Talia Cotton, Sam Fragin, Isaac Steinberg February 2009

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Log

On the River: Chapters 12-18

I. Themes –Cotton

Mark Twain, the author of his American masterpiece of a novel, Adventures of

Huckleberry Finn, wrote in his personal diary, “Whenever you find yourself on the side

of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).” Although Twain wrote this

almost twenty years after the initial release of Huckleberry Finn, one could justly argue

that it still applied as a theme to the novel. This quotable phrase has a number of different

ways of interpretation, all of which are seen in his novel. The phrase infers the idea that

the majority of people require reformation, following the logic that if someone “on the

side of the majority” should reform, then the majority should reform. The phrase also

outlines Twain’s interpretation of reformation: to “pause” or to “reflect”. In other words,

Twain argues that if one finds oneself agreeing with the majority of people, one must

reflect on one’s actions in order to reform. And interestingly enough, (along with some

other assertions about reformation), this idea is predominant in his novel, especially in

chapters 12-18.

In these chapters, Huck faces a number of morally challenging dilemmas, which,

after reflection, eventually shape his character and reform him from his previous immoral

influences from civilization. Twain’s idea of reformation is most clearly demonstrated

through the scene in which Huck overhears a murder plot between two gangs on a

wrecked ship. Two men from one gang plan to sink the wreck in two hours, with a man
from the other gang stuck on it. Because their raft has floated away, Huck and Jim take

the murderous gang’s boat and float away, thus trapping the three men on the wreck,

which is soon to be destroyed. Huck then realizes that he is indirectly killing the men, and

he therefore finds help and ventures back to the wreck to save the men.

At this point, Huck theorizes, ‘I was feeling ruther comfortable on accounts of

taking all this trouble for that gang, for not may people would a done it” (64). Huck

believes that by taking responsibility over the lives of these murderers, he is being

morally “correct”. What’s interesting about this, however, is how he says, “not many

people would a done it.” Huck realizes that most people wouldn’t have done this moral

action, despite their insistence on reforming morally. In other words, “many people” are

immoral. Further, Huck only begins to realize the “moral” thing to do when isolated from

civilization and when given almost unlimited time and privacy to reflect, as he does on

his time on the raft. Huck only begins to reform his views when uninfluenced by the—

according to what he says here—“immoral” people. The general idea is therefore

expressed that, because people—or the “majority” of people, referring back to Twain’s

journal entry quote—are immoral, it only makes sense to isolate oneself from those

people for self reflection on one’s morals. Reflection and time make the ticket to

reformation.

After working this out, Huck continues, “I judged [the widow] would be proud of

me for helping these rapscallions, because rapscallions and dead beats is the kind the

widow and good people takes the most interest in” (64). Huck thinks that the widow

would be proud of him. In fact, impressing the widow is one of Huck’s drives to save
these “rapscallions”. The widow’s attempts to reform Huck of his “mean practices” (4)

and to “sivilize” (3) Huck are starting to wear off on him here. Therefore, the widow is an

affective “reformer”.

This is intriguing, considering that Huck doesn’t mention Miss Watson, who tried

to reform Huck just as equally as the widow. What, then, makes the widow’s approach to

reforming different from and better than Miss Watson’s? What makes an affective

reformer? The answer lies in their personality differences and in their approach to

reforming. While severe Miss Watson expects immediate reform and threatens as a

means to persuade, the widow is much more understanding towards Huck. As an example

of their different ways, Huck describes, “[Miss Watson] worked me middling hard for

about an hour, and then the widow made her ease up” (4). Here, Miss Watson works

Huck hard and expects immediate results after one hour, whereas the widow takes a more

heartening, patient approach. Similarly, the Widow Douglas teaches Huck religion while

Miss Watson almost forcibly tells him to pray. In this example, Twain further outlines the

importance of patience in the act of reforming. Therefore, as seen through the difference

of the sisters, Twain argues that, because Huck was inspired to reform by the widow and

not Miss Watson, one must be patient and understanding of another’s journey towards

reformation, if one intends to affectively reform another.

