[F] Jonathan: Chapters 32-34

1. Huck was explaining what happened on the steamboat to Ms. Sally. Sally asks why he has been delayed and Huck says a steamboat explodes. Sally then asks, “Was anyone hurt?” Huck replies, “No’m, only a nigger”. Then Sally says that was so lucky. What does this tell us about the racism in the novel? Is Huck putting on an act, or is that how he really feels?
2. Why does Twain decide to make Tom appear out of nowhere in the end of the book. What is the purpose? He appears in a place where some of us believe that Huck is becoming a hero in the story?
3. Why do you think Tom so willingly agrees to help Huck free Jim? Did you expect him to do something so wrong by society’s standards?
4. What do you think of Tom? Is he how Huck described him?
5. Why does Huck feel so bad when he sees the king and the duke being chased by the mom of people? “Human beings can be awful cruel to one another. (pg. 174)

Whether or not Huck still retains some racist thoughts, it is unclear in these chapters. It is possible that he could just be putting on an act in order to make Sally believe that he is really Tom. In the previous chapter, Huck spoke of how he missed Jim and wanted to free him from his capture at Phelps. He says, “And went on thinking. And got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me, all the time, in the day, and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a floating along, talking, and singing, and laughing. But somehow I couldn’t seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind. I’d see him standing my watch on top of his’n, stead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how glad he was when I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him again in the swamp, up there where the feud was; and suck like times; and would always call me honey, and pet me, and do everything he could think of for me, and how good he was always was; and at last I struck the time I saved him by telling the men we had small-pox aboard, and he was so grateful, and said I was the best friend old Jim every had in the world..(pg. 161)” At this point Huck is no longer concerned with the fact that Jim is “nigger”, he now sees Jim for all the good that he has done for him. It seems as though Jim is more a father or big brother to Huck.

Tom is a pivotal character in the book and his appearance is a large-turning point in the story. When he was first introduced he was the leader and Huck was the follower. As he comes and appears in the novel is takes his aforementioned role by coming up with a wild plan to free Jim and Huck just follows along (although Huck questions Tom’s plan by stating that it could kill all three of them). It seems as though Tom just stunts all of Huck’s growth in the novel. In the beginning it was stated that Huck and Tom planned to rob Spaniards and A-rabs when in fact it was just a picnic. Huck questioned this and Tom just brushed it off as he usually does being the more dominant partner in the relationship. The most puzzling question though is why does Tom so willingly agree to help Jim? He was perceived as the typical young racist southern boy. Huck himself is puzzled by Tom’s willingness. “It was the most astonishing speech I ever heard – and I’m bound to say Tom Sawyer fell, considerable, in my estimation. Only I couldn’t believe it. Tom Sawyer a nigger-stealer. (pg. 171)” It is baffling what Tom has to gain by helping Huck get his nigger back. Maybe, he is still afraid that Huck is a ghost, maybe he’s just a good friend, but that doubtful, he probably has an ulterior motive.

This chapter again shows Huck gaining a conscience as the story develops. These men, the duke and the king, have done many wrong things to Huck and have allowed for Jim to beb captured. Even so, Huck feels horribly for their fate. He now believes that humans are very cruel to one another when it seemed that he had no opinion before this. He also shows a lot of faith in God. He said that “Providence” helped him to not be caught in a lie by Aunt Sally. He now shows recognition that there is a God and thatnks him when he “helps” him when he is in a tight situtation.