Fathers and Sons and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Book Report/Review Example

Comparison between the Father-son Relationships in the Novels, Fathers and Sons and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Introduction The father-son relationships occupy the pivotal position of the interpersonal conflicts in the novels, “Fathers and Sons” and “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. Though these relationships are primarily characterized with the conflicts between the fathers and their sons, they differently contribute to the composition of the novels. Whereas in the novel “Fathers and Sons”, the father-son conflict signifies the widening gap between the two generations in Russian socio-cultural orders of the 1840s, the same conflict in the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” refers to the defiance of the youth to the patriarchal domination and suppressing culture and values in American society of the 1880s. Indeed Pap’s attitude toward viewing Huck as his property refers to the attitude of the 1880s’ American society toward the Black. Towards the end of the novel, readers become immediately aware of the agony of the black’s longing for freedom and individuality through Huck’s painful strife with his fathers’ suppression and his struggle for freedom. Father-son Conflict as Primary Component of the Novel Though the novel, “Fathers and Sons” is structurally simple but its thematic riches lie in the author’s manipulation of the father-son conflicts to mirror the socio-cultural divergence from traditional Russian society. Turgenev himself wrote that in the first place the novel is a response to the conflict between the nihilistic movement and the traditional Russian belief. Also the novel reflects the conflict of the traditional Russian cultural values with the western based liberalism. The father-son relationships in Turgenev’s novel refer to two-fold social conflicts in a broader context. On one hand, nihilistic Bazarov appears to be in conflict with his father, Vasily Ivanovich Bazarov’s conservative Slavophilic attitude to modernistic change in Russian society. Being a retired surgeon, Bazarov’s father does not get the opportunity to come in touch of the modern science and heartily believes that Russian salvation lies only in the traditional Russian spirituality. On the other hand, Kirsanov appears to be in conflict with his liberal democrat father, Nikolai Petrovich Kirsanov. Unlike the novel “Fathers and Sons” the manipulation of the father-son relationship in “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” endows the novel with the thematic riches as well as structural complicacy. Huck’s relationship with father, Pap, sets the undertone of most other conflicts in the novel. In fact conflicts in the novel occur on three levels: intrapersonal, interpersonal and intergroup level. At all these levels, these conflicts have been characterized with the Huck’s relationship with dominating and suppressing Pap. Pap’s domination and domination can be viewed as the careless pamper of the 1880s’ American society. Huck is not only in conflict with his father Pap but also with Widow Douglas and Miss Watson. In general Huck appears to be in conflict with the suppressing and dominant force of his society that is represented through the character of Pap. Symbolic Significance of Father-Son Relationships In the Novel In both of the novels the authors use the image of “father” as the symbols of the dominance, suppression and the matrix of the socio-cultural values of the older generation. Whereas in the novel, “Fathers and Sons” the image of the “father” appears to be the symbol of the dominance and suppression, the fathers in the novel, “Fathers and Sons” represent the Slavophiles conservatism of the older generation of the 1830s. At the same time, the image of “son” appears to the nihilistic force of the society that is prone to reject everything old. But in the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, Huck appears to be pro-freedom zeal who only struggles against his dominating father but supports Jim the black slave to achieve freedom. Huck feels that freedom is the indispensable part of a man’s individual existence. He achieves it by eluding from his father. Also he helps Jim to run away from Miss Watson, because he likes to see Jim as a person as opposing to his society’s view of Jim as a property. In the novel, Pap view of Huck is as disturbing as the society’s view of the black slave is. As a father, Pap role is detrimental to the growth of a son’s being, as Catey says, “Because Pap is an abusive drunk, and this conflict obviously is detrimental to Huck’s safety.  So, Huck fakes his own death and sets out on his own” (2). Pap’s view of Huck as a property is best revealed in the episode in which the outsiders endeavor to take Huck away. At this event Pap gets angry and Huck is harshly dragged by him to a cabin to be kept locked. Indeed Huck’s fake death symbolically represents the beginning of his independent being. But Bazarov alone does not represent the pro-change zeal of the Russian youth. But he perfectly exemplifies the young generation of the 1830s in Russia. It is typical that a young student of science rejects everything of the society’s old order. According to Catey this nihilism and mass rejection significantly prepared the plot of the major changes in Russian history. In the novel it is evident that Bazarov’s nihilistic rejection of Slavophiles conservative social value is partly the result of his failure to find any acceptability of the Old Russian society. Bazarov’s dispositional hatred to the conservative Old Russian society is evident in the following sentence – he says to Pavel, "Aristocratism, liberalism, progress, principles," Bazarov says. "Just think, how many foreign…and useless words!" (Turgenev 56) Meanwhile it is also evident that he does not have any certain queue to which his nihilism can lead him. Father-Son Conflicts and Reflections of Social Traits The father-son conflicts in these novels reflect various traits of the protagonists’ contemporary society. When the fathers and their nihilist sons of Turgenev’s novel represent two generations and the widening divide between them, the father Pap, in the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” represents the whole society in the forms of repression and domination. In Huck’s society detrimental restrictions prevail in the forms of norms and customs of civilization. Though like the sons Bazarov and Arkady in “Fathers and Sons” Huck defies abiding by his conventional society, he does not become the gross nihilist as Bazarov and Arkady are. He carefully judges his society and takes the steps that he finds righteous, though he suffers from the intrapersonal conflicts. Consequently he manages his escape and establishes his and Jim’s freedom. His careful of human folly makes him sick, as he says at the onset of the scam work, “[it was]... enough to make a body ashamed of the human race” (Twain 147). Regarding Huck’s reaction to the King and the Duke, Guidon says, “Huck, sickened by the utter immorality of the King and the Duke, is sickened again by the gullibility of supposedly ‘good’ people” (23) Unlike Huck, Bazarov’s hatred for all things associated with the traditional Russia appears to be dispositional. Bazarov says that there is not even “a single institution of contemporary life, either in the family or in the social sphere, that doesn’t deserve absolute and merciless rejection" (Turgenev 56). He cannot manage the escape as Huck does. This incapability rather fans his boredom and ennui, as he says, "…they, that is, my parents, are occupied, and don't worry in the least about their own insignificance; they don't give a damn about it… While I…I feel only boredom and anger" (Turgenev 56). But Bazarov’s nihilism once subsides with his amorous emotion for Anna and his nihilistic idea that life is meaningless and nothing remains after death proves to be fruitless, as the readers see his parents to visit Bazarov’s grave and become convinced that even after things love and emotion go on event after death, as the narrator in the novel says, They walk with a heavy step, supporting each other; when they approach the railing, they fall on their knees….Can it really be that their prayers and tears are futile? Can it really be that love, sacred, devoted love is not all powerful? Oh, no! (Turgenev 121) Conclusion Obviously the undertone of the father-son conflict springs from the rejection and the nihilistic attitude of the protagonist towards the conservatism of the Old Russian social order. But it is remarkable that as opposed to the nihilistic base-form of father-son conflict in the novel, “Fathers and Sons”, the conflict in “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” arises from Huck’s struggle to defy the detrimental suppression of his father. Works Cited Catey, Anne, “Conflicts in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” 3rd January, 2010 available at Guidon, A Teacher's Supplement: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Logan: Perfection Form, 1973. Turgenev, Ivan. Fathers and Sons. Trans. Richard Hare. Hutchinson & Co., Publishers, Ltd. 1977 Twain, Mark.  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Dover, 1994. Read More