What would you do if you were a young teenager
traveling down the Mississippi River, not knowing where to sleep that night or
find food for your next meal? That is
the dilemma faced by Huckleberry Finn, and Huck always found a lot of
trouble. When most people are in trouble
they either take the easy way out and lie, or they use their creativity and
wit. The protagonist of The Adventures
of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, uses more wit than most fourteen year old
kids use in their lifetime. Whenever
life hits Huck with a problem, he always conquers it by using awareness,
cleverness, and insight.
Before Huck starts his adventure down the
river, he must fake his death to "escape" from pap. The first thing Huck did was to make sure
that pap was far away before starting his getaway. At this point, many children of Huck's age
would merely get in a canoe and head down stream, most likely getting caught
the next day. Huckleberry Finn is
smarter than that. Huck wanted to make
sure that no one would come down the river looking for him, except to make his
corpse rise. First, he collected all the
supplies that he could find and loaded them into a canoe. After that, he went into the woods and caught
a wild hog. He brought the hog in the
Cabin, and slaughtered it, making sure that it left behind a pool of blood on
the hard packed dirt ground. He disposed
of the dead hog by throwing it in the river to float downstream. Huck also opened a sack of corn and left a
trail leading to a shallow lake nearby.
Before leaving the cabin, he filled another sack with rocks, and made a
path toward the river. This was done to
simulate the trail of the robbers dragging their bounty to the river bank. Huckleberry hoped that pap would think he was
killed by a group of robbers that stole all his possessions. After using these tactics to avert any search
parties, he floated down the river to Jackson Island. Huck made every attempt to make sure that he could
sail down the river in peace. As Huck
had hoped, his plan worked beautifully.
While on Jackson Island, Huck mistakenly met up
with a "friend" of his, Jim.
After they settled on the island, Huck wanted to find out what was
happening at the town across the river.
Jim knew that Huck needed to a disguise, and they decided that Huck
would dress up as a girl. After putting
on a gown and bonnet, Huck took the canoe across the river, and found the house
of a stranger. Because he had to keep a
low profile for a while, it was important that it was a stranger. As he knocked on the door, he reminded
himself to act like a girl. The lady
invited him in. They talked about Huck's
home town, Tom Sawyer's 20,000 dollars, and inevitably, Huck's murder. The lady soon became suspicious of Huck's
femininity. She finally asked Huck,
"What is you real name? Is it Bill,
or Tom, or Bob?-or what is it?"(Twain 59).
Huckleberry finally admitted that
he was a male by the name of George Peters.
He continued on to weave a tall tale saying that when looking for the
town of Goshen, and had received directions from a drunken farmer. Instead of telling the lady his name was
Huckleberry Finn and risking the possibility of getting caught with Jim, he extended his lie. To keep his story realistic, he told the lady
that both his parents had died, and he left because his new guardian treated
him poorly. This was a very good choice
because not many strangers will question a person their parent's death. Huck Left the lady's house with a snack and
the directions to Goshen. Without being
overly inquisitive within this short visit, Huck learned what people thought of
his death and possible trouble happening back on the island.
After Huckleberry and Jim outwit their
"friends", the king and the duke, Huck lost his best friend and
possession, Jim. While floating down
stream alone, he spots a young man and asks if he saw any n------ dressed in a
funny manner. The boy replies that he
saw a n----- going towards the Phelp's place.
When the boy asks why Huck wants to know where the n----- was, Huck
replied that the n----- threatened to cut out his liver. This naturally encourages the boy to tell
Huck more about Jim's whereabouts and condition. Huck learned that an old fellow "nailed
him", and Jim is just waiting at the Phelp's farm. Huck starts talking innocently about the
reward. The young boy expressed that he
would wait seven years to collect the 200 dollar bounty. This is another example of Huck's discreet
inquirings. After leaving the boy, he
most likely forgot about the situation because Huck didn't pressure information
out of him. He only asks in a nonchalant
manner, therefore acting innocent and polite
Huckleberry learns that he can only trust a few
people. When he is in trouble, he can
use his wits to either get out of, or go deeper into trouble. In Huck's case, he usually goes farther into
trouble until he can escape. Huck also
learns that he can get a lot of information out of people with well worded, yet
innocent questions. This is a lesson
that people should learn. When in
trouble, we have two choices. We can
either tell the truth, or have fun and try to use wit, cleverness, and a little
bit of luck to save ourselves.
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