The first time in this section that Huck begins to consider the “right” action to do is

when he decides to borrow—or, in more appropriate words, to steal—various foods from

people’s fields. He contemplates, “Pap always said it warn’t no harm to borrow things, if

you was meaning to pay them back, sometimes; but the widow said it warn’t anything but
a soft name for stealing, and no decent body would do it” (56). Huck considers two sides

of “borrowing”: his father’s, and the widow’s, whom he trusts. Aside from the previously

outlined idea that Huck mentions the widow as opposed to Miss Watson, this scene in

Huck’s development is significant, outlining the start of reform. Huck goes on to describe

how he and Jim spent the night on their raft and the early hours of the day on their

dilemma, considering both sides of the debate. Their conclusion, he explains logically, is

to only steal some of the fruit as opposed to all of it. Though their resolution to give up

stealing a few fruits to make their other stealing less sinful seems childish, it nevertheless

represents an attempt to resolve practical and moral concerns.

This scene represents many aspects of the reforming process. Huck spent a while

thinking about the moral dilemma, showing that reformation requires time. Huck had to

think about it deeply, showing that reformation requires thought. Huck’s moral dilemma

was sparked by influence of respected, authoritative figures, showing that reformation

requires inspiration from an admired authority. Huck was on the raft, away from

civilization and completely immersed in nature, showing that reformation requires nature.

And, most importantly in this example, Huck, in the end of his thought process, still came

up with a childish conclusion that wouldn’t be considered completely moral, showing

that reformation is a long process in which it is inevitable to make moral “mistakes”.

During Huck’s philosophically and spiritually challenging journey along the

Mississippi River, he decides to play a trick on Miss Watson’s former slave, Jim, who

Huck considers a friend and who Huck is taking to freedom. One foggy night, Huck and

Jim get separated from each other, and after a time struggling to find his way back to the
raft, Huck finds Jim, sleeping on the raft that had gone adrift. When Jim acts happy to see

Huck again, Huck tricks Him into thinking that they never got separated in the first place,

and that Him dreamed the whole thing. Jim believes Huck and enthusiastically tells Huck

of his “dream,” when he sees evidence of the incident and realizes that Huck was playing

a trick on him, after which he justifiably gets mad at Huck.

At this point, Huck has one of the most significant internal moral dilemmas of his

journey, as he finally concludes, “It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to

go and humble myself to a nigger—but I done it” (73). Huck describes how it took him

fifteen minutes before he could apologize to Jim. But the significance here lies not only

in the story and what happened, but also, and more importantly, in the way in which it is

described and what the story symbolizes. To begin with, this story draws a connection to

a previous one, in which Huck plays a similar trick on Jim. This was before Jim and

Huck escape Miss Watson’s house, and Huck hasn’t begun his process of reformation

yet, so he is unaware of the immorality of such a trick. The fact that here, Huck begins to

feel bad about such an action is one of the first times that he is seen to strongly, sincerely

reform in the novel—and this time, it is a fully moral decision, unlike his childish

conclusion to stop stealing only some of the fruit in a previous story.

Yet in this reformation, Huck’s frustration is triumphant, faced with the dilemma

whether or not to “humble myself to a nigger”. All of Huck’s life in civilization taught

him against “niggers,” and that “give an nigger an inch and he’ll take an ell” (75),

meaning that a “nigger” should humble himself to his master, which, at this point, is

Huck. And yet, at this point, Huck realizes that civilization, his long-believed values, and,

connecting back to Twain’s diary entry, the majority of people are immoral. He discovers
for himself his own set of values—the truly moral act to humble himself after doing the

immoral—when away from the majority. Similarly, after Jim says, “I could a got down

on my knees en kiss yo’ foot,” Huck feels, “I could almost kissed his foot” (73). Huck is

reversing the highly-accepted norm in the majority of places; he himself is considering

kissing the former slave’s foot, an act which he believes to be moral, completely rejecting

against the common (and, as Twain emphasizes, incorrect) idea of morality. In order for

Huck to reform his previously held notions, he has to reform from the majority.

