During my reading of the first ten chapters, it was clear that Huck is quite the free spirit. This is understandable, considering how he has never had a permanent home: he’s used to wandering the countryside, sleeping, bathing, and playing when he wishes. He does disobey the rules on a regular basis, simply because that kind of structure was never enforced. He wakes up filthy after sneaking out the night before with Tom, and describes his caretaker’s reaction, saying “…the widow she didn’t scold, she only cleaned off the grease and clay, and looked so sorry that I thought I would behave a while if I could” (Twain 20). This reveals how though Huck wants to behave, it’s extremely difficult for him to conduct himself in a proper manner. All he really wants is to do is to have an adventure with his best friend, Tom Sawyer. He feels trapped inside the widow’s fancy house, finding the spelling lessons grueling and the apparel he’s forced to wear stiff and irritating. He does appreciate the widow taking him in, and struggles to please her and show his gratitude.
Another personality trait that stood out to me in the first part of the book is that Huck is very thoughtful. Since he is still a child, the world is somewhat of a puzzle to him, and he’s just trying to figure it out. Huck seems to have a pretty good understanding of people, considering his young age. There were numerous instances in which Huck surprised me by his intelligence. When Jim is trying to trick him into giving some of his money in exchange for his fortune told by Jim’s “hairball”, Huck thinks, “He said sometimes it wouldn’t talk without money...I reckoned I wouldn’t say nothing about the dollar I got from the judge” (Twain 26). This quote demonstrates how Huck is onto Jim’s scam. Even though Huck has not had much formal education, he is pretty “street smart” due to the fact he’s had to fend for himself for the majority of his life. Huck is definitely an observational and fairly bright young man.
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