Who Is Twain Cowards In Huck Finn

1. Individuals of the mob are cowards because they join out of fear of being a coward, which is the irony of it all. People in the mob aren’t acting according to their own will either but following the flock “The pitifullest thing out is a mob… and from their officers.” (158) There isn’t even a leader “An army without any man at the head of it is beneath pitifullest.”(159) Sherburn greets the mob from his roof with a rifle in his hand, and attacks the mob for their cowardice and average mentality. mob ”You didn’t want to come… swearing what big things you’re going to do.” (158) He tells the crowd that no one will lynch him at daytime and the mob is humiliated and eventually leaves.
2. Two aspects of human nature Twain is commenting on is selfishness
of human nature as well as a question of who is worse, con-artists or their audiences. This is because the Duke and Dauphin are only taking advantage of the opportunity they have to make a lot of money, and they weren’t really the ones to trick people into going to see the show, but the previous viewers were. People, stubborn and not wanting to admit they were ripped off as well as selfishly wanting everyone to be ripped-off along with them, were the ones to spread the false good advertising for the terrible show.
3.
As Huck travels farther down the river, he learns to be more insightful and reflects on what society has taught him along with his own beliefs. One example of this is when Huck almost turns Jim in to the slave hunters out of the guilt he feels for helping a black man escape, something he was raised to believe was very sinful, but decides to protect Jim in the very last second. Huck sees Jim as an equal and a friend and comes to find that sometimes lying is perhaps the right course of action in order to protect him. Huck is very intelligent for a young boy due to the way he can look at situations through a perspective of his own. Another example is when Jim is angry at Huck for lying to him about the fog and them being separated being a dream. In regular society it is a heinous crime for a black person to talk back to a white person for any reason, yet Jim does and rather than feeling obligated to teach him his place or Huck feeling unappreciated for all the help he’s given Jim, Huck ends up feeling extremely guilty and sorrowful. This is because Huck is able to understand Jim’s feelings and he sees the wrong that he has committed, even if it is against a black man when it normally wouldn’t be considered a wrongdoing at all. Huck has a conscious that is increasingly present in this way, and it isn’t influenced by religion or other teachings from society that he always used to avoid, but his own mind and interpretations of
beliefs.
4.
Jim misses his family and mourns for them and their situation. Huck concludes that Jim loves his family as much as a white man loves his, even though it is very odd to Huck. When Him hears a thud in the distance, it reminds him of the time he beats Elizabeth, his daughter, for not doing what she was told. However, he hadn’t realized at the time that she couldn’t her his instructions because the scarlet fever had left her deaf. This shows that Jim is an empathetic father who cares about his wife and children, and also humbling as he can see when he is in the wrong, even as the head of the family. This is the opposite of Huck’s dad, who only ever thought about himself and didn’t care at all about Huck’s wellbeing or education, and would beat Huck without cause and feel no
guilt.
5. In chapter 16, Huck and Jim realize that they missed Cairo due to the fogginess that obscured the water and their vision, causing them to continue drifting south past the Ohio River down the Mississippi. “When it was daylight, here was the clear Ohio water inshore, sure enough, and outside was the old regular Muddy! So it was all up with Cairo.” Huck feels bad about this, saying “I wish I’d never seen that snake-skin” because it had given them bad luck, but Jim, supporting and sympathetic, tells Huck it isn’t his fault. The powerful current of the Mississippi has trapped them down that path, which is somewhat symbolic of how influential the institution of slavery is in society, and how Huck and Jim struggle to fight against it. The implications are that as long as they keep traveling deeper South, Jim won’t be able to gain his freedom and would remain a runaway slave, meanwhile Huck runs the risk of being caught helping him.