Adapting or Reacting?

We [the reader] discover and learn the characteristics of the three different environments Huck Finn has been subjected to, and how Huck is able to adapt his lifestyle or change his attitude as he is exposed to these environments. These environments include the "sivilized" home of Miss Watson, Tom Sawyer's gang, and Pap's place. In addition to his environment changing, so does his attitude and life style. For example, when Huck is with Miss Watson, he is, or at least tries to be the presentable, respectable boy Miss Watson wants him to be. However, whenever Huck is with his gang or with his Pap, he is his relaxed, misbehaved, misguided self.

Looking at the question we were presented with, asking us whether Huck has or has not adapted to his environments, I believe that adapting is not the correct word.  Rather I believe the word react is more appropriate.  I believe this because Huck has not spent enough time in each of his three environments to have the ability to adapt but rather react to each environment.  Furthermore, if Huck did actually adapt to one of his environments, I believe his behavior would remain constant no matter where he was because he would be used to a certain behavior, however, we know this is not true.  Lastly, whether it is adapting or reacting, it is obvious that there is something about his environments that causes him to change.

Huck' adapting, and connection to the Odyssey

Huck has been in many environments in the story. He seems to be able to adapt well to the many situations that he as been placed in. One of his environments is him living with his drunken father Pap. On pg. 41 it reads, "He chased me round and round the place with a claspknife.... Huck shows his adaptability in this situation. He is able to out run his father to save his life. This ability says Huck's life for that time. He than learns from his fathers attempt to kill him, and is ready to strike back with the gun that he has waiting when his father awakens.
Huck's travels are different than the journey of Odysseus in the Odyssey. Huck seems to spend more time with the characters that he encounters. These encounters than help him adapt to different situation that are to com in the future. In addition Huck also seems to be connect to the people he encounters. Odysseus in the Odyssey didnt spend much time on the islands he visits. He also didnt seem to connected with the characters that he meets. Odysseus is basically trying to get home, while Huck is learning different things as he meets characters.

Adventure, Travel, and Home for Huckleberry Finn

Huck Finn has been forced to deal with the inevitable adaptation to the change in his immediate environment. He has gone from the "sivilized" confines of Miss Watson's orderly home, to his father's drunken abode where Huck often finds himself being unjustly abused. Another interesting environment that Huck often involves himself in his his gang of robbers, who often talk about performing some adventuresome expedition in addition to some serious crimes. I believe that although he does not physically travel far, the extent to which his environments contrast each other is great. These environmental disparities seem to cause a nonphysical distance between each location that he travels to and from over the course of his day-to-day life. Relating The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Homer's epic tale of the great ancient Greek figure Odysseus in The Odyssey, one will notice that the theme of travel is one that appears in both. However, while Odysseus has his eyes fixed on a predefined destination that he calls home (Ithaca), Huck's sense of home seems to constantly changing. When Huck's father takes him away from the widow that has been taking care of him, his sense of home changes to stay with his father. "...and I didn't see how I'd ever got to like it so well at the widow's...I didn't want to go back no more. I had stopped cussing, because the widow didn't like it; but now I took to it again because pap hadn't no objections." (Mark Twain 34).

Huckleberry's journeys

Huck has been in so many places, just in the first few chapters. He has been in the Widow's house, ran away from the Widow's house and then came back. He then lives with Pap in a whole different environment than what he was used to when living with the widow. You really get a sense from all his moving and his attitudes from it that when he applies himself so to speak, he adapts really easily and likes the next place better than the last. When he first started off living with the Widow he hated all her rules and order, he was used to living on his own and not having any rules so he ran away "it was rough living in that house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways; and when i couldn't stand it no longer I lit out".(pg4) But eventually, he came back and changed even more, getting used to washing up, going to bed on time, and even enjoying going to school. "At first I hated the school, but by and by I got so I could stand it....I was sort of getting used to the widow's ways, too, and they warn't so raspy on me." (pg22)
I think that this book is about journeys but more that the character takes instead of the heroic battles and such. Odysseus' travel is mostly just a mission to get home, while Huckleberry's is more of a mission to find his home. Odysseus knew who he was and even though the Trojan war probably changed him in more ways than one Huckleberry is still trying to find his own sort of person and these places are adding to his change and development.

