As we read the novel, prepare to respond to the BLOGS with specific quotes/evidence from the text. Make sure your quotes include page numbers from the novel and connect to the themes of American realism: freedom, the American dream, racism, regionalism, survival, "individual vs. society," and "civilized society vs. the wilderness.
Huck Finn Challenges Blog
How do the fictional characters in Huckleberry Finn express the challenges facing America at the time? (300 words). Respond to one classmates post. (50-100 words).
ReplyDeleteA problem that America faced in “Huckleberry Finn” that stuck out to me as a reader was the problem of slavery. Jim has to face this problem when he is running away to freedom with Huck. Huck also has to live with the fact that he is helping a runaway slave. When Jim is running, he is doing it for himself and to save his family. He knows that if he is caught there is possibility of death, but he would rather be a dead man than be a slave. Another way that Huck faces the problem of slavery in America is by doing what is morally right. He knows it is wrong to help a runaway slave, but he knows that in the end it is the right thing to do. Huck says, “All right, then, I’ll go to hell” - and tore it up.” (206.) Here, this explains how Huck has to face the decision of doing what was he knew what was morally right, or listening to society and turn Jim in. During this story, Huck and Jim both face challenges of being a slave and being the one who is helping a slave escape. Huck does what he think he needs to do, and Jim is only trying to be free and free his family. Overall, slavery is expressed a lot more throughout this book. I think that Jim expressed his slavery by running. It showed readers that he was willing to take risks in order to save him family and himself. Huck expressed his challenges of helping a slave escape by being caught up between what was morally correct and what was socially correct. Each character gave a different view on slavery, and I think that it helped all readers realize what a large issue this was in America during this time.
I thought that the quote that you used supported your response well. I also liked that you described how conflicted Huck felt while trying to decide if he should turn Jim in for being a runaway slave or not. He had to decide between what was morally correct and what was socially correct.
DeleteLil, this was such a great response and we touched on some of the same topics. I love how you incorporated that quote into the response because I also used that quote and we had very similar ideas. You really focused on the challenge of slavery but also talked about the triumph of freedom.
DeleteJim expresses the challenges of slavery in American in the novel, he is faced with living a life in slavery for Miss Watson. In this life Jim was separated from his family and now is forced into labor. While Jim is a slave and when he is escaping he faces racism extremely often and that is something that was occurring in America that is shown through the story. "Well, I RECKON! There's two hunderd dollars reward on him. It's like picking up money out'n the road." (203). This shows that African Americans at this time were not viewed as humans, rather they were viewed as property. As the excerpt from the story shows, the money was more important than the freedom of Jim which connects to the racism and inequality that was shown to Jim and other African Americans at this time. Jim was searching for the American Dream in this story, he was trying to find a way to get back to his family and live a life of freedom where he could do what he wanted and work for his living. Jim did go against society when he tried to escape slavery, he wanted to be free but the white people did not want him to. This shows that white Americans at this time were scared of what African Americans would do and felt threatened by them at this time. Jim is a very good example of all of these and what was occurring in America at the time of the novel. He worked for his freedom and it shows that freedom could be achieved in the novel in this time. African Americans did not have the right to freedom but with hard work people like Jim changed slavery and the idea of freedom for all of the people like them. He was a great demonstration of how freedom could be earned.
ReplyDeleteThe quote that you used resembled slavery very well in this instance of the white folks only in to find Jim for the reward money and how all slaves are treated as property. I like how you connected money with freedom and how the money is more important than Jim's freedom, which is an example of racism.
DeleteThe fictional characters in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” express the challenges facing America in numerous different ways. Huckleberry Finn exemplifies the problems faced by poor white boys in this time period. His father is an abusive alcoholic, so Huck ran away from him. Huck was only educated for a short amount of time which was unusual for him to have even gone to school at all. The boys that Huck grew up with were not educated at all; young people being uneducated was a problem in the United States during this time. Huck rarely had clothes and he had to find his own food which showed he was poor. Even though Huck had a lot of money in the bank, he never used it. Jim reflected the problems that people faced in America in the biggest way because he experienced racism and the effects of slavery every day. Since Jim is an African American character he was enslaved by Miss Watson. He finally escaped slavery at the same time as when Huck escaped being captured by his father. They both escaped the person that enslaved them which bonded them together. Jim was constantly worrying whether or not he would be caught as a runaway slave; the same fear that was experienced by all other runaway slaves. Slavery was a part of the society during this time period, and it was thought to be a good thing. Huck had to use his conscience when deciding whether or not to tell on Jim, and he decided that the right thing would be to tell on him. Deep down Huck knew that he would risk his own fate for Jim’s because they became friends. Huck said, “All right, then, I’ll go to hell,” which explained that he did not truly understand religion and he was against slavery (206). Although being against religion and slavery was said to be wrong in Huck’s society, he decided to go against it for his own personal reasons.
