I never actually read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn before this year, so I was rather excited to read it. For some reason i was half expecting it to have a tragic ending like in "An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge.". I actually felt involved and was happy that Jim was freed and Huck was going to have a place to live again.
Something that really bugged me in class was the fact that people saw Tom as a hero. I felt tom was a "brat" as Kelly described him in class. He was just that popular boy that everyone looked up to and wanted to be. Tom was suppose to be this good boy but often had no respect for others. Huck often had clever ideas, but Tom immediately shot them down, because his were better. I hated the way he treated Jim also. Huck obviously respected Jim, but Tom just used him to have fun.
Some people had mentioned in class about Jim acting as a mother/father figure towards Huck, which i actually had posted in one of my replys. At first I had thought he acted like a father figure because he is older and helps Huck realize what is right and wrong, but after reading an article written by Wlliam Wesley, he notes that Jim was more of a moral support but lacked the intellectual guidance that a father offers, rather, Huck offered this intellectual guidance to Jim. So maybe it was more of a partnership and companionship rather than one dominant father in the relationship. Jim and Huck both had positive and negative characteristics which helped and complimented each other. Frienships often form this way when two people have opposite qualities which benefit the other to become a better person.
Since Tom has his story, and Huck has his, I think it would be interesting to see a story , such as the one Huck told, from the point of view of Jim. I think it would be totally different. Does anyone else think it would be interesting? How so?
Posted by ErinManko at October 28, 2004 11:26 PMI agree with your assessment of Tom. I think it's easy to mistake charisma and leadership ability with the idea of a hero. In fact, real heroes aren't necessarily the most extroverted people. NPR does a short feature on real-life heroes that have received an award from (I think) the Carnegie Foundation. Many of the individuals featured are unassuming, very average types who acted with utter selflessness to save someone else. They did not do it for the glory or attention, probably never even had time to consider the why or how. They just acted because it was the right thing to do. This type of altruism is missing in Tom's character.
Posted by: Linda Fondrk at October 29, 2004 10:17 AMErin,
I agree with Linda in that I enjoy your assessments of Tom. I believe that in my personal opinion that it allowed me to realize another point of view that differed from my own and essentially made me understand another area that Tom could be used to portray.
I find that it would be very interesting to view the story from the eyes of Jim. What do you think he would have concentrated more on in the story? How do you think it would have been different? Do you think it still would have been as famous as it has become today? I hope to hear from you soon!!
Melissa
Posted by: MelissaHagg at October 31, 2004 09:23 PMErin,
I would say that Jim is more than a mentor than a father figure. Huck sometimes doesn't say anything, when Jim was following Tom's plans. Huck didn't say anything when he was painted blue by those two frauds. If Jim was a father figure, then Huck should have stopped these events. I think he's more of a mentor, because Jim is older and has a family. Huck respects Jim, because in the begining of the novel, he doesn't let Tom hang him from a tree and he doesn't mind having him along his journey. He was company and he is considerate to Jim.
-Nabila
Posted by: NabilaUddin at November 1, 2004 06:01 PMMelissa,
I think if the story were told by Jim rather than Huck, that everything would seem more innocent. Jim just seemed to be a bit nieve to certain stuff probably because he just didn't know. He saw most people as generally good people, even though he was kept as a slave. I think the story would have been less exciting because at least Huck had some intellectual backround and Tom influenced his adventerous side. What do you think?