Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Chapter notes: 28-37

Chapter 29: Huck FinnTwains trenchant comments on his fellow creatures become biting when the townspeople still believe the con mens ruse, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that they are frauds.The people show themselves to be so thickheaded, so stupid, and so blind that no reader could feel much sympathy for them.

Notes adapted from Joseph Claro in Mark Twains Huckleberry Finn, Barrons Educational Series; and Ronald Goodrich in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Living Literature Series.

Chapter 29: Huck FinnThe situation becomes a circus sideshow.Twain takes the townspeople past stupidity into ghoulishness (and then into greed).

Chapters 30-31: Huck FinnAfter Huck discovers Jim has been sold, he goes through more introspection: He decides at first to write a letter to Miss Watson telling her where Jim is, thinking Jim would be better off with his family. He also worries about how people will treat him for helping Jim escape.He tries to pray but cant, because he was playing double. Hes trying to get God to forgive him, when he doesnt really feel sorry for helping Jim: You cant pray a lie.He then decides Jim is a good person who really cares for him, and the feeling is mutual. So he tears up the note to Miss Watson, takes a deep breath, and says, All right, then, Ill go to hell.

Chapters 30-31: Huck FinnRemember: Huck believes what hes been told in Sunday School. He believes that God will punish evil people by sending them to hell for eternity. And he believes that slavery, like other American institutions, has the Heavenly Stamp of Approval.So he really does believe he will go to hell yet he decides to do it because he feels for Jim as a human being, even if all the good people and even if God dont.If helping the only real friend he has is wicked according to the civilized people, then hell be wicked and give up all hope of reforming.

Chapter 32: Huck FinnWhen Huck explains about the exploded steamboat, he says no one was hurt, but it killed a nigger.How could he say such a thing, given what he has committed to do for Jim?

Chapter 32: Huck FinnNothing Huck has said so far has indicated he is opposed to slavery, or that he even wants to see improvement in the status of black people.Huck isnt challenging society hes simply choosing to live outside of it. His decision to help Jim is a way of becoming a permanent outsider.

Chapter 33: Huck FinnToms agreement to help Huck help Jim escape shocks Huck, and Tom fell considerable in my estimation. Of course, Tom knows Jim is a free man, and this charade is not breaking the law at all.Even after all theyve done, Huck still feels for the duke and king seeing them ridden out of town on a rail.Note his comments on conscience at the end of this chapter.

Chapter 33: Huck FinnHuman beings can be awful cruel to one another.Huck recognizes the universal tragedy of mans inhumanity to man.He has seen much cruelty, and it saddens him. He understands human nature only too well and knows that people often can be cruel.

Chapter 33: Huck FinnBut Huck never becomes cynical; he remains compassionate toward all people.His sympathy is even directed toward the tarred and feathered duke and king.Even those these two have exploited Huck and Jim horribly, Huck still feels sorry for them.So Huck, who sometimes condemns himself as an uncivilized outcast, is one of the truly civilized characters in the novel.His compassion for all humanity exemplifies the pure Christian ethic to which most of his society merely gives lip service.

Chapters 34-35: Huck FinnWe now see some interesting contrasts between Hucks view of the world and Toms.Hucks plan is practical, straightforward, and based in experience all the things that Toms plan is not.

Chapters 34-35: Huck FinnIn spite of all the questions Huck asks, he goes along with Tom in unnecessarily complicating the escape.For all of his bravado, for all his talk about danger and adventure, Tom is a rule follower, the opposite of a rebel.Huck has shown that what should be done is of little concern to him.

Chapters 36-37: Huck FinnRead Tom and Hucks conversation carefully about morality: There is irony in Hucks comment, He was always just that particular. Full of principle. And notice the final punch line about coming up the stairs instead of climbing the lightening rod.Twains comment on hypocrisy is sharp and piercing, but his manner is as skillful as that of a surgeon performing a difficult operation. Hucks remarks about Tom are so subtle, that they could easily be missed.

Chapter 36: Huck FinnJim, he couldnt see no sense in the most of it, but he allowed we was white folks and knowed better than him.Like Huck, Jim has been so conditioned by a slave-holding society, he never questions the morality of slavery.

Chapter 36: Huck FinnOnly the threat of permanent separation from his family compels him to run away.Since he believes the lowliest white person is still his social superior, it seems logical to him that Tom Sawyer must also be his intellectual superior.

Chapter 36: Huck FinnAlthough superstitious, uneducated, and generally ignorant of the world, Jim has displayed his intelligence and common sense on many occasions.Recall his discussion with Huck about the wisdom of Solomon and the logic of mankind speaking in diverse languages: His clear reasoning prompts Huck to give up.

Chapter 36: Huck FinnNow, Jim cant help but feel that Toms unnecessarily complicated escape plan is downright silly.However, he patiently endures all of the annoyance and suffering that Toms grandiose scheme forces upon him.