Huck Finn = The Odyssey ??

Huck does have to adapt pretty drastically from environment to environment as his "journey" progresses. I feel that he hasn't quite adapted to Tom Sawyer's gang yet, since he has some objections to some of the activities that take place in it. Huck, in my opinion, wouldn't really be characterized as a "gang member," because, even though the boys are pretending to do these activities, he chooses to not do them, which shows that 1) he doesn't succumb to peer pressure, if you will, and 2) he's a person that does the right thing. He both has and hasn't adapted to Pap's place. He hasn't adapted to seeing his father at such an unexpected time, but he has adapted to the way his father acts. I feel that Huck Finn's journey so far is generally similar to that of Odysseus - every new place requires some sort of adapting to. However, a key possible similarity between Huck Finn and The Odyssey is that a major theme in both books is adventure and meeting new people.

Huck's Adaptation

Huck seems very capable of adapting to the various environments he has been exposed to. Used to living a free and unstructured life, he is plunged into a lifestyle very different at Miss Watson's house. Education, clothes, and a bed are things he is unaccustomed to, but he eventually learns to appriciate and enjoy them. Just when Huck gets used to his new surroundings, his father takes him away to live in a cabin on an isolated island. He immediately goes back to his old way of life, encouraged by his uncivilized father. He wonders how he could have liked living in proper society with the widow, when his 'new' life has no rules or requirements.
"...and i didn't see how I'd ever got to like it so well at the widow's, where you had to wash, and eat on a plate, and comb up, and go to bed and get up regular, and be forever bothering over a book, and have old Miss Watson pecking at you all the time."
(Twain 34)
This easy transition between civilization and the wild show how adaptable Huck is to whatever comes his way.

Mr. Adaptable aka Huck

I feel like Huck is a very adaptable boy/young man...he may not always like the situation he's in at first but it seems like he usually end up liking it at least somewhat before long. When he goes back to live with Widow Thatcher, at first he moans and groans a bit about having to go back and be "sivilized", but then he realizes it might not be so bad after all. Huck says on page 22 "At first I hated school, but by and by I got so I could stand it...I liked the old ways best, but I was getting so I liked the new ones, too, a little bit." I think that because he's had to deal with some hard stuff in his life(a drunk, abusive dad whos never around, his mother being dead, etc.) he knows how to adapt, and maybe look on the brigter side of things. However, when he gets "kidnapped" by Pap, he seems very happy to revert to his old ways of smoking, living off the land, and wearing his old rags. Obviously he doesn't like when Pap gets drunk and beats him, but Huck still seems to want to please his dad, which is puzzling. If I had a dad like Pap I would never want to talk to him again. Huck's travels differ from Odyseuss' in that Huck seems to be much more adaptable, and in some ways, I think, more clever. Everyone hails Odyseuss as cunning and wise and clever, but I don't know if he could come up with the idea Huck did to escape from his Pap. Odyseuss also was dying to get home, while Huck is running away from his. Well Huck doesn't really have a home but he's running away from the closest thing he has to one.

Huck Finn's Journey in Comparison to Mine

I believe that Huck Finn's journeys and changes in homes are different to mine because of the lack of structure in his journey. I have a home and my only goal is to return home and to a family that I have left to fight a war and go on an unexpected and long journey. Huck on the other hand, does not have a family to return to, rather going somewhere in hopes of finding one. Miss Watson’s sivilized home, Tom Sawyer’s gang, Pap’s place, some of these places he had no control over and did not have any sense of direction due to his lack of control, which led to resentment either by the place’s social reformation or by the past that he has had with it. Miss Watson’s house was based too much of social approval and conformity than Huck could bear, and Pap’s place was filled with an abusive past that clearly has not changed especially after Pap’s jealousy of Huck and his higher education. It is obvious that after a comment by Pap to take Huck “down a peg” that Huck will not share a home with Pap for long and his journey will continue.

ARETE!!!

Hi I'm Arete, but you can call me excellence.

I am the wife of King Alcinous and the mother of Nausicaa and Laodamas.

Queen of Scheria.

I welcomed Odysseus into my palace and treated him hospitably.

I love to swim, and feast with my husband.

and I also love when guests come to stay.

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