journal 11

Nika Bogoslovsky
1/23/08
Twain

Quote: "That is just the way with some people. They get down on a thing when they don't know nothing about it."

Summary: This quote is also from the part when the widow tells Huck he can't smoke. He's complaining about how she's talking about Moses when she has no relation to Moses so how anything she has to say at that moment be significant.

Response: I think this quote is such an important line and again refers to the theme we discussed in class about being taught and learning. This quote is placed in the small context of the widow telling Huck not to smoke, but the widow takes care of Huck and therefore teaching him all his lessons. As we know, Huck is taught that slaves aren't people, he shouldn't treat them like people and that they are bad. As Huck spends time with Jim, he unlearns what the widow, and other towns people like her, have taught him all his life. He learns that Jim, even though he's black and a slave, has feeling, a family he loves and cares for, and is a good man. If I read this quote twards the end of the book, I wouldn't find it out of place. I would think it was something Huck learned after his time spent with Jim, but interestingly, it's something he knows all along along from chapter one. He obviously knows very well that people are passionate about things they know nothing about and I think it's this knowledge that helps him realize that what he's been taught about black people are things white people know nothing about.