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Twain - Mark Twain Videos 5 videos

Huck Finn
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If you suddenly came into a bunch of money, you'd give it all away, right? Yeah, we figured.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Summary
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River raft. A good friend. Adventures. Tricks. Lots and lots of surprise feelings. Basically, our boy Huck has 'em all.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
2299 Views

Should you ever find yourself on a raft, floating down the Mississippi River, you're going to want something to do. Reading Mark Twain's classic, T...

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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 2299 Views


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Description:

Should you ever find yourself on a raft, floating down the Mississippi River, you're going to want something to do. Reading Mark Twain's classic, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , would certainly fit the bill. Or, if your raft gets wi-fi, you could watch this video.

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English Language

Transcript

00:04

Huck Finn, a la Shmoop. It’s 1884. You and your buddy just found

00:13

twelve thousand dollars in a cave. Your half is 6k.

00:17

How much was six thousand dollars in those days? Adjusting for inflation, it would be

00:22

about a gazillion dollars today.

00:23

Give or take a zillion. So… awesome. You’re in the money.

00:29

What’s the first thing you’re going to do with all this newfound fortune?

00:33

New house? New ride? Mediterranean cruise?

00:37

Give it all away? Ha, give it all away. Right.

00:41

Wait, what?

00:43

In Mark Twain’s Huck Finn, that is precisely what his title character does.

00:47

What could have possessed him to do such a thing? Is he totally nuts?

00:52

First of all, let’s be clear… he gave the cash to Judge Thatcher for safekeeping.

00:58

So it was still technically his.

00:59

But it wasn’t because he didn’t trust himself to not blow it all during a sale at

01:05

Bloomingdale’s.

01:06

It was because he truly did not want it. For a kid who lived his entire life in abject

01:15

poverty…

01:15

…that money could have come in handy.

01:18

It could have kept him clothed and fed, and gone a long way to helping out his loved ones.

01:23

Even if he didn’t want the pressure of wealth…

01:26

…or was freaked out about Uncle Sam hitting him with some sort of “spelunking tax”…

01:32

…he could have bought some really nice things for those who cared about him… or had cared

01:37

for him. But Huck didn’t give the money to Judge

01:39

Thatcher immediately.

01:41

He did actually give the “sivilized” life the old college try.

01:46

But the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson, who were trying to turn Huck into… well, a real

01:53

boy…

01:53

…were driving him bonkers.

01:56

He may have lived his entire life up to that point without much spending cash…

02:03

…but at least there weren’t so many dang rules.

02:09

Once Huck learned that money and responsibility were inextricably tied together…

02:13

…all that green may have lost some of its former allure.

02:18

But maybe some part of Huck realized that he wasn’t quite ready to make the mature

02:21

decisions required of someone receiving such a windfall.

02:26

Whatever excuses he made, could it be that he just wanted the money to be out of sight,

02:31

out of mind…

02:32

…until he was a bit older and would have a better idea what to do with it?

02:41

After all, six thousand dollars buys an awful lot of penny candy. He could have wound up

02:45

with a truly awful stomachache. Why did Huck say adieu to his fortune?

02:52

Did he honestly dislike money and prefer being poor?

02:56

Did he decide it wasn’t worth becoming “sivilized?”

02:59

Or was this decision about the only mature one Huck ever made?

03:04

Shmoop amongst yourselves.

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