Huck Finn 1: 9-27

“All I wanted was to go somewhere; all I wanted was a change, I warn’t particular” (10).

• Huck is very young and extremely ignorant when it comes to speaking on religious related topics simply because his age and the fact that he was never educated on the subject. Huck justifies his reasoning for wishing he was in Hell when he articulates the passage above. It is clear that Huck is not aware of what exactly the “bad place” (10) is. He simply wants variety added to his lifestyle. This quote illustrates Huck’s nonchalant manner when it comes to what Miss Watson imposes on Huck to be important. Huck had been raised with simple ambitions and this is evident through his indifferent manner and speech. We see differences in what Miss Watson values and what Huck values. This is because of the age difference and how Huck has been raised versus Ms. Watson’s gained knowledge.

“I must help other people, and do everything I could for other people, and look out for them all the time, and never think about myself” (19).

• Though this quote, we see Huck’s mind being molded into what Ms. Watson wants it to become. However, it is unsuccessful because, after pondering over the thought for a long time, Huck quickly disposes of it. Again, we see his naive approach to a religious idea. Huck expresses his concern for himself: “I couldn’t see no advantage about it—except for the other people” (19), implying that there is no reward for him. He does not fully understand the idea and takes it in a literal sense so as to come to the conclusion that he must literally “never think about [himself]” (19). Although Huck is ignorant to these ideas, he is very intelligent when it came to things having to do with the outdoors.

Vocabulary:

“I couldn’t make out how he was agoing to be any better off then than what he was before, seeing I was so ignorant and so kind of low-down and ornery” (20).

Ornery: (adj) ugly and unpleasant in disposition or temper

“They didn’t have only a guard of four hundred soldiers, and so we would lay in ambuscade, as he called it, and kill the lot and scoop the things” (21).

Ambuscade: (noun) an ambush