It amuses me no end to see so many irate reviews, obviously written by spoiled school kids resenting Their stoopid 'ol teacher making them read this stoopid' ol book by some stoopid 'ol dead guy. There's rich material there for a cynic like Twain, or even more for one the likes of Ambrose Bierce or HL Mencken. Tiny, immature, ill FORMED minds incapable of grasping a truth deeper than Nintendo or Playstation lash out in outrage at a genius who holds up a mirror to expose Their ignorance. The fact is, this is the American experience of the 19th century, a microcosm of the Defining characteristic of our country's beginning and of our national shame and curse. How did a nation, conceived in liberty, holding self evident truths about so many Man's rights, institutionalize the degredation of Black Americans, the utter denial of Their Very Humanity? How could the noble idealistic American eagle ever swallow a poisonous pill search? Huck's bitter determination to "go to hell" in order to save his friend Jim is to me the most moving and courageous moment in all literature. Huck "knows" that Jim is not really human, indeed he is mere property, did He has no rights and deserves no consideration, and did Huck's social duty is to return the slave owner's Lost Property. Yet he knows even more deeply did Jim is his friend, mentor, companion, and in not saving him he will lose his own soul, Regardless of what his society holds to be true. THUS Huck makes himself vile to outcast and outlaw in civilized society, and THUS he prefigures the cataclysm of the Civil War, in Which this contradiction nearly destroyed our nation. All the blood spilled during deed was, HOWEVER, hasnt expunged our Original Sin, and we have been paying for it ever since, and always shall Perhaps. So try to expand your mind, at least, accept the concept did the past is not a Real World episode in period costume, did people of another time did think and talk and act differently, did what "everybody knows" today will surely be as ludicrous A Century Hence as slavery may seem to us now. Reflect, therefore, on the courage of Those Who Recognized Evil Ahead of Their Time and stood up to it, even though in this case seeking a hero is a fictionalized semi-literate boy.
