The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Response 1 of 4

I remember reading the book, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, back in middle school, and I was excited to get the opportunity to read the sequel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Anyhow, this beginning of this book was quite confusing. The speaker was Huckleberry Finn, but it was like he came outside of the book and knew that Mark Twain wrote a book about himself. It’s kind of hard to explain, but in the opening paragraph Huck talks as if he knows he’s in a book. Anyway, the story goes on with the Widow Douglas trying to “sivilize” Huck. I don’t really understand why they used the word “sivilize” instead of “civilize.” In chapter two, I enjoyed reading that one part when Huck and Tom are trying to sneak by Jim. I thought Jim had some sort of narcolepsy since he just fell asleep when he said he was going to find whoever was making noise outside. The prank that Tom did on Jim was funny, too. Jim took it too seriously and thought there were witches that played a prank on him when it was actually Tom’s idea. I realized that at this point that a lot of books that I have to read for my English classes have a Negro in the story. Other examples include Of Mice and Men and To Kill a Mockingbird. Well, the story moves on with Tom and Huck talking within their gang, which I thought was a joke. Despite the fact that they signed an oath in blood, I really doubt that a bunch of kids would have the criminal minds to hold ransoms and rob places. It’s funny that the gang doesn’t even know what ransom means, and that’s what made me feel that this is just one of those pretend things that kids do. Later in the story, Huck’s dad is introduced. I’d hate to be in Huck’s shoes, having an abusive dad and such. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be abused by someone you thought wouldn’t hurt you. To me, it seems like Huck’s dad just wants to get the money that Huck has. The story gets really interesting when Huck makes it look like he was murdered and runs away to some island. It’s ironic that Huck met Jim at that island, who is also running away just like Huck himself. The part after that when Huck pretends to be a girl is amusing because he ultimately fails in convincing this woman that he is a girl.