Through
chapters 21-30, mobs are a recurring subject. There was the lynch mob for
Sherburn because he killed a defenseless drunk, the angry crowd from the duke
and dauphin’s The Royal Nonesuch because there were ripped off, and the mob
that was trying to find out who the real Wilks brothers were. In each of these
events, someone was doing wrong and a mob formed to bring justice. It’s almost
as if the town looks after each other. For example, when Sherburn killed the
drunk in front of the daughter, no matter what the drunk said to Sherburn,
killing the man in cold blood right in front of the daughter is pretty
horrible. The mob formed to seek justice for the drunk and the daughter. The
angry crowd from the play is debatable. The first crowd was ripped off and felt
like fools, so they wanted everyone else to get ripped off to make themselves
feel better. However, the same crowd came back to seek revenge on the duke and
the dauphin for ripping them off. The acts of the town for the Wilks family
really showed how close everyone was. When the duke and the dauphin were
pretending to be the Wilks brothers, a crowd formed to welcome them. They were
even there to help find out the impostors. The
actions of these mobs show that maybe, if you are part of a town, it is your
responsibility to help your neighbor. Even though this book takes place during
a different time period, we can see that this idea still applies today.
3 comments:
That is a very good point that you make, I hadn’t thought about it. It is true that the time period where this book takes place is very different from the one where we live in right now. Many things have changed such like culture, people, and technology; but there are some others that don’t change. The responsibility of helping other people when they are in danger that you mentioned in your blog is one of those things that don’t and won’t change in despite of the time elapsed. A good example of this is the one you put when the towns people were trying to help to identify who where the frauds brothers. They were truly caring about the welfare of the girls since they weren’t going to get anything back from it. Although finding who the frauds were was not something that concerned them directly they decided to help because it was their responsibility for being part of the girls’ community.
Hmmm..I think the approach you take to the idea of social responsibility is cool. You tie the idea of helping your neighbors and mobs into this theme, something I wouldn’t have thought of. Come to think of it, how you mention that this town values that idea probably explains why the Wilks took in Huck so willingly. Also, how you imply that the mobs are a form of justice is interesting, because I thought of the mobs as a form of punishment, not necessarily justice, but I definitely see that to. Thinking about it now, it seems like the town does everything together right? Like everything is done in crowds, as you give many examples for that. Anyway, good job!
I liked your blog post because I usually think of social responsibility as it pertains to Huck and you talked about the social responsibility that many people experience at the same time. I also think it's interesting that even though there were multiple mobs throughout these chapters, their mob mentality was not necessarily irrational. Every situation that inspired a coming together of a large group of people kind of needed to be dealt with in some way, and uniting was the way they chose to do it. Today people are more independent but back then it was natural to make every issue a town issue.
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