follow your own conscience, even if all the people you know live by
the rules they were taught? There’s no question about which answer
Twain favors. He has pitted slavery against friendship, and that
stacks the deck in favor of individual conscience over the rules of
society.
But the same conflict comes up in other situations, where the
opposing forces aren’t as clearcut as slavery versus friendship. In
those situations it may be a lot harder to decide which action to
take.
This is one of the reasons that some people disapprove of The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, especially for young readers. They say
that the book glorifies a lawbreaker by making him likable and by
manipulating the audience into approving of what he does. This is
the same criticism that is often leveled at movies like The Godfather,
or TV shows in which police officers break the law in order to catch
criminals.
So the larger moral question of conscience versus society’s rules is
one you’ll have to work out for yourself, probably dozens of times.
But in the context of the novel, there really isn’t any question. Huck
has done the right thing, no matter how strongly he insists that
he’s been bad.
—————————————————————–
As the chapter comes to an end, the raft is split in two by a
carelessly piloted steamboat. The vivid description of what it was
like to see that boat coming and to be on the raft when it hit is
one of the best passages in the book. Read it slowly to get its full
effect.
After he’s been separated from Jim, Huck makes his way to shore.
He finds himself surrounded by a pack of barking dogs, and he knows
enough not to move.
CHAPTER 17
—————————————————————–
NOTE: The word satire is used in different ways. The dictionary
gives more than one definition, and a whole list of synonyms.
Without getting involved in any technical definitions, I’m going to
use satirize to mean “