Group members: Ryan, Andy, Jing
The scene we are analyzing in Chapter 26 is when Huck has dinner with the daughters of the recently passed Peter. At this point, Huck, the duke, and the king are trying to pass the guise that they are the servants, and the recipients of the will respectively. In this scene, Huck is in a conversation with one of the daughters, Joanna, who interrogates him on his account as being a servant from England. Huck, who is unable to maintain consistencies with his alibi, is eventually accused with lying by Joanna. Huck is eventually rescued by Joanna’s sisters who reprimand her for being so impolite. Huck, encountering the good nature of the daughters, recognizes the injustice of the duke and king in deceiving them out of their deceased fathers money. So he plots to reverse
A few remerging patterns comes up. Huck here questions the morality of his actions and decides to return the money. However, two ambivalences worth noting: he only decides on restitution after sympathizing with the victims. His moral compass is well calibrated but it historically has been conditional to social and emotional factors. We see this later when Huck decides to tell Mary Jane about the truth about the entire con only after he sees how much she is hurt. Huck saves Jim but is internally torn about it. However ambivalent the cause of his morality is, Huck’s actions on these morals are progressively stronger in purpose. Huck saves Jim, and then he questions himself about it. His great act of good will is a clearer decision to return the money. “I felt so ornery and low down and mean, that I says to myself, My mind’s made up; I’ll hive that money for them or bust”. His next action is informing Mary Jane about the truth of the entire con, and as he assess himself, he says “Here’s a case where I’m blest if it don’t look to me like the truth is better and actually safer than a lie”. Huck’s moral compasses continues to develop .
The scene present the three hashtags of ours #gottotalking, #huckcon, and #willbeprocecuted because this scene represent another one of Huck’s con throughout the story. Although he did it for a good reason, by stealing the money back for Mary Jane. Twain portray Huck as very anxious and sad about the situation. His use of language illustrate how difficult it is for Huck to handle the situation properly; with returning the money to Mary Jane, but at the same time not to be caught stealing the money.
I like how you guys used the term moral compass because I too feel like Huck has a moral compass instilled into him that is constantly going in different directions. He does indeed question a lot of the good things he does and when he does something wrong, he always has a good reason for it.