Chapters 41-The Last

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has indeed many themes, but I think that one of the strongest themes displayed throughout the novel is racism. This novel was set back before slavery was abolished, therefore many people believed differently about blacks and other races; they believed that whites were superior to any other race. Huck was brought up believing this, so when he helped Jim to escape and head north he felt like he was doing the wrong thing. He thought that helping a "nigger" was immoral and that he would go to hell for it like when he wrote the letter that was to be sent to Miss Watson. "I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever felt so in my life, and I knowed I could pray now. But I didn't do it straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking--thinking how good it was all this happening so, and how near I come to being lost and going to hell." He thought that if he didn't turn Jim in or tell his owner where he was that he would go to hell, but as the book progressed he began to doubt those morals. He, I guess you would say, put friendship first. Although he had an inner conflict and debated with himself for quite some time, he finally put his friendship with Jim before the morals that he had been taught. "All right, then, I'll go--to hell"--and tore it up. I think that this showed us that Huck knows what's right, but sometimes he is driven in the wrong direction. In the end though, he chose what was right and what he truly believed is right. I think that he changed his beliefs from the beginning of the novel to the end. Although he hasn't stated it, I think that he believes that slavery is wrong, that is why he wouldn't turn Jim in.

Chapters 39-40

In chapters 39-40 of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom decided that Huck and he should make the shack that Jim is living in more like a dungeon. So Huck and Tom found snakes and rats and different kinds of bugs and let them loose in there. If I was Jim, I would have been really mad. How is he supposed to live in a place that is infested with rodents and slimy creatures? I wouldn't be able to sleep either with those creatures crawling all over me. How can he stand it? Why don't they just help him escape? The animals that were in the place that Jim was being held began to infest the Phelps' house.
Then Tom and Huck heard of Tom's Aunt and Uncle going to put Jim in the paper as a runaway nigger. They thought that Miss Watson would see the paper and discover that it was Jim, so Tom decided to write an anonymous letter to his Aunt and Uncle telling about how he was part of a gang and was going to steal Jim. Aunt Sally and Uncle Silas were baffled by this, and that night while Tom and Huck are upstairs, they invited some people over who brought guns. When Huck went downstairs to get some butter, he saw a lot of people gathered downstairs with pitchforks. After Huck got the butter, he look outside and realized what was going on. Then he went upstairs and told Tom what was going on. So they snuck downstairs and went outside and rescued Jim from his "shack." They crept outside and over the fence trying really hard not to make noise. Jim went first, then Huck, and then Tom. They were about over the fence when Tom got caught on the fence and made noise. The mob heard it and ran to where Tom was climbing the fence. They started to shoot at them and ended up hitting Tom.
After they had escaped the mob, Jim and Huck told Tom that he needed to go to the doctor because he would say that to them if they were the ones who had been shot. At first, Tom refused and said that he wasn't going to go to the doctor's because he didn't need one and he would be fine. Finally he gave into Jim and Huck and went to the doctor's.

Chapters 37-38

In chapters 37 and 38 of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Aunt Sally thinks that she is losing her mind because her belongings keep disappearing. She was laying spoons out on the counter, and counting them. There was ten. Then Tom took one away when she wasn't looking, and she counted them again and there was only nine. So she counted them again after Tom put the spoon back; there was ten again. After she realized some of her possessions were missing, she began to blame people for stealing them. It seemed like she blamed everyone except the real culprits, Tom and Huck.
I don't really like Tom. I didn't like him that much at the beginning of the book when he made the band of robbers, but now I really don't like him at all. I think that Tom is annoying, and to me, it seems like he tries way too hard at everything like when Jim was "being held prisoner," Tom wanted to move a huge rock to help Jim escape. Then he realized that Huck and he couldn't move it by themselves so he had Jim come out of the place or shack that he was in to help him move it to help Jim escape. I don't get it!! Why would Tom make things so complicated? Does he think it's fun or something? Maybe he thinks it's funny? If Jim could just get out, then why did they have to move the huge rock?
Then Tom thought of the idea that they should put something in a pie to help him escape. So they made a rope ladder out of bed sheets and baked it in the pie to give to Jim. Ugh!!!!! Tom is really irritating me with the way that he makes everything a game. I don't think it's very funny. I would not be able to put up with him like Huck does, but I guess they are best friends so they probably don't really annoy each other.

