Fast Food Nation
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (7-11)
As the story progresses in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", both Huckleberry and Jim continue to live on the Island. They feel isolated from society and safe from the reach of their pursuers. One day a house, containing liquor bottles, graffiti, and also a dead man, comes floating down the river. The house was a prime example of the dangers and reckless nature of the world they had escaped, and no doubt it also reminded Huckleberry of his father. The appearance of "the house of death" was more that just a random event. Mark Twain uses the house as a symbol to show that Huckleberry and Jim are not a isolated from society as they may feel. Although Jackson's Island is primitive, the appearance of the house shows that the influence and danger of the outside world can still reach them. As well as the house, Mark Twain uses another symbol to show their insecurity: the snake. When Huckleberry's practical joke ended up in Jim getting bit by a snake, it supports the idea that although Huckleberry and Jim feel safe, they will never truly be safe.
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I like that you focused on insecurity: I definately felt that both Jim and Huckleberry were insecure for most of this section. I think that being away from the lives that both of them had always known, never realizing that things could be different, and then suddenly them being along but together shed a new light on both of their situations. In reguard to the snake, I think danger can be avoided if certain, specific precautions are put in place. Huckleberry messing with the snake shows that he knows he is sitting on the fence of knowing what is dangerous and what he still considers fun.
ReplyDeleteGood post. There are many examples of isolation in the novel. Do you think Twain may be hinting at isolation as being a universal issue? Additionally, do you think Huck finds security in anything?
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