The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain - Research Paper Example

Dat3e The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twian Introduction Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn takes place on the Mississippi River, a place where the author spent most of his childhood. Through an assortment of characters, the novel displays an array of Southwestern society phases. The reader travels through feuds, the impact of slavery and conditions that made it possible for racism to prevail. Each of these phases are set out unambiguously and without judgment, leaving it to the reader to make his/her own moral judgment (Bloom 2008, p. 162). Even so, the novel continues to attract negative attention with many characterizing the work as racist in that it presents an unpalatable image of an inferior African American often powerless and subordinate to the young European American. However when Twain wrote the novel it was intended to be no more than a commentary on how interpersonal relationships can overcome social, political and racial conventions at the time that the novel was written (Glanz and Behar-Horenstein 2000, p. 175). This research paper examines these opposing responses to the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by first looking at the political and social climate, the life and times of Mark Twain and how those factors influenced Twain’s characterization of Huck and Jim. I. Mark Twain’s Biography and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain also known as Samuel Clemens was born November 30, 1835 and died April 21st 1910. Twain was born in Florida, Missouri to Johan Clemens an attorney originating from Virginia and Jane Lampton Clemens from Kentucky. When Twain was only five years old, his family moved to Hannibal, Missouri. Therefore at the tender age of 12 Twain’s “formal education and his boyhood” came to an abrupt end and simultaneously ended the “experience that was to provide much of the substance of his best known works” (Greasley 2001, p. 112). Twain discontinued school and went to work for a print medium following his father’s death. In 1851, Twain took up work at the Hannibal Journal, a paper his brother Orion worked for. Twain who had become an itinerant printer left Hannibal to work in a number of cities including Philadelphia and New York. By the time he was 21, Twain returned to the South and worked on river boats in Mississippi. It was this experience in particular that lent itself to the towns that Huck and Jim passed through (Ruth 1994, p. 1). Fishkin (2002) describes Twain’s representation of masculinity in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as entirely “ambivalent” (p. 176). Fishkin goes on to suggest: One way to examine Twain’s ambivalence about prevailing male roles is to examine the men in his life and representations of men in his writings (p. 177). The idealistic patriarch is typically reflected in the paternal role, but for Twain, fathers tend to be represented as some form or problem, particularly for their families (Fishkin 2002, 177). During the first part of the 19th century, there were tensions between father and son and this was certainly reflected in Twain’s novels. There are a number of reports indicating that Twain’s father was both strict and detached. When he died, Twain found himself growing up in an essentially woman-dominated home as his mother, an “active woman” ran the household (Fishkin 2002, p 177). Twain also lived under the shadow of his brother Orion, whose struggles with success occupied Twain’s thoughts. Twain also lived in the shadow of his older sister Pamela (Fishkin 2002, p. 177). During the first half of the 19th century, death, abandonment and divorce were common themes in real life. Certainly Twain experienced a sense of abandonment via the death of his father as it altered his life considerably. The “absent father” theme as well as inconsequential father figures were reflected in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Fishkin 2002, 177). Huck’s father was a dysfunctional man. He was an alcoholic that abused and abandoned Huck. Although Twain’s father was a respectable man, he was stern and disconnected. This characterization of Twain’s father can be aligned to the dysfunctional, abusive and alcoholic father to Huck. Twain’s father’s death can also be aligned with Huck’s father and the theme of abandonment. Fishkin (2002) explains that Twain often substituted fathers for father figures such as Jim (p. 177). According to Fishkin: Twain’s father-surrogates are often of a less hegemonic class or race than his young protagonists, a strategy Twain uses to diffuse the direct authority of the mentor to the mentee (p. 177). Jim epitomizes this approach by Twain. The fact that Jim is black and also a slave tend to discredit his position as the older male “thus making even his moral power over Huck tenuous” (Fishkin 2002, 177). II. Social and Political Setting Pettit (2005) offers an explanation for Twain’s motivation for writing the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and by doing so refutes the claims that the novel is an exercise in racism. According to Pettit, Twain’s novel was a condemnation of “five Southern