The Head vs. the Heart
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Juan Ramirez Mrs. Giles Period 2 24 September 2012 The Head Vs. The Heart The sounds of tools and chains clink and jingle not too far off. Slaves are in the fenced off field picking the soft cotton from the dry earth. The dust coming from the path that leads from the big, white house to the field gets picked up in gusts of wind making them squint their eyes. The owners of the house are chatting and laughing on their dusty porch sipping on their tea while their children play tag and hide-and-go-seek with each other on the grass below. The sun is beating down on them with intermittent periods of shade from the passing clouds blocking the sun’s harsh rays. To the left, there lies the Mississippi river. The water calmly passes by, carrying branches and logs that slowly drift down the river passing quacking ducks swimming to keep from the heat. Hanging over the cool, dark water are willow trees that one could lie under peacefully in the shade. It is quiet there and is the perfect place to unwind and forget all the worries of the day. This mixed setting is something that is easily seen in Mark Twain’s book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Huckleberry Finn does not need a quiet place like that to get to thinking about his day, his upcoming decisions, his past choices, and his life in general. He constantly thinks about what is right and what is wrong, but in his society, there are often conflicting answers, the things his head tells him to do, which is what society tells him, and the things that his heart tells him, the
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things that he believes to be right. Mark Twain satires a society that forces a child to “go to hell” in order to do what is morally right. Huck’s caretakers wanted Huck to be well educated, go to church, and learn about the Bible. Ironically, he never found anything interesting. When the Widow Douglas tried to “learned [...him] about Moses and the Bulrushers and [...he] was in a sweat to find out all about him,” he
Juan Ramirez Mrs. Giles Period 2 24 September 2012 The Head Vs. The Heart The sounds of tools and chains clink and jingle not too far off. Slaves are in the fenced off field picking the soft cotton from the dry earth. The dust coming from the path that leads from the big, white house to the field gets picked up in gusts of wind making them squint their eyes. The owners of the house are chatting and laughing on their dusty porch sipping on their tea while their children play tag and hide-and-go-seek with each other on the grass below. The sun is beating down on them with intermittent periods of shade from the passing clouds blocking the sun’s harsh rays. To the left, there lies the Mississippi river. The water calmly passes by, carrying branches and logs that slowly drift down the river passing quacking ducks swimming to keep from the heat. Hanging over the cool, dark water are willow trees that one could lie under peacefully in the shade. It is quiet there and is the perfect place to unwind and forget all the worries of the day. This mixed setting is something that is easily seen in Mark Twain’s book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Huckleberry Finn does not need a quiet place like that to get to thinking about his day, his upcoming decisions, his past choices, and his life in general. He constantly thinks about what is right and what is wrong, but in his society, there are often conflicting answers, the things his head tells him to do, which is what society tells him, and the things that his heart tells him, the
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things that he believes to be right. Mark Twain satires a society that forces a child to “go to hell” in order to do what is morally right. Huck’s caretakers wanted Huck to be well educated, go to church, and learn about the Bible. Ironically, he never found anything interesting. When the Widow Douglas tried to “learned [...him] about Moses and the Bulrushers and [...he] was in a sweat to find out all about him,” he
Cited: Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Ed. Thomas Nash. New York: Penguin, Ltd., 1985. Print