March 30, 2017

We started off class on Thursday, March 30, 2017 with a presentation over Pink Panther. There are many different versions of the Pink Panther, but according to the presentation, a majority of them were a major flop. After the presentation on the Pink Panther we discussed The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, chapter 1-17. The Tuesday prior we discussed chapters 1-5 so we briefly covered those again.

The characters Jim and Huck, experience extreme growth in their relationships with one another during these first 17 chapters. The story begins and Jim and Huck have no major relationship, Jim is a slave and Huck is a boy who lives and is cared for by Widow Douglas and her sister Miss. Douglas.

Huck and his father, Pap have a very poor relationship. Pap is an alcoholic and Huck wants nothing to do with him. When Huck finds out Pap is back in town he sells his fortune to Judge Thatcher, in hopes of derailing his father’s objectives. Pap kidnaps Huck, but Huck runs away.

Huck waits for his father to pass by, and then heads to Jackson Island. Huck spent a few days alone on the island and then runs into Jim. Huck is surprised to see Jim, who tells Huck he ran away the same day Huck disappeared, because he was afraid he was going to get sold. The two seek shelter in a cave to hide and Jim predicts it will rain.

The rain brought a flood and washed a house past the island. Inside the house, the two find a dead body. Jim does not let Huck look at the dead man’s face. This moment is very important in the book because this is the first moment Jim treats Huck in a fatherly, protective way.

Huck goes into town dressed as a girl and learns that people will be looking for Jim. Huck’s cover as a girl is thrown when he says his name wrong, when he is reasked and when he nearly kills a rat with a rock. He reveal his “true” identity as George Peters, a runaway. Once he arrives back at the island he builds a decoy fire and him and Jim head out. Along the way they steal to survive and Huck thinks about Widow Douglas, showing the effect her attempts to civilize him had on Huck.

Along the way Huck over hears some robbers, and tells Jim they have to cut their boat loose so they can’t escape. At this time Jim realized their boat had drifted away so Jim and Huck steal the Robbers boat. Huck feels bad about taking the robbers boat, and goes to get help. Huck thinks of how proud Widow Douglas would be, again showing the effect Widow Douglas had on Huck, even though he resented her desire for him to be civilized.

Huck and Jim get separated for a little while, but once reunited Huck tries to play a trick on Jim and say he thought the whole thing up. Huck eventually apologizes to Jim, showing that he has grown. Along the way Huck comes across a few men who want to search his boat for slaves. He convinces the men his family is on board and they have small pox, and that he is trying to find help. This deters the men from checking the raft. Huck has an internal struggle about helping Jim escape his owners, and not giving him up. He then decides that he would have felt just as bad if he had given Jim up.

Huck and Jim canoe get stolen, so they take off on the raft. The raft breaks apart and Huck makes it ashore. Huck is immediately surrounded by a pack of dogs. A man called the dogs which saves Huck’s life. He takes Huck, who introduces himself as George Jackson, to his house. After determining that George (Huck) is not a Shepherdson, his hosts tell him he can stay for as long as he needs.

Throughout these 17 chapters we see Huck and Jim’s relationship grow from almost nothing to family. Although he does momentarily question turning in Jim or not, in the end he decides not to.