Sunday, November 17, 2013
Hey everybody!! I thought I would start the ball rolling by discussing one of the obviously apparent themes of Huck Finn: slavery. The town that Huck lives in, St. Petersburg, resides in a slave state and therefore, it appears that almost everybody owns slaves. However, what struck me was the seemingly hypocritical nature of slavery, because even the Widow Douglas, described as a pious Christian, owns slaves. Do we have any thoughts on the relationship between owners and slaves, or even the "household" type of slavery that Twain seems to be focusing on?
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I think that at this point in the story the author doesn't seem to show much of a relationship between the slave and the owner- except for the part when Jim says that the Widow promised that she wouldn't ever let him be sold to anyone else. With this in mind, I think that Twain wants to show that the common household slave and the owner had a good relationship. So far, that is.
ReplyDeleteYadira-- With that being said, I think that Jim's departure from Miss Watson emphasized how the lives of slaves were dependent on the decisions made by their owner. Miss Watson wanted to sell Jim to make a high profit, which also brings up the theme of money. Huck's character doesn't seem to care that much about the value of money, considering he gave away his $6,000. However, Jim viewed money as more of a necessity because he hoped to buy his freedom one day. Do you guys think Jim will stay "free"?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kelly because even though Miss Watson seemed to care more for Jim than other slave owners, she was not able to view Jim as an equal (or better than others saw him) and was still controlled by the money. I think Jim will not stay free just because I think Twain is trying to emphasize the oppression experienced by the slaves at this time. I did find it very interesting to see this story from Huck's point of view because he still calls Jim "the word" but yet he accepts Jim. This makes me think that Twain wants us to notice that some of these prejudices were simply passed down and did not necessarily come from that person.
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