Symbolisms in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: The River and the Raft - Book Report/Review Example

Symbolisms in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: The River and the Raft Introduction Freedomis the theme of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; it is America’s most ingrained problem, as well. Several scholars have reflected about the wide gap between the grand promises of America and, its imperfect tradition, much less the observation of the ways where in the country in the 19th century wrestled with the ‘bizarre tradition’ called slavery (Pinsker 2001). What Twain implies to prove in the peculiar statement of Huck of how he and Jim travelled by the river is evidently a symbol of American freedom. It is the River that steers the journey of Huck and Jim; that will not allow them to reach Cairo, where the protagonists could have attained freedom. The River breaks them apart and drops Huck for a while in the household of the Grangerford; the River that brings them back together, and then forces upon them the undesirable presence of the King and the Duke. The readers are repeatedly reminded of its existence and its influence. The readers make sense of the River by witnessing it through the point of view of the Boy; however the Boy is the River’s soul as well. Huckleberry Finn, similar to other grand creations of the mind, can offer readers whatever s/he is able to get from it. On the surface, Huck is a compelling Boy. On a similar note, the depiction of social life on Mississippi’s shores a century ago is truthful. Mark Twain compels the readers to witness the River in its true form more vividly than the writers of any other narrative of a river known to humanity. However, the readers do not just witness the River; they experience the River as well. In his later years of fame and success, Mark Twain called his childhood as a steamboat pilot as the most fulfilling he had known (Champion 1991). In the everyday struggle of the pilot with the River, in the gratification of the task, in the unbroken focus on the random difficulties, his mind was completely engaged, and he took in wisdom of which, as a novelist, he used soon after. Maybe, there are only two ways where in an author can gain knowledge of the situation which s/he can afterward narrate: one is by spending one’s childhood in that situation, or, in other words, living in it at a time where in one encounters much more than s/he understands; and second, by experiencing the difficulty of making a living in that situation (Champion 1991). Mark Twain’s familiarity with the Mississippi echoes these two ways. The River and the Raft When I woke up, I didn’t know where I was for a minute. I set up and looked around, a little scared. Then I remembered. The river looked miles and miles across. The moon was so bright I could a counted the drift-logs that went a-slipping along, black and still, hundreds of yards out from shore. Everything was dead quite, and it looked late, and smelt late. You know what I mean—I don’t know the words to put it in (Twain 1912, 82). It was kind of solemn, drifting down the big still river, laying on our backs looking up at the stars, and we didn’t ever feel like talking loud, and it wasn’t often that we laughed, only a little kind of a low chuckle. We had mighty good weather as a general thing, and nothing ever happened to us at all, that night, nor the next, nor the next (Twain 1912, 82-83). Every night we passed towns, some of them away up on black hillsides, nothing but just a shiny bed of lights, not a house could you see. The fifth night we passed St. Louis, and it was like the whole world lit up. In St. Petersburg they used to say there was twenty or thirty thousand people in St. Louis, but I never believed it till I see that wonderful spread of lights at two o’clock that still night. There wasn’t a sound there, everybody was asleep (Twain 1912, 91). The River makes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn a remarkable narrative. Similar to Joseph Conrad, the readers are constantly reminded of Nature’s fury and power, and Man’s weakness and remoteness. Mark Twain is an indigenous, and his God is the River God (Champion 1991). It is as an indigenous that Twain recognizes the River God, and it is the weakness of humanity that endows an individual dignity. Since without a God, humanity will cease to be fascinating. Readers at times criticize the fact that the narrative goes down to the narrative of Tom Sawyer from the time that he re-surfaces. These readers disapprove of the adventures created by Tom to rescue Jim. However, these are merely tiresome theme developments, with which readers are already familiar with (O’Loughlin 2007). The River itself, akin to Huckleberry Finn, does not begin or end. It is not yet the River in the beginning; and it is not the River anymore in the end. What is called the River’s headwaters is merely a collection from among the infinite references which unite to create it. It is the Mississippi of the novel just after its coming together with Missouri’s the Big Muddy; it obtains several of its characters from the Tennessee, the Ohio, and others (O’Loughlin 2007). And in its final lap it simply vanishes among its deltas: its existence ceases, but remains where it was, a wide distance to the North. Things should only occur, here and there, to