Chapters 4-6

This forum is for the discussion of Huckleberry Finn, Chapters 4-6.

Huck is starting to get used to going to school and has learned to read. He does get bore and skips school on occasion. After spilling some salt and not being able to undo the bad luck by throwing salt over his shoulder, because teh widow thinks it is ridiculous, Huck feels he is in for some bad luck Jim, Mrs. Watsons slave can tell fortunres or predict the future with a giant hair ball from the stomach of an ox. Euuuuh! Jim tells Huck some prety nebulous stuff but Low and behold his father steps back into his life, as mean as ever. The dad has heard about Hucks 6000.00 from hs advenutes in tom Sawyer and basically just wants the money.

The father is a raging alchoholic and a mean drunk. he tries to get huck money from the judge and decides to kidnap huck to keep him away from the widow and school. he beats huck and verabally abuses him. he takes him to a cabin some miles away from town but locks him in when ever he has to leave. Huck plans to escape and make it on his own. he has decided he doesn't want to live with the widow any more, either. After particularly bad round with his dad and alcohol, huck decides to make his escape whe the dad goes to town to seel some logs that have floated down the river.
I though it was intresting to see that at least via twains writing, that people recognized abuse and were tryng to do something about it, ie. get huck into the custody of the widow.

I was paying as much attention to Huck's Pa because of the next book we are going to read. I wonder if this new author has the same techniques in writing as Twain? Will he try to copy style.

We saw in Ahab's Wife that the sequel was written so much more to our taste because it moved faster and was written by a contemporary writer.

We shall see.

there was an article in newsweek about 'Finn'. the review caught my eye because we were going to read Huckleberry finn. I too am paying close attention to hucks pa in this book.

Chapters 4-6:

I have also been really watching Huck's father in anticipation of reading Finn. SparkNotes did a nice job of summing up his character,"The deathly pallor of his skin, which is nauseating to Huck, makes Pap emblematic of whiteness. Unfortunately, Pap represents the worst of white society: he is illiterate, ignorant, violent, and profoundly racist," and the roles that he plays in society, his son's life, and the novel.