photo by Aula Baca

Hello readers, here is a post from a college class I was in. May you find a blessing in the sense that Noah Webster defined it (the Hebrew blessing) (https://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/blessing#:~:text=BLESS’ING%2Cnoun%20Benediction%3B,blessed%20the%20children%20of%20Israel.). ~ Emily Winslow Cox.

Disclaimer: parents: if you have kids you may want to read Huck Finn first before deciding whether to read it together. If it was a movie it would have some kind of advisory, I think. Twain apparently was not a believer when he wrote this novel and that appears to be reflected to the reader.

Emily Cox

Professor Geske

ENGL 203

28 May 2025

Wanted: Truth (notes on Huckleberry Finn)

    Huck Finn – this is a book that, initially, may seem to focus more on the topic of being different from others than ways the main character has something in common with people in his community. But then again, there is that term: his community. The main character lives around others and they impact one another – for better and for worse – and share community in joy, fear, and friendship. While Huck is seen as someone who is different from other characters, they are different from him too, and it is, ironically perhaps, in being different along with others that he finds community. What does Huck really want? While the unconverted human heart is not going to do what is truly good, there is the awareness of the absence of something, and human beings have a common experience of on one hand not telling others the truth but on the other hand wanting to be told, at least as concerns external things, something that has a correlation with reality. For Huck, this takes the form of an expression of his matter-of-fact , rather frank personality. One could also argue that he can be rude. But he also has something in common with the child of the emperor without clothes. We could imagine Huck saying, “I don’t know about those folks, but I didn’t see how skin and clothes were the same thing.” Perhaps there is a paradox in that we must be like a little child to enter the kingdom of heaven, yet when we are using our imagination to God’s glory is when we are most rational. Tom Sawyer, in contrast to Huck, reflects a character who enjoys fanciful scenarios and apparently believes that these can add enjoyment to real life. Both Huck and Tom’s personalities, arguably, reflect unique challenges and opportunities in the context of encountering truth. But something they seem to share is a concern for how a belief or concept is of practical application. Huck wants his prayers to result in finding a fish hook, and is disappointed when he does not find what he is looking for. Is he like Bono in this? And when we have not found what we are looking for , could it be we are looking for the wrong thing? And yet, even the soul that loved God and neighbor best cried out, “My God, my..why have you forsaken me? (esv, kjv).” It is beCAUSE Jesus was looking for the right thing that he felt its loss so keenly. In Christ, both Giver and Gifts are found and reconciled. Huck was looking for a fish hook that he did not find, but would he really have been satisfied had he found it? There is still the absence of a being. Huck uses the term “Providence” in his story, a story that is positively consistent with the prior existence of a creator who is both merciful and just.

Whether conforming outwardly to a specific standard or not, human beings appear to have the most significant things in common – their bodies, souls, and all that comes, essentially, with being both a physical AND spiritual being on this side of eternity. While Huck’s story seems to focus on his differences from others, shared differences are also a uniting aspect in his story. In the context of community with people who are also different from the “regular folks,”  Though people may outwardly conform to shared customs that reflect common grace without knowing God  – or pursue different things in place of him – the common need is not for Pharisaical performance but for a true knowledge of God that is only found in the one who became sin for us – so that we might become righteousness of God through faith. For Twain’s characters, whether they sleep in houses or live on rafts, the things that they all have in common show through – and though Twain does not unveil all the answers (he apparently doesn’t know the Answer) his writing reflects inquiry which, if answered truthfully, may well lead to the man Michael Card called, “the Final Word” – who was made flesh for sinners, convicts, and cowards so they could become holy warriors and kings (Card). 

Works Cited.

Twain, Mark. “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76, accessed 28 May 2025.

Card, Michael. Emmanuel. the final word by michael card.

English Standard Version. Good news publishers, Crossway Bibles, 2001.

King James Version.