THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN JOURNAL ENTRY
#2
It is obvious that Huck can’t figure out
where he belongs in society. He doesn't
enjoy living in town because the
Widow Douglas tries to civilize him. Living with his
father is terrible
because his father beats him and locks him in the cabin. Huck looks to
the
Mississippi River for an escape from the society in which he can't find his
place. At
first when he joins up with Jim, he enjoys Jim's company. But
after awhile, he questions
whether or not he is doing a good by helping a
runaway slave. Throughout the novel,
Huck argues with himself, trying to
decide if he should continue to help Jim. The climax is
when Jim is sold
by "the king". Huck is so upset to the point that he begins to cry. The
reader thinks that Huck has finally made his decision, and wants to help
Jim escape. But
then Huck writes a letter to Jim's rightful owner, telling
her where she can find Jim. Now
the reader knows that he is at the height
of choosing between right and wrong, although
the right social answer and
the right moral answer are exact opposites. Huck chooses not
to mail the
letter, and he has finally decided to help Jim. He picked the way that was
unacceptable in society but was the best moral decision. Huck could never
fit into society
because, mentally, he was so ahead of everyone else. He
was such an independent thinker
that nobody could influence his decisions,
even the entire population put together. He was
intelligent enough to
finally realize that you should not judge people by their skin color. It
is amazing that even thought he was brought up to believe that slaves
were of less worth
than whites, he was able to overcome that belief.
Tom Sawyer is the only person who was able to influence Huck in
any way.
Somehow, Tom could convince Huck to do things that Huck didn’t
want to do, while
society could not make Huck believe that blacks were
unequal to whites. When I first
realized this, I couldn’t understand
how one boy had more power than the entire society. I
think Tom became
such a roll model to Huck because Tom is very adventurous and knows
how
to have a good time. I’m sure that Huck knew that Tom was a bad person,
but Huck
overlooked that because of Tom's good qualities, and also because
Huck had no one else
to look up to. He is afraid of his father and sees
that his father is throwing his life away,
and his mother has never been
part of his life. Everyone in town tries to civilize him, and
Huck
doesn't like that. Tom likes to break rules and live a rough life, and
this is the only
life Huck feels comfortable living. Tom is the only
person Huck can truly identify with.
The first time Huck senses that he
and Tom are drifting apart is when Huck finds out that
Jim had been free
all along, and Tom was basically torturing Jim, just to have
"an
adventure". Huck was disgusted with the way Tom behaved, and Huck
realized that Tom
was just like the rest of society, who looked down on
blacks. At that point, Huck's eyes
were opened, and he lost all respect
for Tom. I think that this part was the resolution of
the story. Huck
had always tried to be like Tom, who was, in reality, a terrible roll
model.
Huck had always been an independent thinker, unless Tom was
involved. Huck finally
broke free of Tom's bad influence.