In A-Level English Literature, we have been working on Mark Twain’s ‘Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’. As a creative writing task, we wrote pieces of writing from the perspective of Huck 15 years after the end of the story. Some students wrote journal entries while others wrote letters: here are a few examples of what we wrote.
Fifteen years today since me and Jim had our adventure and I’ll be dammed if it ain’t feel like it was last week . Ain’t much changed ‘bout me. My hair startin’ to turn white like the frozen powder made out of water they say land up North. Inside I feels the same. I try to sit still but me legs ain’t sticking to the program, they yearn for more adventure as does me belly, seems like a hunger that can’t be fed. Ain’t seen Jim for a while, last time I sees him he says he got his wife and children and now he’s working in St Louis.
He ain’t the only person who changed, I saw Tom Sawyer the day before yesterday, strutting around like he owned the place, he all fancied up now wearing one of em stiff collars looking like a proper gentlemen if I ever saws one. So I hollered over at him ‘Tom’ I says and when he turned I saw that the jacket and cooler ain’t done much to hide the glint and fire in his eyes, he grinned like my pap did when he used to find a half full bottle of whisky on the street ‘I’ll be dammed Huck Finn that you?’ Turns out ol’ Tom now’s a lawyer! The same boy who believed he a highway man, he studied hard too he says went to some big school n spent years learning about injustice n stuff we never bothered with when we was kids. Ain’t that something?
We sat by the river and talked for a long while, just like we used to, I still ain’t able to resist joking with him “you ever try to sneak in some treasure maps while you fight your case?” Tom’s life sure seems different from mine, all clean and settle, same goes for Jim too I thinks he got his family back and he ain’t got ain’t got to run no more. Tom asks if I wanted to stay in town for more, maybe look into something, more sturdy, I says to him that it ain’t in my bones to stay put, and I could tell by his smile he knew that was my answer all along. It’s funny how folks end up. Tom In his big suit, now arguin’ for the law. And me? Well I reckons I’m still the same Huck I was with Jim, wandering wherever the wind blows refusing to be civilised by society, not wearing cramped shoes even when the wind so cold it starts to bite at my toes and makin’ em sting, don’t know what Ms Watson would think if she sees me again. But I don’t belong to her no more, I ain’t really belonged anywhere and that’s just fine.
The rivers callin’ again, it always does. Tomorrow I think I is set to set out in another adventure on my raft just for ol’ time sakes. Maybe head down south, or west to to wear the land gets wilder. Ain’t no tellin’ where. But I figure I’ll know when I get there. I don’t reckon I’ll ever be a lawyer or settle down like Tom, but that’s alright I ain’t built for a desk with papers. The only law I need is the law of the river as long as that’s running I’ll be free.
Huck
Harry Jonas, Year 12
Let me tell you a bit about what’s happened since our time in our raft: I went back home and got my money back from Judge Thatcher. I used some of the money to get myself my own home away from the widow and decided to go back to school. After all, maybe school wasn’t that bad and the problem was Pap and the widow and Miss Watson. I haven’t seen Pap either, but I’d rather not. Anyway, after school I decided life was better on the raft like we always said and so I bought a steamboat! A steamboat! And so I got a job on my steamboat as captain. You won’t believe me Jim, but I help other slaves like you escape their owners. Ever since meeting you I haven’t been all that comfortable with how you were treated, so I figured helping slaves similar to you would be of good use. I even got married and had a son, named Jim, but that’s another story. Living on the river has been mighty comfortable and easy, but I always feel like there’s something, or someone, missing.
Claudia L, Year 12
Dear Diary,
Its the 5th November 1855, feels like forever since I talk to you but somehow I came across this diary once again. It's so strange reading old memories of when I was merely a confused kid suffering at the hands of constant oppression yet I couldn't be more grateful for my early life because now I have the chance to save lives of others. I feel as though Jackson's Island and the whole course of this diary was a true turning point. What would have been of my life if not for all that has happened. I live on a farm now in the south of America facing the challenges I once never fully understood. Jim is still with me and although there is so much more to learn about him I finally have developed a brotherhood with him that the society would never understand.
We help slaves by freeing them from this treacherous nature they are forced to follow. We manage to take them safely to the north away from the oppression of the south. Sometimes I really do ask myself if this is all worth it? If I really want to be the outcast of society? But then I see Jim and remember all he has been through just to be a free man and realise that all what I am doing is absolutely right.
Laura de la Infiesta, Year 12
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