5/31/15 Ch. 1-4
Ch. 1) Huck is a realist, able to look beyond the rigid rules of society in forming moral judgments. He recognizes that people lie and that, in some situations, lying is okay.
Ch. 1) The Widow Douglas is good and kind, and yet, like many members of society, she can be a hypocrite. Though she condemns Huck for smoking, the Widow doesn’t condemn snuff because she herself takes it.
Ch. 1) Huck is frustrated by society’s strictness, its empty rules about how one must be and look, and he knows that society needs to change somehow. He wants to go to Hell because it sounds better than his current circumstances, less boring, and more accepting.
Ch. 1) When Huck is alone, he sometimes becomes lonesome. Such a feeling is only exacerbated by Huck’s childish superstitions, like his reading …show more content…
12) Even though Huck is morally maturing, under Tom’s influence he is still childish when it comes to balancing costs and benefits. He thinks endangering himself and Jim is worth potential profits. Jim knows better, but goes with the willful Huck to protect him.
Ch. 12) It is ironic that one of the thieves refuses to shoot a man, but is willing to let a man drown. This thief seems to want to excuse himself from the guilt of murder, even though his action here has the same effect as murder. His rule is absurd.
Ch. 13) It is bad luck that one of the three men aboard the boat almost discovers Huck and Jim, but good luck that he doesn’t. Fortunes change like this all the time in the novel, which points to the silliness of Huck and Jim’s superstitious beliefs that center only on bad luck.
Ch. 13) Whereas someone like Miss Watson would condemn the robbers, Huck’s moral system, not conforming to society’s, is based more on an elastic empathy.
Ch. 13) Huck’s lies are often self-serving, but here he lies on behalf of the robber-murderers, in order to save them. Huck lies because he thinks that if he were to tell the truth, the watchman wouldn’t help the people drowning