Chapters 35-36

Mark Twain called The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn "a book of mine where a sound heart and a deformed conscience suffers defeat." Within this novel, Huck's conscience is "deformed" due to the influence around him. Some of these influences include Pap, his father, who taught him many unethical morals. Pap was not what one would consider "the best" role model taking into account that Pap was a heavy drinker and smoker. This allowed Huck to think that these things were alright to do.
Another of his influences would be the duke and the king. The duke and the king were con artists who tended to rip people off and lie like when they took people's money for the play and ran off stage, not performing. After being with them for a while, Huck had to have started thinking differently. Watching the duke and the king do what they did caused Huck to think differently about lying and using people. It made him question whether he should turn Jim in even though Jim was like his best friend.
Also, I think that another influence would be the environment in which Huck has lived. Huck and Jim have lived on the river for quite some time, and it didn't seem like they were having very good luck with the weather as they travelled. Huck went from staying in a nice warm house with a bed and plenty of food to living on the raft outside with Jim and having to steal to get food. This had to have made him think differently. I think that after he adapted to living on the raft, his conscience would have to have changed, not necessarily for the bad but most likely.
These influences that Huck has faced are still at work in the world today, maybe not in the same form, but they are always there. There will always be those people who will try to make you think that lying and using people and smoking and drinking are alright and that you should try them. Those are the people who influence the naive who don't have a clear conscience about themselves yet, like Huck.
Even though there are bad influences in the world such as Pap, the duke, or the king, there are always good influences too. In the book one of the good influences is Widow Douglas who tries to change Huck into a proper gentleman. Another one from the book is Jim. Even though he doesn't try to make Huck a better person, he does indirectly by being a good friend and showing Huck what a good friend really is by helping each other out. There are always people out there that will be there to help. God is even one that helps you create a good conscience within yourself.

Chapter 27-34

In my opinion, Jim is a flat character because throughout the novel he has remained the same; whereas Huck is a round character because he has changed psychologically. Huck thinks differently than he did at the beginning of the novel. He has adapted to a different life, life in the wilderness; and he has changed due to the people he is and was with like Widow Douglas, pap, the king, the duke, and Jim. I think that the reason that Huck changed and Jim didn't is because Huck is still young and naive. He learns from other people and that is how he is discovering himself as a person. In the beginning of the novel, Huck followed Widow Douglas's teachings; and then when he went with pap, he changed and adapted to that way of life. He became more like his father until he ranaway. Then he learned to become a more independent person.
Jim has remained the same. His main values are still family and friends, that is why he ranaway in the first place; he didn't want to be separated from his wife and two children. Now when he becomes free, he wants to earn enough money so he can buy his wife and then work to buy his two children. Along with values, he also still has the same opinions unlike Huck. Jim is stubborn and couldn't be talked out of the way he thought, whereas Huck is more easily swayed to doing something or thinking differently.

Chapters 24-26

Since the beginning of the novel, Huck has change quite a bit. He has become more reliable and has adapted to a different lifestyle; life on the run in the wilderness. He is no longer taught what is right from what is wrong, therefore he doesn't always do what is right because there isn't anyone like Widow Douglas around to teach him the correct morals. I think that Huck has learned that living on the run and in the wilderness is a lot harder than he thought it would be. I think he thought that he would just be able to take a raft and run away from St. Petersburg without any trouble, but he has come across a lot of hassles such as having to dress up like a girl to find out how much everyone in the town knew and losing their raft after jumping on a wrecked ship that was sheltering dangerous men with gun then having to steal their life raft. As one can see, Huck and Jim haven't had the easiest time. Also I think that Huck and Jim's relationship has changed very dramatically. It went from sort of friends who barely knew each other to really close friends that "had each other's backs." They told each other everything, and I think that they kind of had their own way of comforting each other like when Jim was sad and missed his family.
In these chapters, the duke, the king, and Huck dress Jim up like a sick Arab; and they paint his face blue. Then they leave him beside a tree with a sign that said, "Sick Arab--but harmless when not out of his head." I don't understand what this sign means, and I also don't understand why they just left him there. Did they think it would be safer for him to stay there till they got back?

Chapter 23

In the beginning of this chapter the duke and the king are putting on a play that is really funny and makes everyone laugh. "The people most killed themselves laughing..." The king even ran around naked to make people laugh and so the audience would tell other people to come watch the plays. I think it was a little desperate of the king to run around naked, but it was smart at the same time because it obviously worked. Then when the king and the duke are going to put on the next play, they take the people's money and run off. I don't know if they were afraid of getting rotten food thrown at them or if they were afraid of getting their money taken away because the people going to the play filled their pockets so full of rotten food that they were bulging. I think that the king and the duke are con artists and had that planned out the whole time. They wouldn't be the type of people that you would want to trust. When they ran off the stage, they got on the raft to go down the river.
Jim was on lookout on the raft that night and when it was Huck's turn, Jim didn't wake him up. Huck woke up in the morning, and Jim was sitting with his head between his knees crying because he was homesick and missed his wife and daughter. I would've been really sad too. I don't know if I would have been able to leave in the first place though because there was a risk of getting caught and he was leaving his family behind, but I think he ended up making the right decision because if he wouldn't have left, he would have been sold and move to New Orleans.