the individuals who inhabit its shores or who dedicate themselves to the River. Hence the novel has the privilege, the only appropriate ending: But I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and civilize me, and I can’t stand it. I been there before (Twain 1912, 142). Critics of this novel usually overlook the elements that make it disturbing and relevant at the same time. Hence, allow me to list the following interpretation: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a story that does not shy away from all that struggles to keep true freedom under control. Akin to the wideness of the River, the story is also broad enough to assume the entire array of the American culture. Essentially, the Mississippi River and the Raft are two major symbols in this novel. The River symbolizes numerous things, and one of its major roles is being Huck and Jim’s liberator. The River helps Huck and Jim escape from enslavement. As Huck was escaping from the Widow and the Pap, and Jim was fleeing from Miss Watson the River guides their way. With Jim restricted to the raft throughout the day it becomes quite hard for them to search for food. The River feeds them. Huck and Jim are travelling to Cairo to get the freedom of Jim and to see his family again. The River then symbolizes their mobile lives, and they developed a strong attachment to one another and to the River. The River limits the journey of Huck and Jim since it would not allow them to reach Cairo. The River detaches them for a moment when Huck lives with the family Grangerford and then comes back to them. The limits imposed by the River also forced Huck to encounter the deceitful Duke and King, who overwhelmed him. This event put an end to the voyage of Huck and Jim when the two thieves sold Jim to slavery once again. The Raft, likewise, played a major role in his novel. If the river is representing the wandering life of Huck and Jim, the raft symbolizes their roaming home on the Mississippi River. The Raft gave Huck and Jim the comfort of freedom and order. As the River steered their voyage the Raft carried Huck and Jim; without the Raft it would be impossible for Huck and Jim to continue their voyage. The Raft did not merely carried Huck and Jim but also their belongings and needed materials amassed on this voyage. Huck and Jim developed a strong connection to the remote river, but it is on the Raft where they developed an attachment for each other. Huck is only a boy wanting to escape from all the difficulties his father gave him, but this only firmly entrenched his responsibility and attachment to Jim. Huck did not experience love or care from his parents, and on the Raft he experienced all of these. The Raft witnessed how Jim helped Huck mature. Huck became more attentive to Jim than any other person he encountered because Jim did not attempt to educate or refine him or take advantage of him. Moreover, Huck was becoming a mature individual and he began to make sense of the world through Jim on the Raft. Both Huck and Jim were gaining knowledge from each other. One instance was their discussion about the French language and King Solomon. Basically, the journey through the River represents a symbolic plunge into the criminal world, where Huck understood his own identity and his attachment to Jim, and initiates change. It is on the Raft and on the River where Huck became absolutely alive and mature. It is on the Raft where Huck learned the meaning of love, experienced care, and the consequences of skin color. For Huck and Jim, the River symbolizes freedom. The River liberates them: for Huck, afar from his violent father and St. Petersburg’s limiting ‘civilizing’. Akin to the River, Huck and Jim are in constant motion, eager to alter their outlooks about each other. However, in spite of their freedom, they eventually discovered that they are not entirely liberated from the wickedness and power of the towns on the banks of the River. Even at the beginning of the story, the actual world interrupts the order and harmony of the Raft: the flooding of the River occurred, putting Huck and Jim in the hands of vagabonds, ruins, and stolen valuables. Afterward, a thick mist made them miss the Ohio River’s entrance, which was to be their path to freedom. The River, as the story continues, becomes a naturally compassionate sanctuary Huck initially believed it was. As Huck and Jim continued their journey to the South, the dauphin and the duke overrun the Raft, and the two boys should stay for a time ashore. Although the River keeps on offering a sanctuary, it usually only influences the transition from one disheartening event to another. Each flight was situated in the bigger setting of a constant flow southward, toward slavery. In this shift from perfect escape to source of danger, the River reflects the difficult condition of the South. As the voyage of Huck and Jim continues, the River, which previously looked like a seventh heaven and a spring of freedom, turns into a mere temporary way of escape that nevertheless brings both boys toward peril and pain. A Further Discussion on Symbolism There are literary works that build up an impression which fascinates the reader before s/he endeavors to the reading; it offers him/her an ability to react, and a set of anticipations to direct his/her reaction. Who has read the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn without expectations, even of attachment to the events and the characters? An impression can be regarded a negotiation which places the novel and directs the reader toward an existing symbolism (O’Loughlin 2007). This implies that novels such as Huckleberry Finn can be forcefully ordained experiences; people stumble upon them, particularly at specific life stages, from within the belief and values shared by author, novel, and reader. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn developed into a cultural work of particular strength during the aftermath of the Second World War when numerous Americans took in literary activities as alternatives to a growingly limiting reality (Pinsker 2001). The ideals of Mark Twain seemed to express a responsible symbolism—a symbolism of educated innocence in the face of evils, of individuals attaining freedom. It seemed to express a symbolism, of freedom. However, it is not abstract freedom; the principles of the novel were viewed by readers as the actual opposition of all the factors sensed as the repressive in the 1950 (Pinsker 2001). General to the many major readings of the novel was one total symbolism that the major symbols were, as written by Henry Nash Smith, “against stupid conformity and for the autonomy of the individual” (O’Loughlin 2007, 205). The concepts of autonomy versus conformity reduce an unforgettable statement of the recent history of America. The idea of individuals and freedom which dominates the criticism shows as much of the understated issues of the evaluators as it does the symbolisms of the novel, and must be interpreted in view of the social and political fears of the postwar period (O’Loughlin 2007). However, does The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn merits its status as a symbol of freedom? What actual situations, actually, do freedom exists in the themes of the novel? To argue that a theme is not present aside from its verbal template may appear ordinary. But evaluation has usually dealt with itself to observable components in this narrative like event, symbol, and representation rather than to the absolute and unbroken verbal act. Given, the vulnerability of the novel to different interpretations—its capacity to fall to bits into independent passages and episodes which influences us apart from the unbroken story—is an indication of strength (Pinsker 2001). However a well-built understanding of the entire story is needed to make sense of the form of freedom symbolized in the novel. It is hence important to find first the dilemma meant by ‘conformity’ and ‘autonomy’ (O’Loughlin 2007, 206), the issue of freedom in the novel, and if likely, to determine the thematic issue with an actual dilemma. In the widest sense, the representation of freedom engages the reader at the beginning: Huck is limited by his new situation as Widow Douglas’s ward and Miss Watson’s closest apprentice. The initial scenes with Tom Sawyer insert a confounding irony: to gain pleasure from being ‘wicked’—becoming a member of the gang—Huck should give himself to his surrogate family and look ‘dignified’ (Pinsker 2001). With the arrival of Pap the irony is overturned; at this point he can gain pleasure from being free to choose and sprawl his time, but the price is a captivity even more menacing, an actual captivity. The only liberation possible is, flight, escape, and destruction of the reputation through which Pap and the town represses him; he can continue independence only by accepting his name’s ‘death’ (O’Loughlin 2007, 206). Jim, on the other hand, symbolizes himself unfettered by the ironies of the problem of Huck: ‘to be free, to possess himself, to reveal a firm identity—these will be equal consequences of the single act of crossing the border’ (O’Loughlin 2007, 206). The impact of a clear presence in the novel is, primarily, to expose the more restrained types of denial of freedom, types which are impossible to surpass by mere physical movement, and second, to coerce Huck, when he accepts slavery, into a personal conflict. In the face of this contradiction, apparent in the words of Huck at the finale of Chapter 11, “They’re after us!” (ibid, 206) what then would comprise liberation for Huck? Apparently, reaching the Free states would not be sufficient. He should liberate himself from moral defect before he can claim that he owns himself. References Books Champion, Laurie. The Critical Response to Mark Twains Huckleberry Finn. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1991. Twain, M. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: P.F. Collier & Sons, 1912. Journal Articles OLoughlin, J. Off the Raft: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Jane Smileys the All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton, Papers on Language & Literature, 2007, 205+ Pinsker, H. Huckleberry Finn and the Problem of Freedom, The Virginia Quarterly Review, 2001, 642+ Websites http://summarycentral.tripod.com/theadventuresofhuckleberryfinn.htm http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides3/Twain.html http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/huckfinn/themes.html http://www.123helpme.com/assets/15656.html http://www.shmoop.com/huckleberry-finn/symbolism-imagery.html http://www.essays.cc/free_essays/c2/icr295.shtml http://blogs.setonhill.edu/MelissaHagg/005476.html Read More