Part One
Choose one scene where Huck grapples with the question of whether or not to turn Jim in. Describe Huck's internal battle and determine whether he reaches any conclusion.
In chapter 12 when Huck disguises himself as a girl and goes to town to find out the latest developments, he lands on the house of an elderly lady who informs ‘her' of the news of Huck Finn's murder. There are two suspects to this ‘murder'; Huck's Pap and Jim, who mysteriously disappeared on the night of the murder. The lady informs Finn that there is a reward out for both men; $200 for Pap, and $300 for Jim. Judging by his mischievous past, Finn is tempted with the idea of turning Jim in to receive the reward money. In the end, however, he manages to escape the lady, Mrs. Judith Loftus, who decides to adopt him after she discovers the disguise, and gets back to Jackson's Island where he left Jim and informs him they have to move out since their cover is almost blown.
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Discuss the interactions between Jim and Huck in the scene where Huck plays a trick on Jim, trying to convince him that Huck was not really swept off the raft at the end of chapter 15. How does this scene define their changing relationship?
The two boys are separated in dense fog, and Huck is swept off the raft. Meanwhile, Jim falls asleep on the raft after looking for a while to no avail for Huck. The following morning Huck makes his way back to the float and finds still Jim asleep. He lies beside him, and when Jim wakes up, he thinks the fog was all a dream, to which Huck plays along. But when Jim looks around and sees evidence of the mist, he is hurt by the fact that Huck has played a trick on him. Even though at first Huck is satisfied with this prank, he feels terrible for hurting Jim and goes to apologize to him. This is a starter in redefining their relationship as caring and loving.
Twain includes a lot of subplots in the novel when Huck periodically gets off of the raft. Discuss one of these subplots and the point about human nature that Twain is making in it.
In Chapter 13, Huck gets off the raft to go talk a guard of a ferryboat into saving the three robbers in the sinking ship. But what he really has in mind is protecting the third robber who is about to be murdered by the two. When deciding to make this move, we see Huck in a constant battle with his conscious about living the third robber without any help. The point of this subplot is that human beings are dictated by the diction to do the right thing in situations that require taking an ethical stand.
What attitude towards organized religion is emerging in the novel?
The chief attitude evident throughout the novel is hypocrisy. This negative energy towards Christianity is seen when Huck observes the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons attending the same church and remarking on the sermon of love and brotherhood when these two are sworn family enemies dedicated to killing each other. That these two attend church with their guns between their knees or stand them handy along the wall is an outright mockery of the religious teachings whose sermons they attend. In another instance, when Miss Sophia asks Huck to go to the church and retrieve her Bible, he observes that only pigs would be interested in being inside the church because of the cool ground beneath, but as for humans, they rarely want to be associated with the church.
Part Two
One thing that stands out in Twain's novel as far as Realism is concerned is his use of characters that embodied realistic traits and personalities. To achieve this, the author relied on his personal experiences to create these characters. The two main characters to note, apart from the protagonist Hunk Finn, are Pap and Jim. At a period when America depicted the black community as fools or people who lacked in the ability to act according to reason and senses, Jim's triumphant but humble passage from simple house servant to Tom's savior is an outline for the heroic figure. Twain uses this character to prove wrong the stereotype notion that African-Americans could not be any better than blindly serving their masters as these beings that lacked human qualities of feeling and reason. Pap Finn, on the other hand, is the novel's most pitiful and despicable character concerning exemplifying the merits of a depraved, squalid world. When he reappears, his pathetic state is enough reminder of Hunk's previous life. Through him, we see a greedy, insensitive father who is only concerned with drinking his possession away, and that of his son. His dishonesty and obvious insecurity open the eyes of the reader into the potential world of harm Huck could come to if left to his father's parental care. Pap is a character that represents the reality of the world today; parental negligence. This background knowledge is critical in understanding Hunk's nature of romanticising a life free from the intrusion of a judgemental society and constrictive civilization. It explains his hate and fear of being subjected to and constrained within a particular system, because to him, these systems are abusive and a source of pain.
I would beg to agree with this argument strongly. The primary challenge of any Realistic work is the creation of characters that depict the reality of life at the time of the said society. While it may be of an added advantage to employ humor on a few occasions throughout the work, it is essential that the author maintains touch with the realities of life he is writing about. Racial discrimination has been an issue of national concern for decades now and was more pronounced in the 70s and 80s. African-American slaves were considered to be beings that could not reason or act on their own accord without instructions. But through Jim, we see a person that is eager to learn and show good deeds to others. In chapter 14 for instance, he shows his interest and eagerness to learn when Hunk reads him stories from the books they got out of the spoilage. His wisdom is demonstrated when he warns Hunk in the same chapter of the fact that they might have been caught or drowned. His keen attention saves the pair from dangerous situations. On the other hand, Pap represents greed, laziness, and heartlessness. He decides to kidnap his son when he finds out that he gave his possession to the judge so that he does not have to lay his hands on them. He represents the negligence and greed that has taken over parentage. Many children are increasingly being left on their own to fend for themselves and their siblings as their parents engage in drug and alcohol abuse. Others are forced to run away due to the poor conditions they are put through. His negligence can be seen through his oblivious nature in failing to notice the hole Hunk had saved in the cabin wall in chapter 7. He fails to notice this detail, just as parents fail to notice a million other details about their children out of oblivion.
