Huck: Island Life vs. Previous Life

Huck seems to like his life on the island better, for the most part. It seems like he really enjoys the quiet of nature to think and relax. In “previous lives—“ that is, with Miss Watson, Pap, or Sawyer’s gang—there is always pressure being put on him to act a certain way and to do certain things.

With the Widow and Miss Watson, he always has to be cleaned up and behave well. “She worked me hard for about an hour, and then the widow made her ease up. I couldn’t stood it much longer. Then for an hour it was deadly dull, and I was fidgety. Miss Watson would say, ‘Don’t put your feet up there, Huckleberry’ and ‘Don’t scrunch up like that, Huckleberry—set up straight’; and pretty soon she would say ‘Don’t gap and stretch like that, Huckleberry—why don’t you try to behave?’” (page 5)

In contrast to this, he is first happy at Pap’s, where “It was kind of lazy and jolly, laying off comfortable all day, smoking and fishing, and no books nor study. Two months or more run along, and my clothes got to be all rags and dirt, 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.” (page 34) But of course he doesn’t want to stay with Pap for too much longer, because Pap really isn’t a good father.

So being in the quiet nature is a helpful change for Huck. He does get lonely, but at least at first that’s better than being chased by his drunk father or being forced to wash up and act like a “good little boy.” Being alone in the woods or on the river allows him to just think for himself and relax.