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Huckleberry Finn- Quotes Flipbook PDF
Huckleberry Finn- Quotes
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Huckleberry Finn- Quotes
https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/huckfinn/quotes/theme/guiltshame/ Guilt/Shame "What had poor Miss Watson done to you, that you could see her nigger go off right under your eyes and never say one single word? What did that poor old woman do to you, that you could treat her so mean?" In this passage from Chapter 16, Huck recognizes for the first time that by helping Jim escape, he is also complicit in stealing from Miss Watson. This recognition places Huck in a difficult moral position, since he values them both. Jim has always treated Huck with kindness, as has Miss Watson, who has also donated her time to help give him an education. The rhetorical questions that Huck asks himself in this quote illustrate the nature of his double-bind: he cannot escape without hurting someone he cares about.
I was mighty down-hearted; so I made up my mind I wouldn’t ever go anear that house again, because I reckoned I was to blame, somehow. This passage appears in Chapter 18, just after Huck witnesses a violent ambush in a longstanding blood feud. The episode disturbs Huck, and he even refuses to relate the events in full detail: “I ain’t agoing to tell all that happened.” Nevertheless, the episode has an obvious emotional impact on Huck, and he feels guilty for helping the family’s daughter elope. Here, Huck wrestles with the fact that even good-intentioned acts can have tragic consequences. That’s just the way: a person does a low-down thing, and then he don’t want to take no consequences of it. Thinks as long as he can hide it, it ain’t no disgrace. That was my fix exactly. This quote, which appears in Chapter 31, shows Huck in the midst of making his biggest moral decision in the novel—that is, his decision about whether or not to continue to help Jim escape from captivity. In this passage, Huck imagines the double sense of shame he’d feel if he turned Jim in: he would at once betray his friend and admit to committing what was, at the time, an illegal offense. Huck figures that turning Jim in would be a morally weak act, because it would
mean that he was trying to compensate for doing one “low-down thing” (i.e., helping Jim escape) by doing another (i.e., betraying Jim). I knowed very well why [the words] wouldn’t come. It was because my heart warn’t right; it was because I warn’t square; it was because I was playing double. I was letting on to give up sin, but away inside of me I was holding on to the biggest one of all. This passage also comes from Chapter 31, and it is also related to the passage quoted directly above. Here, Huck reframes his moral dilemma in the religious terms that he first learned from the Widow Douglas. As he tries to pray for guidance, Huck recognizes that the words won’t come because his heart is not really in it. By saying that he’s “playing double,” Huck means that he’s trying to use prayer to solve his moral problem and wash away his sins, but this itself is a sinful act, since he doesn’t actually believe in the Christian paradigm of sin. Hence, he retains the “biggest [sin] of all.” I wasn’t feeling so brash as I was before, but kind of ornery, and humble, and to blame, somehow —though I hadn’t done nothing. But that’s always the way; it don’t make no difference whether you do right or wrong, a person’s conscience ain’t got no sense, and just goes for him anyway. At the end of Chapter 33, after reuniting with Tom Sawyer, Huck witnesses a crowd of angry people around two figures who have been tarred and feathered. Huck recognizes these figures as the king and the duke. Although he harbors a strong dislike of these men because of their manipulative behavior, he still feels revolted by the display of violence and cruelty. These contradictory feelings generate a sense of ambivalence that Huck doesn’t quite understand. Huck experiences his mix of feelings as a misplaced form of guilt.
Empathy Empathy
Now was the first time that I begun to worry about the men—I reckon I hadn’t had time to before. I begun to think how dreadful it was, even for murderers, to be in such a fix. In Chapter 13, after Huck and Jim steal a raft full of supplies and leave a band of villainous men behind on a wrecked steamboat, Huck begins to worry about their well-being. Although he recognizes that the men deserve punishment for their offenses, Huck also empathizes with the men, whom he’s abandoned in a very dangerous situation. Regardless of their villainy, these are human beings, and as such they have the same fear response as everyone else. Thus, this quote demonstrates Huck’s ability to put himself in others’ shoes.
I was feeling ruther comfortable on accounts of taking all this trouble for that gang, for not many would a done it. I wished the widow knowed about it. I judged she would be proud of me for helping these rapscallions, because rapscallions and dead beats is the kind the widow and good people takes the most interest in. This passage, which appears at the end of Chapter 13, shows that Huck doesn’t fully understand his own ability to empathize with others’ experiences. Huck seems to understand empathy solely in terms of Christian duty, rather than morality. That is to say, he thinks the Widow Douglas
would be proud of him for helping the men in the wrecked raft simply because they are “rapscallions.” This type of response would be dictated by a strict sense of duty. However, Huck’s actions are motivated by empathy; he projects himself into these men’s experience. Thus, he acted morally, not just dutifully.
