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Huckleberry Finn/ Last chapter and final thoughts

#93: Jan. - Feb. 2011 (Fiction)
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DWill

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Re: Huckleberry Finn/ Last chapter and final thoughts

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I don't know what the reaction was like in general. The sales were said not be astounding, and the commercial end would have been important to Twain. Not the usual Twain, I think would have been the judgment, a little like Woody Allen turning to serious films disappointed his fans. The ending seems like an effort to get back to the Mark Twain people expected. It is "just," in a sense, as you say, but the greatest objection to it is that it's so degrading to Jim, so in that way the book loses considerable moral ground. Twain, though, probably wouldn't have cared, and didn't, if we take him seriously in his "notice."

Hemingway said that American literature began with "Huck Finn", and that's a good way to look at the book. Sort of in the way that "Don Quixote" kicks off the modern novel, HF does that for our fiction. It's not a candidate for the greatest American novel, from an artistic standpoint, in my opinion. But it still could be the most important.
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Re: Huckleberry Finn/ Last chapter and final thoughts

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DWill wrote:It's not a candidate for the greatest American novel, from an artistic standpoint, in my opinion. But it still could be the most important.
A perfect summation. Thank you. I think it's become fashionable to scorn Clemens -- he doesn't deserve that (any more than he deserved his previous deification.)
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Re: Huckleberry Finn/ Last chapter and final thoughts

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DWill wrote:I don't know what the reaction was like in general. The sales were said not be astounding, and the commercial end would have been important to Twain. Not the usual Twain, I think would have been the judgment, a little like Woody Allen turning to serious films disappointed his fans. The ending seems like an effort to get back to the Mark Twain people expected. It is "just," in a sense, as you say, but the greatest objection to it is that it's so degrading to Jim, so in that way the book loses considerable moral ground. Twain, though, probably wouldn't have cared, and didn't, if we take him seriously in his "notice."

Hemingway said that American literature began with "Huck Finn", and that's a good way to look at the book. Sort of in the way that "Don Quixote" kicks off the modern novel, HF does that for our fiction. It's not a candidate for the greatest American novel, from an artistic standpoint, in my opinion. But it still could be the most important.
This is a great summation. I did think about Don Quixote while I as reading HF but for more commonplace reasons than you have cited .. really the structure of the story or the series of stories built around adventures and the dreams and imaginings that drove DQ and his valet and how there were some parallels with Huck and Jim.

Twain's book is terribly degrading to Jim and of course there is no justice in the way he is treated. I did think it was interesting how rapidly and completely his treatment changed when it was discovered that he was a free man, this really underlines the power of 'possessing' a person, a person as a piece of property, beyond racial discrimination.

On this point about Jim being free, and perhaps I missed something because I read this book in fits and starts, but I don't understand why Jim did not simply tell Huck and all the others that he had been freed before all these adventures started? Instead he lived as a runaway slave and was subjected to horrible treatment and lived in constant fear of betrayal and capture.

The other oddity of this story, which I wonder about is it seems completely implausible and unlikely that Huck and Jim would not spend the time to find the mouth of the Ohio R and go north into free country rather than heading into the deep south? Apparently, they understood the geography of the region and they were certainly resourceful so finding the mouth a big river would seem well within their ability and they knew that Jim would be safe (or safer) if they reached the north, so the choice to continue south seemed odd.
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Re: Huckleberry Finn/ Last chapter and final thoughts

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Hi, Giselle. As I recall, it was Tom Sawyer who brought the news of Jim's being freed by Miss Watson. Of course, he didn't divulge the news, he first wanted to play out his ridiculous fantasies. The book has strong irony around the slavery issue, with the reader being aware that Huck's valuation of himself as morally bankrupt is the opposite of the truth. Huck thinks badly of Tom when Tom says he wants to help free Jim, because abolitionist-types are evil in Huck's eyes. Huck and Tom miss the Ohio river at Cairo, Ill. in a heavy fog and don't realize they've done it until many miles downstream. I'm not sure why they don't think of another plan instead of heading deeper into slavery territory, but I think Huck might have mentioned what their intention was.
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Re: Huckleberry Finn/ Last chapter and final thoughts

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I liked the book alot.

