What's your opinion of the duke and king at this point? What should Huck and Jim do about them? What do you think is the object of Twain's satrical barbs in the Wilks episode? What is Huck's major moral tranformation? What did you make of his exchanges and thoughts regarding Mary Jane? Could it be love? How does Twain develop the themes of truth vs. falsehood and appearance vs. reality here? Do you notice any irony or foreshadowing in this section? What else were you thinking as you read these chapters?
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ReplyDeleteHuck's character changes dramatically during this section. Huck usually takes the backseat in matters but now is acting on what he feels is right. Huck finally sees that the Duke and the Dauphin are terrible people and Huck says that he is "ashamed of the human race." Huck's first defiant action is when he steals the con men's $6,000. His character still has its flaws however, as he was unable to give the money to the sisters in person, thus revealing the con men as fakes. Huck feels so bad after seeing Mary Jane react to the splitting up of the slave family, that he confronts her and tells her that the con men are frauds.
ReplyDeleteWhen the con men betray Jim and Huck by selling Jim, Huck's character grows again. He searches for an answer to the problem but realizes that what he has been taught won't help him now. Huck decides to set off to free Jim, deciding that their friendship is too strong to end like this. Here, Twain puts forth his beliefs in abolition, showing that a white man, Huck, views himself as an equal to Jim, a black man.
Right from the moment the duke and King were introduced I knew they were no good swindling thieves. I didn't like them then, and I sure don't like them now. The way they were planning on taking basically everything that the way over-trusting girls owned, just spelled out bad taste for me. On a brighter note, I was proud of Huck for finding and hiding, the $6,000 dollars the con men were going to steal. His moral transformation is finally coming to light. I believe now Huck is choosing mind over matter. He is listening to his conscience, and not saying "well this person never did anything bad to me." As for his relationship with Mary Jane, I have come to believe he has a crush on her! I don't think it's "love" quite yet.
ReplyDeleteThe duke and the king in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are portrayed as dangerous theives that continuously take advantage of people and lie in order to obtain money. Upon hearing of the $6,000 inheritance left for the daughters of Peter Wilks, the king and the duke pretend to be the wealthy and respected English uncles coming to the funeral of their dead brother, Peter. They soon begin their plot to steal the inheritance from their "so-called nieces." They quickly convince the nieces to allow them to look over the money for them, and they cannot believe how easy it was to steal the money from the girls. Although many other friends of the family recognize that the king and the duke are frauds, the nieces continue to believe that they are indeed their English uncles. After being tried in court as being frauds, and proven guilty due to the handwriting and the tattoo of Mr. Peter Wilks, the king and the duke run back in time to catch Huck and Jim from abandoning them. The men are furious that they could not obtain the money and blame each other. They also resort to selling Jim to the Phelps family in order to obtain more money. The duke and the king can therefore be considered very dangerous because of the theft they continuously committ and the through the sale of Jim to the Phelps family.
ReplyDeleteHuck Finn begins to fight for what he believes in throughout Chapters 24-31 in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In the previous chapters Huck just goes with the flow and keeps the peace. For example, when Huck allows the king and the duke to come with them on their adventures in traveling south. The king and the duke, however begin to get out of hand in chapters 24-31. When the king and the duke steal the $6000 inheritance from the Wilks' girls, Huck sees that this is wrong and hides the money in the casket so the girls can rightfully have their money. Huck shows in these chapters that he follows what his conscience tells him is right because he is fed up with going with the flow to frauds who continuously steal money from people. Also, Huck is outraged when he finds Jim missing and the boy tells him that the king and the duke sell Jim to the Phelps family. Huck fights with his conscience in whether to tell Miss Watson that Jim is with him or to help Jim escape from slavery. Huck ultimately, after assessing his strong connection with Jim states that he does not care if he goes to hell because he was going to help Jim escape to freedom. Therefore, Huck considers more of his conscience in chapters 24-31 and stops just keeping the peace and going with the flow.
The duke and the king are just bad news from the start. First, the the three girls that they tried to steal everything they owned, and now Jim. Poor Jim! Not that Jim should have been sold, but he wasn't the duke's to sell. He was Huck's slave, or at least they thought. Though I must give the king and the duke credit for the way they had the townspeople believing that they were really Wilkes' brothers. They are so witty the way they just throw out answers. It's not like the towns people have proof that they aren't the rightful brothers, they have never even seen them before. And Huck often complements the king on his English accent, i dont know about you, but I find it hard to believe that the king can do a believable English accent.
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