Huck Finn, chapters 22-27

In these chapters we see some of the problems of pride, stubbornly sticking to your point of view, and not being willing to consider that maybe your first impressions are incorrect.

First, I love this line: “Sherburn sort of laughed; not the pleasant kind, but the kind that make you feel like when you are eating bread that’s got sand in it.” –What a great description.

This isn’t a big matter, but when Huck is at the circus, I feel really sorry for him. He believes everything he sees, especially about the “drunk” guy coming in and stealing the show. And how that ring master comes up with all those jokes, right there like that? Poor Huck doesn’t understand pretense, which is why he doesn’t always recognize what society is doing. He takes everything at face value, without noticing the plotting and planning behind it.

And that’s what Twain’s trying to show, too–nothing is as “natural” as you like to believe it is. It’s staged, planned that way. Don’t let anyone try to tell you something more innocent is at work–it’s not.

The surest way to get people to attend your production: LADIES AND CHILDREN NOT ADMITTED. Oh dear.

What’s their big act? Just the old guy prancing around stupidly. The crowd’s upset, then decides to not let on they were duped, but let the rest of their friends and the town be conned into attending.

What does this say about human nature? We’re so prideful we can’t admit we were tricked, so we turn around and trick others? It’s disgusting, as Twain hopes we’ll see.

Then the town decides to teach the con men a lesson–third performance, things are gonna be different, boya. They’ve come with all kinds of nastiness to throw at the king. But they’re begin conned again–the king never shows up, the duke and Huck high-tail it out of there, and they’re floating down the river again before those at the production realize they’ll be no one on the stage for them to throw their old produce at.

Jim’s story about his daughter–heart-breaking. She’s 4 years old and gone deaf from scarlet fever, and he feels awful for having yelled at her without realizing that’s what happened. Contrast that to Pap, who yelled at and abused Huck without any remorse.

What’s Twain doing here, showing Jim as this kind of a father? And as a man who will do anything to get his family out of slavery? Jim’s not perfect, but at least his heart is always right and he’s trying to do the right things, unlike just about everyone around him.

Oh, and then the king and duke turn Jim into a “sick Arab” so they can travel during the day. And, of course, people will believe this.

Now, our lovely men decide to play the brothers of a man who has just died. Oh yes–let’s take advantage of a grieving family! Nothing is too low for these guys, which is what Twain’s trying to show. Some of what they did was funny, but they have no limits, no lines they won’t cross. As Huck says, “It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race.”

I think this is a turning point for Huck–he’s getting fed up with these guys, and when he sees how easily they’ll try to con the poor, innocent girls out of their inheritance, Huck decides he can’t go along with this anymore.

Here’s the scene from the movie when the king and duke arrive at the house, pretending to be Peter Wilks’s brothers. (In the book, Jim is hidden on the raft; here, he’s a part of the scene–Swahili warrior?) I have no idea what the shooting at the beginning is about. Probably with their performance at the previous town.

The scene continues here: Susan Wilks (she has no hare-lip here) doesn’t believe Huck or the others:

Six thousand dollars back then would be about $172,000 now. And the king and the duke have no qualms about stealing it from these girls. (By the way, how would you like to be known as the “hare-lip”, meaning she had a cleft lip–the skin didn’t quite meet together. Today, it’s easily fixed with a surgery shortly after birth. But back then, nope.)

There’s a doctor who tries to show that the duke and king are frauds, but when people have their minds made up, there’s no shifting them–another trait Twain is desperate for people to understand. How many mistakes do people stubbornly make just because they won’t consider their first idea wasn’t correct?

The king and duke try to convince Huck that they’re really not hurting the girls–they’ll get everything back in some way–and they’re young and spry and will be fine.

Justifications again for poor, immoral behavior. Twain’s sick of it, and so now is Huck.

He steals the money and as he’s sneaking out at night, hears Mary Jane coming down the stairs. He drops the money bag in the coffin and slips away. He’s hoping he can write Mary Jane later and tell her that the money is buried so they can dig it up later, but she worries that it’ll be discovered before then.

In the meantime, the king and duke arrange for the house’s slaves to be sold off–to great upset and commotion–and the con men realize their money’s gone. Likely stolen by the slaves, because that’s what Huck suggests happened.

There’s a LOT of lying that goes on in this book, setting up this interesting question: is lying always necessarily wrong?

READING ASSIGNMENT: Huck Finn Chapters 28-32

READING QUESTIONS:

1. What incidents give away the king and duke?
2. Why is Huck upset when Jim is sold?
3. What is the significance of Huck saying, “All right, then, I’ll go to hell.”?
4. Why does Huck assume Tom Sawyer’s identity?

REMEMBER to choose and analyze your Robert Frost poem–just one of them. DUE on THURSDAY before midnight.

Here again is my analysis: