The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and 19 century American Society - Research Paper Example

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and 19 century American Society In the 19th century that’s when the Protestants began to enter America where they practiced their doctrines and practices. To be precise in the 1830s almost all these bodies that were under the protestant had common evangelical emphasis. In the nineteenth century evangelicalism had spread all over the places1. Evangelism was characterized by dynamism. Finney who was leading the evangelical in the nineteenth century in America said that religion is the work of a man and it should be something that man should always do. In the eighteenth century Calvinists like George white field laid more emphasis on the sinful nature of the human beings and how the humans were not able to control themselves from sinning. Other Calvinists also explained that the salvation was held in the hands of God. In the nineteenth century evangelicals like Finney and other evangelicals were in the fore front to preach to the sinners. They focused on the sins of the human beings in action. They also preached about the hellfire in order to try and divert the sinners from the exercise. They went ahead and insisted that the sinners were supposed to repent and get away from all the sin In the nineteenth century the Protestants through the evangelicalism laid much emphasis on the conversion. This was obliged by ideas about the sinfulness of the human beings after the fall of Adam and also the omnipotence of God. It is said after all this that God has got mercy towards his people and he promises them salvation after all these. The evangelicalism also laid strong emphasis on the how Christ died on the cross for the sake of the sins of the humans. They tried to explain that the best thing to understand is that conversion was just an experience and it was not hard. Many of the people did not believe the message that these evangelists gave. Believing was a very important thing and so for the evangelists I was not easy to convince the people. But still what they preached was heard by many people and though many would have not responded but they were psychologically transformed. (Claudia 2006). This did not just leave them as the ordinary people they were there before but it came to be like a transformation and most of them had changed and they had those characters of Christians deep inside them2. The evangelicals explained that what happened to them was a spiritual rebirth and death of the old someone to the transformation and the birth of another person who has gone through transformation. Conversion consisted of steps that had to be followed. These steps were then followed by powerful emotion that led to the promised heavenly salvation. In the process of conversion there were doctrines that were used in order to make the conversion effective. The doctrines would lead to spiritual anxiety and later to conviction and bin this state of conviction many would not resist fighting for salvation (Barbra, 2006).3 From this point the conversion had taken place and as Finney said in most of his sermons that the moment of renunciation and the surrender to the will of God was the conversion. He also went ahead and proclaimed that according to Christ’s atonement for the sake of the human sin God would grant salvation to the sinner who had repented The most important thing to the human beings is the emotional state. And this is where one shows that one has received divine grace and apart from that one has been converted to Christianity. This was characterized by the emotions that came along. Most of the characters that came after conversion were tears and humility that made the sense of the lord to be seen in the person who had been converted4. This state was known as regeneration process. In this state one was able to do the God’s will. The converted being would not just remain reluctant but he had to go on and make sure that all the other people around were to follow and do the same. (Claudia 2006). During the evangelism by the Protestants in the nineteenth century there was also the aspect of revivalism. The act of revivalism brought about the religious revival where churches were received the awakening of God’s saving grace. This led to an increase in the number of the people who were converted into Christianity. In the nineteenth century the revival had turned to be the method that the evangelists used to bring about conversion. According to Grandison Finney a revival was used by the preachers in order to convert the unconverted people especially the youths. The wrought revivals took place and they came to be during the in eighteenth century. They began at a camp in Virginia and North Carolina and then to Kentucky. All these revivals were done by the Protestants who were divided by the names: Presbyterians, Methodists and then the Baptists 5(Jonathan, 2002).During these revivals the Protestants would sing hymns that had spiritual messages in them of the journey of conversion. Many made confessions and renunciations of sins in the public in order to motivate the sinners to convert to Christianity. Collective prayers were also part of the revival. Protracted meetings became very common and they were held each year (Claudia 2006). The Second Great Awakening was the term that the evangelical leaders used to refer to the revivalism and the strong belief they had within themselves. The Second Great Awakening helped to describe the religious phenomenon. The Second Great Awakening was used to show the extraordinary participation of the religious phenomenon. The eighteenth –century spiritual outpouring was referred to as the First Great Awakening where it was said to be associated by Jonathan Edward, George Whitefield among others. Mark Twain is very creative in creating regionalists work. Regionalism dwells much on the formal and informal attitudes that characters that that they have between them and to the community as a whole. He tries so much to make the reader to understand more about region in the masterpiece The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain’s we get to learn about America in the 19th century. Mark Twain tries also to bring the aspect of humor, realism and tumor through the characters in his novel (Barbra 2006)6.He also talks about satire in his novel and tries to explain this more in using examples in the first chapter that Huck says that they fetched the niggers and had prayers with them and we also get to find Miss Watson who tries to become a better Christian and he still had slaves that she considered to be hers. However in being real, Daisy is rejected by the society. Huck is the narrator t and he also does function as the reader’s translator. Huck talks about the experiences and he helps the reader to understand where he is and what it takes to get there. He tells the story about when he told the widow his problems and Huck explains the widow and her actions. He says that the widow cried over her and gave her compliments that would seem not to be positive but all in all Huck does understand that the regions differ (Mark 1998). He also understands that different regions have different ways of doing things. This is the same way that when the protestant evangelicals were giving out their message and they were faced by the same problems. Not all the people responded positively they all had different ways of taking the message7. The novel reveals the American people. (Jonathan 2002). Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn shows the reader and helps him to understand how it was at the south and reveals the conflicts that were there. He shows how the religion was at the southern of the United States. The author tries to show his personal belief through Huck and Jim some of the main characters in the novel. He explains further that he believes that religion is of no essence in life. He believes in decision making and moral compasses are the most important things in life and he emphasizes on that in the novel. He starts with a narrative that begins with Huck Finn, a young boy who comes from the south, who lives with his foster parents. He tells about the father of the boy who is a drunkard and did not take care of the boy. The widow who takes care of him is named Douglas and she plans to change him and she gives him the story about Moses and the Bulrushers and as she continues to narrate the story she states that she was dead long time ago and from that instance the boy did not care about the story and to him it seemed not to be of any essence if he was dead. Mark twain only believes in the moral beliefs and making of decisions. Twain tries so much to show that religion was worthless through the main actors in the book. When he is concluding his book Jim is freed after he helped in the bandaging of Tom’s leg. It is based on the moral beliefs of Jim and that’s how he runs his life8. Mark Twain shows his beliefs well in throughout the novel. References Barbra, G. Social Criticism in the Adventure of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Grin Verlag, 2006 Claudia, D. Understanding Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Greenwood Publishing Group. Copyright, 2006 Jonathan, A. Huckleberry Finn as Idol and Target, Wisconsin Press. Copyright.2002 James, S. Satire or Evasion: Black Perspectives on Huckle Berry Finn, Duke University Press. Copyright, 2006 Mark, R. The Adventure of Hukclesberry Finn, Saddleback Educational Publishers. Copyright, 1998 Read More