The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Culture Study - Coursework Example

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Culture Study Introduction Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written by Mark Twain and was initially published at the end of 1884 in the UK and in 1885 in the US. The story in the book is articulated in first person by Huck who is an acquaintance to Tom Sawyer and it is recognized for its interesting portrayal of individuals and locations along the Mississippi River. The book has been highly condemned by numerous reviewers in the author’s time as course and by numerous commentators in the current time as being racist. The book was banned from the shelves of the Concord Public Library provoking a lot of publicity and discourse in the media and it is still regularly in the news bulletins as different schools and their systems all over the United States have either banned it or restored it in their teaching spaces. Student critique The adventures of Huckleberry Finn has for a long time been perceived as Mark Twain’s masterwork and a classic American literature and was the first critical American work that departed from European literary models. The book utilized borderline humor, vernacular speech as well as an uneducated young narrator in the portrayal of life in America. Even though the novel was initially plainly condemned as being inappropriate for the well-mannered readers, it ultimately found an outstanding place in the canon of American literature. The book is recognized for its intriguing description of people and places that are located along the Mississippi River. The Book is set in the Southern antebellum society which had stopped existing almost twenty years prior to the publication of the work, and is often a sarcastic account of ingrained attitudes especially racism. The book had been criticized when it was released as it contained coarse language and its contentiousness increased in the twentieth century because of its apparent use of racial typecasts as well as its frequent usage of racial slur regardless of the tenor of the book being considered anti-racist. Continually popular with the readers, the book has also remained a focus of study by numerous literary critics since it was published. The book dwells on ideas of associated with race and identity which are obvious complexities that exist in regard to Jim’s character (Stecopoulos and Uebel 366). Even though it can be concluded that Jim is good at heart, ethical and unintelligent, the novel has continued to be perceived as racist based on the use of the word “nigger”. In the book, Huck struggles with the obstacles in his tireless journey as well as the nineteenth century social environment along with the roles it presents to him I regard to Jim. In the entire story, Huck is in a moral conflict in regard to the values of the society he lives in and even though he is not in a position to deliberately go against these values even in his way of thinking, he makes an ethical choice that founded on his valuation of the friendship he has with Jim and human worth. In highlighting the insincerity required in condoning slavery in a presumably ethical system, the author has made Huck’s father enslave his son, isolate and beat him. When eventually Huck makes his escape, which can be considered as the correct choice, he instantaneously comes across Jim who has done a similar thing. The character of Huck in the book and the entire book is in the perspective of its association to African-American culture in entirety and there have been suggestions that the character of Huck has illustrated the interrelation as well as interconnectedness evident between the white and black cultures that exist in the US. Most of the contemporary scholarship of this book has been directed in the manner in which it deals with race. The book, through humanizing Jim and revealing the misconceptions associated with racist assumptions in regard to slavery, attacks racism (DuRocher 52). The book has also been considered to fall short on this score particularly in the manner in which it portrays Jim. The author was not able to fully rise above the typecasts of black people that the white readers in his time anticipated and relished and thus resorted some form of comedy to create humor at Jim’s expense resulting in a confirmation rather than challenge of the late nineteenth century stereotypes. The controversies associated with the book in regard to whether it is racist or anti-racist has led to a debate on the suitability of teaching the book in the United States school system. Comparison and contrast of reviews According to T.S. Perry, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn benefits from being written in the form of an autobiography as this secure some form of unity in the story which is valuable. All the scenes are delivered to the reader rather than being described resulting is a more vivid representation of the western life at the time when the book was written. Huckleberry Finn has a plot that is highly comprehensible and its immortal hero, Huckleberry, escapes from his worthless father and floats down the Mississippi river using a raft accompanied by Jim who is a runaway Negro (Perry). The plot of the book provides a great chance for varying incidents as the two travellers spend time on an island, they outsmart everybody they meet, they get complete knowledge of the repulsive peripheral of civilization that had adorned the valley, and the book may be considered as a record of a vital component of the American civilization (Perry). According to Charles Vale, among the commendable things in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are the recurring passages whereby Huck’s morality reproofs him with the degree of his misconduct in regard to assisting the escape of the runaway nigger. He considers betraying Jim, who is trusting in nature, on a number of occasions and every time, his distinctive good nature prevails over the conventional morality inculcated in him by the public opinion that favors the holding of slaves. However, in the end, being unable to resist the urgent reprimands of morality, he decides to write a letter to the legal owner of his nigger friend, and directs him where he can be found (Vale). Charles Vale goes further states that the author of the book is a person who should be honored by English and Americans as he is an accurate consolidator of the nations. The author’s humor is of the form that dispels and abolishes national preconceptions. His truths and honors and preference for truth and honor, surpasses all the boundaries and the author is considered to have made the world a better place through his presence. Cultural context During the time when Mark Twain wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, principles and misconceptions were widespread all over the states in the south. These states were especially strong in regard to the black community and in the book; Jim is depicted as being superstitious and to some degree, Huck too. In the Four chapter of the book where Jim turns over the salt cellar by accident, he quickly picks up some salt so that he could throw it over his left shoulder and avoid spates of bad lack. Nonetheless, he is stopped by the widow and he spends the rest of the day being anxious of the bad luck he believes will follow him and a short while later he identifies his father’s footsteps and he knows that there is trouble. The presentation of the southern community that is done by the Twain is in a less than favorable perspective as there are numerous instances of exploitation and savagery. A good example of this is the Grangerford family and regardless of the fact that they appear as a balanced family, they are entirely bitter and Huck recognizes that man are not the gentlemen that they pretend to be and that they are unethical and corrupt. Works cited DuRocher, Kristina. Raising Racists. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2011. Print. Perry, T.S. 'Century Reviews Huck'. Twain.lib.virginia.edu. N.p., 1985. Web. 21 Nov. 2014. Stecopoulos, Harry, and Michael Uebel. Race And The Subject Of Masculinities. Durham: Duke University Press, 1997. Print. Vale, Charles. 'Vale's "MT As Orator"'. Twain.lib.virginia.edu. N.p., 1910. Web. 21 Nov. 2014. Read More