Huck Finn Entry 2

Jeremy Keeshin Reading Discussion Entry #2 12/3/06 Chapter XVI – Chapter XXVIII

Today, John and I had our second discussion about our reading of the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. We began our discussion by talking about the general plot overview of these pages, and then we started to talk about the significance of this section for each character. In this section, Huck comes across two groups of people. He meets Colonel Grangerford and stays with that family for a while before he and Jim come upon the company of the runaway con artists known as the ‘duke’ and the ‘king.’ In this section we see Huck’s character continue to develop. We see the development of his lying personality and how he relies so much upon his spontaneous storytelling. He gets into many predicaments where he digs himself a hole and then comes up with a new lie to get out of it. He is very quick on his feet, and this enables to him to get out of a pickle when he forgets his temporary alias, and has Buck spell it for him so he can remember it. This also helps him when he works his way out of his story when Joanna is questioning him about his time in England. Another aspect of Huck that we discussed was how he came to deal with all of the moral dilemmas he faced in these chapters. We see Huck feel guilty after not turning in Miss Sophia when she ran away with the enemy with Huck’s help, we see him feel guilty about the incident with the stealing of the gold coins, and we see his views of the frauds the duke and the king. He seems very conflicted in all these instances, but it seems like Huck is trying to do the right thing, in his mind, that will help out. Although we see Huck’s constant lying and his association with these frauds, he appears to be a genuine person.