When Huck reports that “it was fifteen minutes” before he could apologize, this

also represents an important aspect in Twain’s argument on reformation. Huck specifies

the length of time it took him to “reform” his previous views, emphasizing that

reformation takes a long time. However, he knew he wanted to apologize before the

fifteen minutes. In fact, the “reformation” in this scene is not that he began to realize that

he should apologize. It took him fifteen minutes (a long time) to get over his racial

background—to reform. This is where Huck’s major reformation is apparent—in

overcoming past influences from the majority of civilization.

The final moral challenge for Huck in this section leading him through his

reformation process is his internal debate whether or not it was moral to bring a slave to

his freedom. Huck’s growing hunch for morality shows itself when he explains,

“Conscience up and says, every time, ‘But you knowed he was running for his freedom,

and you could a paddled ashore and told somebody’” (74). What Huck calls his

“conscience” is speaking up here and telling him what he was told is moral. And in the

end, although Huck had firmly decided he would turn Jim in and follow what his

supposed “conscience” advised, he still turned around and decided against it, saying, “I
had got aboard the raft, feeling bad and low, because I knowed very well I had done

wrong, and I see it warn’t no use for me to try to learn to do right” (77). Huck concludes

rather powerfully that it’s no use trying to be “moral” because he did the “wrong.”

However, Huck doesn’t realize here that he actually did the moral act, and that what he is

considered as “moral” in civilization is really immoral, and vice versa (or at least in this

topic). And here, Huck passes the test; he does what is moral not because he is told that

it’s moral, but rather because he sincerely feels internally that it is right. This is the

climax of his reformation—when he reforms his views not based on other people, but

based on himself.

Mark Twain uses Huck to emphasize a number of different aspects on reformation:

Reformation takes a long, long time. Reformation is usually against majority.

Reformation starts with an inspiration from a respected, authoritative figure. Reformation

only gets triggered through patience and ease, not forcefulness. Reformation develops

through contemplation and reflection. Reformation is an internal, frustrating challenge.

And finally, the peak of reformation is when one overcomes dependence on what he is

told as “moral” and can come up with his own, sincere set of morals, which are divinely

moral.

And yet, in the very end of things, reformation is not always possible. Immediately

before Huck has his internal dilemma whether it’s moral to hand over Jim, he and Jim

have a friendly debate over King Solomon, which eventually leads into a debate over the

French language. Jim argues that if a French-speaking person approached him and said

something in French, he would get personally offended, because he doesn’t understand

the language. Huck, on the other hand, insists that the French-speaking person didn’t
intend any harm or to say anything mean; he was just saying a friendly greeting in his

language. Huck tries to explain to Jim that “It’s natural and right for [English-speakers

and French-speakers] to talk different from each other” (67) and finally asks, “why ain’t

it natural and right for a Frenchman to talk different from us? (68). Yet Jim still doesn’t

seem to understand it.

This exchange represents the common debate about slavery at that time. Jim’s

argument epitomizes the belief that not all men are treated as men. In relation to the

analogy, the African Americans are the French speakers who offend Jim, or the white

man just by speaking a different language incomprehensible to them, or, leaving the

analogy, by being an incomprehensible color. Yet, connecting to the theme of

reformation, the most important aspect of this exchange is when Huck concludes, “You

can’t learn a nigger to argue” (68), meaning that the other side of his debate is too

stubborn to reform. The other side of his debate, though, isn’t Jim himself; connecting to

the analogy, Jim represents the white race who is offended by the African Americans, and

who are ultimately too stubborn to reform.

Mark Twain, after clearly outlining Huck’s long, complicated, and yet possible

journey to reformation, emphasizes that it isn’t possible with everyone; the white race,

who is just as closed-minded as Jim was in accepting the French language, is simply too

stubborn to accept the idea that African Americans are just as human as any other man.

