Is it possible to be both shrewd and romantic?
Is it possible to be both shrewd and romantic? In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, the main character Huck is both shrewd and a romantic. Huck embodies these traits by being clever, doing anything and everything for Jim, and thinking on his toes.
Huck exhibits his cleverness in many instances, such as when he escapes from Pap Finn’s cabin. “I took the ax and smashed in the door… I fetched the pig… and hacked into his throat with the ax, and laid him down… to bleed… next I took an old sack and put a lot of big rocks in it… I started it from the pig, and dragged it to the door and through the woods down to the river and dumped it… you could easy see that something had been dragged…show more content… Huck shows that being quick minded has to do with being both shrewd and romantic. An example of Huck thinking on his toes is when he convinces the men on the boats that his father, who has smallpox, is on the raft. “He’s white.” “I reckon we’ll go and see for ourselves.” “I wish you would,” says I, “because it’s pap that’s there, and maybe you’d help me tow the raft ashore where the light is. He’s sick… ” “Oh, the devil… But I s’pose we’ve got to…” When we had made a stroke or two, I says: “Pap’ll be mighty much obleedged to you, I can tell you. Everybody goes away when I want them to help me tow the raft ashore, and I can’t do it myself.” “Well that’s infernal mean. Odd, too. Say, boy, what’s the matter with your father?” “It’s… it ain’t anything much.” They stopped pulling… One says: “Boy, that’s a lie. What is the matter with your pap? Answer up square now, and it’ll be better for you.” “I will, sir… but don’t leave us, please. It’s the--the-- Gentlemen, if you only pull ahead… you won’t have to come a-near the raft--please do.”... “Your pap’s got the smallpox”…show more content… He says: … “What's the matter with ‘em?”... “They’re in an awful peck of trouble, and… if you’d take you ferry boat up there--” “Up where…” “On the wreck…” “What, do you mean the Walter Scott?” “Yes.” “… Why, how in the nation did they ever got into such a scrape?” “Easy enough...Miss Hooker… Was a visiting there at Booth’s Landing and...she stared over with a… Woman... and they lost their steering oar…but Miss Hooker she made a grab and got aboard the wreck…” “ My George!… And then what did you all do?” “Well, we hollered… I was the only one that could swim, so I made a dash for it… I made the land about a mile below, and been fooling along ever since, trying to get people to do something, but they said, ‘What, in such a current? There ain’t no sense in it; go for the steam ferry.’ Now if you'll go and--” “ By Jackson, I’d like to…but who in the dingnation’s a-going to pay for it… ?” “Why that’s all right. Miss Hooker she told me, particular, that her uncle Hornback--” “Great guns! Is he her uncle? Looks here, you break for that light over yonder-way, and… Tell him I’ll have his niece” (p.p.p.72-74).
Thus proving that his thinking on his toes allows him to be both shrewd and romantic at the same time.
In conclusion, Huck Finn can be both shrewd and romantic because he is clever, he would do anything and everything for Jim, and he thinks on his toes. Do all orphaned boys have the
