I took it up [the paper, the note he had written], and held it in my hand. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself:. It was awful thoughts, and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming. And for a starter, I would go to work and steal Jim out of slavery again; and if I could think up anything worse, I would do that, too; because as long as I was in, and in for good, I might as well go the whole hog.
Some readings of the novel present this episode as a triumph of conscience over a wicked set of social mores, as if Huck understood himself as a heroic rebel. The conflict here is between what Huck sees as his pre-rational, problematic, untutored, undisciplined sympathy, for Jim and the proper, upstanding, Victorian morality that Huck has been bred to or has been tried to be bred into by his society.
Learn more about sin and redemption. The moral of this story, such as it is, is more or less oblique; Twain has some suggestions for guidance, though not many. He worries that any culture that can do that can go insane in very dangerous ways apart from the fact that it enslaves human beings; it goes insane in other ways, too. I was letting on to give up sin, but away inside of me I was holding on to the biggest one of all.
In order to relieve the tension of his sinfulness, Huck resolves to make good on his word by putting pen to paper. The delay in this news has important implications for the story. For one thing, it absolves Huck of some of his guilt for helping a runaway slave.
More importantly, though, the delay demonstrates a fundamental difference of character between Huck and Tom. Huck is running toward freedom just as much as he is running away from civilization. I been there before. Ironically, though, this is exactly what happens.
The Widow Douglas takes care of Huck and tries to teach him. Then one day Huck finds a canoe on the river. Huck hides the canoe and loads it with food and other supplies. Then he shoots a wild pig, takes it into the cabin, and slits its throat.
That night Huck sets off downriver in the canoe, confident he will be presumed dead. Once he gets to a free state, Jim plans to work hard and save his money so that he can buy his wife out of slavery. Cairo, Illinois, which lies at the southern tip of the free states, is where Huck and Jim are headed with their raft. The farther south they go, the harder it will be for Jim to avoid recapture.
When actual shooting breaks out between the two feuding clans, Huck climbs into a cottonwood tree to hide. When a slave brings food to Jim, the boys go along and whisper to Jim that they are going to set him free. Tom and Huck begin making plans for an elaborate escape, and each step becomes more complicated and time-consuming.
Tom argues that Jim will need a rope ladder and other items such as case-knives and a journal, because the escape must be done just like the prison novels he has read. The opportunity to burlesque Tom's romanticism and infuse humor back into the novel comes at the price of Jim's perceived freedom.
In actuality, Jim has already been set free by the late Miss Watson's will, and readers will learn this startling fact at the end of the novel. However, because both Huck and Jim are unaware of Jim's freedom, they agree to follow Tom's extravagant plans for a dramatic escape. The elaborate escape plan provides Tom the opportunity to call upon several of the prison stories and adventure novels he has read.
By combining unnecessary tactics such as a tunnel and devices such as a rope ladder, the entire plan becomes a comical romantic farce. The incongruity of Huck's logic in the face of Tom's imagination creates several humorous exchanges, and the farce is reminiscent of Twain 's earlier work with Tom Sawyer. For example, when Tom says that Jim needs to keep a journal, Huck replies, "Journal your granny — Jim can't write.
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