Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (9)

Mark Twain. 1884. Literary Classics of the United States, Inc. 1982.


Why read it? A vivid re-creation of the time of slavery in the U.S. A moral dilemma for Huck who, in helping Jim, the escaped slave, is violating the law.


Ideas:

[Huck is almost caught stealing bread and butter by Aunt Sally; he avoids detection by putting the bread and butter under his hat; he is sitting in the hot room with the other people waiting for the threatened escape of Jim, when the butter melts under his hat.] p. 891.


Huck: “”And the place getting hotter and hotter, and the butter beginning to melt and run down my neck and behind my ears, and pretty soon…a streak of butter come a trickling down my forehead, and Aunt Sally she sees it, and turns white as a sheet, and says, ‘For the land’s sake what is the matter with the child!—he’s got the brain fever as shore as you’re born, and they’re oozing out.’” p. 891.


Goodnessgracioussakes.” p. 900.


Tom Sawyer: “They hain’t no right to shut him [Jim] up…turn him loose! He ain’t no slave, he’s as free as any cretur that walks this earth…. Old Miss Watson died two months ago, and she was ashamed she ever was going to sell him down the river, and said so; and she set him free in her will.” p. 908.


Aunt Sally: “Then what on earth did you want to set him free for, seeing he was already free?” Tom: Well, that is a question…just like women…I wanted the adventure of it.” p. 908.


Huck: “…so there ain’t nothing more to write about and I am rotton glad of it, because if I’d a knowed what a trouble it was to make a book I wouldn’t a tackled it and ain’t agoing to no more.” p. 912.


Huck: “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.” p. 912.


Comment: Huck Finn is often censored because of the frequent use of the "N" word. I hope these quotes help people to understand the true nature of the novel. RayS.


The end.

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