Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Hypocrisy


Chapter 1.
Huck asks the Widow Douglas whether he can smoke, and she admonishes him for the nasty habit. But Huck laments that she herself uses snuff.
"And she took snuff too; of course that was all right, because she done it herself."
He notices hypocrisy, and whether he knows it or not, responds with sarcasm. But here we see  virtue that is already within Huck- that of knowing that it's not OK to admonish others for something that you yourself are guilty of doing. 
Of course this assumes that Huck equates smoking tobacco and using snuff, and the Widow does not. We know today of course that both are harmful to your health, but it's possible that in 1885 snuff was safe and acceptable whereas smoking tobacco was foul smelling and messy. Doubt that the serious link with cancer was common knowledge then.
The point is, that Huck's moral compass identifies and calls out hypocrisy. 

Is Huck a hypocrite? Look for signs of that.




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