Article reviewed—too short
Summary—talk about the article more
Evaluation—could be stronger
Grammar—proofread more
Toni Rose
83
English 202-W85
Dr. Magee
Twain’s Adventure of Huckleberry Finn
Matthew Hurt starts out by talking about how Huck’s crises and
growth was due to his ongoing adventures. First and mainly he
discussed how Huck was really racist with Jim. He tried to be a
friend, but really not knowing how to go about by being one. His
relationship with Jim was really a disgrace to with the white
community since Jim was considered a slave. When he was talking to
Miss Watson or Aunt Sally, Jim was nothing more than a “nigger.”
Hurt thought that Miss Watson may been the reason why Huck would
not let go and be a real friend to Jim. In Huck’s eyes, if he had
admitted that Jim was a good friend, he would be a lesser person
since Jim was black. Jim gave Huck a lecture on friendship trying to
make Huck see the light,; iInstead, this made Huck mad. He got so
mad that the dirty trick he played on Jim was not regretted. He did
not apologize to Jim. He wanted Jim to apologize to him.
Soon after the first incidence, Huck and Jim was on a raft and
was run over by a steamboat. Huck called out for Jim several times.
When he did not get a reply, he went to shore. Then after that, Huck
did not worry about Jim’s safety. Unbeknown to Huck, Jim was
watching him from the shore. Huck finds out later that Jim was held
captive at the Phelps’s farm. He decides that he must do the right
thing and save Jim from captivity. He thought that if he went to hell,
it was better than his upbringing with the widow Douglas and Miss
Watson.
When he appeared at the farm, his Aunt Sally did not think
anything of it. She had heard about the incident with the steamboat
and asked if anyone was hurt. Huck only replied, “Killed a nigger.”
This made the underwriter think that Huck did not care anything
about Jim. He was using this as a mind game strategy against his
aunt to make her think that. The fact that he was her nephew and
said racist remarks, she was convinced. Unbeknown to her, Huck was
just adding coal to the fire with things she wanted to hear. At the
end the author disagree with the underwriter about the claim that
Huck’s relationship with Jim had already ended before this crisis.
When reading this article, I felt that Hurt did agree with most
of the Smith’s writing of this story. I did not agree with Smith
keeping on about the racial issue. I know Huck had some conflict
with Jim being black at first, but it just did not linger on. He showed
a real way of how an aunt would welcome her nephew. How Huck
used this to help his friend by not letting on with his aunt.
Hurt lost me at the end when he just left it, “a claim that the
counternarrative of moral backsliding render dubious at best.”
WORKS CITED
Hurt, Matthew; Explicator, 2005 Fall; 64 (1): 41-44. (Journal
article)
SMITH, David L., “Huck, Jim, and American Racial Discourse.” Satire
or Evasion? Black Perspectives on Huckleberry Finn. Ed. James S.
Leonard, Thomas A. Tenney, and Thadious M. Davis. Durham: Duke
UP, 1992. 103-20.
Twain, Mark [Samuel Langhorne Clemens]. Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn. [1885]. Berkeley: U of California P, 1985.