ReplyDeleteThe fictional characters in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” express the challenges facing America at that time through slavery, poverty, and racism. Jim played a key role of expressing his thoughts and feelings towards slavery since he was a slave at the time. Jim’s actions such as getting whipped, owned by a white master, having duties among the household, not being able to leave the property, he’s bought and sold, and especially running away convey to the reader that slavery is without a doubt discriminates against Africans. The main goal for Huck, Tom, and Jim near the end of the book was to free Jim from slavery and help him escape from not being able to live his own life. Racism ties in with slavery because African’s were chosen for a reason. They were chosen because of their strong build and immune system, which was resistant to a variety of rare diseases. The white people that enslaved Africans quickly treated enslaved Africans like they were worth nothing and only good for working on their property, which are slave owners such as Miss Watson, Grangerford’s, Shepherdson’s, and the Phelps’. With racism entails name calling, such as the “n” word, which is not uncommon during this time. Poverty was prominent in Huck’s life because he comes from the lowest of the white society and is homeless and normally dirty. Pap is an unpleasant character who is always drunk. Huck described his appearance, which is similar to that of a poor old man, "His hair was long and tangled and greasy, and hung down...It was all black, no gray; so was his long, mixed-up whiskers...As for his clothes--just rags, that was all...the boot on that foot was busted, and two of his toes stuck through" (18-19). He’s threatened by Huck being able to read and that he’s becoming more civilized. This shows that Pap is insecure because his son is improving in his life. Most importantly, Pap is struggling through poverty and is a struggling alcoholic. Pap tried to steal money from Huck for alcohol which shows that he hasn't made improvements with his lifestyle choices and that he spends money irrationally.
ReplyDeleteI like the quote you used because it showed that Huck was learning many things and was threatening to his father. This was a good analysis and was well written. I also liked how you talked about racism and how it was common during this time. Good Job.
DeleteThe fictional characters in Huckleberry Finn expresses the challenges that America faced because Jim’s search for freedom was the same as many of the slaves during the time that this book was set in. Huck’s character is a character that reflects the way people were during that time because he did not want to be civilized, but to decide his own fate. People during this time were wanting of the same thing and were free spirits and spontaneous with their lives. Jim’s character represents every slave during that time because they all wanted freedom. This also showed that their were many slaves during this time. Miss Watson’s character is an example of how slave owners were like and how bossy they were. Her and the widow were acting as representations of women and just people during this time. The Grangerfords were a stereotype family during this time. They were religious but they also had slaves and this is shown when Huck says “Each person had their own nigger”(103). This passage proved that even Huck was learning more and more about the culture in the south. These challenges that these characters raced relates to the theme of racism, and individuals vs. society because of Jim’s struggles with being a slave and how Huck’s adventure was him against everything else in order to free himself from society. This relates to the idea of the American Dream and how the characters especially Jim and Huck were in search of that from the very beginning. The theme of racism was not just shown because of slavery but also because of how different characters were judged because of who they were even if it wasn't by race. There was a stereotype for the different characters which was a reason for why they were treated how they were. The struggles during this time came out through the adventures in this novel.
ReplyDeleteI like the topics you talked about as freedom and slavery were big issues at the time. You covered these problems very well and related them to the characters in the book. I liked your use of a quote to solidify your points and make your message more compelling. Good job!
DeleteThe characters in Huckleberry Finn show the problems that america faced at the time through the main themes of slavery and freedom. In America slavery was a big problem at the time and this is shown clearly throughout the story. There are numerous examples of slavery like Huck being a slave to his dad. Huck's father was also a slave to alcohol. Jim was a slave until he escaped. Jim and Huck become slaves to the duke and King. Jim becomes a slave again when he is captured in the cabin. All of these are examples of a common problem at the time. Throughout the story Jim talks about his problem of wanting to free his family. He also has the problem of being in the south as a free black man. He has to worry of being mistaken as a runaway slave and being captured like he was. Eventually at the end of the story Jim gains enough money to free his family. It is assumed his does this as this is the most logical thing that he could do, but it is unknown if he actually does. These struggles of Jim's relate to the problem of gaining freedom and equality. The issue of equality is shown through how Hucks ideas about Jim change over the course of the story. At first he looks at him like any other slave and thinks that he is less than human. As the story progresses Huck learns that Jim is in fact just like any other person. He begins to look at Jim as equal to himself. In this way Jim earns equality, no to everyone, but to Huck. Huck learns to look at Jim in a new way. it is debateable as to whether he looks at all black people in this new way, or just Jim.
