« Huck Finn | Main | Uncle Remus »
October 26, 2005
Huck Finn Huzzah!
Clemens, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (to Ch 24) -- American Literature, 1800-1915 (EL 266)
"Cold corn-pone, cold corn-beef, butter and butter-milk--that is what they had for me down there, and there ain't nothing better that ever I've come across yet." (162)
This sentence made me crack up! Read it aloud. I was repulsed by what they were eating, even though I didn't know what it was, but this is his excitement. It might be the same way that some people, who shall remain nameless, really enjoy eating sandwiches with their family after church on Sundays. It's a simple tradition, but very important. These things are what he anticipates. He is ecstatic for this food, but the tone of the words doesn't make you think that. This might again play back to his family situation. Cold corn-beef and butter-milk are repulsive to me, but that comforts Huck Finn. Huzzah.
Posted by MeredithHarber at October 26, 2005 08:29 PM
Comments
Good excerpt. There's a lot more to that line than meets the eye. There's a sense of simple satisfaction found in the simplest gifts of life. Just goes to show how much we really need as opposed to how much we really keep saying we want.
Posted by: Neha at October 26, 2005 11:32 PM
Leave it to Neha to find the person who blogged about food!
And I personally like corn-beef. I think the deli really got to me, because I have an all new appreciation for lunchmeat.
Heh, but seriously, Huck spent the past how many days eating nothing but fish and berries and whatever other produce he steals. Of course he's going to eat this food that the family gives him--no matter what it is! It's a welcomed change.
Plus, you know as well as I, Mer (who also has a younger brother), that teenage boys are bottomless pits! ;-)
Posted by: Valerie Masciarelli at October 28, 2005 03:29 PM
Freedom wins! It's amazing that everyone was so greedy, except for the man who wanted his own freedom. Notice that the things we take for granted, are the things that seem most important to Twain, and he really lets us know in the last half of the novel. So much for a "sivilized" society I guess, huh? Twain completely twisted everything in this novel, which is probably why, and I'm just guessing, this novel is an absolute timeless classic.
Posted by: Jason Pugh at November 1, 2005 11:22 AM