Skip to main content

What is significant in Jim's story of the witches in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?

In chapter 2 ("Our Gang's Dark Oath") of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck and Tom Sawyer sneak out in the middle of the night and encounter Jim, Miss Watson's slave. Tom plays a prank on the sleeping Jim, stealing his hat and hanging it on a tree, and Jim later explains this strange experience by claiming that witches put a spell on him.


This story is significant for a couple of reasons. First, it displays Jim's superstitious nature, a characteristic that proves to be prominent as the novel progresses. Second, it shows that Jim is an accomplished story teller. With each telling of his witch story, Jim enhances and adds to his narrative, eventually claiming that the witches took him all over the globe. Obviously, Jim can't resist spinning a good yarn, and he proves to be an imaginative narrator capable of captivating his audiences. Thus, though the witch story illustrates his superstitious streak, it also shows that Jim possesses a quick and creative mind. In that case, Jim proves to be more complicated than his masters probably assume he is.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.
Post a Comment
Read more