Toni Rose - Louisiana Tech University



Article reviewed—too short

Summary—talk about the article more

Evaluation—could be stronger

Grammar—proofread more

83

Toni Rose

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.

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