Huck Finn - Chap. 37-38

I'm starting to get really, really annoyed by Tom Sawyer. It's like he doesn't really take anything seriously. Everything is like a game to him. I mean, I'm glad Huck got to meet up with his old friend, but if Tom hadn't been there, Huck and Jim would already be floating down the river towards Jim's freedom. Tom's just a little too stubborn for me I guess.

I did think it was funny, though, how Tom had Jim come out of the shack or whatever it was called that he was locked in to help Huck and him move the huge rock. He was pretty much helping a prisoner escape so they could get a pointless rock to bring back to the prisoner to help him escape. Tom is just making this whole ordeal very complicated.

Huck definitely has more respect for Jim than Tom does. I don't know why Huck didn't barge into the conversation and stop Tom when he was trying to get spiders and snakes and rats in with Jim when Jim obviously doesn't want them in with him and when it obviously could kill him before he got out of his "prison". I suppose Huck had given up a while ago because he had said something about how that's just the way Tom is when he gets an idea in his head. It's kind of ironic how Jim felt that it was more work to be a prisoner than to be a slave because of the way Tom was making it.

I think Huck is somewhat going back to how he was in the beginning of the book: just following what Tom Sawyer does, no matter how bad it makes his conscience feel. Huck felt bad for stealing Aunt Sally's stuff after she found out that the shirt was missing (although I'm sure not all of it was guilt, but the fear of being caught). It was kind of clever, though, how Tom and Huck tricked Aunt Sally into thinking she couldn't count the spoons anymore...although tricking her wasn't the right thing to do.

I found the part with the bed-sheet pie kind of interesting because--after confusing Aunt Sally once more--they took a whole sheet, which is hardly long enough to use as a ladder anyway and they cut most of the sheet off to make it fit into the pie. Huck said that the sheet could've went into 14 pies (or some big number like that), so I must wonder how small of a piece of the sheet they actually used.

I hope Tom and Huck finally get Jim out before he ends up getting shipped off somewhere else. Because at this rate, they'll be there for weeks and the house will be bare of all the family's possessions.

Huck Finn - Chap. 35-36

There are probably a few infulences that have "deformed" Huck's conscience. Right off, I'd have the say that Huck's Pap was the first bad influence on Huck. He would steal from others and call it borrowing, so Huck thought that stealing was just borrowing. Huck's father drank and I believe he smoked as well (I don't remember) but he let Huck think that drinking and smoking aren't bad for him.

One might say that the duke and the king deformed Huck's conscience, but I think they moreso made him realize what was bad. Tom Sawyer might be one who made Huck think it was okay to do bad things. Sometimes it's harder to say no to a friend than to another person. For some reason, Huck just couldn't say "no" to Tom when they were trying to free Jim and Tom was making it more ridiculous and difficult than it needed to be.

Lastly, I think some of the trials Huck and Jim went through might mess up Huck's conscience a little bit because at times they became desperate and had to steal to survive...which, I suppose, wouldn't seem quite as bad as stealing for greed, but still....they're taking from somebody else.

Of course there are still influences today that can damage a person's conscience. There are still parents that abuse and/or neglect their children. There are still criminals and corrupt people that can mess up children. There are still hardships that people go through that sometimes weaken their moral character. For all we know it will always be that way on this earth.

There are some forces, though, that can change "deformed" consciences. Naturally, I suppose, I'd have to say that God of course can change a messed up conscience. Reading the Bible can help people see what is right to do and what is wrong (although many may not believe what it says is true and may argue with it).

People with sound consciences can teach those with deformed consciences what is right, I suppose. If someone would just tell Huck that drinking excessively, stealing, lying, or any of the other bad things he does is wrong, and do it in a gentle, nonjudgemental way, maybe he would start to change. Even though she sometimes did it in a harsher way, Widow Douglas corrected Huck and he was beginning to feel bad about doing the wrong thing. His conscience was starting to change....but then he got stuck back with his Pap and was back to where he started.

Sometimes an act of kindness can change a person with a corrupt conscience. For example, the way the Wilks girls treated Huck made him feel bad about the duke and king stealing from them, so he tried to do what was right.

Huck Finn - Chap. 27-34

I believe that Huck is a round character and Jim is a flat character. Huck has went through many phsychological changes throughout the course of the novel, where Jim has stayed just about the same as in the beginning.

