Last Huck Finn post

In these last few chapters the best example of social responsibility that I would was in chapter 31.  Here, Huck finally decides what he is going to do about Jim.  Huck decided that he was going to save Jim! Yay! Too bad all I could thing through this part was “took you long enough”… Through the entire book Huck has been disregarding his social responsibility; I had a feeling that Huck would make this decision eventually.  (especially since we all know Mark Twain is a supporter of abolition).  So I have been flipping through the pages reading the story thinking, ok so when is Huck going to let Jim go? Rather than is Huck going to let Jim go.

Another instance of social responsibility that is ignored by not Huck this time, but Tom, is when Tom did not tell the duo that Jim had been a free man for two months.  It appears to be a theme that the younger generation in this book ignore their social responsibility and (from our eyes of the future) make the correct decisions.  This reminds me of the age lens that was in my research paper about “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson.  Younger generations really do see social situations through more clear eyes.

And so the book ends, Jim is a free man and the white people seem to be nice to Jim.  Huck still has his Sally problem. (what was with Huck staying with her when his friend was shot?!?!?!?). Aunt Polly yells at the boys (good for her).  Pap is dead WOOOOO! That is great!  So how does everyone feel about the book?

Do you think social responsibility is good or bad?

Does Huck follow his social responsibilities in the beginning middle and end of the book?

Should Huck have followed his social responsibilities in the beginning, middle and end of the book?

Let me know what you all think!!!

Chapters 23-30

So again in these chapters I see that huck is ignoring the classic social responsibility of the times.  In chapter 23 the conmen finally get their shifty play all set up and ready to go. (woo, this should be fun).  The audience realizes that the play is not what it should have been and protest.  By the third night the conmen and Huck have run away with the towns people’s money.  Here , Huck is ignoring his social responsibility to be a (for lack of a better word) “clean” person.  Huck knows that these men are con artists and he decided that he is not going to tell the people in the town this. 

Also, Huck basically says that these men are expected to be con men.  That there status makes it expected and almost acceptable for them to be crooks.  This can be seen on page 179 in the conversation between Jim and Huck.  Once again, Jim seems to be the voice that is attempting to guide Huck down the righteous and kind path.  Jim understands what good social responsibility is, while Huck does not.  Then later, huck actually tells someone the truth and I was like WOAAA is Huck actually following social responsibility (of telling people the truth)?  I thought that was something good Huck was doing (four for you huck finn, you go huck finn).

When the con men have a fight later in the chapters, I was thinking that they were cons for too long.  They are even thinking about conning their partner.  And also, I was thinking that when a person is a con artist, criminal, gangster, and so on.  Do they have a responsibility to continue rejecting social responsibility?  It is a crazy concept but it makes some sense.

In these chapters I found many examples of social responsibility, one example is in chapter 16.  Huck is beginning to question if he should give Jim up. Huck decides he is going to since Jim belonged to a woman who was nothing but nice to him.  But Huck changes his mind when Jim says he is his only friend.  Here it can be seen the Huck it torn between what society believes is right and what he believes is right.  When he decides not to turn Jim in he is once again choosing his own judgment over society’s opinion.

                                                       

Another place that social responsibility can be seen is in the feud between the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons.  From these people owning many slaves, to their responsibility to their families to hate the other family this situation is oozing with social responsibility.  There is also social responsibility tied between Huck and these families.  When Huck witnesses a gun fight between these families and does not tell anyone that he saw it he is once again going against his social responsibility in favor of his own judgment.  He is afraid and does not want to snitch. 

I believe that through this entire novel Huck is going to be struggling between his social responsibility to turn in Jim and his personal belief that he should allow Jim to escape and become free.

I was also thinking about the motivations Huck has for not turning in Jim.  While he said he was not turning him in because he said he was his only friend I believe Huck must have other reasons for not turning him in.  For example, could he be trying to be the opposite of his father?  Huck is afraid of his father, and could possibly be afraid of becoming his father.  By not turning in Jim is he attempting to be the opposite of his dad?

If anyone has other ideas please share them in your comment!  Looking forward to reading the comments.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Chapters 5-15
In chapters five to fifteen that largest social responsibility that stood out to me was the responsibility the Pap feels towards Huck.

Pap-

While Pap constantly beats Huck, refuses him education and keeps him hostage he does this purely out of responsibility he feels for Huck. Although he may not be the best guardian for Huck, Pap believes that he is the only one truly looking out for Huck and giving him the correct type of life. In the last paragraph on page 26 and into page 27 Pap says that he “would like to see the widow get me” aka Huck, because he would not let it happen. Pap said that they could run away to another cabin 6 or 7 miles away to stay away from them.

Huck-

In these chapters Huck also rejects his social responsibility by deciding he would not live with his father or the widow. He believed that life with the widow gave him more restrictions than he could handle, like clean clothes, praying, and school; while life with his father was bad because his father beat him. Here Huck is turning his back on his two social responsibilities, one to society at large, and the other to family.

