Post #2 On Freedom and Enslavement Huck Finn Chapters 16-22

In Chapter 16 as both characters (Huck and Jim) are approaching to Cairo, a free establishment they both tremble with excitement and fear.  Jim who is finally going to be free tells Huck all about his future plans to liberate his family, and Huck who hears this is a nervous train too.  For he feels that he did wrong by participating in the liberation of Jim, and has wronged the good christian women that Jim belonged to.  Though Huck is actions on freeing Jim are of physical actions, he is not free mentally from his conscience.  The type of way that Huck was feeling was understandable looking at where he was coming from, it was not common for white people to help free blacks. "Jim said it made him all over trembly and feverish to be so close to freedom.  Well, i can tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish, too, to hear him, because I begun to get it through my head that he was most free" (Twain 109).  But, I feel that in a sense that Huck internally feels that by freeing Jim, he to will be freeing himself.  Through this chapter you can see a great deal of heroism when Huck lies to help Jim, a colored man who he was going to liberate.
For me the chapter 18 showed the foundation of slaves and  also how they help during any circumstances that comes there way no matter the situation that they are dealing with.  While at the Grangerford estate, Huck observes that all the family members depend on slaves.  Even Huck is given a slave to take care of his needs.  The root of the Grangerford family all lies in the slavery business, which helps to keep them wealthy.  It is a shame that though the family is rich and educated with "culture" their involvement of this practice (slavery) in my opinion overshadows that.  How can "good" people enact in inhumane business?  Unlike the other people in the household Huck does not treat his slave poorly (Buck), and this was probably observed by Jack, a slave that was living in the household.  One can guess that Jack sees this because he is the one to reunite Huck and Jim back together.  Jack was the one who helped with the raft and where to hide.  At that time that was all he could do, and he probably knew that he needed some reinforcement to help Jim.  So, when he sees Huck around that area he makes up a quick lie to lure him into the place of where Jim was hiding.  Jack did this all on his own "free" will and like Jim, yearned for freedom, but was not ready to act on it yet (like Huck freeing Jim also freed him, this is probably how Jack feels- if he can help Jim, an African American "free", then he is in some way helping himself and enslaved African America).  In the end of the chapter Huck and Jim depart, and in a sense Huck feels free when he is with Jim.  I can tell that he never felt this way with the other adults in his life.  "I never felt easy til the raft was two miles below there and out in the middle of Mississippi.  Then we hung up our signal lantern, and judged that we was free and safe one more" (Twain 139).  He felt "might free" on the raft alongside Jim.

First Post on Freedom and Enslavement

Chapter six (6) of the novel to me was a vital example of how freedom and slavery came to play in the novel,  After Huck is taken by his father to and deprived from his life he had with the widow, he's not happy.  His father took away the schooling and everything that he did at the widow's place which he didn't mind.  In fact living with his father made him to realize how much he did not want to go back to the widow or stay with him.  In simplest terms, he just wanted to be free of both party's rule, he yearned for "freedom".  The cabin in which he lived in acted a prison which he wanted to escape from.  Later on in the chapter we are also let onto how Huck's dad opinion on the government.  Pap resented a black man doing better than him in life and did not believe it was fair.  Though he resented anyone's accomplishments (Huck's especially), that of a black male who he felt should be enslaved but was not was what he really resented the most.  "There was a free nigger there, Ohio; a mulatter, most as a white man....There was a state in this country where they'd let a nigger vote.....I says to people why ain't that nigger put up at auction and sold"(Twain 28).  This quote right here clearly show the views of Pap on the standings on black male, especially those who were free, he felt as if they should have been "enslaved".  In chapter seven all Huck wants to do is escape, he just wants to be free from his dad.

Both Huck and Jim in chapters eight (8) through nine (9) deal with freedom and slavery.  When they both find each other in chapter eight (8) they are both shocked, but swear to keep it a secret.  Jim tells Huck about how he was treated badly when he was enslaved under Ms.Watson, a supposed good christian. Huck found it weird and bad in this chapter to be called an abolitionist.  " People would call me a low down Abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum-but that don't make no difference. I ain't agoing to tell" (twain 45).  They were people who fought for people's being "enslaved" own "freedom".  In a sense though Jim is the "escaped slave" both characters to me were enslaved by people who they did not like Huck (pap) and Jim (Miss. Watson) and all they wanted was freedom. This sets out the theme of the novel as they both departure. 

Social Responsiblity-The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Social Responsibility is one of the earliest themes introduced to us in the beginning of the novel.  After we are giving a little flashback of Huck's life in Mark Twain "The Adventures Tom Sawyer," when he is taken in by widow Douglass.  While he is her the widow and her "annoying" sister try to install some manners into him by teaching him christian values as part of his social responsibility. During the time period which Huck lived, people were religious (more than now) and tried to follow good Christian values so they could hopefully get into heaven. This was no the case for Huck who really didn't fit into that society, he was more anti it.  He did not see a point in doing good for others or praying to go to heaven, he's rather go to hell where all the bad (Tom) would be.  "Then she told me about the bad place, and I said I wished I was there" (Twain 3).  Huck does not care about religion and doesn't take the responsibility to follow it especially if its about dead people (Moses).

During the end of the five chapters read his father, who people said was dead came back, but not to his surprise.  His dad arrives in an unpleasant manner after finding that his son is doing better than anyone in his family has ever did (reading). " Your mother could't read, and she couldn't write, nuther, before she died.  None of the family couldn't, before they died" (Twain 20).   Getting an educations and learning to read was a responsibility that in society,Huck had to take regardless of his family's uneducated past. But, that was not the only reason why his father came, he wanted money and since he knew that Huck had him he needed to get Huck back out of widow Douglass.  He wanted custody of Huck again and he went to court to achieve this goal.  The new judge only granted him back custody because he truly believe that Huck's dad would change his ways and most importantly it was his "Social Responsibility" too.  The Judge felt that it was right of a father to take care of his son and his responsibility as man of society.