Can't say I disagree with him -- so I guess this yellow wallpaper crazy lady didn't have it so good, for all her money.
Sure, that lady went crazy, even though she was rich and livin' a high life. But heck, I might have gone crazy myself staring at the same wallpaper all day, with nothin' to do and I don't have half a mind to get crazy, people would say -- I think I might have gone crazy just on my own steam of thinkin' about what I could be doin'.
I can't just get my head around this whole other woman thing. First I thought she was like another person, then I realized that she was just a pretend woman in the imagination, behind the wallpaper -- and then, I kinda realized that the woman behind the paper was like Jim.
Let me explain, I'm not sayin' that Jim was imaginary. Just sayin' that havin' Jim as company made everything easier when things was hard to bear. And that lady behind the wallpaper I guess made it easier for the real woman to be such a lonesome body all day long, settin' and doin' nothing except feel miserable and sorry for herself -- just as I mighta felt bein' on the river if I hadn't had Jim.
And she wanted to set that lady free, even though she kinda felt it was wrong. Just like I wanted to set Jim free, even though I felt it was wrong at the time. Don't now, though -- Jim has a right to be free just as much as me.
And I'm gonna be free again, soon. I'm bustin' out of this place the first chance I get! But readin' this lady's diary has made me see things a little different about learning and such. I'm not strikin' out for the territories. No sir, I think I needa learn a bit more learning about the world that could make the lady peel at that wallpaper. So instead, I'm gonna get learnin' but not from no widow -- I'm gonna high tail it up to Boston, get myself a job, and enroll myself in school by night. Heck, learnin' like the widow learns ya can make you crazy, but no learnin' at all makes ya crazy too, I see it.
Funny, once I pretended ta be a girl, ta hide, and some old lady found me out right straight away because I didn't catch a ball like a girl in my lap. But now I wonder if mebbe we all aren't so different -- I seen me some strange things in my day but never in all the queer people I met did I meet someone who didn't wanna be free -- man or woman, Black or White.
In Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain provides poignant social commentary about the institution of slavery as well as about racism. Huck's tentative love for Jim illustrates that although he felt a moral obligation to help Jim that Huck was not immune from the prevailing beliefs in white supremacy that characterize the social context of the novel. Huckleberry Finn's historical context is therefore the pre-Civil War Southern society. In addition to
Huck Finn Jim and Huck: A Relationship in Spite of Race As Leslie Gregory points out in "Finding Jim," Twain used the "minstrel mask" as a stereotypical platform upon which to base one of the central characters of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. And yet behind the "mask" is a very human and humane man, who, in spite of a tendency towards superstition, acts as a kind of father figure to Huck,
After striking off down the river, he has many encounters with various townspeople that cause him to question whether or not this is a society he truly wants a place in. Two of the most memorable characters he meets are the King and the Duke, who do nothing but swindle the people they meet and attempt to control Huck. They even sell Jim, and Huck determines to leave them.
His personalized learning goes entirely against the societal norm of the day. During Huck's era most free citizens still saw the Negro as an inferior being, not even human enough to consider as an intelligent entity, rather they are considered as property, and property has not rights, no feelings and no hopes, dreams or fears. In an early chapter in the book, Huck sells his fortune to the Judge for
Miss Watson and the widow continue to be contrasted in their softening and controlling qualities, but neither provides incentive to stay. Women are further seen as evidence of success in civilization, not just something that is available there. Chapter 17: Betsy provides light for Huck's nighttime arrival (128). Rachel is the first to show concern for Huck, specifically his appetite (130). Huck sees a painting depicting a young lady, the content
Rather than allowing the scene to solidify a stereotype, the author of this book proposes that readers should, assuming they are understand the true voice of the novel Huck Finn, allow the scene to alter the stereotype of Jim as a servant to the Caucasian man. Readers should, according to the author, instead see that Jim, as a free man, acts no differently not because he is bound to
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