King and Duke?

More like Knave and Douche!

"After all this long journey, and after all we'd done for them scoundrels, here was all come to nothing, everything all busted up and ruined, because they could have the heart to serve Jim such a trick as that, and make him a slave again all his life, and amongst strangers, too, for forty dirty dollars."

Congrats Twain. Your pen has done its job. My emotions have been evoked. Prepare yourself.

Adults do tend to screw things up for Huck. He escaped pap, he's managed his freedom for this long, his plans are generally logical and he's never out to harm anyone. And then the two douchey douchebag frauds come along and mess up everything.

It does make me sad how honest Twain's portrayal is of men like the "Duke" and the "King."

What does this say about humanity? Adulthood? Of course a person isn't actually required to be mature to be an adult. Kind of like horrible people don't have to be tested to be allowed to have children. But still, it does make me frustrated. But there will always be bad guys, there will always be sellouts, there will always be horrible parents, and a child's dreams will always get interrupted by douchebags at some point in time. And yes, I KNOW that Twain told me not to go moral hunting.... but come on. Obviously we're supposed to learn something here.

I guess I just need still to figure out where in the novel the hope for society is. Because obviously we all can't just fake our deaths and go floating around a river for the rest of our lives. And even then, we can't avoid the crazies.

I'm getting ahead of myself. It's not like this is a tale about all the bad people Huck has met. There are the Mary Janes of the novel too. And the Grangerfords. Though they definitely still fit the crazy category.

However, it's all just a story. A commentary on society and an artistic approach to regionalism.

Where bad things happen to my Good Buddy Huck.

Time to read on!