Social or Historical Events During the Time the Writers Wrote - Research Paper Example

The ability of the to capture into words an account of what occurs and surrounds him is among the things that enable a work to transcend generations. The feature of any good piece of literature that allows its readers to be transported into a different time and place to understand how different one era is from his and to appreciate it with all of his heart makes it a classic. This is true not only for historical text but also in all forms of art whether it is fiction or nonfiction. William Shakespeare was adept in portraying different times and cultural contexts in his plays that tackle monarchical themes. A lot of the vivid things that we know from historical events come from books and films that specifically confront them. It is not uncharacteristic that the mental pictures that we have of the Holocaust and World War II for example come from poignant movies such as ‘Schindler’s List’ or through equally notable books such as ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ among many others. All of these serve as proof not only of how we are influenced by what is contained in these works but most importantly of how writers are inspired most by what they see and what they know.  The study of historical context according to the subjected piece of literature allows the reader to have a better grasp of understanding of the story. Through this one must be able to associate the social and historical undertones found in the story to get a better comprehension of the ideas of the writer. ‘Huckleberry Finn’ by Mark Twain is a notable example of how a story can best be appreciated through the application of this critical analysis. Twain was able to capture as clearly had decades ago the imagination of his readers through the garish and offbeat boyish characters that he had managed to develop. Named Samuel Clemens in real life, the author made use of Mark Twain as a pseudonym and has been more popularly known by it since then. He was a known humorist of his time and has become a pressing subject through his works. His book ‘Huckleberry Finn’ has posted a dilemma where it had yielded conflicting views regarding the true intentions of the writer especially with his frequent use of the word nigger that drove some to the conclusion of its racist disposition. But more than this there have been a great number that support the notion that what this little affectionate book has done was to race awareness and to push on the social issue of racial discrimination prevalent during its time (Kirk, p.3, 2004). While it has often been criticized for being crude and lacking the artistic value that critics of his time sought, it has continued to provoke thinking more than so many other American novels. He was able to take on a topic that was far bigger than what he had expected to traverse and has provided for an opportunity to shed light on an issue much bigger that he could have possibly imagined. The initial success of ‘Huckleberry Finn’ was perceptibly a carryover from ‘The adventures of Tom Sawyer’ that was already a stable American classic. The book itself, through the first person narrative of the main character, recognizes the significance of the previous novel. “You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” thus rightfully begins (Twain, p.4). Both novels set in Mississippi were adapted by the author from his very own Hannibal, Missouri. The appeal of the odd name Huckleberry has stemmed from a number of definitions one of which is that there exists a real berry by the same name and that it was a slang term during the 19th century that refers no someone dismissible (Kirk, p.70, 2004). By the language of the novel itself, the reader finds the terminologies to be beyond one’s own vocabulary. This is reason why there is an explanatory note before the beginning of the novel to explain the different dialects used within the book. But by far the most discerning aspect of the story which has catapulted it into the status that it has achieved is the way that it has confronted the issue of race in a time where it has been almost a taboo as a topic especially in an adventure type novel. The story was written in a time when slavery was a legal concept and that the selling of Black people is a lucrative business and they are regarded as less that human beings but are objects of trade. They represent objects of possession that can be exchanged for value. This was the main object that drove the main characters toward all sorts of scheme to free Jim, Ms. Watson’s slave that she purportedly was about to sell to another plantation. The ending of the story is also another somewhat quirk that is consistent with the youthful flare that was the major theme of the story. But where Tom Sawyer was more laden with the boyish charms of mirth, Huckleberry Finn whether intentionally or not has enabled it to be more than just another coming of age story. The blurring of the distinction between real life and imaginary is among the charm that makes twains work revealing to the reader. Tom Quirk in his book ‘Coming to Grips With Huckleberry Finn: Esays on a Book, a Boy, and a Man’ argues that Twain’s portrayal of Jim as negro is no more than a typical depiction of an average man and that this does not in itself provide for a generalization of a demeaning characteristic that the author attributes to a race of a misguided notion of being foolish. This he contends is in fact the very attribute of realism that must be accorded to the author with the highest regard because he was able to represent the main African-American character in the most natural way and therefore he is a “fully humanized character” (p.74, 1993). The story contained several commentaries that were veiled in the nature of the characters and by the ingenuity of the writer. Doyno (p.92, 1993) discloses that Twain had been annoyed for years regarding the racial prejudices suffered by the minority particularly the regionalist mind-sets that amplify this and that in one particular point he wrote a sarcastic editorial about this for the ‘Buffalo Express’ in 1869. Kirk further extends this inclination of the writer to undertake upon subjects that are more akin to him, his story was “the story of a man for whom the sound of a single voice speaking naturally and truthfully, for good or for ill, meant all” (p.3, 2004). The story of race as perceived during the nineteenth century was a time of social awareness in the political structure that leans overly towards one group and weighs heavily upon others. It was the start of the total awakening that has ignited a whole revolution that paved the way where the United States as a country is today. This is why Huckleberry Finn is more than just a fictional account of an unassuming wild goose chase. It is history without the author having had the conscious proclivity to send this as the ultimate message. Mark Twain successfully carries the reader to a different time and makes one realize of how it was then so be able to fully recognize the value of where we are today. Bibliography Budd, Louis J. Mark Twain: The Contemporary Reviews. Cambridge, England: Cambridge UP, 1999. Print. Doyno, Victor A. Writing "Huck Finn: Mark Twains Creative Process. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1993. Google Books. Web. 8 Jan. 2012. Kirk, Connie Ann. Mark Twain: A Biography. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2004. Google Books. Web. 8 Jan. 2012. Quirk, Tom. Coming to Grips with Huckleberry Finn: Essays on a Book, a Boy, and a Man. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri, 1993. Google Books. Web. 8 Jan. 2012. Twain, Mark. "Huckleberry Finn." Google Books. Plain Label Books. Web. 8 Jan. 2012. . Read More