II. Characterization –Fragin

III. Irony –Steinberg

Huck is at a stage where he operates both inside and outside the morality of the

American culture. His father tells him that a stolen chicken is a good deed to share; he
feels fine about “borrowing” vegetables, or “seegars”. He knew “rapscallions” when he

encountered them. Although he helped them with minor immoralities, Huck revealed

them on major crimes. He knew Jim was of a different “class” than he, but also learned to

appreciate his knowledge, character and sense of right. He would try to fool and

hoodwink Jim, but ultimately Huck felt terrible for doing so. He was morally troubled

about obeying the law and returning Jim, the slave, but ultimately Huck was honorable to

Jim his friend, and Jim, the man. However, Huck did take time to “humble himself” to a

slave. He was beginning to appreciate that well born is no better than a horse, and the

stupidity of the blood feud between the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons. In sum, it seems

Huck can make the big decisions on major moral issues, although he struggles with these

decisions. On smaller moral matters, he lets the course of events, and the context

influence his actions. These are real advances for Huck, and true developmental

achievements. He is getting better as being ‘honest’ but possibly not as fast, as clean or as

clear as he should have been. It is a muddy vision and process, but that makes it more

interesting and complex. These character advancements on Huck’s part are believable

and will persist. There are further developments and Twain has made his case very

credible. As such, this makes Huck more human. It might explain why Huckleberry Finn

has remained a book that still holds our interest many years after it was written. That the

characters are ‘alive’ today, and we see them struggle with their moral issues continues to

draw us to the material. Huck is an American adolescent.

The Duke and the King: Chapters 19-30

I. Themes –Fragin
II. Characterization –Steinberg

How does Huck grow as a personin this section? What internal conflicts does he

experience and how are these resolved? Huck underwent significant personal conflicts –

with the sad and deadly feud of the Grangerfords and Shepeherdsons, with the Wilks

daughters and the evil ‘royals’, and eventually, with his allegiance to Jim as a man and as

a black man. Looking at each of these moral challenges one at a time, it is clear that Huck

feels the murders that occur with the feuding families are completely unnecessary. It’s

tragic and very real when he sees death before him. The killing of a young man about his

age who Huck knows to be a good person, leaves Huck with the feeling, “but for the

grace of God go I”. It could be Huck caught in this tragic circumstance without cause or

battle of families. And, this battle takes place right under the eyes of the church where

they pray. That they can carry their guns and pray to a God who abhors murder, and kill

with premeditation just seems like a waste to Huck.

The Wilks family surely shows Huck making bigger strides to following a high moral

path, as he still maintains a low moral route. Though Huck will break small rules of

morality, he can make a distinction between the big issues and the small matters. Yes, he

will stay with the ‘royals’ who are surely despicable. He will see them extort and fool

people for few and foolish dollars, but Huck draws the line when he is looking at life-

changing and altering events. The calamities that will occur to the Wilks daughters and

the disruption of slave families are simply too much for Huck to tolerate. He could have

walked away and felt some moral justification, but he didn’t. He accepted the burden to

try to repair this horrible charade even if he put himself and Jim’s freedom at risk. Huck

was brave. And, Huck felt some personal kindness toward Mary Jane’s personal situation
and to her as a young woman – Huck may have been in love. All of these aspects of the

story plus the basic true American honest sense of what is right may have driven Huck to

try to fix the situation. With some luck, he did. Huck wanted the Wilks daughters saved

and they were, including their slave families. He wanted the money returned to them. The

‘royals’ should have been hung or jailed for a long time, but their escape as losers falls

more into what Huck would have wanted for them. They are mostly low-crime crooks

who also protected Jim. So, their escape with their tail between their legs is good enough

– an essentially low level of punishment that Twain probably preferred.

The maturation of Huck to recognize Jim’s freedom; early on his sense of Jim as a

travel companion with an equal need to escape, then his feeling for Jim as a someone to

have some pity and then empathy, and later his appreciating Jim’s good common sense.

Huck is pleased about Jim’s feelings toward him, and, finally, Huck believes Jim is a man

that deserves his freedom. This is a long path to travel for any American in that era and

for any adolescent coming to grips with his own set of values, the values of his society,

and how he will handles conflicts. None of this is easy, but Huck has journeyed a long

road with Jim, and somehow they both grew and developed a strong foundation of right

and wrong. This deep good American moral sense is America at its best. This is what

Huck ultimately decides to undertake. It’s a great moment for Huck, and American

literature.

