The Crack

Will Landschulz
Am Lit Per. 2
Mrs. Lamagdeleine

In these chapters, we go through Janie's transition from accepting a subpar relationship for protection, to rejecting that and going to another man, hopefully a better man.  However, the fact that the sun goes down as Janie begins her new relationship with Joe Starks seems to be ominous to me.  Janie has matured enough to know that marriage does not make love and happiness, rather, that love and happiness lead to marriage.  Because Janie married Logan Killicks unhappily and without love, that partnership was doomed.  However, I am glad that it lasted until after the Nanny's death, as Janie's grandmother would not have taken the (percieved) betrayal well, in fact, it just might have killed her.  I'm not sure how her relationship with Joe will get the golden glow that she has yearned for, but that dream might still come to pass.  We'll just have to see. 

Janie

Will Landschulz

Am Lit Per. 2

Mrs. LaMagdeleine

When we first see Janie, we see her as a group of gossiping friends would see her: unkempt, dusty, back far too soon and alone.  Her appearance gives everybody a stir, sending them all into a flurry of preparation, making “burning statements with questions, and killing tools with laughs.” (2) The conversation instantly leans toward her when she is seen, but dies completely when she is close enough to hear.   Instead of continuing their speculation, they turn towards the spring that will quench their thirst for answers, and “good evenin’ ” (2) her in the hopes of enticing conversation.  No luck.  She exchanges pleasantries with the roost on the “bander log,” (2) then goes straight to her house.  They watch her go past, the men undressing her with their eyes and the women storing the garments in their memories to throw in Janie’s face later.  If they proved inconsequential, then “it was a hope she might fall to their level some day.”  (3) However, Janie does get a defender in the crowd, her old friend Phoeby Watson.  She rightly sees their irritation at Janie’s “arrogance” as frustration that Janie wouldn’t spill her secrets to them.  Phoeby placates the group with a promise of news and takes some dinner to Janie.  She, sitting in her backyard alone, is grateful for Pheoby’s company, and soon begins her tale.  However, she soon goes all the way back to the beginning, when she was a child in the household of “Mis’ Washburn,” who raised her equally with her white children.  The difference between them and her was invisible, so much so that young Janie didn’t know she was colored until she saw a photograph of herself and noticed her difference from the rest.  However, Janie was treated poorly by other black kids at school, for her good clothing.  She was told not to put on airs by the other kids, because the sheriff had set a bloodhound on her father, to keep him away from her mother.  What they didn’t remember was that Janie’s father had tried to get in touch with Janie’s mother later, so they could marry, and have Janie be their legitimate child. 

            The gossiping ladies seem to have more in common with the spiteful bullies of the playground than with the happy playgroup of her foster home, with their creations of implements of social warfare when they see Janie, and their annoyance and astonishing conclusions when she won’t talk to them.  However, age seems to have mellowed them.  They are polite to her, as opposed to spiteful on the playground, and graciously accept Pheoby’s services as messenger of Janie’s tidings.  They still “sit in judgment,” (2) though, as Mayrella and her allies did on the playfield at school. 

The Truth

Will Landschulz
Am. Lit per. 2
Mrs. LaMagdeleine

Huck has finally made a decision for himself.  Widow Douglas, Miss Watson, and Pap have been constantly exerting influences on him, even after he escapes from St. Petersburg.  But here, when Huck considers the advice that they, Jim, and his experience have given him, he decides to cast off their influences and break his friend out of slavery.  Huck has stopped looking towards others and has started to look within himself for the right decision.  Although one might argue that this change occurred earlier, when Huck decides to make the easy decisions rather than look to the advice of the Widow or Miss Watson.  However, this step towards the right choices rather than the easy choices is even harder, and forces Huck to wade back into his conflicting experiences of White Southern society and the humanity he has seen from Jim before he comes out the other side. 

