Jeremy Keeshin

Reading Discussion Entry #3

12/10/06
Chapter XXIX – End

Today, John and I had our final reading discussion about the last third of the novel

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. We summarized the final events of the plot and

talked about our primary reactions to the characters and the events. First we talked about

how the reappearance of Tom Sawyer affected Huck, and how Tom had a large sway over

him. We talked about Twain’s comedic efforts when he detailed how Tom and Huck

created obstacles for themselves when trying to free Jim from slavery. We thought that it

was ironic that they had all these extra difficulties, but this idea went well with the idea

that Tom held of making everything into an adventure. We noted Tom and Huck’s

adventurous personality, and how it was natural for them to try to make the events

exciting. It was apparent that Huck was more conservative than Tom, but Tom’s influence

over Huck caused him to follow his orders.

We talked about how Jim’s character was treated in the book and how slavery was

treated in the book. We noted that it was taken lightly by Twain, but realized that slavery

was not the central issue of the novel; the central issue was the adventures of young

children. We did not think Twain held the same ideas about slavery that his character Tom

Sawyer did. Tom Sawyer, who knew that Jim was free, still made his freedom a

plaything, and this revealed his rebellious, adventurous nature. We also talked about

Huck’s identity and how throughout the events in the book he tries to fit in with different

crowds, but struggles to find his place. This was a very fruitful discussion.