ReplyDeleteGreat analysis overall of the themes of slavey and freedom that occur throughout the story. You also did a great job at showing how theses same problems were encountered in real life during the time period.
DeleteFictional characters face the same problems that real people in real do. This is shown in this novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. The problems that the characters face go along with the problems that people faced during the time period the book is based in. One thing that many people struggled with is the idea of helping a slave and their support of slavery overall. In this novel, Huck faces this same dilemma that many others faced in real life, whether or not to turn Jim in as a runaway slave. He actually prayed about it. Praying is probably something that most people turned to at that time for advice. Huck is just like them. He ends up choosing to try free Jim instead of turn him into Miss Watson. Another situation in the book that collates with problems in real life is the problem of mixing up serious situations with situations where it isn't so serious. This happens in the novel when Tom treats the very serious situation of freeing him from slavery as a time to have an adventure and free him like "they do in the books." People in real life make mistakes like this as well. They treat things like illnesses and other things like they are nothing, but they are in fact something. This is not a good thing to do. This not only occurs in the time period that the book took place in, but this situation is still going on today. People do not take things as serious as they should. Most of the time it is a bad thing that people do not take serious situations seriously, but it could also be a way to release stress that the situation is forcing onto the person. This is not the case in this book, thought. Tom just doesn't grasp to reality of the events that are taking place.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you focused on problems that weren't so prominent in society. Huck's problem of whether to help Jim escape or not was a unique problem because not everyone had the same dilemma. Another thing I liked was that you included Tom in the problems that were faced by people. Great overall analysis.
DeleteYou did an excellent job on analyzing all the main challenges in Hucks life. I liked how you also referred to the other characters around Huck as well and showed how they faced the challenges either with Huck or separate from him.
DeleteThe biggest problem that challenges America in the time of “Huck Finn” that is shown through the struggles of the fictional characters in the novel is the issue of slavery. Jim is the character that shows this most prominently. Jim is an African slave who ran away from his owner. All throughout the story, Jim faces struggles pertaining to slavery because of the color of his skin. One instance is when Huck and Jim are separated from each other one night in the foggy night. Huck makes his way to the home of the Grangerford’s but Jim cannot follow him in fear of being caught. In the process of losing each other, Huck plays a trick on Jim and says that it was all a dream. When Huck realizes that he hurt Jim’s feelings, he thinks, “It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I warn't ever sorry for it afterwards, neither,” (84). By saying this, Huck shows that he is beginning the overcome the racial barrier that separates himself from Jim. Racism and slavery issues that were spread all throughout the country. People in both the north and south struggled with slavery. Jim had to be mindful of his whereabouts and what he was doing as him and Huck delved deeper into the south. Whenever there were people around, Jim had to hide so he would not get caught and get sent back to St. Petersburg to Miss Watson. After Tom and Huck had helped Jim escape from the Phelps family, Jim revealed himself to help the doctor who was caring for Tom’s leg. Eventually, Jim was freed from the Phelps family after Tom’s Aunt Sally arrived and said that Miss Watson freed Jim in her will. After many struggles and hardships, Jim was free from slavery.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy that you mentioned the multiple hardships that Jim faces on his journey to attempt to escape slavery. The quote you chose was relevant to the ideals of racial barriers between whites and slaves in that era. Huck does eventually break that barrier, which you mentioned, but it may have helped if you mentioned that not only did he break the barrier, but he began to care for Jim, something that was not common between whites and slaves.
