Question

After Huck's talk with Mary Jane, she says she'll pray for him. Huck thinks: "Pray for me! I reckoned if she knowed me she'd take a job that was more nearer her size." Explain this statement by describing how Huck views himself and his behavior in general.
Book is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Answer 1

After Huck's talk with Mary Jane, she says she'll pray for him. Huck thinks: "Pray for me! I reckoned if she knowed me she'd take a job that was more nearer her size." It explains that Huck views himself as a high individual and his behavior is a bit bitter.

Answer 2

The Mary Jane in question is Mary Jane Wilks, one of the three nieces of late Peter Wilks. At this point in the plot, Huck has already decided that he will help Jim, his fugitive slave friend to escape to a free state. Because he has been brought up in the Slave South, he thinks that such an action makes him a bad person and that he will go to hell.

Additionally, he knows that the Duke and the King are con men who intend to steal the Wilks nieces inheritance and although he disagrees he dares not to expose them and he feels remorse and shame due to that. Since Mary Jane offers to pray for him, he considers that it would take an amount of prayers far greater than Mary Jane can produce to be able to save such a “horrible” person as him.