It
took me some time to think about the passage that I wanted to choose for this
particular post, but the one that struck me as I was going back through my
notes was the conversation between Huck and Jim in Chapter 8, pgs. 67-69. Here
they are talking about being “rich” and the failed investments that Jim had
undergone throughout his life. What has interested me the most I guess overall,
is the fact that right now I’m trying to look at the way race is brought up
within the novel, but to focus more on the morality and values of Huck and Jim.
I think this particular passage comments on the importance of being “Spiritually”
alongside being “Monetarily” rich. Jim has a dream about “Balum” (Twain 68),
where I think this question of morality is raised. If the dream tells Jim that
the “Lord, en boun’ to git his money back a hund’d times” (Twain 68), I think
Huck and Jim alike miss the point and significance of the dream. Huck and Jim
can only see the monetary gains of being a rich person, because being rich
leads to more opportunity. However, at the end of the chapter Jim brings up the
fact that he is now technically free since he has run away, and “owns himself.”
But then again he brings up the fact that he wishes he had the money that he is
worth. The point I’m trying to make is there are many times in the novel in
which the questions of being moral and what is right and wrong are addressed
head on. However, the society in which Huck and Jim grow up is oppressive, and
the ability to have money, instead of looking for some sort of spiritual gain
seem to be brought up heavily in this novel. I think that this idea of morality coincides really well with the issue of race, in terms of the common humanity that both Huck and Jim start to feel for each other as they go on their journeys.
-Jon
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