DeleteThe fictional characters in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn express the challenges facing America at the time in many ways. The first way that the fictional characters in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn express the challenges facing America is by showing that a lack of education was prominent in the southern areas of the United States. Huck and the majority of his friends were not given a formal education (such as learning simple math, reading, writing, and social skills). In the rare case that the southern children in poverty were taught to read and write, then they may have had a difficult accurately analyzing the text. An example of this lack of analyzation skills is how Tom Sawyer attempts to unrealistically create adventure in his own life based off of pieces he has read. Tom read multiple adventurous books and comics, but he did not understand that what he reading was fiction, so he expected his life to resemble the books and comics. The second way that the fictional characters in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn express the challenges facing America is by showing that people of color were not important to Southern plantation owners. An example of this harsh reality is when Huck first arrives at Tom Sawyer’s family plantation and explains why he was late for arrival. The conversation between Huck (pretending to be Tom) and Aunt Sally is, “‘It warn't the grounding -- that didn't keep us back but a little. We blowed out a cylinder-head.’ ‘Good gracious! anybody hurt?’ ‘No'm. Killed a nigger.’ ‘Well, it's lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt.’” (223) When Aunt Sally says her final remark on the situation, it shows that she does not consider people of color to be people at all. Even though Huck says that someone dies, it does not seem to phase Aunt Sally.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was very intelligent how you focused on the poverty and lack of education for the children in your analysis. This point was a fairly simple one that seemed to be overshadowed because of the overbearing focus on slavery in the novel. Great overall thought process.
DeleteThe most obvious challenge that the characters in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn face that was occurring during this time period was that of slavery. The whole plot is based on the idea of gaining freedom, yes this novel is based on Huck Finn searching for freedom from his abusive father and “sivilization”, but the big picture is Jim’s battle to gain his freedom from slavery. Really you could argue that Huck and Jim’s adventure end up being based on getting Jim to freedom and setting him up in a place where nobody would have a reason to bother him or his family; sadly missing Cairo and going South doesn’t help. Through this journey down South the main characters are shown how bad slavery can get and how down there slaves are all seen as nothing more than possessions. Just seeing a black person means that you should capture him and lock him up until his owner comes and claims him. Back in this time that was simply the custom that people followed. Another challenge that is faced in this book is how to treat slaves especially when you realize that they are people just like everyone else. In the beginning Huck has the thought that he’ll let Jim stay with him as long as he can, but if it comes down to it he’ll sell him out to save himself. Later in the novel Huck realizes that Jim is his truest friend and is willing to do whatever to save him because since the start of this mess Jim has been the only constant. Even though it took awhile to develop this is the true meaning of friendship, Huck not caring about the consequences and just wanting to help his friend out. That’s something we can all learn from Twain’s writing.
ReplyDeleteI think that you did a really good job on your response. The part where you mentioned that Jim is Huck’s truest friend and that Jim will do anything for him, being really the one true constant in the novel, I agree with completely. All in all, I think that this was really well done. Great job.
DeleteThe characters in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn faced and expressed the problems in America at the time when the story was written in all different sorts of ways. There were ways of slavery, and disrespect in the challenges of people being enslaved in Jim’s case. Jim was enslaved by Mrs. Watson and people called him a “nigger” which was a word for black slaves back in the time of this book. Huck began to respect Jim because he saw how Jim responded to people who disrespected him and he figured out that he should approach life how Jim did and block out all the disrespectful people. Huck faced the challenges of America during the time when he was in the house with Mrs. Watson and the widow and then when he switched over to live with his Pap and he learned how to live without them because they just made his life worse and he found a way to live in better style for his own good. Freedom and slavery were major problems in the time period of this story and in America. Huck and Jim were the two main characters that faced these problems, both Huck and Jim faced the challenge of Freedom because they had t escape from their daily lives to gain freedom and they both escape at different times but meet up which shows that the freedom of the two was meant to be and they take advantage of this freedom to try to live freely. Jim was more of a model for the character that faced the challenge of slavery because he was a slave in the beginning and end of book in which both times he becomes free and ends up living freely. Overall These two characters of Huck and Jim were great examples of how the characters faced the challenges in America during the time period of the story.
ReplyDeleteI like how you mentioned that in the book Huck eventually starts to respect Jim.I also like how you included that Huck was facing the challenges of slavery and freedom as well. I would agree that freedom and slavery were major problems at the time in which the book is set.
