Huck Finn 5th Blog - Social Responsiblity

    The beginning of chapter 31 shows the social responsibility Huck has although it is not addressed. The Duke and King are going from town to town doing dance classes, lectures, and yellocutions in order to rip off the townspeople and gain money. Since Huck knows about their tricks he has a social responsibility to tell the people the truth about the Duke and King so that the people do not waste their time and money. But the reason why Huck does not do so is because he may get hurt or even lose Jim. Also in chapter 31 Huck has the social responsibility of saving Jim by either writing a letter to Ms. Watson so that Jim is at least taken away to a familiar plantation or to save Jim himself. "And got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me, all the time, in the day, and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a floating along, talking, and singing, and laughing."(Twain, 242) Just like in chapter 16 Huck turns away from the idea of turning in Jim because of the friendship and relationship that has developed between them. He can't stand the idea of betraying Jim, he may feel like he is betraying Ms.Watson because she did no harm to him but Huck does not has a real friendship with her because she was more of an authority.
    In chapter 33 Huck has the social responsibility to tell Tom Sawyer what has been going on because he may be the only one that can help him. When Huck asks Tom for help Tom goes against the social standards and says that he is willing to steal Jim. "Well I let go all holts then, like I was shot. It was the most astonishing speech I ever heard--and I'm bound to say Tom Sawyer fell, considerable, in my estimation. Only I couldn't believe it. Tom Sawyer a nigger stealer." (Twain, 254) Tom is a lot like Huck and is willing to break social responsibility just as much as Huck does, but Huck is surprised at Tom because by trying to steal Jim is a serious crime. Also, Tom did not really need much convincing just about as soon as Huck asked for help Tom said yes.

Huck Finn 4th Blog - Social Responsibility

 In the beginning Chapter 23 the duke and king finally set up their play...only to rip off their audience. The audiences realizes that the play ended quicker than it should have so they protest against them by having the other people in the town see the play. By the third night the duke, king, and Huck runaway with the audiences money before they get caught. That night Jim says "But Huck, dese kings o' ourn is regular rapscallion; dat's jist what dey is; dey's regular rapscallions."  Then Huck responds,"Well that's what I'm a-saying; all kings is mostly rapscallions, as fur as I can make out," (Twain, 179) In this story it seems like the nobleman have the social responsibility to be rapscallions since everyone expects them to be mischievous. But if this is the case and since the audience did not know that they were descendants of noblemen they expected them to go along with normal moral social responsibility and not rip them off. If they had known that they were a duke and king this situation would have a different outcome.
     Also in Chapter 23 Jim explains to Huck how he had a family. One day he told his daughter to do a chore but she didn't do what she was told. A part of a parents social responsibility is to discipline their child so Jim responded by hitting his daughter. "...Oh Huck I bust out a-cryin' en grab her up in my arms en say, 'Oh de po' little thing! de Lord God Almighty fogive po' ole Jim, kaze he never gwyne to fogive hisseff as long's he live!" (Twain, 182) Sometimes when a character goes along with social responsibility they regret their decision. Jim wanted to discipline his daughter but what he did not realize was that she was deaf. There was probably a different kind of social responsibility Jim could have gone along with if he had realized that his daughter was deaf and so now he can't forgive himself for hurting her in an unjustified way.

Huck Finn Chapt 15-22 Social Responsibility

   In chapter 16 Huck realizes that Jim is very close to freedom and he starts to question as to whether or not he is doing the right thing when he says "...it made me all over trembly and feverish, too, to hear him, because I begun to get through my head that he was most free-- and who was to blame for it? Why, me," (Twain, 109) Huck faces the social responsibility of whether or not he will turn in Jim. He knows he's breaking the law and that Ms. Watson owned him and she was never mean to Huck she always meant to do good for him so he didn't want to be unkind towards her. However, Jim later says that Huck is his best friend and the only white man to keep a promise for him, this makes Huck hesitant to tell on Jim. Just as he is about to turn him in he isn't able to say his name. Normally the social responsibility in Huck would make him tell on Jim but he also has a responsibility towards Jim and that is because of his relationship with him. Huck realizes that he's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.
     In chapter 18 Sophia Grangerford sends Huck to get her testament because she left it in the church, inside the book contains a letter which he later finds out is from Harney Sheperdson, her lover. This later escalates in the Grangerfords and Sheperdsons to basically kill each other. The Grangerfords had been killed and Huck starts to feel guilt because he thought the blame was on him. "...I judged I ought to told her father about that paper and the curious way she acted, and then maybe he would a locked her up and this awful mess wouldn't ever happened,"(Twain, 138) His social responsibility was to let Sophia's father know about the note he saw but he didn't act upon it because he thought it wouldn't be a big deal.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Social Responsibility - Chapt 6-15

    In chapter 12 Huck and Jim are contemplating on whether or not that there is any harm in borrowing the food that they find or not. Their social responsibility is to not steal because it does not benefit society. "So we talked it over all one night... trying to make up our minds whether to drop the watermelons, or the cantaloupes, or the mushmelons, or what. But towards daylight we got it all settled satisfactory, and concluded to drop crabapples and p'simmons. We warn't feeling just right, before that, but it was all comfortable now." (Twain, 72) Since they're worried about whether or not they are stealing means that they are well aware of their social responsibility. As a result they decided to drop some of the food that they "borrowed" so that they can feel better about themselves and at least be able to feel like they followed some kind of social responsibility.
     "I'm unfavorable to killin' a man as long as you can git around it; it ain't good sense, it ain't good morals. Ain't I right?" (Twain, 76) Again in chapter 12 there is social responsibility but it has to do with the robbers that are on the wrecked steamboat. Two of the robbers, Bill and Jake, are trying to decide whether or not they should kill the third robber, Jim Turner. Bill wanted to kill Turner right away but Jake says that killing him would be unmoral since also may not be able to get away with it. Social responsibility has to do with morals because it is what people would have to follow if they want to achieve some form of social responsibility. By not killing him and letting him drown instead, just like when Huck and Jim dropped some of their food, they are able to feel better about themselves for not killing anybody because at least they followed some kind of social responsibility. It also shows that the robbers are aware of social responsibility because they know that killing Turner would be wrong.

Social Responsibly - Adventures Of Huck Finn Chapt 1-5

Social Responsibility comes into play in the first chapter of Huck Finn when Huck is expected to pray so that he does not go to a "bad place". Miss Watson pushes religion onto Huck and his social responsibility is to follow through with what she says because everyone else prays. "Miss Watson kept pecking at me, and it got tiresome and lonesome. By-and-by they fetched the niggers in and had prayers, and then everybody went off to bed." (Twain, Pg 3). Huck does not really go along with this kind of social responsibility because he does not care that everyone is praying to eventually go to the "good place" one day. He does not care about being in the bad place because if Tom will be there too then at least they will be together. Also instead of following religion Huck follows his own superstitions, like when he kills the spider at the end of chapter one he thinks that it is a bad omen and something bad will happen to him after that.
   Another form of social responsibility that Huck has is based off his education. In Chapter 5 Hucks father says," You're educated, too, they say; you can read and write. You think you're better'n your father, now, don't you, because he can't?" (Twain, Pg 20) Hucks father expects him to be dumber than himself and he continues to say that "he'll take it out of him" and begins to questions him as to why he would meddle with education. Huck does not follow along social responsibility and likes to do what he wants despite what he's "socially" supposed to do according to other characters. Since his father wasn't and had nothing to do he had nothing better to do than to pay more attention in school and show up for classes, regardless of whether his father wants him to become smarter or not.