南鵲曰：
我沒讀過〈湯姆歷險記〉。〈哈克歷險記〉倒讀了兩遍，第一次讀的時候，邊讀邊畫線邊查單字、把字義寫在書頁空白處，讀到特別有趣的段落就停下來出聲唸過幾次。大學時代讀英文名著，還真是每篇這樣土法煉鋼。印象所及，那時讀的作品沒有一篇能夠像〈哈克歷險記〉讓我常常讀得捧腹大笑。

然而，〈哈克歷險記〉畢竟不只是幽默消遣之作。其中對於種族歧視的批判，實則婉曲而深沉：
"I was trying to make my mouth say I would do the right thing and the clean thing, and go and write to that nigger's owner and tell where he was; but deep down in me I knowed it was a lie-and He knowed it. You can't pray a lie- I found that out.

So I was full of trouble, full as I could be; and didn't know what to do. At last I had an idea; and I says, I'll go and write the letter- and then see if I can pray. Why, it was astonishing, the way I felt as light as a feather, right straight off, and my troubles all gone. So I got a piece of paper and a pencil, all glad and excited, and set down and wrote:

Miss Watson your runaway nigger Jim is down here two mile below Pikesville and Mr. Phelps has got him and he will give him up for the reward if you send.
                                                                                             HUCK FINN

I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever felt so in my life, and I knowed I could pray now. But I didn't do it straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking- thinking how good it was all this happened so, and how near I come to being lost and going to hell. And went on thinking. And got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me, all the time; in the day, and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a floating along, talking, and singing, and laughing. But somehow I couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind. […] and then I happened to look around, and see that paper.

It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself:

‘All right, then, I'll go to hell’- and tore it up."

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