Jamie Beckman
English period-2
September 22, 1998
I enjoyed readint the second half of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain much more than I did the first half. I thought the characters were witty and amusing. I especially liked Tom Sawyer's character toward the end. I thought it was kind of interesting how he turned the simplest task of freeing Jim from the shed into an all-out undercover operation. I found the little rules that Jim had to follow as a prisoner humorous because our society knows that these rules aren't necessary in order to help one escape.
On one hand, I thought it was extremely selfish for the boys to transform rescuing Jim from a serious responsibility into a game. They could have done it much more efficiently, and I think they should have. They were risking their lives as well as Jim's life by attempting this escape, so I don't think it was right of them to try to make it more of a challenge than it already was. I also thought it was cruel of Tom to let Jim believe he was still a prisoner even though Tom knew that technically he was free because Miss Watson had died and set Jim free in her will. On the other hand, I thought some of the things that the boys came up with where very creative.
I was confused earlier in the book when Huck and Jim were traveling with the king and the duke. Did Huck really know that they were phonies and just humor them or did he no suspect that they were lying to him. If he did know that they were fake, he must have been intimidated by them because he still called the king "your majesty" and the duke "your grace". For me, it was relatively easy to tell by their actions that they were not royaly. A king or duke wouldn't steal from a small community or play people for fools. They would surely have more respect for other people and their properties.
I was surprised that Huck didn't warn Mary Jane and the other sisters sooner than he did. He seems like such an innocent boy and he liked the girls a lot. I would have thought that as soon as he figured out what the king and duke were up to he would have tired to stop it. I'm glad he chose to do what was right, even if it took him a little longer to do it.
I wondered why Huck didn't try to escape the duke and the king earlier than he did. If I were put in that situation, where I either had to live a bunch of lies and be treated poorly or get in a large amount of trouble, I would have definitely tried to escape somehow. Even if if meant risking hurting myself or being put in a worse situation, it would be better to live free than under all that pressure.
I was almost positive that the book would end with Huck getting killed or seriously wounded because he was always getting into trouble. I was shocked when the book ended with Aunt Sally's proposal to adopt Huck. After all the emphasis on Huck and Jim becoming free men, I thought the book might end with him off on his own again.
Overall, I thought reading this book was a worthwhile experience. It was a very difficult book to read because all the different dialects made it painfully slow. It took a while to get into as well. Once I did, however, it moved pretty swift. I would recommend this book to those in search of a good adventure novel.
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