Quiz

“All of a sudden, bang! bang! bang! goes three or four guns—the men had slipped around through the woods and come in from behind without their horses! The boys jumped for the river—both of them hurt—and as they swum down the current the men run along the bank shooting at them and sing out, ‘Kill them, kill them!’ It made me sick I most fell out of the tree. I ain’t agoing to tell all the happened—it would make me sick again if i was to do that. I wished I hadn’t ever come ashore that night, to see things. I ain’t ever going to get shut of them—lots of time I dream about them.” (Twain 127)   

Now this quote stood out to me for several reason in the passage. I have been looking throughout the novel the role nature and the river play throughout all the scenarios. Here “the boys jumped for the river” I seen that the view the river as an escape from death as a haven. Throughout the novel, the river has been the the embodiment of the perfect adventure, a runaway house, nights laying and enjoying the beautiful Mississippi. Even more the river is where Huck went to die, when he faked his death he used the river as an escape. Jim looking for freedom as a now runaway slave used the river as his access to freedom. Buck is now using the river as an escape from the men trying to kill them, using the river as the safespace it has been throughout the story. This time the river did not save Buck, and It seems Huck feels ‘sick’ because he witnessed the murders of a friend, but he could be feeling sick because the river is not the place to escape. I seems to be a new personality to the river showing that one can not escape the pursuant of the pains of society. The river can offer a temporary fix, but when society begins to push and hunt, the river gives. I then feel Huck became ‘sick’ because the river has been tainted,  his child friend has been hunted down and murdered in a haunting fashion. It seems to signify the end of Huck’s adventure and into a deeper idea of running away. That Huck is now longer looking for the adventure but is now wanting an escape from the society where the hypocrisy of southern country and society held up. He still dreams about them, even after continues on his journey and begins write down what he experienced, he states that is still makes him sick. Again, It shows that his part of his story was a turning point for him and the story. Even after experiencing everything else he can not shake the images of whatever happened to Buck, because it traumatized him, his adventured ended and the river that was always protection was not use to save Buck.