Huck Finn chapters 33-38

Oh, goody. Tom Sawyer’s back. The world’s worst kid. (Why hasn’t Mr. Reynolds stuck him in the Naughty Room yet?)

Huck heads him off before he goes to his aunt’s house to explain what’s been happening, and that he intends to steal Jim away. Tom begins to say, “What! Why Jim is–“ But Huck cuts him off. He really shouldn’t have. Tom was about to reveal something important, until Huck goes off about stealing Jim away, and suddenly Tom’s all on board, because what better adventure could this be!

Is Tom really turning a new leaf, realizing the slavery is wrong and that going against society and stealing a slave so he can be free is the right thing?

We’ll see . . .

Tom is going to pretend to be his brother Sid, while Huck pretends to be Tom. No confusion whatsoever.

We finally see what happens to the king and the duke–they’re tarred and feathered, which was a horrible treatment which burned the flesh (the tar is melted and hot when they poor it on someone) and peeled off layers when you tried to scrape off the cold tar. The feathers were just for added insult:

Tarring and feathering is a form of public torture and humiliation used to enforce unofficial justice or revenge. It was used in feudal Europe and its colonies in the early modern period, as well as the early American frontier, mostly as a type of mob vengeance.

The victim would be stripped naked, or stripped to the waist. Wood tar (sometimes hot) was then either poured or painted onto the person while they were immobilized. Then the victim either had feathers thrown on them or was rolled around on a pile of feathers so that they stuck to the tar.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarring_and_feathering

(Interestingly, on that Wikipedia page above, it describes how a mob called “Know Nothing” in Ellsworth tarred and feathered a Jesuit Priest–John Bapst–who fled to Bangor. The high school there is named for him.)

Then they “rode them out on the rail.” Here’s Wikipedia’s explanation:

Riding the rail (also called being “run out of town on a rail”) was a punishment most prevalent in the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries in which an offender was made to straddle a fence rail held on the shoulders of two or more bearers. The subject was then paraded around town or taken to the city limits and dumped by the roadside.

Being ridden on a rail was typically a form of extrajudicial punishment administered by a mob, sometimes in connection with tarring and feathering,^[1] intended to show community displeasure with the offender so they either conformed their behavior to the mob’s demands or left the community.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riding_a_rail

As much as I hate the king and the duke, I admire these words from Huck (and Mark Twain): “It made me sick to see it . . . It was a dreadful thing to see. Human beings can be awful cruel to one another.“

I think that sums up the message of the book: Human beings can be awful cruel to one another.

Now Huck and Tom create a plan for freeing Jim. Huck’s is clear and swift: steal the key to the shed where Jim is being held, free him at night, get on the river, and head out of there.

But Tom has different ideas. Ridiculously complicated and needlessly stupid ideas. I’m not even going to detail them here, but you’ve read it–you know. Tom can’t do anything “simple.” From threatening to cut off Jim’s leg to making pens to keep a diary, it’s just a batch of frustrating pages–I’m sorry.

Huck becomes strangely subservient to Tom. Although Huck has had REAL adventures, REAL scrapes and problems, and has solved all of them, he defers instead to Tom, who hasn’t done anything real but read too many books. (There’s a tip for you, kids–don’t read books!)

Huck really should listen more to himself, his experiences, and his conscience rather than to the “authority” of Tom who really is no authority at all.

For Tuesday, FINISH HUCK FINN!

HOMEWORK READING: Huck Finn chapters 39-43 (Chapter the Last)

READING QUESTIONS:

1. Tom’s plan is actually cruel.  Why?
2. What more do we learn about Tom in these chapters?
3. How does Huck appear to be superior to Tom?
4. What happens to Jim? Huck? Tom?
5. Is there anything left undecided at the end of the novel?

TUESDAY–MANDATORY ZOOM MEETING! We’re going to discuss how to write the kind of essay required now for the AP Exam, I’ll give you some pointers and tips, and I will give you your first exam based on a passage from Huck Finn. (I will attempt to record the meeting to post online for those experiencing bandwidth issues, but I can’t make any promises that it will work, so do your best to join the chat and get the information. It’s better face-to-face.)