Another Racism Run-in for Huck Finn
As this book just seems to go on, and on, and even onner (my word, add it to the dictionary) I just seem to get more bored. Mark Twain sure can extend the moment, but jeese sometimes it just goes on long enough! What could have been maybe a chapter or two like the encounter with the King and Duke just went too far. I really didn’t like them to begin with, but I grew to resent reading the dang thing as I went along. Here’s a really good example of the really poor impression they presented to me;
“…And every little while the prettiest kind of girls, with the tears running down their cheeks, would up and ask him would he let them kiss him for to remember him by; and he always done it; and some of them he hugged and kissed as many as five or six times- and he was invited to stay a week; and everyone wanted him to live in their houses…” -p128
Though at first when I read this, I thought it was sweet that he would do that for those nice young women, but another look I realized that he might very well just be taking advantage of all of them. Was he really a pirate needing sustenance for a lost crew? He didn’t seem that way when he told Huck and Jim that he was an exile from France, meaning he had a seat of great power at one time. It seems he’s just lying to get a nice house, more attention than what’s needed and some extra money to get by. He’s also “doing good” to the women of the audience a little excess. Hugs and kisses are nice, and inspire a few “awww” moments I suppose, but it says only some of them got extra, so that makes it sound a little bit like he’s exerting his racial superiority by taking advantage of their pity. If this sounds offensive or like I’m over considering the passage, contact me. Though I probably won’t shut up, I’ll most definitely accept the comment
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