Stoid Society: A Place Where Some Fall Prey, but Some Dominate.
“[Huck] was the only really independent person--boy or man—in the community.”
So proclaims Brooks, a critic of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. Huck empathizes for and helps others, even sometimes risking his own freedom and happiness to do so. For example, when Huck sees Mary Jane crying, he “felt awful bad to see it”. Therefore, he tells her about the King and Duke’s deception and trusts her with this secret. However, if Mary Jane expressed any emotion that signalled Huck’s deception, the King and Duke could have ousted Jim as a runaway slave, who would then be returned to Miss Watson and sold to the south. They also could have revealed Huck to be a runaway child, and he might …show more content…
Tom Sawyer read society’s books, which encouraged him to kidnap and ransom people and even toy with a man’s life. When he describes his plan to the gang, he tells them to keep the women “till they’re ransomed… [as] [he’s] seen in books.” When trying to free Jim in his eccentric, adventurous way, he explains to Jim that “a prisoner’s got to have some kind of a dumb pet”, and he puts dangerous snakes, rats, and spiders in Jim’s cell. In these examples, books corrupt a boy’s mind, and these lessons carry on to adulthood. This can be seen through Pap’s thinking when he rants to Huck about how blacks are inferior and should have less rights than whites. He recites a story in which “[a black] wouldn’t a give me the road if I hadn’t shoved him out o’ the way. I says to the people, why ain’t this nigger put up at auction and sold?” Furthermore, the legal system, something that is a base measure of a society’s justice, allows Pap to keep Huck. The judge declares that the “courts mustn’t interfere and separate families if they could help it; said he’d druther not take a child away from its father.” The judge was new in town, and he did not take Pap’s abusive nature into account; he just wants to do what is most convenient for his society. These corrupt teachings infiltrate Huck’s mind, making him think that he will “ go to hell” for helping Jim escape. …show more content…
For example, similarly to the beginning in the scene with Tom, when Huck is among the Duke and King, he does not care about the Jim’s treatment. He informs us that the Duke says, “Ropes are the correct thing—we must preserve the unities, as we say on the boards.We all said the duke was pretty smart.” It is amazing that even after having such heartfelt scenes with Jim, Huck lauds the Duke’s decisions. The society that the Duke and King, whose names symbolize the backbone of society, is filled with deception and hierarchy, and Huck quietly follows them for a long time. In fact, Huck does not challenge anything that the King and Duke do, even if it degrades Huck. For instance, Huck follows the King’s outrageous demands, including ““g[etting] down on one knee to speak to him, and always call[ing] him “Your Majesty,” and wait[ing] on him first at meals, and [not] s[itting] down in his presence”. Huck has lost any sense of self worth and worth for others and wishes to merely stay out of trouble, something that Twain condemns. Even Jim, who previously had the valiance to stand up to Huck, the white boy who could easily turn him in, becomes submissive again. After Tom scolds Jim for not listening to their preposterous requests, Jim merely says “he was sorry, and sa[ys] he wouldn’t behave so no more. “ Both of these characters, who are in vulnerable
“[Huck] was the only really independent person--boy or man—in the community.”
So proclaims Brooks, a critic of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. Huck empathizes for and helps others, even sometimes risking his own freedom and happiness to do so. For example, when Huck sees Mary Jane crying, he “felt awful bad to see it”. Therefore, he tells her about the King and Duke’s deception and trusts her with this secret. However, if Mary Jane expressed any emotion that signalled Huck’s deception, the King and Duke could have ousted Jim as a runaway slave, who would then be returned to Miss Watson and sold to the south. They also could have revealed Huck to be a runaway child, and he might …show more content…
Tom Sawyer read society’s books, which encouraged him to kidnap and ransom people and even toy with a man’s life. When he describes his plan to the gang, he tells them to keep the women “till they’re ransomed… [as] [he’s] seen in books.” When trying to free Jim in his eccentric, adventurous way, he explains to Jim that “a prisoner’s got to have some kind of a dumb pet”, and he puts dangerous snakes, rats, and spiders in Jim’s cell. In these examples, books corrupt a boy’s mind, and these lessons carry on to adulthood. This can be seen through Pap’s thinking when he rants to Huck about how blacks are inferior and should have less rights than whites. He recites a story in which “[a black] wouldn’t a give me the road if I hadn’t shoved him out o’ the way. I says to the people, why ain’t this nigger put up at auction and sold?” Furthermore, the legal system, something that is a base measure of a society’s justice, allows Pap to keep Huck. The judge declares that the “courts mustn’t interfere and separate families if they could help it; said he’d druther not take a child away from its father.” The judge was new in town, and he did not take Pap’s abusive nature into account; he just wants to do what is most convenient for his society. These corrupt teachings infiltrate Huck’s mind, making him think that he will “ go to hell” for helping Jim escape. …show more content…
For example, similarly to the beginning in the scene with Tom, when Huck is among the Duke and King, he does not care about the Jim’s treatment. He informs us that the Duke says, “Ropes are the correct thing—we must preserve the unities, as we say on the boards.We all said the duke was pretty smart.” It is amazing that even after having such heartfelt scenes with Jim, Huck lauds the Duke’s decisions. The society that the Duke and King, whose names symbolize the backbone of society, is filled with deception and hierarchy, and Huck quietly follows them for a long time. In fact, Huck does not challenge anything that the King and Duke do, even if it degrades Huck. For instance, Huck follows the King’s outrageous demands, including ““g[etting] down on one knee to speak to him, and always call[ing] him “Your Majesty,” and wait[ing] on him first at meals, and [not] s[itting] down in his presence”. Huck has lost any sense of self worth and worth for others and wishes to merely stay out of trouble, something that Twain condemns. Even Jim, who previously had the valiance to stand up to Huck, the white boy who could easily turn him in, becomes submissive again. After Tom scolds Jim for not listening to their preposterous requests, Jim merely says “he was sorry, and sa[ys] he wouldn’t behave so no more. “ Both of these characters, who are in vulnerable