Blog Post Two: Huck Finn Response (Ch.13-Ch.17)

In Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck, the protagonist, is greatly influenced by four people: Widow Douglas, Tom Sawyer, Pap, and Jim.
Widow Douglas directly influences Huck by educating him on religion. On page two, she teaches him about Moses. “After supper she got out her book and learned me about Moses and the Bulrushers, and I was in a sweat to find out all about him; but by and by she had let it out that Moses had been dead a considerable long time; so then I didn’t care no more about him, because I didn’t take no stock in dead people.” She influences him indirectly by giving him a sense of right and wrong. On page eighty six, he starts to feel bad for helping the run away slave. He knows it is wrong. “What had poor Miss Watson done to you that you could see her n*gger go off right under your eyes and never say one single word?”

Tom Sawyer directly influences Huck by making him think that fallacious and felonious things are acceptable because they’re boisterous. On page eight, the boys start a gang and believe it is acceptable to murder people and rob them of their belongings. “‘Now’ says Ben Rogers, ‘what’s the line of business of this gang?’ ‘Nothing, only robbery and murder.’ Tom said.” He influences him indirectly by giving him a sense of adventure. On page sixty six, Huck finds a ship wreck and is drawn to it. He wants to have an adventure and explore it. “Well, it being away in the night and stormy, and all so mysterious-like, I felt just the way any other boy would’a’felt when I seen that wreck laying there so mournful and lonesome in the middle of the river. I wanted to get aboard of her and slink around a little, and see what there was there.”

(4) Pap directly influences Huck by showing him that violence and drinking is tolerable. He often comes home drunk and hits Huck. On page twenty eight, after supper Pap gets very, very drunk
(5)
(6) Without these key influences in his life, Huck would be a very different person.