Dialectical Journal Of Huckleberry Finn

Improved Essays
The novels The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain, and Reservation Blues, written by Sherman Alexie, invite the reader into the life of Americans that they may not know much about, like the young white boy during the time of slavery, and the Native American searching for a better life than the reservation offers. Plot is what truly makes a novel an American read. The plot of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Reservation Blues is what drives the story and creates the American feel to a novel. The plot in the first half of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn relates to views on society for Americans, especially today, and the entire story is about society during slavery. When Huck says “The Widow Douglas she took me for …show more content…
Huck goes completely against the unwritten rules of society during the time by helping a black man. In the quote “I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a-trembling, because I’d got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: “All right then, I’ll go to hell”—and tore it up”(214), Huck decides to do everything he can to rescue Jim from the Phelpses’ shed instead of writing back to Miss Watson and getting Jim back into her possession. He does this because the thought of Jim being sold and leaving his family causes too much guilt for Huck to handle. This demonstrates an American read. The topic of slavery is held close to the hearts of many Americans because of the fight to abolish slavery and how highly many Americans value equality in their nation. At the very end of the novel, the quote “But I reckon I got to light out for the territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can’t stand it. I been there before”(294), Huck is at the end of his journey and he is thinking about heading into the western part of the U.S. so that he may live the life he wants. There he will not be subjected to the normalities of society that he disagrees with so

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    Todays reading was about Huck hiding the canoe that he found in the water. So he hid it in the vines and then his dad came out and said what was he doing he said that he fell in the water and it was hard to get out and his dad believed him. Then his dad went back to the town to get something and Huck got the stuff ready to escape he got berries and put them in a bowl to smash them and make it look like blood and spread it in the cabin then he finished cutting the hole in the wall and then he broke the door with an axe to make it look like someone broke in and attacked him and stole…

    • 126 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1. P1 The Widow Douglas attempts to civilize Huckleberry Finn which most likely including religion. Her calling him a lost lamb probably alludes to that theory. 2.…

    • 986 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Huck Finn

    • 1024 Words
    • 5 Pages

    What is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’s true meaning? Is it simply a chronicle of a young boy’s adventures? Is it rather a critique of southern racism? Or is it neither? Many critics debate this popular novel by Mark Twain about a boy, Huck and a runaway slave, Jim’s, adventures on the Mississippi River trying to get Jim to freedom.…

    • 1024 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The society Huck is raised in strongly affirms the belief that African Americans are less worthy of respect and acceptance than white people, simply because of the color of their skin. His community tells Huck that helping a runaway slave is disgusting and that he would be marked as an abolitionist. However, while Huck is tempted to leave Jim more than once, he never gives in. Huck experiences a transition from childhood to adulthood, having formed his own opinion and set his own moral footing regarding the issue of slavery. His attachment to Jim is no longer about companionship, but rather his own desire to lead Jim to a life of…

    • 1294 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Having grown up in a society which taught that blacks were inferior, Huck is guilt ridden for most of the story as he helps Jim escape. Having been raised with the Southern mentality he believes that Jim is Miss Watson’s property and that he is hurting Miss watson in someway by helping Jim escape. Similarly, he is afraid at how society might react were they to find out that he was helping a runaway slave. Yet as their journey progresses Huck begins to realize that Jim is indeed human, and deserving of freedom. One night, after getting separated by thick fog for hours, Huck rejoins with Jim who he finds crying his heart out because he believes that he has lost Huck, and that he had failed him.…

    • 877 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    These beliefs led many in the South to feel that the institution of slavery was morally fair, and that men of colored race were born less important than the white man. Many also learnt that slaves were the rightful property of those who owned them and this is one of the central conflicts of the book. This particular conflict would be Huck's internal battle in which he struggles to make a decision over whether he should be helping Jim escape from slavery. The largest of this conflict with his conscience happens after Jim is sold by the "Dauphin". This instance Huck is finally assertive and decides that he will help Jim not matter the consequences.…

    • 1063 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    His dislike of staying with the widow was caused by him not wanting to be “sivilized”. It became apparent to the reader that Huck meant what he said about being civilized…

