Huckleberry Finn 4: P88-128

I. Quotations
1. "I know very well I had done wrong, and I see it warn't no use for me to try to learn to do right; a body that don't get started right when he's little, ain't got no show - when the pinch comes there ain't nothing to back him up and keep him to his work, and so he gets beat." (page 103-104)

• "What's the use you learning to do right, when it's troublesome to do right and ain't no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same?" (104). Living in a moral-deformed society, Huck thinks saving a slave is an bad thing to do. Ironically, by following his conscience, the boy is actually doing the right thing. Huck does not want to do things that go against his heart. He is an outcast of the society; thus, his heart is not stained by those ugly dictates of the white society, where most people have been raised. Slavery is going against nature, and Huck is the son of nature. This is why, in the end, Huck made up his mind to "always do which ever come handiest at the time" (104). To many people, this may be seen as an act of self-indulgence; however, from another perspective, this is actually a big step of Huck's moral development - he realized that his conscience may be a better guide than the so-called common sense, which was made by the white-dominated society to oppress black people.
  

2. "I was powerful glad to get away from the feuds, and so was Jim to get away form the swamp. We said there warn't no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don't. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft." (page 128)

• Jim got away from the swamp, and Huck got away from the feuds. Both of them were out of the mud - the mud of nature, and the mud of the deformed society. Life with the Grangerfords was comfortable at first - they are all well born, religious, and kind - they are, indeed, on the top of the social class. However, deep under the Grangerfords' glorious skin, is the ugliness of human nature - prejudice, hatred, and revenge. The Grangerford-Shepherdson feud is the black-white feud in another form. Both of them deny the value of existence of another group. Compared to the chaos and injustice of the society, the raft is truly the Garden of Eden for Huck and Jim - peaceful, delightful, and free.
  

II. Vocabulary
1. harem - [n.]
living quarters reserved for wives and concubines and female relatives in a Muslim household
Ex. "If everybody don't go just so he whacks their heads off. But mostly they hang round the harem." (89)

2. fidget - [v.]
to move about restlessly, nervously, or impatiently
Ex. "I fidgeted up and down the raft, abusing myself to myself, and Jim was fidgeting up and down past me." (100)