Huckleberry Finn Chapters 12-15 Notes and Quote Analysis
10/8/2018
Huck and Jim travel downriver, towards Ohio River
Travel during nighttime and hiding during daytime → avoids detection
Stealing, buying, hunting for food → some remorse b/c stealing, moral trades
Wrecked steamboat/houseboat, stormy night
Looted steamboat, two robbers and victim (drown in wreck)
Robbers escape, Huck prevents robbers from escaping (cut boat loose)
Huck + Jim’s raft broke away, gone
Robbers and stolen goods in boat, leave for more loot
Huck + Jim steal robbers’ boat → Huck feels bad, might be a robber himself some day
Own raft found down-shore, Huck goes ashore for help
Finds ferry watchman, reports “family stranded” on the steamboat wreck
Tries to save robbers → too late, robbers die before watchman gets there
Jim + Huck find valuables in robber’s loot - books, clothes, cigars
Jim + Huck discuss adventures; Jim does not like adventures → might get captured or killed
Huck reads and makes up stories for Jim, mention of King Solomon (Jim considers fool)
Discussion of dauphin (son of executed King Louis XVI, France), Jim calls “dolphin”
Jim does not believe English is universal language, Huck argues but stops trying
Huck + Jim separated in fog; Huck finds Jim asleep and tricks him (dreaming)
Jim happy that Huck is safe, compares obstacles and fog to escape towards freedom
Jim notices dirty raft → angry at Huck; Huck apologizes and genuinely feels bad
“It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger-but I
done it, and I warn ’t ever sorry for it afterwards, neither.” – Huckleberry Finn (Twain 87)
This quote is important as it denotes the mindset of Huck as a white man and his complex
relationship with Jim, a black man. Although Huck is more acceptant of Jim than other white
people due to his unique attitude towards life itself, he still considers Jim to be in a subordinate
position and has to “work [himself] up” before apologizing to Jim. It is made clear that Huck’s
attitude towards Jim is still racist, but simply less racist when compared to the racism present
around him. Huck’s attitude towards blacks correlates to his low social status and abusive
upbringing. Twain conveys through Huck’s semi-forced apology and unique relationship with
Jim that if faced with similar situations, people would see through racism as the shadow that it is,
and Huck’s conflict reflects upon true innate conscience compared to false pretense along the
twisted metamorphosis of growth into adulthood.
Huckleberry Finn Chapters 16-17 Notes and Quote Analysis
10/8/2018
Destination is Cairo, small town mouth of Ohio River; leads to freedom (North)
Huck feels bad about Jim’s escape from owner, harmed Miss Watson (who helped him)
Jim discusses freedom, plan to buy family to free them, abolitionists kidnap them
Huck decides to turn Jim in → changes mind when Jim makes “friend” statement
Huck finds slave hunters → Huck lies smallpox, men are scared, pity him (gives 40 dollars)
Conscience of Huck – would have felt bad either way, do what is easiest w/o morality
Huck + Jim sleep, canoe stolen during night (bad luck superstition from snakeskin)
Steamboat hits raft, splitting up Jim + Huck; Huck found by pack of dogs ashore
Encounters man, uses alias “George Jackson”
Man takes Huck home; family suspicious Huck is Shepherdson family member
Buck – boy Huck’s age, Grangerford family member vehement vs. Shepherdson family
Buck gets Huck dry clothes, introduction w. each other (forms friendship)
Huck does not understand riddle b/c straightforward view of life
Huck lies, makes up story of his life and experiences
Grangerford family vs. Shepherdson family deadly rivalry
Huck stays with Grangerfords, admires Grangerford lifestyle and family personalities
Finds lavish Grangerford house humorously strange and unusually nice
Emmeline Grangerford passed away; left behind strange artwork and poetry
Huck enjoys stay w. Grangerford family – “nothing could be better”
“Well, then, says I, what’s the use you learning to do right when it’s troublesome to do right, and
ain’t no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same? I was stuck. I couldn’t answer that.
So I reckoned I wouldn’t bother no more about it, but after this always do whichever come
handiest at the time.” – Huckleberry Finn (Twain 92)
This quote reflects upon Huck’s attitude towards slavery and his feelings towards the
situation Jim is in. Although Huck does feel like Jim is in a subordinate position and he has
“done wrong” towards Miss Watson by helping Jim escape, he realizes that he would feel bad as
well if he turns Jim in. Huck still views Jim as a person, someone who needs him, and feels
responsibility towards keeping Jim’s escape a secret despite racial stereotypes present in society.
As a child, Huck does not know what is right and what is wrong, and does not trust himself to
make the right decision, leading to his compromise of doing whatever seems to be easiest at the
time being. Spending time with Jim has effectively lead Huck to see through complete racism.