Note to Miss Watson

Huck wants to write a note to Miss Watson. Huck realized that the dauphin sold Jim based off of the fake flyer that the dauphin created stating how Jim was a runaway slave. In the note that Huck was going to write, Huck planned on telling Miss Watson that he knew where Jim was. When writing the note, Huck realizes that Miss Watson would most likely sell Jim anyways, and if Miss Watson found out that Huck had helped a slave escape, he would be ashamed of himself. Also, Huck remembers how much fun he had with Jim on their journey so far, so Huck decides to tear up the note. This marks a significant change in Huck. Huck takes a huge risk by aiding Jim in his escape to the free states. Along their journey, Huck and Jim become very close. Huck realizes that they are not very different from one another apart from the color of their skin. Huck comes to truly respect Jim, even if he is a runaway slave.

Ruining the King and the Duke's Plan

The King and the Duke plan to steal six thousand dollars in gold. They want to steal all of the family’s property then leave town in the middle of the night. Huck feels horribly when he finds out the King and the Duke’s plan, so Huck decides to devise a way to steal the money from the two con men. Huck discovers the six thousand dollars in the room of the King and the Duke. He decides to hide the money in the coffin of Peter Wilks, however, he runs into a bit of a problem here. The coffin is sealed and buried along with the money inside. Huck told one of the sisters the truth about the King and the Duke. They then come up with a plan to expose the two men. The actions of Huck in this scene show maturity. Huck decides to do the right thing because he feels poorly for knowing the Duke and the King’s plan all along.

Elizabeth

At the end of chapter 23, Jim tells us a story about his daughter Elizabeth. He told us that one day, he told Elizabeth to close the door, but she just stood there smiling up at him. Jim repeatedly told Elizabeth to close the door, but she did not budge. Jim stormed out of the room, and he came back ten minutes later, feeling horribly about how he behaved. He then realized that Elizabeth was deaf from the scarlet fever she had. Jim felt horribly when he realized this.
From this story, the reader learns how homesick that Jim is. Jim tells us that he always thinks about his wife and children. Plus, Jim “has never been away from home in his life,” so this is a new adventure for Jim that he has never done before. It also shows the reader how much Jim loves his family and how much he misses them as well.

King and Majesty

Huck and Jim continue traveling down the river in their raft. While they are floating down, they come across two men who want to be let onto their raft. The two men do not even know each other but after sharing stories with each other about their life and past events, they decide to team up against Huck and Jim. They are also both professional con artists. One of the men tells Huck and Jim that he is royalty and that that he is an English duke. The other man said that he is a dauphin. Huck figures out quickly that the men are liars. I do not think that the Duke and the King are very trustworthy considering that they stole Huck and Jim’s beds. However, I think that it is okay for Huck and Jim to go along with the two men, however they should just keep an eye on them. I do not think that it is necessarily going to be a problem to go along with their ploy. Huck and Jim want to keep the peace on the raft and do not want to cause turmoil, so Huck might as well go along with the two men's joke and not tell Jim his reasoning.

Buck and Huck

While Huck and Jim are floating down the river, a steamboat hits their raft. Huck and Jim got separated when this occurred. When Huck arrived back on land, he came across the Grangerford family. They took him in and offered him a place to stay for as long as he would like. The Grangerford’s have a son named Buck. Huck and Buck have several similarities. The biggest similarity is that they are both approximately the same age and are also about the same size. They also share the same personalities. Both Huck and Buck are adventurous. Buck’s family, the Grangerford’s, is in a feud with the Shepherdson family. Buck always says how he wants to capture and kill a person that is a part of the Sheperdson family. This also relates to Huck and his attachment to Tom Sawyer’s gang. One of the main purposes of this group was to go and rob people.

Raftsmen

While Jim and Huck are traveling down the Mississippi River in their raft, they continue to worry about accidentally missing their destination, Cairo. Cairo is a town that is at the intersection of the Ohio River and the Mississippi River. Once they reach Cairo, they plan to take a steamboat which will lead them up the Ohio River to the free states.
When reading this chapter, I got the sense that raftsmen were sort of careless people. They are loud and obnoxious. One of the men was singing on the raft, and the other raftsmen began to make fun of the man’s singing saying “it was the tune the old cow died on.” While the men were making fun of the singer, one of the biggest guys there got up and told them to leave the singer alone. What I am trying to get at is that raftsmen are usually men that are just trying to have a good time and do not really care about much. They drink and dance, and they are pretty unconcerned about the world outside of their raft.

Steamboat Wreck

When Huck and Jim are sailing down the river on a raft, they come across a wrecked steamboat. Huck thinks that it would be a great idea to go aboard the boat and look around for any treasure or money on it. Also, Huck wants to go on the steamboat for an adventure because he knows that Tom would do the same thing in his position. Jim does not think that going on the boat would be a good idea, however, Huck finally persuades Jim into the idea. On the boat, they hear voices coming from a certain room. Huck sneaks over to that part of the boat and is astonished when he sees three men in the room. One is tied up on the ground with two men standing over him, threatening him. One of the men standing up has a pistol.
Huck decides that their only way of escape is by stealing the robbers’ boat because their own raft had broken loose. After Huck and Jim escape, Huck begins to feel poorly about leaving the robbers there stranded. He is sad because he could end up as a murderer just like those two men. Once Huck and Jim reached land, Huck decided to go get help and convinces a watchman that his own family was stranded out on the Walter Scott steamboat wreck. The watchman than takes a ferry out to investigate the crash.
This shows us a more caring side of Huck. The book stated how the Widow would have approved of Huck’s actions. This shows us that Huck does look up to people like the widow and wants to be morally good for her. Huck is not just a hooligan that is in a gang, which wants to rob others. Huck does strive to be a morally good person, and he has a good heart.

Trick on Jim

Since Huck and Jim had met up with each other on Jackson’s Island, they were becoming closer as friends than what they had been before. Before, Huck and Jim did not know each other very well, and they definitely were not good enough friends to play tricks on one another. However, they bonded while on Jackson’s Island and began to become closer friends.

While on Jackson’s Island, Jim had continually been pestering Huck about several different myths that were bad luck. One of those myths was that a person would have the worst kind of bad luck if he or she touched a snake-skin with their bare hands. Huck was saying how he touched a snake-skin with his bare hands a couple of days before and nothing bad had happened yet. Then, one day, Huck came across a rattlesnake and decided to play a joke on Jim. Huck killed the rattlesnake and curled him up on the foot of Jim’s bed. Later, Jim flung himself onto his bed, however, the snake’s mate was on the bed as well because apparently if you leave a dead snake, the mate comes and curls itself around it. The dead snake’s mate bit Jim, and Jim jumped out of the bed. The snake bit Jim again on his heel. Huck felt poorly about the “joke,” but it only proved that Jim was right about the myth of touching a dead snake-skin with bare hands.