With this post, I’d like to focus on Huck’s tendency to
follow. At this point in my reading, I’m through chapter XXXVI, so Jim’s rescue
hasn’t been completed yet, and I don’t know how it will turn out. But, as I
read about Tom’s excessively gaudy and risky plan and Huck’s submissive
behavior regarding it, I couldn’t help but revisit the follower-leader dynamic
we discussed in class back in the early chapters.
Huck has demonstrated over and over again that he’s a
follower—that much isn’t in question—but what I wonder about is why? For the most part, barring a few
minor mistakes, Huck’s plans have always worked out well. Whenever he takes the
lead, things generally move along without a hitch. For example, consider how
successful he was in forming his own escape plan while faking his own death; he
was suspected to be alive by no one. And when he and Jim travelled alone—making
Huck the leader by default—they certainly had less problems to deal with than
when following the lead of the “king” and “duke.” Yet, no matter how successful
he may be when he’s in charge, Huck never embraces a leadership role. He
compares himself unfavorably to Tom Sawyer many times throughout the novel,
indicating that he does aspire to be like Tom, yet he never tries to assert
himself as he knows Tom would.
At this point in my reading, Tom’s rescue plan has nearly
got them caught twice and left several other opportunities for them to be
discovered if Tom’s aunt and uncle weren’t so trusting and maintained better
security. The plan that Huck initially suggested could have been implemented with
ease and far more quickly, but he still acquiesces to Tom’s demand for greater
style. Why won’t Huck trust in himself and assert his opinions more forcefully?
Mostly, it seems Huck has issues with self-worth that keep
him from becoming the leader or independent thinker he seems to want to be. The
fact that he has poor parentage would, you would think, predispose him to
loathe being a follower. People that lack sound parenting—or involved parenting,
at least—in their childhood generally become self-reliant; they must become
their own leader in the absence of parental figures. Huck, though, somewhat resists
this generalization. Interestingly enough, it may be partially for the same
reason: Huck’s status as the uneducated son of the town drunk, without a
mother, would have barely registered him as human in the eyes of his
contemporaries. Nobody besides Jim would follow his lead even if he did try to
lead. To do so would be degrading to themselves, or so they would have thought.
I can only imagine it would be maddening to be born in such a way that promotes
a desire for independent thinking, but also fails to provide appropriate status
to be able to express yourself freely and still be taken seriously.
Furthermore, his conflicted feelings about Jim’s slavery
also deeply affected his self-worth. When the point finally comes that Huck commits
to rescuing Jim and helping him secure freedom, he also commits himself to Hell—the
moral climax of the novel. Huck measures his desire to set Jim free against the
teachings society instilled in him, and determined that his actions so opposed
those teachings that his fate was Hell. Consequently, his sense of self-worth
becomes confused and it’s only natural that he would be hesitant to assert
himself. It’s a terribly unfortunate consequence, though, as it need not be
felt at all: for while he may consider himself “low-down and ornery” for his
desire to help Jim, the truth is that God probably sees great worth in any
person who would willingly cast themselves into Hell for the sake of another
person, if the situation was as noble as Huck’s simple desire to free a slave.
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