>Still reading notes from "Heretical Fictions", I note the idea that Jim did not tell Huck about the dead body being Pap as because Jim did not want Huck to abandon him in his quest to escape slavery.  I had always had the impression that his motivation was to avoid telling Huck the "bad" news.  Thinking about it, now, I suppose I have been a bit naive.

Well, you have company, because I’ve always thought the same thing too. I guess this new interpretation is also possible, but I don’t know … It seems to me that Jim, like Huck, doesn’t tend to think things out that way, but thinks more in terms of the present, rather than looking down the road.

 -- Bob G.