In these chapters, Huck really has to figure out what he believes in in order to make the best decision. After the dauphin sells Jim back into slavery, Huck is completely overwhelmed and really has a multitude of options he had to decide between. In his society, he has technically stolen Jim in the first place because African Americans were thought of as objects. But he knows that Jim is a person, and a really great person at that, so he decides once and for all that he'll stick with Jim, will try to get him back, and won't attempt to return him to Miss Watson. It drains him emotionally to accept these things because even though he is doing what we think of as the true right thing, the people around him consider his actions terrible sins. On page 242 he actually says "All right, then, I'll go to hell" when he finally decides he will no longer attempt to "reform" (turn Jim in).
Later when Huck is reunited with Tom Sawyer and they develop a plan to rescue Jim, there's kind of a funny example of different views on social responsibility. Tom makes up this extravagant plan that involves stealing many things in order to successfully break Jim out, but he says it's okay to steal them because they need them. Yet when Huck steals a watermelon on his own just because he feels like it, Tom freaks out. "He made a mighty fuss, one day, after that, when I stole a watermelon from the nigger patch and eat it; and he made me go and give the niggers a dime, without telling them what it was for." In Tom's mind it's horrific to steal something if you don't need it, but he's completely at peace with the concept of stealing things in general.
3 comments:
I think you bring up a good point when you talk about Huck and Tom’s view on stealing. I hadn't really focused on that. Stealing is wrong no matter how you look at it. You can come up with many different situations where the person needs to steal, but taking something that is not yours is wrong. During this time period though, I suppose theft was quite frequent, they didn't have such strict rules like there are now. If someone takes something that is yours, during this time, it is up to you to find it yourself. Back then it was your responsibility to keep track of your own things.
word! i thought tom wa seeing really hypocritical when Huck tried to steal the watermelon. like tom thinks it is perfectly fine to steal something when there is an actual use for it but its not okay when you just want something. i feel like you can connect this to the beginnning when huck and tom and all the other boys were creating the clan to rob and kill people. tom makes up whatever he wants, and he is always right no matter what. you start to wonder where tom gets this sense of entitlement considering the environment he lives in...
So it seems like your post is mainly about stealing and all those different ideas connected with it, which is something I didn’t give much thought to. First off, I don’t really think Huck stole Jim, it’s more like “Hey wanna come with me on my quest for freedom?!” But yeah, Tom is definitely really hypocritical in the watermelon example, and come to think of it, Huck doesn’t really seem to display much hypocrisy in the novel. Anyway, like Doris mentions, back then when something was stolen from you it was your responsibility to get it back, it was your social responsibility, which ties in with your whole discussion about stealing. So yeah, good job! You made me think about other ideas in these chapters!
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