Reading Huckleberry Finn I was slightly disappointed because I thought I would enjoy it more than I did five years ago. When I was in 10th grade our English teacher made us read this book and during that year I hated it. It was like torture reading it, and I thought it was because I didn't speak English well at time or because I was not used to reading American novels. However, five years after my feelings towards the book hasn't changed much.While reading this book I found it a little bit disorganized and I had trouble trying to keep up with it because it was stories after stories. These stories were all over the place and random to a point where it seemed as if the author just wrote down every idea that came up in his head. Sometimes I felt as if there were so many details in the book to a point and some unnecessary. Another thing I didn't like was the last chapters of the book when Tom came back into the pictures. I felt as if those chapters focused a lot on Tom instead of Hucklberry who I wanted to follow till the end as a reader. I felt like I wanted to hear a different ending for Huck and Jim, and be able to see how they grew through their adventure, but instead it seemed as if Tom came and took over the spotlight. Through all the adventures that Huck went through I wanted to hear the author talk more about the growth of Huck. It seemed as if Huck still looked up so much to Tom. However, while reading this book it seemed to me as if Huck was a little wiser than he thought and somehow in the end I wanted Huck to see that and not try to always look up to Tom so much.
That's funny you say that about reading it when you were younger. I read it back in grade school too and had to write a 6 page paper on it! However, I remember thinking that I liked it back then. Now, I had a really hard time just picking up the book to even read it because I guess I was just bored with it and yes, I think it's obnoxiously all over the place too.
ReplyDeleteAll though I didn't think about it at the time when I was reading it, you're right... Tom kind of does steal the spot light at the end and considering that, it's pretty ironic because the book actually opened with Huck talking about The Adventure's of Tom Sawyer too. You said it, he really does look up to him! I would have like to see him sort of deviate from that as well but considering that really his only white male companion it makes sense he would want to hold on to that and hold it high.
I agree with both of you about the challenges of getting through this book. I have also read it twice; both times I found it non-linear and frustrating. Not only do I find the book to be at least 100 pages too long, but I agree that Twain spends entirely too much time on Tom. I do not care for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer either and it is frustrating to me that Twain uses him in this novel as much as he does. This is even worse considering that Huck basically just follows Tom's lead, despite it taking him in circles, and doesn't really learn anything from the madness that ensues by doing so! Since Twain's point seems to be about the American dream and slavery and societal discontent, I think it is inconsistent to have Tom enter at the end the way he does. I'm so glad that other people feel that way as well!
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