Summary of Chapters 19-21
At the beginning of the chapter Huck and Jim are back on the raft. After floating for awhile they run across two men who is desperate to get on the raft with them. Huck and Jim let them on the raft, and take them downstream. The two men tell theire stories, they first sold stuff to clean you teeth, but there was something wrong with it. The second man had been found drunk at a church meeting. Both of the men had fled, and they didn't know each other. The two men talk to eachother, and realize they shoud be a team. They team up to trick Huck and Jim that they are royalty. The two con men ask Huck if Jim is a slave, and Huck makes up a story about how he was orphaned. Then the two con men sleep in Huck and Jim's bed while Huck and Jim stay up to watch for approching storms. After a while the raft reaches a town. The one con man convinces everyone that he is a pirate, but was reformed by their church ceremony. The con man gets lots of money to help him to stay good. The other con man finds an old printing shop and sells ads and job spaces to people. The con man in the office prints off a flyer for Jim's capture, so they can pretend they caught him and are returning him for a reward.
Reflections
I thought that the conmen were actually very intelligent and creative in their schemes. The one man took advantage of peoples trust and the other had a good idea in pretending to be a publisher. I think that Huck was wise not to let the conmen know that he is on to them. They might get upset and try to hurt Huck and Jim. Twain kind of satirizes religion in this chapter. He pokes fun at their ritual and blind trust. I understand how Jim was taken in by the conmen's lie about being the dauphine. Jim has blind faith in lots of superstitions and he doesn't know anything about real k