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Feb 26, 2004

volunteer of the week ON MY BOOKSHELF

“Huckleberry Finn”
By Mark Twain

Megan Wilson, 17,
junior at Leland High School

Beware. It's 2004 and teenagers have yet to rise above the 1970s “American Graffiti” infused obsession of high school pranks. Proof lies in the actions of Leland High School junior Megan Wilson.

Wilson, who appears to be a straight-edge high school student participating in typical extra-curricular activities such as field hockey, diving for the Charger swim team, and preparing for college—either Long Beach State or U.C. Santa Barbara—is far from straight.

“I love to scare people,” confessed Wilson. “I drive by and yell at them from my car making bird calls like ‘tookie, tookie.'”

However, with Wilson, it's not a senseless act of cruelty.

“I've had it done to me before,” she said, recalling a chilling memory. “I think it's funny…unless you whistle and point. That stuff is disrespectful.”

Recently, in accordance with the English curriculum at Leland, Wilson was required to read Mark Twain's “Huckleberry Finn.”

“My pranks are funny,” said Wilson, comparing her talents with those of the book's notorious main character, Huckleberry. “His [Huckleberry's] were crazy.”

In the classic tale, Huckleberry is kidnapped by his father who has returned to town after hearing that his son discovered $12,000 while living with ‘Widow Watson' in Twain's preceding “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.”

Meanwhile, Widow Watson has decided to sell Jim, her slave at the time. When Jim learns that he is to be sold beyond the comfort of Widow Watson's home, he decides to run away, ultimately, with Huckleberry accompanying him.

Throughout the adventure, Huckleberry learns to rely on his wit, pulling pranks including acts of stolen identity and faking his own death.

“Sometimes it was a little hard to follow,” said Wilson. “But I liked it a lot. And his pranks were about 10 times more outrageous than mine. At first Huckleberry is sort of superficial and into things for himself, but by the end of the story he realizes that people are not objects; they have feelings and emotions too.”

—By Justin Petersen

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