institutions he had long singled out: slavery, violence, bigotry, ignorance and Sir Walter Scott’s jejune romanticism” (Pettit 2005, p. 83). Although slavery had been abrogated by the time Twain wrote the novel, it had formed a part of his childhood. Slavery is used to highlight how otherwise decent Southerners were trapped by ignorance and hypocrisy. The other institutions “were alive and flourishing in the 1880s” (Pettit 2005, p. 83). Each of these institutions come together through the amalgamation of two types of characterization. First there are intrinsically bad Southerners and then there are those who aspire to be good Southerners but are trapped by the institution of slavery. Huck’s father represents the worst of the southern culture. As Pettit (2005) explains: His incomparably obtuse reflections on the “gov’ment” show him to be, in his ignorance and prejudice, not outside of Missouri society but merely the most vicious form of it (p. 83). Through Huck’s father, Twain exemplifies his perception of what whites in the south embodied: fear of education, fear of blacks and a distrust in the government (Pettit 2005, p. 83). Through Huck’s father’s dialogue the reader becomes aware of these fears. Huck’s father is disenchanted with the fact that his son is required to go to school. He is also opposed to the fact that Ohio is a free state and wonders why the government would not force Ohio to reinstate slavery. He is particularly disturbed by an intelligent free slave he encountered with a gold watch and a cane. In deriding the government for allowing the slave to be free, Huck’s father described him as: “a prowling, thieving, infernal, white-shirted free nigger” (Twain 2005, 35). The stereotyping of blacks is also carried out through Jim. Perceptions of Jim who represents the attitude of whites toward African American slaves is politicized. However, via an interpersonal relationship with Jim, Huck comes to find out that Jim is endowed with a “strong sense of love and humanity” and is prepared to make self-sacrifices for his wife and children by buying them out of slavery (Holz 2008, p. 3). However, before any of this is revealed, Jim is representative of the typical stereotyping of the 19th century African American. He comes across in this ascribed role as “somewhat subhuman, feeble-minded, immoral and lazy” (Holz 2008, p. 3). Racism is not the only trait that finds currency in the 19th century south in Twain’s novel. Violence appears to be a way of life. During Huck and Jim’s adventures down the river, violence and threats of violence is a frequent occurrence. As Pettit (2005) puts it: The list of violent deeds or threats begins in St. Petersburg, Missouri, and ends eleven hundred miles and thirteen corpses later in Pikesville, Louisiana (p. 84). At one point Huck’s father suffering from the side effects of alcoholism, attempts to take Huck’s life and Huck responds by remaining awake that night armed with a gun and prepared to defend himself should his father make a second attempt on this life (Twain 2008, Ch. 6). Huck then fakes his own death with the result that residents lynch Huck’s father for murdering his son. Huck himself leaves the three thieves to drown aboard the Walter Scott which is sinking. Other incidents of violence include the con men the King and Duke of Bilgewater on the run from two different mobs. Huck also witnesses the shooting death of Boggs (Twain 2008). Pettit (2005) notes that: When Southerners are not violent in this novel they are likely to be promiscuous or perverted. The house of death floating down the river with Pap’s naked corpse is a former brothel, and its walls are scrawled with obscenities (p. 85). Pettit (2005) observes that the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a manifestation of the fact that Twain perceived Southerners as “bigoted, crude, ignorant, superstitious or immoral” (p. 85). Yet there were some Southerners that could be characterized as decent, but in a limited degree. For example there were Aunt Polly, the widow Douglas, Uncle Silas, Aunt Sally Phelps and Sister Hotchkiss each had some redeeming qualities. The frequently read the Bible, made homemade jam for the children and created ambiance for dinner settings and constantly engaged in banter over morals. While these Southerners obviously knew the differences between right and wrong, they were at moral crossroads when it came to slavery. Pettit (2005) said of Twain’s approach to the good Southerner in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Repeatedly Mark Twain drives home the irony that to be a Southerner in good standing one must preach good and practice evil (p. 85). The fact is, there is an abundance of characters throughout Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that “contradict themselves over slavery” (Pettit 2005, p. 85). For instance, Widow Douglas is portrayed as kind and caring woman. However, this portrayal takes a significant hit when she brings her slaves in for evening prayers. As Pettit (2005) put it: Setting black souls free merely facilitates black bodies in bondage; and since most Christian Southerners are in on the act, only innocent heathens like Huck, who take the gospel literally, are capable of revealing the hypocrisy of South notions about salvation (85). The Widow Douglas’s double standards and hypocrisy is revealed by Huck who early in the novel tells the reader that Douglas instructed him: I must help other people and do everything I could for other people, and look out for them all the time and never think about myself (Twain 2008, p. 10). Be that as it may, the Widow Douglas was not pleased to learn that Huck went out of his way to help Jim a runaway slave make good his escape. Mrs. Judith Loftus’s decency is also compromised by her adherence to slavery. She is generally warm and kindhearted and is determined to help Huck choose correctly between right and wrong. In helping Huck make the right choices, Judith warns that she could summon up a few men armed with bloodhounds and guns and get them to hunt for the runaway Joe. III. Language and Racism Although the language used throughout the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is entirely racist, it is not intended to indorse the racism exposed by the language. As previously discussed, the novel itself is a condemnation of racism. The racism expressed in the language is Twain’s method of representing the realities of the South in the aftermath of the Civil War. In this social climate, African Americans were not looked upon as human. The language used to describe them was crude and the characters themselves were the subject of widespread ridicule (Wagner 2009, p. 47). The fact is, as the novel progresses the reader comes to the realization that Jim is far more human than those who attempt to demonize and dehumanize African Americans. Perhaps what has led some critics to argue that the novel is racist is the fact that Huck appears to be ambivalent in his dialogue. On the one hand he speaks of African Americans to reflect the anti-African American attitude he acquired as a result of his upbringing. On the other hand, Huck speaks of the Jim he had come to know in favorable terms. Drawing on the literary techniques employed by Twain in the text of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the novel is far from racist. Twain deliberately creates a contrast between Jim’s human and unselfish nature with the hypocrisy and depraved nature of the white Southerners. In this regard, Twain is being satirical with respect to those “how oppress on grounds of presumed racial superiority” (Wagner 2009, p. 47). Southern perceptions of blacks are disproved and Huck through his relationship with Jim provides this confirmation that perceptions about blacks are intrinsically wrong. Conclusion Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is controversial for its language and characterization of Southern perceptions of morality and African Americans in the 19th century. However, the plot itself reveals that these perceptions are flawed and these flaws are revealed through a flawed but innocent youth; Huckleberry Finn. Huck’s flaws makes him a realistic protagonist that the reader can sympathize with and understand. It is through this sympathy and understanding that the reader is able to see the hypocrisy and racism of the 19th century south as conveyed by Huck. Twain was able to recreate 19th century racism in the South more precisely through the institution of slavery because he had lived through it as a child. It was through slavery as a youth that Twain gained insight into the harsh and crude attitudes of the white Southerner toward the African American. So while slavery had been abrogated it represented Twain’s most poignant experience with Southern prejudices and certainly realized that its influence was relevant in the antebellum South. While the language used throughout the novel depicted blacks in a harsh and brutal light, it speaks volumes for those who used it. Twain’s use of the language was intended to inform the reader of the anti-black social and political climate existing at the time. It was not intended to be an endorsement of that social and political climate. He made those representations without judgment, but let the facts and circumstances speak for themselves so the audience could pass their own moral judgment. Certainly, the relationship between Jim and Huck functions as a foil to any perceptions that the characterization of blacks in the language used was proof that the author intended to write a racist novel. Works Cited Bloom, H. Mark Twain. Infobase Publishing, 2008. Fishkin, S. A Historical Guide to Mark Twain. Oxford University Press, 2002. Glanz, J. and Behar-Horenstein, L. Paradigm Debates in Curriculum and Supervision: Modern and Postmodern Perspectives, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000. Greasley, P. Dictionary of Midwestern Literature: The Authors. Indiana University Press, 2001. Holz, M. Race and Racism in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. GRIN Verlag, 2008. Pettit, A. Mark Twain and the South. University Press of Kentucky, 2005. Ruth, C. Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn Research and Education Society, 1994. Twain, M. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Penguin Books, 2005. Wagner, O. Racial Attitudes in Melville’s ‘Benito Cereno’ and Twain’s ‘Huckleberry Finn’. GRIN Verlag, 2009. Read More