In the beginning, Huck took a little more after his dad and didn't really care as much if he hurt other people as long as he got what he wanted. But as the novel progresses, Huck seems to get more of a conscience when he's not around his Pap and Tom Sawyer. For example, when the con men tried to steal from the Wilkes's family, Huck felt really bad and wanted to give the money back to the family. Another time, after he'd hurt Jim's feelings, he went over to Jim and apologized, which was VERY uncommon for a white man to do back in those times.

Jim hasn't really been phased a whole lot by what has happened to him. Maybe it's because he doesn't fully understand it all, or maybe it's because he's already been through some hardships in his life. Either way, Jim is still the naive, caring individual that thinks more with his heart than his brain. For instance, he talks about how he'd smacked his daughter and not known that she was deaf and how he said that he cried and cried and asked for forgiveness from God. I could still see Jim doing the same thing today as he did back then (not hitting her, I mean, but comforting someone after he'd hurt them).

Huck Finn - Chap. 24-26

Huck seems to be growing more of a conscience as the book progresses. In the beginning of the story, he just went along with whatever Tom Sawyer did and what his father did and didn't really care about who it affected. Now, since the king and the duke are trying to con innocent and kind girls out of their money, Huck is trying to help them by stealing the money and giving it back to the girls. I suppose this would be a change for the better, since he's stealing from theives to give the money back to who it rightfully belongs to--sort of like Robin Hood.

From all of the experiences that Huck goes through, I think he's learned what the consequences of his actions are. He's starting to learn that black people have the same feelings as white people and are no lower than whites. I think Huck has also learned that people are not always what they seem--like the duke and the king for instance.

In the beginning of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck sort of thought of Jim as just Ms. Watsons n*****. I think he sort of saw him as maybe a little stupid as well back then, but now Huck sort of sees Jim as his friend and companion on their journey (though I think Huck still knows that Jim is....well...uneducated). Before, I don't think Huck would've apologized to a slave, especially with Tom Sawyer around, but after he hurt Jim's feelings when they were on the river, Huck said that he never felt sorry for it after he did apologize.

Huck Finn - Chap. 23

I find it funny that people will go to a show just because they think it's going to be dirty--and it was--and then get surprised about being jipped out of their money. Well, if a guy is willing to prance around on stage all painted up and naked, I don't think he'll feel too bad about taking your money.
I like how Huck can point out the exact number of dead cats in the place. That kind of amused me. It was pretty smart to take the money and run, even though it was probably not the right thing to do (maybe smart isn't the right word for it...). The way the duke talked about how he knew that the crowd would do that shows that this isn't the first time they've conned people out of their money.
I'm starting to really like Jim. He thinks more with his heart than with his head. The book showed how the white people thought of blacks as property back then because of how Huck said, "...and I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks does for their'n. It don't seem natural, but I reckon it's so." (p. 196) Even though Huck is only a child, he thinks more maturely than the adults did back then.
I like the story Jim told about his daughter Elizabeth and how he found out that she was deaf. She was probably just smiling at him because he was her dad and when he smacked her for not listening to him, I'm sure she didn't understand. The way Jim embraced her and said he'd never forgive himself and how he asked God to forgive him shows more of his loving character.

Huck Finn - Chap. 22

After Sherman kills Boggs, a mob forms and grabs every clothesline they can so that they can lynch him. They were all very confident, probably thinking that they could just take him without a fight, until he stood on top of his roof with his gun and faced them like a man. I agree with Sherman on some of the points he made about the mob. He’s pretty much saying that mobs are cowards and foolish men get other foolish men to follow them. This is pretty true, even today. We see people rioting and getting fired up about stuff, but not really having a purpose to it.

I don’t like the fact, though, that he killed Boggs because he was drunk and didn’t know any better, but he stood his ground against the mob and scared every one of them off, so you’ve got to kind of respect him for that. I think he was pretty much saying that there was no way on earth he was going to go down by a bunch of cowards, but only if a man leading real men was to come and take him.

I like when Huck was at the circus and the supposed drunk man rode the horse because Huck was the only one who wasn’t laughing when he thought that the man was really drunk. He saw the danger in it. But the man was actually a performer, which I think relieved Huck and made him enjoy the circus more.

I like how the king and the duke put on a show and get laughed at because they were taking it so seriously. It was kind of funny how they only had twelve people show up and they all left except for a kid who fell asleep. That’s a pretty boring show. It was pretty smart on the kings part to put up a new posters that said no ladies or children allowed because that would definitely get the scum that populate that town to come.