It's not necessarily my favorite quote, but the part where Huck comments on Jim’s mourning gets me thinking about Southern racism during that time. While everyone is asleep, or so he thinks, Jim cries out about his worries and his grief about leaving his family. Huck comments on Jim’s heart wrenching confessions by saying, “He was thinking about his wife and his children, away up yonder, and he was low and homesick; because he hadn’t ever been away from home before in his life; and I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks does for their’n. It didn’t seem natural, but I reckon its’ so.”
I found Huck to be the most conflicted child I have ever read about. He is trapped between the obvious love he has for Jim, and what Southern society expects from him. In previous chapters, Huck has teetered from being grateful for Jim’s company to contemplating whether or not to report him to the authorities. This quote intrigued me because it showed the subtle racism that Huck has within him. Although Jim has almost taken a fatherly role to him, Huck still stereotypes Jim with a slight air of superiority. I hope in later chapters that Huck will be able to look past skin color and follow his own conscience with no regrets.
posted by Kayla H.
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Ihope that Huck also sees past the skin color, and really see Jim for who he is: a caring, sensitive, and mature human being. I think that Huck really wants to see Jim for who he is, but its hard because of the way he grew up, and how society has stereotyped slaves. I would be like finding out that the earth revolves around the sun, even though all your life you thought that the sunrevolved around the earth. Its gonna take a while for the thought to fully kick in.
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