Exposure

Will Landschulz
Am Lit Per. 2
Mrs. LaMagdeleine

Huck, in these chapters, finally takes a stand against the cruelty of the Duke and the King.  He does this finally because he sees Mary Jane, one of the daughters of the family who the Duke and King are cheating.  She's crying over the separation of a slave family (by You-Know-Whom) and their sale from the estate.  Huck, guilty over the grief she's feeling, takes the money from the charlatans and hides it in the coffin.  However, the best-laid plans of mice and men often go astray, and the coffin is sealed without anyone noticing the bag of money inside.  Huck, thinking that he'll never know whether the con men escape, tells Mary Jane of the Duke and the King's deception.  He tells her that her face is too innocent to avoid notice, and that she cannot face them without her expression tipping the frauds off.  He sends her to a relative's house, thus sending her away from the malevolence of the Duke and the King. 

Jim's ghosts

Will Landschulz
Am. Lit Per. 2
Mrs. LaMagdeleine

Jim is haunted in a way that transcends any superstition.  He remembers his daughter of four, Lizabeth, who once denied his orders to shut the door.  In a rage at her blank stare and her seeming inability to comply with his demand, he strikes her down.  Only when she breaks down in frustration and incomprehension, he realizes that she is deaf and dumb, brought down by scarlet fever.  His guilt over his treatment of his daughter has paralysed him ever since.  The fact that he now tells this to Huck, rather than continue to keep it inside of him, may be attributed to his guilt being too much for him to bear, but it also gives him more humanity than the white characters we have seen over the course of the book.  Or if it doesn't, it gives a better class of humanity to him than, say, Miss Watson.  I will not mention such travesties of character as the "Duke" or the "King." He attains this through showing a conscience and a strong love for his family. 

Royalty

Will Landschulz
Am Lit per. 2
Mrs. LaMagdeleine

The characters of the Duke and the King in this chapter are quite suspicious to me.  I don't trust them.  Their "alasses," their half-baked lamentations of their lot in life, their use of royal language ("…and say 'Your grace,' [etc., etc.]" "give us your hand, Duke." [emphasis mine]), all could be considered convincing, or at least convincing enough for the people they meet on the Mississippi.  However, it is quickly obvious that they are nothing but charlatans.  For example, any self-respecting first-gen Frenchman, as the King claims he is, would A) have a French accent and B) pronounce his mother's name correctly (ann - twa - net rather than Ann - tuh - net).  Also, "Looy"?  There need to be two syllables rather than the implied one.  The Duke has also gotten himself experience as an actor, through his acts as "Dr. Armand" and "Garrick the Younger."  Interesting.  However, he does not know the famous soliloquy of Hamlet.  Therefore, he dilutes the meaning and strengthens his mediocrity by mixing in random lines from Macbeth, Richard III, and other scenes of Hamlet.  I know the soliloquy of Hamlet, for crying out loud.  Unfortunately, I don't think Huck and Jim have any choice but to trust them.  They know about Jim, and could easily betray him to slave traders passing through.  These slave traders would know about Jim's master, Mrs. Watson.  And Huck would follow the traders, or be trapped into the Duke and the King's service.  Wait - they don't seem as smart as to trap Huck.  One parting note: a man can call himself a dolphin, but that doesn't make it true. 

Buck & Huck

Will Landschulz
Am Lit Per. 2
Mrs. LaMagdeleine

Buck seems to be a lot like Huck, even though he's grown up in a setting to rival Tom Sawyer.  There is a servant for every person and for the guests, which is alien to Huck. Buck, on the other hand, uses his servant often.  His affluent background makes him more snobbish towards Huck, especially in the riddle scene and his "well, DUH!" explanation of the feud.  He also seems rather adventurous, as Huck is, and the quickest way for him to get that adventure is by carrying on the feud, although he seems to utilize some underhanded tactics in getting his thrill such as shooting at the heir to the Sheperdson family from behind a bush.  However, Huck doesn't understand the point of carrying on a feud ad nauseum, as he doesn't care about dead people and anger over the death of a loved one is alien to him.  He's afraid of his father, and no one else he knows is dead yet.