2/9/09
In the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain many people object to the way Jim is portrayed. Jim, one of the main characters of the novel, is probably portrayed fairly because there were people during the same time period who were like Jim. Jim seems to be a very smart person in the story, even though he is illiterate and did not go to school, Jim knows a lot about everyday life. He could probably survive out in the wilderness alone and live healthy for longer than most people. Jim also takes care of Huck and protects him when they both runaway. Jim has strong opinions about many things and he is not afraid of saying them, but he is still cautious because he is an escaped slave and he could at any moment be turned in by Huck.
“You said it was the worst bad luck in the world to touch a snakeskin with my hands. Well, here’s your bad luck! We’ve raked in all this truck and eight dollars besides. I wish we could have some bad luck like this every day, Jim.” Jim is very superstitious, sometimes it seems like he has superstitions about almost everything. Sometimes those superstitious become true, other times like the one about touching a snakeskin do not bring bad luck like he said, but it might be dangerous to do it. I do not think Jim is a racial stereotype, because for an escaped slave he is portrayed fairly in the novel.
One of the funniest parts in this story was when Tom Sawyer decided to make a gang which was inspired by reading books. Tom Sawyer decided to do everything according to what the books said. Apparently he read books about robbers and books like Don Quixote. Tom tells the other members of his gang that they must steal from people and then kill them because that’s what happens in the books. I also thought it was funny when they didn’t know what the word ransom meant and Tom said he think that it meant to capture the people and leave them until they die. I also liked when they thought that if the capture women, they have to keep them locked up in a cave until they fall in love with them. I think Mark Twain’s sense of humor translates into the modern era fairly well. Today young boys probably do the same things, but instead of reading books they get their ideas from watching movies.
“I had been to school most all the time and could spell and read and write just a little, and could say the multiplication table up to six times seven is thirty-five, and I don’t reckon I could ever get any further than that if I was to live forever. I don’t take no stock in mathematics, anyway.” I thought that this was a very funny part because Huck, like most other kids at his age feel that they have learned enough in school and that they have no need to continue going to school after this. I also thought it was funny when he couldn’t see the point in praying. Another funny part was when Huck decided he would like to go to hell and not heaven, because heaven sounded boring to him. I could understand why Huck would think heaven is boring and that he would rather go to hell, the way the widow described heaven did make it sound unappealing. Even today not many people would like to go to the heaven the widow was describing.
In this book, Mark Twain created two different characters both with personalities. Huckleberry Finn could be described as a realist and Tom Sawyer could be described as a romantic. Tom Sawyer likes to read books and act out the things he read in the books. Tom is very imaginative unlike Huck, who is a realist. Both characters in this story are different because they were born in different families. Tom was born and raised in a good family, while Huck was raised by a drunken father. Tom had a nice life, but Huck lived with an uncaring father who beat him whenever he wanted. Tom learned from the adults around him and from his reading of adventure books and stories. Tom follows blindly with the things he learns from others unlike Huck who questions everything around him.
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