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ReplyDeleteA main challenge facing America that is expressed by the characters of “Huckleberry Finn” is the issue of slavery. Jim is the character that mainly expresses this social issue. Mark Twain, the author, uses his character Jim to express this issue by including the story of Jim’s journey from slavery to freedom. Twain includes examples of the way slaves and even free African Americans were treated. Frequently within the novel Jim is referred to as a nigger and other derogatory terms, as well as every other African American in the book. Jim runs away from his owner because he hears that she wants to sell him. As a result, Jim is on the run travelling to Cairo where he can be free. Along the way he faces many problems including being discriminated and looked down upon even by the lowest criminals and Huck who is a child, constantly having to hide because of the fear of being captured, and being sold back into slavery. Twain uses irony to emphasize his expression of this social issue through Jim. The irony is shown at the end of the book when it is discovered that Jim actually became a free man soon after he left because his owner had died and wrote in her will that she granted Jim freedom. Huck also expresses the challenge of slavery. Although he is not an African American slave he is owned by his father, otherwise known as Pap. Twain expresses the issue of slavery through Huck in the story of his journey with Jim. Huck is kept by his father but gains freedom after faking his death and running away. Another prominent challenge facing America at this time that is expressed through characters is poverty. A majority of the characters in the book are poor. Huck and Pap live in a small cabin and have to catch most of their food. Huck is not actually poor as he has six thousand dollars that he found in a cave with Tom Sawyer but he doesn't want Pap to have it because he will spend it all on alcohol. Jim is poor because he is a slave and that is not a paid job. Huck, Jim, the king, and the duke express this challenge every time they steal and lie in order to get money.
In the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain, the characters face many different challenges facing America at the time. The first of which is slavery which mainly challenges both Jim and Huck. For Jim, he faces the fact that he will always have to live in some sort of fear for his life because at any time, he could easily be captured and returned to slavery. That is until it is made known that Miss Watson had died two months before the ending and Jim was free the whole time the adventures had taken place. For Huck, he had to hard moral decision for the time on whether or not he should reveal that Jim is a runaway slave and turn him in, but he doesn't because in the end they developed a friendship. Not only was he faced with the problem of slavery from actual slavery,but he also was by Pap. Huck was essentially a slave when Pap kidnapped Huck from Miss Watson’s and Widow Douglas’s care. He was trapped in Pap’s house with no chase to really do anything, that is until he escaped, like Jim did. For another problem found in the novel that the characters face is the one of racism. Jim is constantly degraded and belittled to something less than human with racism, and more specifically by the use of the “N” word. The whole problem didn't really pertain to Huck. All in all, the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the problems that the main characters face are ones that would be very common for the setting. The problem could be slavery and how to deal with it, or even racism in general, but the characters still face these problems and go about them in a way that seems quite realistic.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you made the connection between the slavery of Jim and that of Huck under Pap. You made a very solid case and this analyzation of the story is very easy to understand and i think you got your point across. You pointed out how the characters dealt with their problems i a realistic way which i agree with,
DeleteA problem which was occurring in Huckleberry Finn which really struck me was that of slavery. Not ply the slavery which held Jim but that which also controlled Huck, so i suppose domestic violence as well. At this time in history, for some reason people thought it was okay to enslave other people, and that because somebody was a different color of skin than them that they weren't as human. This era of prejudice and hatred occurred throughout the story as Huck constantly has to try and cover for jim, his enslaved friend who is trying to gain his freedom so that one day he may be with his family again. On another point, Huck is enslaved to his father, who whenever he has custody over Huck, beats him senseless. In this era of American history, there were very little means for Huck to escape the grasps of his father and to seek his own freedom. This detail of Huck's slavery is very ironic when paired against his adventures with Jim. Huck feels tremendous guilt when helping Jim, a runaway slave. Huck feels all this guilt because, although he recognizes Jim's need to escape, he is still a young boy who has been raised not to see black men as equal. Throughout the story, Twain pokes fun at the entire concept of slavery. He makes fun of the face that white men thing that they are more than those of the opposite race, and how they seldom took their real life problems seriously. In Jim's case, he's fighting to see his family and to be freed, however whenever he tries to achieve this worthy goal, he is being hunted down by men attempting to get n award by handing him in. Also Twain shows through Jim and Huck's interactions, how their stories are not so different. He attacks the idea of racism and slavery through the comparison of Jim's slavery to the slavery which plagues the lives of not only Huck but multiple people throughout the move.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you showed your ideas in this blog, you incorporated the points of slavery and who was enslaved in the novel in many ways. I think your analysis of this was very good and that slavery was something noteworthy at this time because of how bad it was. Great job on this blog.