“But by-and-by pap got too handy with the hick’ry, and I couldn’t stand it.” Page 25

“I didn’t see how I’d ever got to like so well at the widow’s, where you had to wash, and eat on a plate, and comb up, and go to bed and get up regular.” Page 25

Later in the chapters Huck again turns o social responsibility and after meeting Jim on the island he does not turn him in. This is a large conflict for any person living in that time period. Society says that white men are better than African Americans and that Huck should turn Jim in right away.

Contrary to this, Huck finds out that Jim is a suspect for Huck’s murder because Jim ran away about the same time as Huck’s disappearance. Rather than go back and clear an innocent man of suspicion Huck stays “hidden”. This is another example of Huck rejecting classic social responsibility for his own judgment.

In chapter 12 Huck debates about stealing food that they found. In this case Huck follows classic social values and does not steal the food saying, “We warn't feeling just right, before that, but it was all comfortable now” Page 72. A question that arises from this occurrence is, “Does Jim influence Huck in a positive way? , and “Is Jim a more moral person thank Huck, (or does Jim understand the expectations of society better than Huck?” This is an example of Huck choosing the “right” option according to society.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Social Responsibility in Chapters 1-5

Social Responsibility-an ethical theory that an entity, be it an organization or individual, has an obligation to act to benefit society at large. Social responsibility is a duty every individual has to perform so as to maintain a balance between the economy and the ecosystems.

In chapters one to five Huck experiences pressure from society, the Widow Douglas, Miss Watson, Tom Sawyer, and even himself.

Widow Douglas- Page 2 “She put me in them new clothes again, and I couldn’t do nothing but sweat and sweat, and feel all cramped up. Well, then, the old thing commenced again. The widow rung a bell for supper, and you had to come to time. When you got to the table you couldn’t go right to eating. But you had to wait for the widow to tuck down her head and grumble a little over the victuals, thought there warn’t really anything the matter with them.”

This quote from page two shows that when Huck is in the house with the widow she believes that she is making him cultured and he does not understand her way of living. The Widow Douglas is trying to make Huck into a respectable young man that conforms with society and her views on life.

Also on Page 2- “Pretty soon I wanted to smoke, and asked the widow to let me. But she wouldn’t. She said it was a mean practice and wasn’t clean, and I must try to not do it any more.”

This quote shows another situation in which the Widow Douglas tries to make Huck Finn conform for his own benefit.

Miss Watson- Page 11”Well, I got a good going-over in the morning, from old Ms. Watson on account of my clothes;”

This quote from chapter three shows that Ms. Watson wants Huck to be prim and proper. She believes in discipline and wants Huck to conform to society quickly. Although in this particular instance Ms. Watson did not scold Huck.

Tom Sawyer- Page 1- “But Tom Sawyer, he hunted me up and said he was going to start a band of robbers, and I might join if I would go back to the widow and be respectable.”

Here it is seen that Tom sawyer, Huck’s best friend is trying to look after him. While Tom is rebellious like Huck is with creative ideas like a band of pirates, Tom is a goody-two-shoe and knows that the best place is with adults. By looking out for Huck Tom is attempting to make him conform for the values of society and go back to the widow and “be respectable.”

Huck Finn-Page 15- “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,”.

In this excerpt Huck is beginning to motivate himself to be like society’s standards. He has attended school and made an effort to learn. He can now read, write, spell, and do arithmetic (almost). Huck is beginning to conform to society by his own volition.

Responsibility to Family tradition- Page 20 and 23 “’You think you’re better’n your father, now, don’t you, because he can’t?’” (read and write)

“There’s a hand that was the hand of a hog; but it ain’t so no more; it’s the hand of a man that started in on a new life, and ‘ll die before he’ll go back.”

These quotes show that Huck’s father believes that family should stick together, which is a societal value, but his father believes that Huck should not be better than him and should live the life that he (his father) lived. The second quote shows that Huck’s father understands the values of society. He knows that drinking himself to the point of being unaware is not accepted, that he should take care of his son, and find a job. On the other hand, later in the chapter, Huck’s father shows that he cannot follow the values of society when he leaves the house of the judge and begins to drink again.

The Scarlet Letter: the rest of the book

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I have to say, out of the entire book my favorite chapters had to be 17 and 18.  These chapters are basically the embodiment of every classic love story.  The people of the town do not want them to be together, but they are going to defy all odds and show their love for each other.  In short Dimmesdale and Hester have decided to run away together!  As you can tell from the below quote…

“”Alone, Hester!”

“Thou shalt not go alone!” answered she, in a deep whisper.

Then, all was spoken!’ (Page195)

At this point all I could think about was man, this sounds an awful lot like Romeo and Juliet… hmmm, I don’t think that this is going to work out very well for anyone in the story.  Seeing that Chillingworth hates Dimmesdale’s guts I seriously doubted that Dimmesdale could pack all of his things and go anywhere without his roommate stopping him. 

