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   mrs-campbell Teacher
   High School - 11th Grade

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   When Huck found out that the duke and king had sold Jim to a strange family, he felt that he "couldn't see no way out of the trouble."  He goes through a long cycle of indecision, not knowing what to do, before he finally settles on his choice.  At first, he figures that if Jim was going to be a slave on a strange plantation, "it would be a thousand times better for Jim to be a slave at home where his family was," and so decides to write Miss Watson to tell her where Jim was. Then he vacillates; he doesn't want to because Miss Watson would be mad at Jim for running away, and everyone would know that he himself was "low-down and ornery" for helping a runaway slave.  He mulls this over, feeling more and more crummy for doing just that.  He feels so guilty for helping Jim that he thinks Jim being sold was "providence" punishing his wicked deeds.  He even decides to pray to "try to quit being the kind of boy I was and be better," which is huge, because at the beginning of the book he had decided that prayers were worthless.  He finally just writes the letter, but then thinks of all the good times they had had, and how Jim considered Huck such a special friend.  Then, he tore the letter up and in an ironic statement about that action, says, "All right then-I'll go to hell."  That statement is ironic because he was doing the right thing, but thought he'd go to hell for it.  But he does the right thing in the end, and goes to help Jim.

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   http://www.enotes.com/finn-text/chapter-xxxi-you-pray-lie

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   Posted by mrs-campbell on Thursday February 26, 2009 at 11:21 AM