DeleteOne of the challenges faced in America that the characters in “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” express is the issue of slavery. The whole plot is based around Huck and Jim’s journey to freedom although it might not be so clearly expressed. Both of these characters faced the challenge of slavery: Jim, which is quite evident and Huck, which is less obvious. Jim struggles throughout the whole novel with the lifestyle of a black slave and readers see how poorly he is treated by all those around him, even Huck at times. The slavery Huck deals with is at the beginning of the novel when he is basically enslaved by his disrespectful, drunken father, Pap. The whole goal for both men throughout the novel is freedom. Both of them help each other and it helps develops the morals for both men. Huck deals with the struggle of helping a runaway slave throughout the entire story. He matures as a person throughout and discovers that he would much rather help out the man who became his friend and helped him, despite his social status or race. He even says, “All right, then, I’ll go to hell - and tore it up” (206). What this means is that he is willing to accept any consequences that come his way for helping Jim become a free man. The irony in all of the novel is that both Huck and Jim are basically free throughout the majority of their journey. Miss Watson, who dies, let Jim become a free man in her will. Pap also dies as well and he happens to be the dead body they find in the floating house. The story shows the two men’s battles with slavery and their search for freedom, but also shows how they grew morally and mentally.
ReplyDeleteYour analysis of the problems that each charater represents in the novel describes the specific issue of slaver, which appears in many forms, quite well. I liked that you described Jim’s enslavement to Miss. Watson in the same way you described Huck’s slavery under his father, equating their two experiences.
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ReplyDeleteThe characters of Mark twain’s novel, The adventures of huckleberry Finn, face the difficult challenges of America in that time period. All of the characters represent one or more of the problems that existed in society of the time, that they themselves were a part of or had to fight against. Huck Finn’s father, Pap Finn is Mark Twain’s representation of a stereotypical uneducated man in the south who is an alcoholic racist. Pap’s alcohol induced rant describes his distorted views of society with his blanket blaming of the government for all of the problems in his life. His strong disapproval of the government trying to take Huck from him, denying him Huck’s money, and allowing African Americans to be free in the north is why he ironically chooses to not vote so he is not involved in it, while at the same time he does nothing to fix his complaints. “They said he could VOTE when he was at home. Well, that let me out. Thinks, I, what is the country a-coming to.” Jim had been a slave for his entire life along with his whole family, up until he decided to run away and accidentally met Huck on Jackson Island. Huck was torn between the destructive ideals of his upbringing and what he thought was right in his heart. Huck decided to help Jim escape because he believed that he was a bad person and abolitionists were considered evil people, so that was what he should do. Despite Huck helping Jim stay free, he still treats him as unequal to himself and referring to Jim with racist and degrading language. A part of the southern vocabulary in Huck Finn is the use of the n-word to not only represent African Americans, but as a possible description of anything bad. Through the destructive and infectious force of slavery, racism is commonplace in Southern language and even invades Huck Finn’s thinking, despite his good nature.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the way that you went on about Pap Finn in your reaction. This character in the novel is really under valued, and it was good to see someone finally talking about him. First I enjoyed the way you made Pap Finn into a stereotype character. This is something that I had not originally made a connection to. Overall, I really enjoyed your insightful reaction.
DeleteI enjoyed the way that you went on about Pap Finn in your reaction. This character in the novel is really under valued, and it was good to see someone finally talking about him. First I enjoyed the way you made Pap Finn into a stereotype character. This is something that I had not originally made a connection to. Overall, I really enjoyed your insightful reaction.
Delete“Huckleberry Finn” is a novel that takes place in racist south of America. The racist nature of the south in this book can be seen when Pap Finn says, “There was a free nigger there from Ohio...They said he could vote… what is the country a-coming to?” (27). This clearly displays the racist nature of the south; however, in this setting these fictional characters are forced to deal with the challenges that take place during this rough time period in American history. One huge challenge that the characters Huck and Jim deal with is trying to set Jim free. This is a challenge due to Jim being an African American who must sneak his way out to freedom with Huck and not be detected by others. This connects to both the American dream and freedom. These two connections can be seen through the way Jim tries to follow his dream by become free. Another set of connections can also be made here these two connections are to regionalism and racism. These can be seen in the way that Jim has to sneak his way out of a racist part of America, and this in turn shows the ideas of both regionalism and racism. The last set of connections that can be made are with survival, individual vs. society, and civilized society vs. wilderness. A connection to survival can be seen with the way that Jim is escaping towards freedom by putting his life on the line, and this in turn displays the idea of survival in the way Jim risks his own life for freedom. The connection that can be made with individual vs. society can be seen in Jim escaping which is something the society doesn’t want to happen at the time, and this clearly displays the idea that Jim going against being a obedient slave shows individual vs. society. The last connection that can be made is with civilized society vs. wilderness. This can be seen in the way Jim escapes into the wild to avoid and evil civilized society, and this in turn directly relates to civilized society vs. wilderness.
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