How does Jim develop in this section? In what ways are his actions stereotypical, and

in what ways do they contradict stereotypes? Jim may be viewed as a foolish,

superstitious, and sometimes silly, almost childish slave to be pitied or laughed at and

certainly not respected. This is an extreme but possible position that one could take from
early in the book. But by Chapter 30, Jim has demonstrated he possesses courage,

principles, love for Huck, and self-sacrifice with all the bravery that comes along. He has

opinions, and some strong ones about the rights of slaves as people, and as men and

women. In these deep beliefs, he will not be swayed. He has been remarkably less racist

and angry at the white slave master society than the society has been toward Jim and the

slaves. This is a mix of both stereotypes – Jim hopelessly speaks a strange type of native

African American language and is excited about small fears and common types of

worries, but again Jim’s moral and human compass is really quite strong, moral and right.

He has no white hate because someone is white. He can still respect and enjoy them – a

hard concept for a man who recalls being kept in chains. Jim has probably suffered more

than we are aware, but he seems to have a spirit intact. One guess that once Jim is safe

and free he will thrive and rescue his family, as he wants to do, and Huck will help him

do it.

Who are the other most important other characters in this section and why? What do

these characters represent? Some other important characters include the Duke of

Bridgewater – “Bilgewater” and the King, the French Dauphin – the “Dolphin” who are

both ridiculous and dangerous characters. Most likely they represent the leadership of

America during Twain’s life – the politicians and preachers who are bilking and stealing

from the poor deluded “lunkheads” of America. These characters even try to undermine

what’s good about America, the Wilks Daughters. They are so completely and constantly

venal, always scheming, to try to cheat their way through life. They are consummate

swindlers; they can only act as frauds or “Preachers”. We know what Twain thought of

them, probably less than Huck who seemed to have tolerated their “rapscallion” ways.
One gets the sense though that Twain believes that America is in a venal mode. However,

the future will be like the Huckleberry Finn’s and Jim’s of this country, and the ‘royals’

will pass into their natural demise. There is some optimism that the mindlessness that the

country exercises during this era will somehow be overcome. There is a sense of

optimism that though the ‘royals’ can’t change, grow and develop, the Hucks and the

Jims can and will. That’s the hope of America, with good people like the Wilks daughters

to help grow the country.

III. Irony –Cotton

In the midst of their adventures, the duke, the dauphin, Huck and Jim run into a

religious revival meeting in a nearby town. Huck describes that “the preachers had high

platforms to stand on” (110), emphasizing their vanity, and that they “begun [to preach]

in earnest, too” (110), emphasizing their strong sincerity. The reformers, through their

tattered clothes and lowly behavior, resemble the poor and underprivileged. And yet,

these almost impoverished characters are seriously seeking to reform, as they sing, shout,

and “work their way, just by main strength, to the mourners’ bench” (111). Twain uses

these characters as a symbol for the American type who wants to reform: the poor and

underprivileged.

The irony in this scene unfolds as the dauphin takes advantage of the sincerity and

therefore gullibility of these people, and openly mocks them by pretending to reform. The

dauphin “went a-charging up on to the platform” and spoke about how he was a pirate for

thirty years and that “he was a changed man now…and as poor as he was, he was going

to start right off” (111). The dauphin “busted into tears,” and climactically, someone yells

out, “Take up a collection for him, take up a collection!” The dauphin then goes around
collecting money from these thousand poor people through deliberately mocking their

naivety and enthusiasm for reformation.

This is ironic because the reformers’ wishes are defeated by the very actions they

undertake to realize them, in two ways. The dauphin defeats the purpose of reformation

by pretending to reform. Further, while the people wish to reform for the purpose of

going from being poor and underprivileged to being wealthier, reformation in the end

causes them to spend money, since the dauphin, who “reformed”, almost steals their

money. Twain illustrates this irony in order to satirize and, moreover, mock Americans’

ideal of reformation.

Twain uses this ironic scene to further demonstrate his opinion on reformation.

These hopeless, gullible characters believe in reformation so deeply that they trust the

dauphin’s reform, even though it only took merely an instant. And, because it took only

an instant and ended up being a fraud, Twain asserts that reformation cannot be

instantaneous, further showing that reformation takes time and reflection.