I would just like to start off by saying that I’ve read this book once before in an academic setting, but there are still new things that I have been noticing in this book. Granted that I wouldn’t be able to remember much since I read it so long ago, I still recalled a lot of the main themes of the book. However, now, these themes make more sense as far as the context goes. I can understand Huck better now analytically other than plot wise, like I had before. I am constantly thinking about this as I read this book.
My second thought on this book is that I find it very ironic how in the time of slavery and racial discrimination, Huck’s main companion through out the book is, in fact, a slave. At one point, Huck even tries to save the life of Jim and genuinely starts to look after him. This gives us, as a readers, an insight at Huck’s personality. We can see from this that he has no boundaries and everyone is the same to him regardless of skin color. This also makes me realize why this book became so popular since here we have a white male befriending a black man who used to be the slave of his own home. Not only that, but Huck also helped him run away.
Lastly, I’d like to comment on is the quote “What’s the use you learning to do right, when it’s troublesome to do right and ain’t no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same?” from chapter 16. This also has to do with the theme that I mentioned earlier, where the institution of slavery is obviously bad, but it is practiced anyways. However, this quote, I feel, has to do with an even greater picture of the story, which is how during that time period, everyone was just morally confused. They’d pray to God yet dehumanize living people. They would feel as if they are leading the righteous path, while they had slaves on their plantations. A perfect example of this is Miss Watson and Col. Grangerford who were both described as good, honest people, but were still slave owners. This is something that Huck struggles with in this book, trying to figure out if both can be morally correct and he comes to the conclusion that they cannot.