    • 1363 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    After being proven that his beliefs are correct and resonate deeply within him there is no way to back down and simultaneously keep any respect for himself. Huck sees Jim for what he truly is, a human. After knowing this fact, it’s impossible for his opinion on slavery to waiver. Huck becomes more aggressive in his stance, a result of the life-altering journey he completed with Jim. Huck has seen every aspect of human nature on his wild adventure, he has witnessed every sin be openly accepted by the public.…

    • 1159 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I had everything I needed, and the boy was doing as well there as he would a done at home—better, maybe, because it was so quiet; but there I WAS, with both of 'm on my hands, and there I had to stick till about dawn this morning; then some men in a skiff come by, and as good luck would have it the slave was setting by the pallet with his head propped on his knees sound asleep; so I motioned them in quiet, and they slipped up on him and grabbed him and tied him before he knowed what he was about, and we never had no trouble.” (Twain 297). This quote shows that Huck understands that everyone is worth something, and that no matter what a person looks or even acts like does not make a difference in the fact that they are a human being…

    • 1437 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Most of this book is Huck trying to help get Jim, a slave, to freedom. When Jim asked Huck not to tell anyone about him running from home Huck responds, "I ain't a-going to tell I ain't a-going back there, anyways"(43) Huck agrees to help a slave that was trying to run away. Something he could be severely punished for. Later Huck gets his friend Tom Sawyer to help let Jim escape as well saying, "Didn't I say I was going to help steal the nigger?"(233)…

    • 597 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Huck’s continuing journey, now undertaken with Jim, ultimately leads to Huck realize how twisted many elements of society are, and how he can choose his own path. As Huck and Jim are camping out on an island, Huck begins to wonder whether or not he is doing the right thing by helping Jim escape: “What had poor Miss Watson done to you, that you could see her nigger go off right under your eyes and never say one single word? What did that poor old women do to you, that you could see her nigger go off right under your eyes and never say one single word” (Twain 110). Huck’s thinking at this particular moment comes from what he was taught all his life; slavery is good. The fact that Huck does not follow this conventional wisdom and is struggling against it in listening to his conscience, shows how he is distancing himself from the conformity of the society he grew up in.…

    • 1963 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Mark Twain is an expert at manipulating his audience. The people that he is trying to reach are the rich, white men, mostly in the south. He does this in a way by telling a great story about a young boy on an adventure with a black man. He is trying to get the point across to them that race does not matter, but he does this in a way by making them connect with the characters. The reader is instantly forced to form a relationship with Huck Finn.…

    • 2116 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Huck Finn Go To Hell

    • 1072 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Huck sees this as an improper decision, one that will forever lose him the respect of all the white people who see him, but we, as the reader, can see it as a sign that Huck is listening to his true feelings and not just following everybody else, and acting out of the goodness of his heart. It is this moment when he finally draws the line, that he’d rather go to hell because he helped his friend and made his own decisions about what he wanted to do instead of following what everyone else decided was the right thing than letting Jim wait for him endlessly and then be sold and end up going to everyone else’s heaven. It is for this reason that he so fervently denied being adopted by Aunt Sally and decides to head west instead; in his words “…I can’t stand it. I been there before”…

    • 1072 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Huck is conforming to the Southern white society’s belief that slaves are monetary value rather than human beings. “Miss Watson’s claim on Huck is a genuine one, and without principles of abstraction Huck is faced with an ethical dilemma- he cannot satisfy both figures” (Bollinger 6). In Huck’s eyes, Jim is Miss Watson’s property, and by aiding Jim in his escape, Huck has done something morally wrong. On the other hand, Huck recognizes his ties to Jim, as Jim has established himself as a surrogate father and friend. Huck even acknowledges the guilt he would feel if he turned Jim in as he asks himself, “s’pose you’d done right and give Jim up; would you felt better than what you do now?…

    • 946 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This character also shows the readers why Huck faces such a conflicting moral dilemma when choosing whether or not to free a slave. Children in the south like Huck, were all raised on the opinion to hate anyone who is not white. Even though Huck and Jim were friends, our protagonist still had a hard time going against the ideals that he'd been raised on his whole…

    • 985 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays