Last one everybody! Yeah!
Chapter: 31
"At last I had an idea; and I says, I'll go and write the letter- and then see if I can pray." (page 194)
Comments and Questions:
At this point in the story, Jim has just been captured, and the duke and king are nowhere in sight, leaving all the thinking and doing to Huck for himself. There is no one else to help him decide what to do, and that is very apparent in this passage. Huck uses I repeatedly, reminding the reader that Huck is alone, with no advice or assistance from anyone else.
And the over usage of I gives Huck a feeling of loneliness. Jim was a great friend to Huck, and thus without him, Huck feels alone, which I believe helps Huckleberry make the decision to save Jim, because without Jim, Huck is alone in the world with no one to rely on or to take advice from.
Chapter: 32
"I went right along, not fixing up any plan, but just trusting to Providence to put the right words in my mouth when the time come; for I'd noticed that Providence always did put the right words in my mouth, if I left it alone." (page 199)
Comments and Questions:
Huck seems to think that ignorance is bliss, that if you don't know, then you can't fight the outcome of it all. He never presses an issue to much, nor does he like to say too much if it disturbers someone else's ignorance.
He goes to Phelps without a plan, leaving it up to someone else to get him out of a fix if he needs it... which does happen when he discovers that Aunt Sally mistook him for Tom.
Huck seems to think that if you don't try to plan too much, there won't any plans to fall through. Sometimes you can over think something, and then it never happens. I can see this coming into effect later on, Huck not wanting to explore something too much before he goes into action.
Chapter: 34
"I never said noting, because I warn't expecting nothing different; but I knowed mighty well that whenever he got his plan ready it wouldn't have none of them objections to it." (page 211)
Comments and Questions:
Tom is the leader of any group he is in, and that is particularly shown here by Twain to show who is leading this band of rascals. :) Huck is very observant, and knows a lot of things, even if sometimes he doesn't let everyone else know that he understands. Like with king and duke, he knew almost instantly that they weren't really a king and a duke, but dangerous men on the river. Huck has noticed that throughout his friendship with Tom, if Tom says something, nobody can say otherwise. I can see this coming into play in there lives continuously.
Chapter: 38
"He [Tom] could outsuperintend any boy I ever see. He knowed how to do everything." (page 235)
Comments and Questions:
Little side notes from my thoughts-- I got a little upset with Huck during this part of the book when he let Tom just take over. Huck has been basically living on his own for a long time now and has escaped many difficult situations with some flare, but when Tom comes into the picture, Huck steps aside and lets Tom take over. He may say a few comments like "this is pointeless" but after listening to Tom, he immediatly agrees to follow whatever Tom's instructions are. end of side note :)
I get the feeling sometimes of Huck and Tom's relationship being more like a big brother, little brother, where Tom is the big brother and Huck looks up to his older brother. I think it is Tom's confidence that makes him seem really brilliant, when in reality he is just making up most of the things he says.
Chapter: 40
"I did wish Aunt Sally would come, and get done, and lick me, if she wanted to, and let me get away and tell Tom how we'd overdone this thing, and what a thundering hornet's nest we'd got ourselves into, so we could stop fooling, straight off, and clear out with Jim before these rips got out of patience and come for us." (page 245)
Comments and Questions:
Now Huck is thinking everything through. He immediately said yes to Tom's plan, but now that he has seen the effect of their actions, he now doubts how they came about freeing Jim. Huck is like the friend that followed the other off the cliff, and then half way he was like... opps this was a mistake.
I think it's funny how Huck isn't even trying to think of an excuse at this point. Whenever I'm in trouble, I feel like the air is knocked out of me, and I can't think of anything other than, 'what's going to happen?', but I guess Huck has been in trouble a ton of times, so he is used to that scared feeling.
If there were a sequel to this book, I could see the theme of Tom leading, and Huck following on almost every page.
Chapter: 43
"... and I can't stand it. I been there before." (page 263)
Comments and Questions:
Huck is always looking for an adventure. Whenever something doesn't interest him, or isn't an adventure, he either ignores it or he tries to avoid it, but I feel that with Aunt Sally adopting him, it'll be a new adventure. He may have had other people that cared for him for a bit, but when someone REALLY cares for you, and not just your well-being but your happiness too it changes your lifestyle. They make you a birthday cake, and they cook your favorite meal because they love you. I feel that this new adventure will be good for Huck.
Thank you! I hope you enjoyed! I'll see y'all on Arena Day! :)
