Huck Finn Reader Response #3 (ch.14-18)

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What impresses Huck about the Granderford’s house is that he thinks it’s unusual for people in the country to have a nice house. “it was a mighty nice family, and a mighty nice house, too. I hadn’t seen no house out in the country before that was so nice and had so much style.” (pg.75, ch.17, par.3) What this says about Huck’s view of happiness is that it doesn’t matter where you live at you can still have nice things if you work hard for them.


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The thing that’s so special about the books in the house is was they all had some meaning to them. “There were some books too; piled up perfect and exact…one was a big family bible, full of pictures. One was “Pilgrim’s Progress,” about a man that left his family…Another was “Friendship’s offering,” full of beautiful stuff and poetry; another was Henry Clay’s Speeches, and another was Dr. Gunn’s Family medicine, which told you all about what to do if a body was sick or dead. There was a hymn book and lots of other too.”(pg.76, ch.17, par.2) What this says about Huck’s education is that he is probably real passionate about books. Also it seems that he’s really open to anything. Twain’s view of education seems to be important no matter how you live, or what you do.

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What’s unique about all the drawings and poems and the scrapbook is that they all seem of sadness or someone dying, or crying. “she was leaning pensive on a tombstone on her right elbow, under a weeping willow, and her other hand hanging down her side holding a white handkerchief and reticule, and underneath the picture it said “ Shall I see thee more alas.”…She was crying into a handkerchief and had a dead bird lying on its back in her hand with its heel up. Underneath the picture it said “I shall never hear thy sweet chirrup more alas.”…. (pg 76-77, ch17, par.3) What the girl is obsessed with is death because all her drawings and poems consist of it. The significance of the painting of the girl on the edge of the bridge with the arms is that she’s deciding how her arms should be. Stretched out (reaching for someone), crossed over her chest (hugging herself) or reaching up (to God). Twain describes it so specifically because he wants the reader to visualize what the girl is doing and what she looks like. What this says about death is that you have a choice of how you could die. What it says about suicide is that you don’t have the choice to take away your life. What it says about art is that it makes you want to think about things, and take time to do it, to plan it out. Huck’s was touched by this girl’s art and life because even though she was died she made a memory of herself by talking about other people’s deaths. So it seems like she could relate to those people and it also would relate to how people would feel when she died.