HUCK JOURNAL RESPONSE #1

HOW HAS SOCIETY SHAPED HUCK AND HOW DOES HE ACT ONCE HE IS AWAY FROM IT?

In the book Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain Huck seems to have two different ways of going about life. There is the way that he has been taught to live, the right way, the “civilized” way, and then there is the real Huck. This is evident constantly throughout the book. Whenever in contact with people, with the exception of Jim, he seems torn between the way he thinks he should be, and what he wants to be deep inside. Yet, this is probably the way we all are, if one was to think about it, as nobody as far as I know really acts the same in public as they do when they are by themselves, when they are free.

Huck has many similarities to the main characters in all the other books we have read so far this year, such as Holden, and Bilbo. They are all misfits, they don’t fit in, and they seem rather apt to trouble. But Huck, unlike Bilbo and Holden, especially Holden, seems for a large part at least, to think that Society is actually right. This is a very interesting twist to me, on this type of story. Huckleberry often finds himself contemplating that the real Huck, as I shall call him is wrong, and that the Huck society wants to exist would be right. This is very much evident on the question of slavery. Although one can see that Huck deep down inside really isn’t all too prejudiced, society has drilled into him so much that “niggers” as he and everyone called Black people at that time, were rather inferior. He just seems to accept as a fact that they are supposed to be slaves, and he really doesn’t even question it. Its not really a matter of right or wrong, it just is, if you understand my point. Anyhow, one can see that Huck thinks society is right because he feels so bad because he didn’t turn ol’ Jim in. Huck’s belief that maybe society is right can also be seen in other things such as religion, and superstition. I’m not sure weather Huck consciously are unconsciously believes that Huck is wrong and Society is right, but it seems clear that he “thinks it one way or the other fer sure.” as he would say. So in short, it is the opposite of what Holden seems to want. Holden hates society, knows it’s wrong, phony, or whatever, while Huck is trying to get away from it, but he thinks it is right. Even his supposedly completely unsociably correct friend Tom Sawyer shows his hidden belief in society, with no killing on Sundays etc. And yet even more, Jim himself, a slave, doesn’t seem to question slavery, he just knows that he doesn’t like it and wants to get away from it (or more accurately being sold) That is how deep it has been brainwashed into them.

Another thing that I find interesting is that also unlike our friend Holden, to which I refer constantly, Huck seems to have “zones” for each of his sides. When he is adventuring, sailing, out on the river in short, he slowly becomes real Huck, forgets his prejudices, and is able to be free. Its rather ironic too, as the river is actually deciding where he goes, how fast he goes there, and constrains his movement considerably, but since he is able to be himself, and well I guess thats what Freedom really is. However whenever he ventures back on to land, he becomes society’s Huck, or sometimes he becomes societies some-one else, such as the girl he pretends to be. And society always leads to trouble as can be seen just about every-time he goes to land, most notably the family-feud thing, which ends in a disastrous mini-war/massacre because he tried to be a gentleman for the lady. And if one wishes to put it in a very literal type of way, the land is like slavery because out on Jim is only free on the water, if he was captured the “evil slave people” would take him to land where he would be a slave.

So in conclusion, it seems that Huck, and Jim too who is also seeming to grow up a bit, even though he is fully grown, is torn between the Society Huck and the Huck Huck. And like the characters in our other books, he is slowly but surely permanently growing out of one and into the other. They are becoming themselves, and that is to be truly be free.