Huckleberry Finn and 19th Century - Book Report/Review Example

HUCKLEBERRY FINN AND 19TH CENTURY Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of the most authentic records on the social construction ofMississippi in 19th century. The book has been hailed as a classic but more so, for its unbiased view of the times in which it was written. Though it was written by Mark Twain, the author who earlier gave us adventures of Tom Sawyer, this book is however a far cry from the happy innocent Tom Sawyer. Some of the scenes may appear idyllic but there is a sense of gloom and doom hanging over the book which radiate the central purpose of the book i.e. to highlight the social issues of the time. In order to make some sense of the world that we find in Huckleberry Finn, it is important to understand what was happening in the nation as a whole during the time when this novel was written. For this reason, we shall be focusing on Mark Twain's account of the life in Mississippi around 1830s to 1860s and also some records given by his contemporaries that help us understand Huckleberry's world. The production and growth of textiles was made possible by the fast and consistent improvement of transportation, the exploitation of natural resources for power, the invention of big industrial machines, and the entry of workers from Great Britain and Europe. Along with growth in industry, the movement westwards had also contributed to the industrial progress of the country. This has been made possible by improved transport system such as canals, roads, and railroads. Some of the predominant themes of the novel are discussed and they are put in historical context so we can better understand why Huckleberry and Jim said or did what they did. The Issue of Equality and Government He said we ought to bow, when we spoke to him, and say "Your Grace," or "My Lord," or "Your Lordship"--and he wouldn't mind it if we called him plain "Bridgewater," which he said was a title, anyway, and not a name, and one of us ought to wait on him at dinner, and do any little thing for him he wanted done. (125 ) Mark Twain had been against monarchy and aristocracy. For him democracy was the way government should be and hence he created the characters of king and duke to ridicule the European tradition of bestowing titles on people who had earned them through their parents. He expressed him appreciate for a more democratic system as it existed in America even though equality was still an issue to be tackled. Twain's most cutting comment on an aristocratic form of government is made through Huck when says he knows that the king and the duke are just cheats and frauds, but they couldn't be as bad as real kings and dukes. The desire and need for a more democratic form of government can be attributed to the movement westward when people traveling to these areas expressed a desire for greater class equality than their ancestors in the East had ever enjoyed or allowed. They were also more tolerant than their ancestors and were ready to accept beliefs which ran contrary to their own. But while democracy existed in name, it was mostly absent in spirit because women, nonwhite citizens, and some recent immigrants (like the Irish) still did not enjoy equality in the eyes of the law. Presidential Election and Class system Before the election of Andrew Jackson in 1828, American presidency lied in the hands of New Englanders and Virginians who were more or less still borrowing their governmental ideals from England where aristocracy ruled. Things changed radically when Jackson came to power. He had been brought up on the frontier in Tennessee and was more a commoner than any other president. He was not from the elite class that had so far ruled America. Jackson's election changed the class dynamics to some extent but the boyhood world of Mark Twain's was still very much the same. The harsh treatment of Native Americans and blacks still plagued his childhood world because of Jackson's brutal plan of uprooting Native Americans throughout the East and sending them to uncharted territories in west of the Mississippi in order to secure Indian land. Autonomy of States: Call this a govment! why, just look at it and see what it's like. Here's the law a-standing ready to take a man's son away from him . . . ( 35 ) Pap's attack against "the govment" is a depiction of the rigidity that was present in the centralized form of government. Jackson wanted more autonomy for states but had to struggle against the powerful forces that wanted to keep everything in the center. The war continued for a long time and was not resolved even until the 1950s. Manifest Destiny As unfortunate as it may sound, those who followed Jackson did not really allow equality to prosper. They believed in Manifest Destiny, which was a way of acquiring more territory for America by pushing the frontier westward to the Pacific and south to the Rio Grande, by acquiring Texas, Oregon, and California. Some of the major political issues of the time have been identified by Charles, Mary, and William Beard as following: The push for low tariffs by planters and farmers in contrast to the encouragement of high tariffs for the protection of American "infant industries." The support of state banks and state paper money as opposed to a centralized, national bank and national currency. The endorsement of federal aid to make internal improvements-highways, canals, and railways as opposed to state aid, or no aid at all, to fund such enterprises. The support for free land for western settlers as opposed to the sale of land for the nation's revenue. The establishment of states without slavery as opposed to the establishment of states that allowed slavery. (p. 241) Death and Destruction The images of death and destruction are rampant in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and they depict a very real picture of the Mississippi Valley of the 1830s and 1840s. sadly very few people reached an old age in this region and most children died young. That is not only because of violence that permeated in those times but also disease such as epidemics of cholera, yellow fever, and dysentery that reduced the population in this Valley. Mrs. Frances Trollope, an Englishwoman who chronicles her travels to the West during Jackson era, wrote: [W]e might have thought ourselves the first of the human race who had ever penetrated into this territory of bears and alligators. But still from time to time appeared the hut of the wood-cutter, who supplies the steam-boats with fuel, at the risk, or rather with the assurance of early death, in exchange for dollars and whiskey. These sad dwellings are nearly all of them inundated during the winter, and the best of them are constructed on piles, which permit the water to reach its highest level without drowning the wretched inhabitants. These unhappy