black man was hurt. She also has a tendency to overreact to things like when things are misplaced or if there are insects in the house, etc. She is very protective of Huck (who she thinks is Tom) and Tom (who she thinks is Sid, Tom’s brother) and is very loving to them.
Most Memorable Moment
The most memorable moment in this section for me was when Tom Sawyer reveals that Jim was set free by his master Miss Watson. He reveals this after he has had his fun by making an adventure out of freeing Jim by torturing and doing all sorts of cruel things to Jim. This moment was the most memorable for me because it shows the cruelty that the slaves faced and how an ignorant person can let such cruelty happen.
Tom knew from the start that Jim was set free but he decided to not say it and did many kinds of cruel things. He rejected Huck’s plan of a short and easy plan and made sure the plan was as long as possible so he can do many things that would make Jim uncomfortable and torture him as much as possible. He makes it longer by doing pointless things such as creating a rope ladder that Jim has to hide and he makes the excuse that they do that in books. Then he gets a shirt for Jim to write on even though he knows Jim can’t write so he just tells him to make marks on the shirt and he has to do it with blood. Tom just wants Jim to hurt himself so he doesn’t change the plan when he realizes Jim can’t write. Tom decides to dig a hole from under the cabin where Jim is instead of just stealing the key so his plan can go longer so he can have ‘fun’ while Jim has to stay like a prisoner. Tom also makes Jim write on a rock, when first of all he can’t write, and now he has to do it on a rock when he is trying for the first time. When all of that was not fun enough for Tom, he decide that they need to put snakes, spiders and other animals and insects in Jim’s cabin to make it more like prison and further torture Jim.
All of the things mentioned in the above paragraph could have been stopped if Huck was not being ignorant and a blind follower. When Tom tells Huck that they should make a longer and a more complex plan, Huck just agrees even though he knows that there is no necessity for a long plan. When Tom said that they need to get a shirt for Jim to write a journal on and a rope ladder to hide because it is how it is done it books, Huck does not try to go against those ideas and just does as Tom said. Even when Tom said that Jim would write with his blood, Huck just went along without much rejection. When Tom rejected Huck’s idea to steal the key, Huck does not try to convince him but instead just plays along with his pointless plan. Also, when Tom tells Jim to write some lines on a rock, Huck agrees to go along after a few arguments. Huck could have also stopped Tom from putting snakes and spiders in the cabin as all of that was not needed and Huck knew that very well but he just stayed ignorant. Huck, in a way, was just as responsible for all the things that happened to Jim.
When Tom Sawyer revealed that he had known that Jim was freed from slavery during that whole plan to free him it really shocked me and made me realize the cruelty and discrimination towards slaves and also the effects of being ignorant and became my most memorable moment.
Setting
The book takes place in the 1800s. In chapters thirty two to the end, the story takes place at Phelps’ home which is in Arkansas. Their home is in a fairly isolated area.
Style and Structure
The book is written in the point of view of Huck Finn.
The author frequently uses the Southern and black dialects during that time period. The use of these dialects helps the reader get more into the novel and help the reader imagine how the lines were said.
Some examples of the usage of dialects in this section of the book are:
Jim: “De goodness gracious alive, Mars Tom! Why, if dey was a rattlesnake to come heah, I’d take en bust right out thoo dat log wall, I would, wid my head.”
Another slave: “Hannel ‘m Mars Sid? What is you a talkin’ ‘bout? I wouldn’ lay de weight er my finger on um, not f’r ten hund’d thous’n’ billion dollars, I wouldn’t.”
Another technique that the author uses is to italicize to put emphasis on a certain word in the sentence.This really helps the reader get the right understanding of what the author meant to say in the line. A lot of times this technique is used to show irony which makes the novel enjoyable and adds a little humour once in a while.
Examples of this technique from the book:
Tom: “I’ll help you steal him!”
Huck: “Tom Sawyer a nigger stealer!.
The above example of Huck calling Tom a nigger stealer has a sarcastic tone as Huck knows, and the author has also made it quite clear to us, that helping free a slave is not anything close to what Tom would do. The italics help convey the tone effectively.
Contemporary Relevance - Newspaper Article
Questions
1. Do you think that Tom Sawyer was actually that much into books that he took all the rules in them and tried to use them in helping Jim escape, or do you think that it was an act of cruelty towards Jim and Tom just wanted to have fun by torturing him? Explain why.2. What do you think the author is trying to say about the white people’s perspective towards slavery in that time period by the characters Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer?3. In the book, Huck says, “No’m. Killed a nigger.” Then Aunt Sally relies by saying, “Well, it’s lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt.” Analyze Aunt Sally’s response. What does this say about the whole theme of slavery and discrimination?4. In what ways is Huck Finn a strong character and in what ways is he a weak character?
By:
Shivad
Alexsons Response to Shivads Questions :
1. I don't believe that Tom was acting very cruel to Jim just because he was following rules from a book. He wanted to just torture Jim, and there are many reasons why but here are some. One would be that, Jim is a slave and a black person, so he is a major minority in their country. Tom must have been a racist minded person, and when he saw that Huck was helping a Black person he probably felt ashamed and wanted to make Jim feel unwanted and all. Another reason could be that, Tom himself is a very rude boy with a heart. He is a good person but he at the same time is pretty mischevious and enjoys watching other people in pain and do his work for him. As that is what Tom does to alot of children in Mark Twains previous novel, Tom Sawyer. Overall, Tom may have done it all for just his amusement but that doesn't mean he isn't a good person.
2. What the author is trying to say from the whites perspective of slavery is that, it is a job and many people can do it. It is a degrading job, though and most slaves are all black as blacks do not deserve to be in the same employment areas as white people. Also that Slaves do not have the right to speak their opinion and they must follow what ever their masters tell them to do. An example of this would be, When Jim tells Huck about how Miss Watson had been planning on giving him away to somewhere else, Jim asks and Miss Watson gets outraged and doesn't listen to his opinion. Overall, Jim and Huck both had a very bad perspective of slavery, well that is until they meet Jim who changes their perspectives of slavery in a very shocking way.
3.That shows that blacks were not even considered being human beings at all, kind of like what Hitler did to the Jews, but I am sure many do not want to be even related to him or said to be something like him. Well then why did they act like this?Media and brain washing historical people.Overall, it was a very bad time for the blacks, and it has changed alot now.
4. Huck is a strong character because he thinks very broadly about the facts of life and nature. He questions god and many things that surprise and outrage many people such as his foster parent. He is still a very michevious boy but he still does have a lot more humanity in him then Huck and he likes listening to stories and other things that make him more intelligent, such as education being taught to him by Miss Watson. He is a weak person because he trusts in his freinds way to much, and he lets them choose his paths to take in life. Like when Tom was hurting Jim with very crude manual labour, Huck who likes Jim likes Tom better and so he lets Tom do all those thing and says nothng about it. Overall, Huck is a god person but he has a weakness that can cause him alot of emotional damage.
Shivad, your blog is very good, and I enjoyed reading it, as you made it interesting and very informative. There are pictures and some quotes to make me think. Overall, you did alot of work and it shows through your blog. Good job.
-Alexson Philipiah