After this in chapter 19, Hester tries to introduce Pearl to her father and tell her that he will love her like she loves her, but before she can get Pearl to come and meet him she refuses to come to her.  Before Hester even realized it I thought “man this little girl is so mean, she won’t go to her mom unless she is wearing the scarlet letter.”  This can also be connected back to the first few chapters when baby Pearl would recognize her mother’s scarlet letter before her face.  Which I thought was interesting.  Pearl’s littler temper tantrum doesn’t end there, when Dimmesdale is trying to be nice to her and gives her a kiss on the forehead she runs to the water and washes it off!  Not only this Hester just goes back to talking to Dimmesdale, please Hester discipline your child!  That is super rude, and if I did something like that I wouldn’t be leaving my room for a week.  Maybe that is why your child is crazy!

Going back to my thoughts from chapters 17 and 18, in chapter 22 Hester finds out that Chillingworth will be on the trip with them. Yay! ??? At this point I know there are only 2 chapters left and I’m just thinking that they will get on this boat and Chillingworth is going to kill all three of them and throw their bodies overboard and no one will ever know.  Thankfully this does not happen!  But some even crazier events take place and it’s literally mind-blowing!

At this point all the feces hits the rotating oscillator.  Dimmesdale gives his speech and everyone loves it, yay wonderful yippe!  But where is the action, oh wait a minute.  Dimmesdale gets Pearl and Hester to join him up on the scaffold, and I am basically cheering as loud as I can (in my head so my family doesn’t judge me as we drive home from our Thanksgiving party) I love this little family moment even if they are going to be judged by every person in the crowd.  And I’m thinking that this is going to be awesome and they will leave on the boat and be in love forever.  And now Chillingworth won’t get to “out” them and he won’t get that satisfaction, because he is evil and makes me mad.  Dimmesdale says God brought him there, you see an A branded into him and then they live happily ever after!!!!

(Ouchie boo boo)

 

Wait a minute, is there something wrong with that… Oh that’s right, Dimmesdale basically just drops dead.  You have got to love The Scarlet Letter!..... Or not. (but it was good, I just don't like that he died)

*tear*

Why can't they be a happy family!?!?!?!?!?

*another tear*

so sad... I strongly dislike Nathaniel Hawthorne.

This might be worse than when Dobby died...

 

 

Chapters 9-12

Possible Spoiler alert....

If my guess is correct.

Every time I see Dimmesdale's name all I can think of is this guy from Fairly Odd Parents.

     But on a more serious note, After reading this far in the book I think that it is "fairly" obvious who the father of Hester's child is.  He is basically the only person who has not appeared to do something right out to hurt them.  If you could not already tell, I think the baby-daddy is Mr. Dimmesdale.  Ever since he defended Hester and helped her keep Pearl in her care I have wondered about this guy. But not I am willing say it out loud.  Not only did he help Hester keep Pearl, but at the beginning of the book on page 49, a woman said that the reverend “takes it very grievously to heart that such a scandal should have come upon his congregation.” (49).  Then again on page 65 Dimmesdale is telling Hester to say who the father of Pearl was if it would put her soul at peace.  And he also tells her not to take pity on him just because she has feelings for the man (also known as himself). 

     Along with this When Dimmesdale gets sick he says that he does not want any medication.  (From whom of all people, Chillingsworth).  Dimmesdale believes that if he is sick it is by God’s will that he would die.  Although Chillingsworth says he is being too harsh on himself, Dimmesdale does not feel the same way.  Which I think is a clear indication that he feels like he is a sinner and a bad person in the eyes of God.  Dimmesdale even says that if he were a better person he would feel more inclined to take medicine and stay on the Earth to help people. 

            

     What then seems to be even more ironic is that Chillingsworth who said he would like to kill the man who  is Pearl’s father, is the one who is trying to take care of Dimmesdale!  The two of them even shared a house so that Chillingsworth could be close to Dimmesdale for treatment.  But it did say that the people in the town had been seeing a change in Chillingsworth since his first arrival… So could he be catching on to Dimmesdale (if he even is the father)?

      If Dimmesdale is the Pearl’s father then Nathaniel Hawthorne must have a since of humor.  But if he does not have a sense of humor Hawthorne could be trying to convey a message that is really deep.  Hawthorne could be trying to say that although people do things that are not socially acceptable, or that they regret, that were bad along with many other thing, it does not make them bad people.   On mistake or slip up does not necessarily define a person and their life.  When Hawthorne shows that Dimmesdale is not afraid of or opposed to death he also shows that people are can feel their own burden and shame without public scrutiny, and that it is not always our place to say what others are doing wrong with their lives.

A lot of people in probably all of our lives, including myself, can probably relate to that piece of advice and attempt to live by it more in the future.