Aunt Sally in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Essay Sample

Introduction

The novel, The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn, begins with the scene of Huck Finn, who introduces himself and goes further to inquire if people knew him. Aunt Sally, on her part, is regarded as one of the characters that took the leading mother figure position within the novel. She is described as the lovable and gullible aunt of Tom Sawyer. She is married to Silas, a character that is noted to live downstream from Hannible at Phelps.

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The first encounter of Aunt Sally in the novel portrays her as a victim of a trick. Huck, whose objective is premised on aiding the escape plan of Jim, pays her a visit with the pretence of being a nephew. Aunt Sally, in her lack of recognition of her nephew, falls into a trap and welcome Huck with open arms. Page 78 notes a vivid description of the encounter (Polaschek, 2017). She grabbed him and gave a tight hug and continued to shake him with tears rolling down her eyes. The arrival of Tom continues the deception. He also pretends to be another nephew known as Sid, and they both begin stealing supplies from Aunt Sally. After stealing, they hatch a second plan of covering their theft. The plan entailed carrying items like spoons and sheets and taking them back to her.

For her (Aunt Sally), she believes that she is the one miscounting things not knowing that snakes and rats are on the loose in the house and she is a victim of deceit. Huck also tries to use religion when Aunt Sally begins to become suspicious about the disappearing supplies. Huck knew that the only way to survive any punishment is by telling her the word of God, and through that, she will be convinced that the person is right. For example, amid the confusion of searching for a missing spoon, Huck pretends to find it, and Aunty Sally believed she figured it out that Huck had the spoon within his pocket. Huck informs her of Acts Chapter 17, a Bible scripture that he read before breakfast and remembering placing the spoon in his pocket but without notice (Twain, 2018). Unfortunately, the deception of Tom and Huck on Aunt Sally did not go for long, they were finally noticed, and the impression of Aunt Sally can be best described as that of a confused and bewildered individual. Page 359 of the novel notes that she was confused and with mixed emotions. It is thus notable that the first encounter of Aunt Sally portrayed her as a loving person who cares for the people around her. She did not know her nephews well but was still able to welcome Huck and Tom, who claimed to be the nephews. At the onset of the analysis, she was portrayed as one of the leading characters in the novel that occupies motherly positions, and the assertion has been qualified to go by how she treated the likes of Huck (Twain, 2018).

Even though she was noted to be gullible, she still got commended for her motherly capacity by Huck. Huck noted that after they played deceit on her and she became furious when the time for bed came, she went with him, fetched him a candle, and ensured that he was tucked in, the feeling was so motherly and kind that he could not look her in the eyes. At the end of chapter 40, Huck argued about feeling guilty of taking advantage of her considering that she had good intentions and was very loving (Schmidt, 2018).

An opposing view may also construe Aunt Sally differently. For example, she may be perceived as not educated and civilized. As such, the likes of Huck were able to play with her mind and carry supplies from her. Her motherly aspect may be seen as innate and something expected of most female characters of her stature and, therefore, not extraordinary. The narrator may have, thus, used her character extensively between chapter 36 and 40 of the novel to elucidate on the roles of other characters like Huck (Schmidt, 2018). If the opposition is to hold, then she qualifies to be noted as a minor character. The refutation for the claim, however, goes beyond the view of Aunt Sally as a character but rather the impact that her inclusion brings to the novel. For example, the particular thematic concerns that get realized. She cannot thus qualify as a minor character but rather a significant character who has her contributions to the ultimate objective of the novel and also aids other characters in making their impacts on the purpose.

Conclusion

In summary, Aunt Sally is one of the significant characters in the novel The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn. Her first encounter within the novel is unveiled when she is tricked by Huck on being her nephew, something which later contributed to revealing her motherly nature. Her inclusion in the novel was, therefore, significant and contributed to the realization of the primary objective of the novel.

References

Polaschek, D. (2017). Huck Finn and (Still) Racist America. Augsburg Honors Review, 10(1), 8. https://idun.augsburg.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1113&context=honors_review

Schmidt, B. (2018). Critical Insights: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ed. by R. Kent Rasmussen. The Mark Twain Annual, 16(1), 169-173. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?output=instlink&q=info:v8VolXqGoYIJ:scholar.google.com/&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5&as_ylo=2016&scillfp=11613797627855995344&oi=lle

Twain, M. (2018). The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing. https://www.waidspeicher.de/waid2015/fileadmin/user_upload/Dossiers/Dossier_TomSawyer.pdf