Journal 12 Mark Twain - Rather Go To Hell

Allister Lo
English 48B
Journal 12 Mark Twain

Quote: “All right, then, I’ll go to hell” (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)

Summary: Huck has a moral dilemma where he believes that he has committed a grave sin helping the runaway slave Jim run away, so he writes a note to his owner. However, he hesitates and rips up the note, vowing to rather to go to hell than to give up Jim.

Response: As discussed in class, this could arguably be the most profound line in the entire book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Not only is it a moral awakening for Huck, but it is also a maturation of Huck. Huck has been brought up that to help a slave run away will result in him going to hell and eternal damnation. However, even though he is only a boy, it is at this point where he goes against what he has been taught to do what he thinks is right. He realizes that Jim is a person just like him, a person who has been very good to him and has been pretty much his best friend on their journey down the river.

Present day, it is a no brainer to agree with Huck’s decision to help Jim. However, in the context of when this book was written, Huck’s decision went totally against what was accepted at the time. To denounce religion and face damnation in order to free a slave was unheard of. Furthermore, it was merely a boy making this decision.

This moral extends to readers past the book, which is probably what Twain intended when he wrote the book, although he tried to deny it with his first statement of the book. If a child could figure this out on himself, then why couldn’t grown adults who read the book challenge themselves and come to the same conclusion? Huck’s challenge becomes the readers’ challenge as back in Twain’s day, this was still a very pertinent issue, especially with the failed Reconstruction project and emergence of the Ku Klux Klan. Granted, it might not have been a question of hell or helping a slave, but it most certainly could have been a question of someone’s life because someone could easily have been killed for helping a former slave.