[Jim] was thinking about his wife and his children, away up yonder, and he was low and homesick; because he hadn’t ever been away from home before in his life; and I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks does for their’n. It don’t seem natural, but I reckon it’s so. In this quote, from Chapter 23, Huck demonstrates his ability to empathize across racial lines. This is an enormously significant moment, as it goes against contemporary social norms that tended to dehumanize blacks. At the time when Huckleberry Finn is set, slaves were often understood and referred to in animal terms, which in turn made it difficult for whites to empathize with blacks in any meaningful way. Huck also struggles with this type of empathy, which he makes evident when he says that “it don’t seem natural” for Jim to have a deep emotional attachment to his own family. Nevertheless, he concludes, “I reckon it’s so.”
Them poor things was that glad and happy it made my heart ache to see them getting fooled and lied to so, but I didn’t see no safe way for me to chip in and change the general tune. In Chapter 27, as he watches the king and the duke conspire to steal away the inheritance of Mary Jane, Joanna, and Susan, Huck projects forward into the future to imagine how horribly disappointed the young women will feel when they realize they’ve been duped. This example of empathy is related to dramatic irony, which is when the reader understands something the character does not. In this case, Huck understands something the young women do not, and he finds the irony of the situation difficult to bear.
Adventure Quotes Adventure
Now we’ll start this band of robbers and call it Tom Sawyer’s gang. Everybody that wants to join has got to take an oath, and write his name in blood. In Chapter 2, Tom convenes a gang of boys who wish to be robbers and pirates. The express purpose of the gang is thus to go on adventures. The particular adventures that Tom envisions all come from various adventure stories that he’s read. Indeed, this is where he got the idea of a blood oath: Tom claims that “every gang that was high-toned” should require its members to swear such an oath. The fact that Tom derives his sense of adventure from a domestic activity like reading is gently ironic, and it emphasizes the boyish, immature nature of the gang.
I felt just the way any other boy would a felt when I see that wreck laying there so mournful and lonesome in the middle of the river. I wanted to aboard of her and slink around a little.
In this quote from Chapter 12, Huck expresses his desire to jump aboard the wreckage of a ship and explore it. Huck’s youthful excitement connects him to his friend Tom Sawyer, whose adventurous spirit is documented in Twain’s earlier novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Like Tom, Huck’s thirst for adventure tends to get him into dangerous situations. This episode, which occurs early in Huck and Jim’s journey down the Mississippi, will contrast with later episodes when Huck begins to realize the real-world consequences of the type of adventurous spirit expressed here.
Work? Why, cert’nly it would work, like rats a-fighting. But it’s too blame’ simple; there ain’t nothing to it. What’s the good of a plan that ain’t no more trouble than that? Tom Sawyer utters these words to Huck in Chapter 34, when Huck proposes a straightforward plan to liberate Jim from captivity. Tom rejects the plan because it lacks the kind of complexity and panache he’s encountered in numerous adventure stories. At this point, near the end of the novel, Huck understands the gravity of Jim’s situation more intimately than Tom, and this quotation demonstrates just how emotionally immature Tom’s understanding remains in comparison to Huck’s.
Money/Wealth Quotes Money/Wealth
Looky here—mind how you talk to me; I’m a-standing about all I can stand now—so don’t gimme no sass. I’ve been in town two days, and I hain’t heard nothing but about you bein’ rich. I heard about it away down the river, too. That’s why I come. You git me that money to-morrow—I want it. In this quote from Chapter 5, Huck’s father demands that his son hand over the wealth that he acquired during the events recounted in Twain’s previous novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Ever since Huck came into this money, he has been a target of various efforts to “sivilize” and educate him. In this case, Huck’s wealth also makes him a target for domestic violence. Pap’s desire for Huck’s money is motivated primarily by his alcoholism, and as the events that follow demonstrate, he is willing to harm his son in order to get it. Thus, money causes more problems than it solves.
I got to steal that money, somehow; and I got to steal it some way that they won’t suspicion that I done it. They’ve got a good thing here, and they ain’t a-going to leave till they’ve played this family and this town for all they’re worth, so I’ll find a chance time enough. Huck speaks in Chapter 26 about the need to retrieve the inheritance money that the duke and the king have stolen from the three young sisters. As in the case of Huck’s wealth, here again a large sum of money causes major problems, attracting “rapscallions” who will stop at nothing to take it
for themselves. Huck, who has had his own experience with people trying to get their hands on his inheritance, has an opportunity to ensure that the money remains with those who need it most. The ease with which Huck steals the money back shows just how quickly a reversal of fortune can occur.
I tole you I ben rich wunst, en gwineter to be rich agin; en it’s come true . . . en I knowed jis’ ’s well ’at I ’uz gwineter be rich agin as I’s a-stannin’ heah dis minute! In Chapter 43, at the very end of the novel, Jim reminds Huck of their earlier conversation, during which he claimed that having hairy arms and a hairy chest constitutes an omen for future wealth. Jim, who has just received forty dollars from Tom, argues that the omen has been fulfilled. Jim’s sense of fulfillment underscores the positive significance of his reversal of fortune. However, the excitement Jim expresses in this quote also indicates his naïveté. Despite having the rather large sum of forty dollars to his name, Jim remains part of a racist society, and thus still captive in a figurative sense.