Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Foolishness and Folly Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #1

Afterwards Jim said the witches bewitched him and put him in a trance, and rode him all over the State, and then set him under the trees again, and hung his hat on a limb to show who done it. And next time Jim told it he said they rode him down to New Orleans; and, after that, every time he told it he spread it more and more, till by and by he said they rode him all over the world, and tired him most to death, and his back was all over saddle-boils. Jim was monstrous proud about it, and he got so he wouldn't hardly notice the other n*****s. N*****s would come miles to hear Jim tell about it, and he was more looked up to than any n***** in that country. Strange n*****s would stand with their mouths open and look him all over, same as if he was a wonder. N*****s is always talking about witches in the dark by the kitchen fire; but whenever one was talking and letting on to know all about such things, Jim would happen in and say, "Hm! What you know 'bout witches?" and that n***** was corked up and had to take a back seat. Jim always kept that five-center piece round his neck with a string, and said it was a charm the devil give to him with his own hands, and told him he could cure anybody with it and fetch witches whenever he wanted to just by saying something to it; but he never told what it was he said to it. N*****s would come from all around there and give Jim anything they had, just for a sight of that five-center piece; but they wouldn't touch it, because the devil had had his hands on it. Jim was most ruined for a servant, because he got stuck up on account of having seen the devil and been rode by witches. (2.7)

The superstition of the black slaves appears foolish to Huck and Tom – yet they themselves express similar beliefs repeatedly throughout the novel.

Quote #2

Jim tried it again, and then another time, and it acted just the same. Jim got down on his knees, and put his ear against it and listened. But it warn't no use; he said it wouldn't talk. He said sometimes it wouldn't talk without money. (4.21)

Huck appears foolish in his inability to recognize that Jim uses the hairball to make money.

Quote #3

"No, don't you worry; these country jakes won't ever think of that. Besides, you know, you'll be in costume, and that makes all the difference in the world; Juliet's in a balcony, enjoying the moonlight before she goes to bed, and she's got on her night- gown and her ruffled nightcap. Here are the costumes for the parts." (20.23)

The duke fails to see the foolishness of his own actions, but he comments on the inferior intellect of the "country jakes."