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Who Is Sherburn In Huckleberry Finn

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In the Colonel Sherburn scene from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the dialogue between Sherburn and the mob reveals the cowardice of human beings. After killing Boggs, the mob decides to go lynch Sherburn's house out of anger. In an anger, rage Sherburn comes out finding it amusing that the townspeople are planning to lynch him, “ The idea of you lynching anybody! It’s amusing. The idea of you thinking you had pluck enough to lynch a man! Because you’re brave enough to tar and feather poor friendless cast-out women that come along here, did that make you think you had grit enough to lay your hands on a man?.” criticising the crowd. The crowd won’t stand up during daylight, but at night they seem to want to stand up for what's right. …show more content…

When the crowd seems to be quiet and defenseless, Sherburn attacks more, “ In the North he lets anybody walk over him that wants to, and goes home and prays for a humble spirit to bear it. ..” belittling the men in the crowd. The quietness of the mob and Sherburn’s tone of language reveals they are used to it and have accepted it. Sherburn keeps on going by saying, “So they always acquit; and then a man goes in the night, with a hundred masked cowards at his back, and lynches the rascal. Your mistake is, that you didn’t bring a man with you; that’s one mistake, and the other is you didn’t come in the dark, and fetch your masks..” The crowd is full of average men who in the South wouldn’t be considered a real man. The only man in this is crowd is Buck Harkness and he’s only part of a man. The only reason Sherburn considered him part of a man is because he’s the one who started it. The way Sherburn criticizes the crowd he’s comparing them to the South. Sherburn’s attitude to the crowd rioting at night and wearing a mask makes it seem it’s personal. At some point Sherburn may have been involved in a KKK riot or have seen it

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