I liked it better than the Tom Sawyer book because i like Huck more, he is cooler character to me

although the book was good i thought the ending was a little cheesy with how huck got Jim to play a slave...but kinda funny i guess
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Re: Huckleberry Finn/ Last chapter and final thoughts

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DWill wrote:Hi, Giselle. As I recall, it was Tom Sawyer who brought the news of Jim's being freed by Miss Watson. Of course, he didn't divulge the news, he first wanted to play out his ridiculous fantasies. The book has strong irony around the slavery issue, with the reader being aware that Huck's valuation of himself as morally bankrupt is the opposite of the truth. Huck thinks badly of Tom when Tom says he wants to help free Jim, because abolitionist-types are evil in Huck's eyes. Huck and Tom miss the Ohio river at Cairo, Ill. in a heavy fog and don't realize they've done it until many miles downstream. I'm not sure why they don't think of another plan instead of heading deeper into slavery territory, but I think Huck might have mentioned what their intention was.
Yes, it was Tom that brought the news that Miss Watson had freed Jim .... but what I don't get is why Jim himself did not make this clear when he first hooked up with Huck? Is it possible that he did not understand that he had been freed? How is that possible? I guess this is my ignorance about how one goes about freeing a slave, I don't have much experience with this!

I like your point about irony around the slavery issue ... I really felt that the characters had things upside down, or inside out from a moral standpoint, but of course they were reflecting the moral beliefs of the time and place, as twisted as these beliefs may seem to us now. What I find difficult to stomach is the hypocrisy of "good Christians" and their degrading and cruel treatment of slaves. This is really sickening.
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Re: Huckleberry Finn/ Last chapter and final thoughts

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what do think about people talking about re-writing the book to take out the word "nigger" because people say the book has it in there too much?
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Re: Huckleberry Finn/ Last chapter and final thoughts

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The last section of the book, involving Tom's elaborate prisoner escape nonsense, was rather annoying. It dragged on and was rather pointless. The "Jim's already free" revelation made it seem more ridiculous, though it was a relief that Jim received his freedom after all the garbage he went through.

My favorite part of the book involved the duke and king: Twain's depiction of those scoundrels was delightful. Also, Huck's attitude towards Jim provided some interesting insights into how white people viewed slavery, such as his unexpected moral conflict about whether it was just to help a slave escape.

Still, the book didn't live up to highly touted status as the greatest work of American literature, at least in my eyes. Maybe that's because I didn't get caught up in the adventure and the dialects became tiresome rather quickly. While I enjoyed reading the novel, it didn't make a deep impression on me.

I still don't understand the fuss about the use of the word "nigger". Huck Finn took place at a time in which human beings were chattel and people frequently said "nigger". We now live in a more civilized time in which neither of those is the case. Why do people get more worked up about a term than about the institution of slavery?
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Re: Huckleberry Finn/ Last chapter and final thoughts

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I bascially agree with your view of the book. It's an uneven book, probably reflecting Twain's conflict of purpose, with some great stuff in it that sticks with you, but to call it the greatest work of American fiction would be questionable. Hemingway's assessment that it was the starting point for American fiction might be more on target. And he hated the ending, as a lot of people have.

While I'd never agree that editing the word "nigger" out of the book should be done, I can understand reluctance on the part of teachers to use the book. The word is spread so casually all over the book in a way that today seems unnecesary. In a mixed class of blacks and whites, this would be insulting, more than likely, to the black students. The fact that people really did use the word so liberally in those times wouldn't seem like a good enough reason to rub students' nose in the word. I'm only saying that I would have these hesitations if I were a teacher.
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Re: Huckleberry Finn/ Last chapter and final thoughts

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The ending of Huckleberry Finn may leave you feeling dissatisfied because Twain never takes himself or his writing too seriously, and this book is no exception. The end suggests that Huck has learned absolutely nothing through the entire book, but that’s because he is a kid, and the book is a satire so they both are allowed to be flippant and a little bit silly, especially after such a long, loaded, awesome adventure. As explained by Shmoop, while Huck doesn’t emerge from his journey as a completely moral, perfect individual, he definitely has changed, evolved and grown. For him to have transformed completely would have been overkill, in my opinion.
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