Dinakar Talluri
How has Huck grown?
Huckleberry Finn is an thirteen year old boy from St. Petersburg, Missouri. St. Petersburg is located near the Mississippi river. He is born to a alcoholic dad who abuses him, and never knew his mother. So he never really had a family and was very independent from a young age. He lived with the Widow Douglas which he described as a “good person” which made him always look negatively at himself. He always felt like an outsider because of the fact he never had a real family. Huck is described to be quite intelligent and really lives by his own rules and mottos. But over the course we see a struggle between his morality and the social norms. Huck is the protagonist in the story. In the beginning, he is motivated by leaving the city and becoming his own person. Away from all the people that he knew. Later on his main motivation is to keep Jim safe to make sure nothing happens to him. We see clear evidence of this when he lies to the white men and goes to save Jim. At the beginning I did not like Huck. Strictly for the way that he would treat Jim. He treated him like property and thought he was really stupid that he tried to mess around with him. One scene that completely changed my view of Huck was when he apologized to Jim and said “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. I didn’t do him no more mean tricks, and I wouldn’t done that one if I’d a knowed it would make him feel that way” (89). This shows he had grown as a character as sees Jim more as a person because of the fact he was willing to apologize which is a big deal for him. Over the course of novel he does things to save Jim and each time he does something to help Jim it makes me like him more. He really starts to go away from the social norms to be able to befriend a black man!
Growing up without a parent’s definitely makes it hard to have a solid base. Parents are there to guide you in the decisions that you are making throughout your life. If someone were to grow up and have no contact or guidance what they do is going to be way different then someone growing in a family. Huck Beinging a white boy at first didn’t really accept Jim to be a friend and as you said Huck was messing around with him kind of treating him like a little kid. Good Job.
Great work Dinakar! I really enjoyed reading your analysis and I thought the quote that you analyzed was particularly strong and helped to strengthen your argument. Personally I agree that Huck grew over the course off the novel, based on his social upbringings by his father and the fact that he was always an outsider to society shows us that he never followed the social norms and his decisions were not as influenced by society as they were by his own conscience. But it is also apparent that Huck was also influenced by his time with the Widow and Miss Watson, this is evident when he writes the letter to the widow and Miss Watson but then crumples it up and throws it away. Based on this we can conclude that Huck was influenced by his conscience and the teachings of the widow and Miss Watson, and we can also conclude that Huck changed for the better as well. Overall I really enjoyed reading your piece and making connections within the text although I would try to incorporate more evidence that will only help to strengthen your argument!
I really like how you were talking about how Huck never really had a real family. So Huck just bounced around from family to family. I think that is an important part on why he has grown. He got a family with Widow Douglas and so Huck had some discipline he had to follow. I also liked the part you put in there about how Huck treated Jim as property at first. But then when the story kept going on he treated him more and more as a person. He treated him as if it did not matter if he was black or a slave. I think that is a really important part in the story. people really should understand that part in the book. I think you can really expand you writing even more by using quotes from the book. But other than that I really like your writing. This is a great piece.