Huck Finn Chapters 32 43 Chapter 32 Huck

Huck Finn Chapters 32 -43

Chapter 32 • Huck is again without Jim, and again, he feels lonely, scared, and wishes he were dead. Everybody needs somebody. • Aunt Sally says, “well, it’s lucky. Sometimes people do get hurt. ” When Huck says a black person was killed in a steamboat accident. She doesn’t recognize the humanity of black people. “Good, ” religious Southern people were responsible for the continuation of slavery and racism.

Chapter 33 • Tom agrees to help Huck “steal” Jim out of slavery, surprising Huck, who thought Tom was “better” than that. Huck still thinks it’s low-down to be helping Jim (as that is what Southern society taught back then); however, Tom only agrees to help because he KNOWS Jim is already free! • Huck is good at heart because he wants to help the king and duke get out of trouble, despite all the bad they’ve done him; Huck shows a TRUE Christian spirit. • “Well, it made me sick to see it; and I was sorry for them poor pitiful rascals, it seemed like I couldn’t ever feel any hardness against them any more in the world. It was a dreadful thing to see. Human beings can be awful cruel to one another” • “A person’s conscience ain’t got no sense”

Chapter 34 • Huck thinks Tom is better than he is; the society values book learning, and Huck simply reflects that value. This is why he accepts Tom’s wild plans as being “better” than his practical plan. Twain disagrees. EXPERIENCE is the best teacher, not books. Who has more experience? Huck, not Tom. • Huck believes he is just poor trash, so he has nothing to lose by helping Jim. He believes Tom is “somebody, ” so Tom shouldn’t be “lowering” himself by helping do something “bad” like helping Jim get his freedom.

Chapter 35 • Although Huck comes up with many easy and humane ways to steal Jim, Tom rejects them all because they don’t match up with what he’s read in adventure books. • Huck shows plenty of empathy for Jim (ex: He doesn’t like the plan to dig through to China because Jim doesn’t know anybody in China), but Tom shows none. For Tom, this is all about Tom’s own good time. He doesn’t think about nor care about Jim’s life, freedom, dignity, or safety. • Tom talks about difficulties making them heroic, and he says Huck’s “ignorant, ” yet Huck is already a hero for all he’s done so far, and Tom is the truly ignorant one! • Is stealing okay? Only when it’s for a good cause…

Chapter 36 • Lying: • To keep Tom happy in terms of doing everything “right, ” the boys start pretending they’re digging with case-knives instead of a pick and a shovel. • Right vs. Wrong: • Ironically, Tom, who is in the wrong, says, “right is right and wrong is wrong, and a body ain’t got no business doing wrong when he ain’t ignorant and knows better” (234). • Jim has to agree with whatever dumb stuff Tom wants him to do because Tom is white, and for that reason alone, Jim is in no position to argue with him or refuse to do what he says. • Tom shows how callous he is when he says he’d like to “keep it up all the rest of our lives and leave Jim to our children to get out” (236); he doesn’t care at all about Jim’s freedom.

Chapter 37 • Here, Tom (and Huck, by being a mostly silent follower), toys with Aunt Sally and Uncle Silas in much the same way he’s been toying with Jim. It’s certainly not right for Tom to treat people like this, but he only thinks of himself, not others—much like slave owners and slave traders. • In a strange twist, we see that Aunt Sally and Uncle Silas are treating Jim with kindness, yet they are trying to return him to slavery; while Tom and Huck are mistreating Jim, yet they are trying to help him get free.

Chapter 38 • Tom (and Huck by following along) is objectifying and manipulating Jim worse than ever in this chapter. Jim is treated as a prop in this game of “prisoner, ” not as a human being. • Tom represents the white Southern “gentlemen, ” men who used people of color as though they weren’t even human. • Jim finally has enough and stands up for himself, saying this is all too much and a waste of time, but Tom won’t let up and says it’s a chance to “make a name for himself, ” and Jim ends up apologizing to Tom. • Again, Jim is in no position to fight back against a white boy. He even gets out of the shed to help move the grindstone! This shows Jim is still not free because Tom won’t let him be, not because it isn’t easily done.

Chapter 39 • Cruelty: the boys actually make Jim live in there with rats, snakes, and spiders and use his blood from their bites to “write” with. • Huck gets his wits about him again, finally, when he hears Uncle Silas is going to advertise Jim in the New Orleans and St. Louis papers. • Huck wants to slip out secretly, but he gives up quickly when Tom insists they have to make it difficult for themselves by warning the Phelps family ahead of time.

Chapter 40 • Tom is very happy to see all the men arrive with guns to make their escape more adventurous, but Huck is scared. Tom doesn’t understand real life danger the way Huck and Jim do. • Tom is shot, and Jim says, “‘Well, den, dis is de way it look to me, Huck. Ef it wuz him dat 'uz bein' sot free, en one er de boys wuz to git shot, would he say, 'Go on en save me, nemmine 'bout a doctor f'r to save dis one? ' Is dat like Mars Tom Sawyer? Would he say dat? You bet he wouldn't! Well, den, is Jim gywne to say it? No, sah -- I doan' budge a step out'n dis place 'dout a doctor, not if it's forty year!’” • Huck: “I knowed he was white inside, and I reckoned he'd say what he did say -- so it was all right now, and I told Tom I was a-going for a doctor. ”

Chapter 41 • Everyone is at Aunt Sally’s house, gossiping about the escape. They all say very harsh things about how they’d punish any slaves who helped Jim escape. • Later on, Aunt Sally asks Huck to stay in bed, so he can’t get loose to go see about Tom because he feels bad for her after seeing how much she cares about the boys and how worried she is. Huck is good at heart (very empathetic toward others).

Chapter 42 • Everyone wants to kill Jim for running away, but they decide against it because they wouldn’t want to have to pay for him. • The doctor has to step in and tell what a good person Jim was and how helpful he was when the doctor needed help with Tom before anyone lets up on him, and even they keep him chained up. • Tom finally reveals Jim has been free all along, saying, “‘They hain’t no right to shut him up!’” which is ironic, as Tom himself has been keeping Jim a slave for weeks!

Chapter 43 • To “make up” for all the trouble he’s put Jim through, Tom pays him 40 dollars. This is clearly patronizing and ridiculous, but Jim just has to take the abuse. What could he do? • Jim reveals Pap is dead, and Huck doesn’t comment on it. • Huck says he’ll go to the Territory rather than be “sivilized” by Aunt Sally.