The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Response 2 of 4

I really like Mrs. Judith Loftus. She’s one of those few people that Huck encounters that are sincere. The only thing I don’t like about her is that she wants to capture Jim for the $300 reward. It’s a good thing that she shared her plans with Huck in trying to hunt down Jim because Huck can use this opportunity to warn Huck and hide somewhere else. After Mrs. Loftus compared Huck and Jim’s situations, I realized that they are both similar. They are both running away from society. Huck ran away from his father, who has been abusive to him. Jim ran away from Mrs. Watson because he heard he was going to be sold somewhere else. It’s ironic that both of these runaways are together now, escaping from the society that they were once in. The story continues on with Huck and Jim floating along the Ohio River. I was surprised that Huck was going to consider on turning Jim in for the bounty reward. I’m glad that he decided not to turn him in, especially when Jim said that Huck was his only friend. It was nice of Huck to make up a lie to protect Jim when a group of men confronted him about searching his raft for escaped slaves. Huck pretended that his family is on board the raft is suffering from smallpox. That one lie scared them away and made them give Huck some money out of pity. The story continues with Huck being separated from Jim and being found by some family who’s going through a feud with another family (Shepherdson vs. Grangerfords). This part reminded me of Romeo and Juliet, how their families were in a feud against each other. I freaked out when Huck was in the middle of battle zone of the two families, where some family members of each family died. I actually thought that this boy, Buck Grangerford, would be one of the main characters and close friends of Huck until he died. The story continues with Huck finding Jim by the river and they sail off. They meet up with these two white men who appear to be con artists. I can’t believe that Huck let them ride on the raft with himself and Jim. They could easily turn in Jim for the bounty reward. I just have a feeling that they are up to no good, especially since they made jokes about Jim being captured and such.