"There warn't no color in his face, where his face showed; it was white; not like another man's white, but a white to make a body sick, a white to make a body's flesh crawl--a tree-toad white, a fish-belly white."
~page 85 of Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Even if there had been no prior indication that something was wrong with Huck's father, that he was to be feared, this excerpt would have given some indication of that. His face wasn't just described as pale or even just sickly pale. It is a white "to make a body sick" and to make its "flesh crawl" (85). These aren't exactly details used to describe someone or something pleasant. As we later find out, the character overall seems to fit this initial description of how white his face is. I just thought that was interesting.
Comments (2)
There's nothing like description to tell us how to think about a character.
Posted by Kayla Lesko | October 11, 2009 5:58 PM
Posted on October 11, 2009 17:58
I also wrote about this passage. I found it interesting that Huck's father's "white-ness" was described so despicably. This was occurring during a time of white supremacy, so the fact that Huck is able to overlook the racial slurs of his time and see evil for what it really is speaks of his knowledge as a young boy. Instead of associating white with its biblical implications, along with the implications of his time, Huck realizes that white can also have darker connotations.
Posted by Jessica Pierce | October 14, 2009 9:22 AM
Posted on October 14, 2009 09:22