At the end of Chapter XIX of The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn, Huck comments on the conversations that he overhears
between the two men who have jumped into the skiff that he has taken
ashore:
It
didn't take me long to make up my mind that these liaars warn't no kings nor dukes, at
all, but just low-down humbugs and
frauds.
While their true
names are never revealed in Twain's novel, Huck recognizes them for con men as they
speak of the reasons why they have been run out of town. The younger, who claimes to be
the Duke of Bilgewater has been selling a substance which removes tartar from teeth;
however it also removes the enamel. The older man, who boasts of being the Dauphin, the
son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, and the rightful King of France, has been leading
a temperance league, but has been discovered
drinking.
Since the two men have "big fat ratty-looking
carpet-bags," Huck suspects that they are carpetbaggers, or opportunists, who have come
to the area to take advantage of the unsuspecting. Besides this observation, Huck
recognizes the two men as similar to his Pa,
If I
never learnt nothing else out of pap, I learnt that the best way to get along with his
kind of people is to let them have their own way.
No comments:
Post a Comment