Huck Finn Broke my Heart


We all know the story, some better than others, and some way better than they should. Whether you spark noted the story in high school or are basing your entire college (and probably post-grad...) career on Twain's piece, you know the novel. You probaby hate it, and for good reason. It's not because Twain constructed poor prose, in fact, just the opposite. He constructed hatable characters. And let me (briefly) tell you why.

Huck starts off kind of...sketchy. He just follows Tom's ideas and boyish fantasies blindly, which is...fine. However, when Huck is (allegedly) in his own world/raft with Jim, he makes his own decisions and creates his own morals. But when Tom comes back into the picture, he just starts following Tom, not understanding what they're doing, and just automatically assuming Tom is right, and he just didn't get it. Deep down, I think Huck felt there was something wrong with him since he didn't get why him and Tom did all the nonsense they did. I'd love to strangle him for that.

Leaving your self-worth up to someone else to evaluate is a mistake I watch so many people make - yes, me too. If someone doesn't think you're "X" and you want them to think you're "X", you just feel like a failure. What happened to the individual, and what we thought about ourselves? I can understand that in high school (and being a semi recent graduate this seems to be a reoccuring theme to me as friends and time changes) your friends are all you have, so if they don't like what you're doing, it may be harder to break the mold (even though you should if that's what you bloody want). But when you get into the real world (whatever the hell that means) and you meet all sorts of people from various backgrounds, it becomes harder to live through other people as those who surround you become that much more diverse. Then it is up to you to become you who are, if you so choose. God that is so scary, but even more so refreshing. Endulge in these different people, even if you don't necessarily care for them, they can be useful in figuring out who you are. Go download No Doubt's "Different People", and mull this over. Maybe I was wrong before, maybe we can have both ourselves and other people, as different as they may be.