beings are invariably victims of ague, which they meet recklessly, sustained by the incessant use of ardent spirits. The squalid look of the miserable wives and children of these men was dreadful, and often as the spectacle was renewed I could never look at it with indifference'I never witnessed human nature reduced so low, as it appeared in the wood-cutters' huts on the unwholesome banks of the Mississippi. (Domestic Manners of the Americans [New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1949], pp. 20, 21) This account was by no means the only account available. A businesses Alexander Majors also spoke of death and destruction in the Mississippi Valley: During the cholera days there was a heavy loss of life on the Western steam boats. On the Missouri River some of the old boats had a burial crew. At night-time, when the passengers were hardly aware of what was going on, the boat would stop near a sand-bar. The bodies of those who had died during the day were taken to the sand-bar, where they were quickly buried. What would have been the use of putting up even a pine board, for the rising waters would soon have washed it away' But this is not simply Western history. It is a part of the history of the North and the South, for those who came never to return were from those sections. In many an Eastern and Southern home it is as unknown to them as to the people of the West where sleep their dead on those old trails of the Western empire. (p. 263) SLAVERY Of course no one would ever deny that slavery was the main theme of the book. Jim's explanation of why he escaped from his master and Huck's alluding to the abolitionist are things that closely reflect the history of the time. Twain's close friend W. D. Howells writes in My Mark Twain, "No man more perfectly sensed and more entirely abhorred slavery" ( New York: Harper, 1910, p. 903). The novel adequately captures the beliefs and practices of the time such as viewing slaves as property; the custom where slaves were separated from their families without any humane consideration, the activities of slave traders, the financial position of slave owners which would often make them sell their properties without any concern for the slave. These were just some of the practices. The novel also aptly captures the emotions of slaves who were so harshly treated by the owners. It captures the fear of the owners to be sold further into the south, the activities of abolitionists who were working ceaselessly for bringing an end to slavery, the hope of the slave that he might one day escape the hardships of life. All these were without a shred of doubt, the main reason for writing this novel. The lives portrayed in the novel were thus consistent with the facts. Jim ran away from his master for three important reasons: he was separated from his family which was a usual practice, he knew that Miss Watson planned to sell him further down south and he wants to liberate his other family members from slavery. He told Huck that he had this all sorted out. Also the constant fear that Jim would be captured and treated harshly is highly consistent with the facts. The novel shows how Phelpses' neighbors would chain Jim hand and foot and kept him only on water and bread. They show no mercy to him even when they learn of the way he put his life in jeopardy to save Tom Sawyer. [H]e would steal his children--children that belonged to a man I didn't even know. ( 93 ) I see it warn't no use for me to try to learn to do right. ( 95 ) There are two things about slavery in the novel which are especially true to life. One was the use of slaves as property and the other was the endorsement of slavery on both religious and moral grounds. The latter was a way of justifying this inhumane practice. The idea of one human owning other is repeatedly ridicules and highlighted in the novel to illustrate the fact that this was actually happening in 19th century Mississippi. This is evident from the line that Jim speaks immediately after he runs away: "I's rich now, come to look at it. I owns myself" ( 54 ). But what bothers Huck throughout is the fact that he is helping Jim and thus stealing Miss Watson's property. I judged I could see that there was two Providences, and a poor chap would stand considerable show with the widow's Providence, but if Miss Watson's got him there warn't no help for him any more. ( 21) Unfortunately in those the notion that one person could be owned by another was not only endorsed by the law and the government, it was also supported by the church. This is evident on several occasions including when Huck says he hears the voice of God--"the plain hand of Providence "-instructing him to return Miss Watson's property. But then he decides: ""All right, then, I'll go to hell" ( 210 ). First he think he is being wicked for allowing such a thing to happen, then he reconciles with his own wickedness and resigns to fate and finally realizes that he doesn't give "a dead rat" what society dictates. Slavery was a common practice in the 19th century and Mark Twain himself had direct experience with slavery. His biographer Albert Bigelow Paine knew of the experience and wrote: "He saw a slave struck down and killed with a piece of slag for a trifling offense. He saw an abolitionist attacked by a mob, and they would have lynched him had not a Methodist minister defended him on a plea that he must be crazy" (p. 48 ). In his autobiography, Mark Twain also recalls: I have no recollection of ever seeing a slave auction in that town; but I am suspicious that that is because the thing was a common and commonplace spectacle, not an uncommon and impressive one. I vividly remember seeing a dozen black men and women chained to one another, once, and lying in a group on the pavement, awaiting shipment to the Southern slave market. Those were the saddest faces I have ever seen. Chained slaves could not have been a common sight, or this picture would not have made so strong and lasting an impression upon me. (p. 124 ) These were some of the most prominent themes in the novel and putting them into historical context, we can see how true to life the events were. The novel adequately captures the social and political picture of the 19th century and thus makes itself one of the most authentic records of social and political life of 19th century Mississippi. References Mark Twain's Autobiography [ New York: Gabriel Wells, 1924], Albert Bigelow Paine. Mark Twain: A Biography [ New York: Harper and Brothers, 1912], Alexander Majors, Majors, Seventy Years on the Frontier [ Chicago: Rand McNally, 1893], The Beards' New Basic History of the United States [ Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday and Co., 1968], Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, ed. Sculley Bradley et al., Norton Critical Edition, 2nd ed. ( New York: Norton, 1977) Read More