Saturday, April 27, 2013

The End of Huckleberry Finn... WHAT?! (Chap.36-42)


To summarize everything up, Huck and Tom devised a plan to get Jim out of prison. Huck agrees to Tom's plan to satisfy Tom. What?! He lets Tom be in charge of the escape of Jim! Is he letting Tom take complete authority? Did Huck not grow at all? Has he gone through this long journey only to end up back to where he started? On the contrary, Huck has definitely grown much but the fact that he allows Tom to lead does not necessarily mean he stops growing. Huck gets an insight in what Tom believes is a proper way a prisoner breaks free and learns the poetry of it all. “Here a captive heart busted” was the phrase chosen by Tom to be carved into Jim’s prison. The phrase properly described from the start to the end of Huck’s journey with Jim. They both pursued after different types of freedom that spiraled them into this huge adventure in which they learned about themselves, others, and grew wiser with each choice as they traveled down the river.
In the end Jim is set free not because of Tom’s “brilliant plan” which he ends up confessing to Sally after he gets shot and wakes up the following day, but because two months ago Miss. Watson died and left in her will Jim’s freedom. Jim is free, Tom confessed everything after Aunt Polly unexpectedly visits and blows their covers but everything was fine, and Huck was free of Pap because he was dead and had $12,000 waiting for him with Judge Thatcher.
It all ended yet with another adventure hence the title of the book, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I noticed the title had a lot of significance in the story because Huck's adventures are what ultimately lead him to grow into his own character. Though he played a couple of pranks to Aunt Sally showing a bit of immaturity, he is after all still a child and children have to have fun once in a while. Huck grew up immensely and now every choice he makes he thinks through about it and measures the consequences. He found himself and it turned out he was adventurous because in the end of the novel he chose adventure over civilization.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Huck learned so much throughout this adventure. He had many life experiences that I highly doubt he will forget. You made good references in your post. For example, I agree that he thinks about the consequences in advance. In the beginning, he was just a childish young teen that played many pranks and didn’t think about the effects it had on people. However, he grew up mentally. He realized that pranks could hurt people. Thus, he thinks about the possible results of his actions. He is mature and I am very proud of his mental and moral growth.