Chapter 27 vs. 28

In Chapter 27, the concept of dark humor is shown at the funeral because there are hints at satire relating to death, especially when Huck says, "there warn't no more popular man in town that what the undertaker was." This chapter has a number of hints at dark humor whereas in chapter 28, the tone changes to something lighter. This chapter focuses a lot on the compassion of Mary Jane. Also, Huck learns a lot in this chapter about the humanity of slaves when he sees how Mary Jane treats them. He slowly starts to learn about their dignity and that they are human too.

The Messy Morality of Huck's World

I noticed this in the part of the story where "the king" and "the duke" put on a show only to rip off their audience. It is fairly quickly made clear that the two frauds are not very good people; while they are not extremely evil or malicious, they are liars and cheaters who basically steal these people's money. Thus, we, as the reader, at first thing that the king and duke will be the "bad guys" of the story and the audience the poor, cheated "good guys". However, when the audience reacts not by warning the rest of the town of the scam, but by plotting to deceive the rest of the town into being ripped off as well. Thus, it would seem the audience members who have been tricked are just as selfish and immoral as the frauds who tricked them. I feel like this shows how in the world of Huckleberry Finn, there really is no set right or wrong, no "good guys" or "bad guys". There is not a strict moral code that everybody follows and the whole idea of right and wrong seems to be very messy and confusing, especially to a young kid like Huck.

Introducing Satire

When the Duke and Dauphin are introduced in chapter 19, the literary use of satire is also developed. From here on out, the Duke and Dauphin provide comical scenes throughout the course of the story. Huck has suspicions regarding their true identities but he still treats them as though they are royalty. The fact that they are actually con- artists shows a slight glimpse into the unusual class structure that the story contains because the raft becomes a social structure within itself.

Funny Convicts

In chapter 19 Huck agrees to give two strangers a ride on the raft. I was surprised by how easily they convinced Huck to give them a ride especially because they were in the South and Jim was still aboard the raft. Another surprise to me was how foolish Jim and Huck were to believe that these two admitted convicts were royalties. For example when the old man claims he is the heir to the king of France, "Yes, gentlemen, you see before you, in blue jeans and misery, the wanderin', exiled, trampled-on, and sufferin' rightful King of France" (79, online text). I think Twain may have thought the same way as Huck does and he maybe showing it in this scene.

Family Rivalry

In chapter 18, they talk about the family rivalry between the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons. While i was reading this, I thought that it was ridiculous that they are still fighting and killing people from the other family 30 years after the original conflict. The two families have gone on fighting and killing people of the other family for so long. At a point in this chapter, Buck tries to shoot Harney Shepherdson. I was shocked when I was reading this because Harney did not do anything to Buck, he was just riding his horse. Even though there were a lot of things different back then, I would never have thought this would be happening between two families.

Apparently there is a special edition of Huck Finn that replaces every instance of the word "nigger" with "hipster".

"The Hipster Huckleberry Finn"

This Is Awesome

Huck and his tricks

In Chapter 16, Huck and Jim run into a couple of white men who start questioning Huck about the raft. In this scene, Huck comes up with story about how his pap is on board the raft and is sick. Because of this plan, the men do not end up searching the raft because the men say, "we don't want the smallpox" (82), and therefore, the men do not find Jim, the runaway slave. Again in Chapter 17, Huck plays a trick, or comes up with a plan to figure out his fake name. In this scene, Huck tells Buck to try and spell his name. Once Buck has done it, Huck now knows what his name is again. Even though this may only be a small little trick, that may have little meaning, I believe that it helps to show how smart and quick thinking Huck is. In both of these instances, Huck has to think fast in order to not get caught.

Huck against Himself?

In Chapter 15, when Huck tricks Jim into thinking that he dreamed up their whole separation, Jim ends up getting upset with Huck because he was actually worried. Huck finally apologizes and when he does he says "It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger." At this point, I think we, as the readers, get a clearer picture of the way people were expected to treat black people. It takes Huck a long time to apologize to Jim because it is something that he is unfamiliar with. However, after he is done, he doesn't regret it because he knows that Jim is important to him.

Gullible or Unknowing

Huck for the most part tells the truth to the people he encounters about his life. He told both the family with Bob and Tom, and Mrs. Judith Loftus that his father is an evil drunkard and his mother died. I realize that communication back then was difficult, but I found it odd how Mrs. Loftus did not pick up the fact that he was Huck Finn. Another thought that occurred to me was how patient Jim must be because Huck really takes his time on his trips, to people's houses.

I noticed a little something

So you guys know in Chapter 17 when Huck gets taken in by the family? Well, I found a quote (it's on page 111 in my book, but I think mine's different than most people's) where he says "Buck and his ma and all of them smoked cob pipes, except the nigger woman, which was gone, and the two young women." I feel like there's some significance to Huck referring to the "nigger woman" as "which" rather than "who". It's just a little detail, but I feel like it really shows how slaves were regarded as objects back then and how Huck himself, even though he's helping Jim run away, has still had that attitude engrained in him by society.