Historical Context of Huckleberry Finn - Term Paper Example

Huckleberry Finn Introduction Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is a commentary on the tension between moral values and societal hypocrisy. Twain’s protagonist is a young and independent boy who often struggles to reconcile personal choices with those dictated by society. Twain uses literary elements such as characterization, setting/historical context, point of view and conflict to illustrate how his protagonist, Huckleberry Finn, confronts these challenges and develops a keen awareness of right and wrong. Twain uses satire to tie these literary elements together. The plot is set in 19th century America in the South and the main characters are represented by low social castes and it is through their experiences and their view points that society’s values and norms are challenged by the young protagonist. Characterization Twain presents Huck as a young, independent boy endowed with both strength and stamina of character. He is characterized by 19th century society as an “outlaw” and an “outcast” (Johnson 1996, 5). Yet the reader is left with the distinct impression that this characterization of Huck is more of a condemnation of the society in which he is viewed as an outcast and an outlaw. Johnson (1996) explains that Huck’s outcast status is derived from society’s failure. Huck’s childhood “has scarcely been an idyllic one, nor has he lived the life of a typical carefree boy” (Johnson 1996, 5). Twain characterizes Huck as a sensitive and unselfish individual who struggles with moral choices, often questioning the hypocrisy of societal values and demonstrating his own sense of right and wrong. Huck’s society characterizes him as a misfit who is almost always in “some kind of trouble, or out of sympathy” with those in control (Johnson 1996,5). Early on Huck is seen as an incompatible fit even with his good friend, Tom Sawyer and his gang. This characterization of Huck continues and strengthens as the plot moves along. For instance, in Huck’s brief encounter with the Grangerfords, he cannot understand their social values and contradicts it in helping their daughter escape with the son of a family the Grangerfords are feuding with. The biggest manifestation of Huck’s characterization as a misfit however, is his determination and efforts to help Jim the slave, escape the Phelps, rather than turn him into Miss Watson. In summary, Huck is characterized as “continually at war with society, and with society’s values” (Johnson 1996, 6). It is through his experience on the run with Jim, that Huck matures and is able to expose a realistic characterization of societal norms and values. His experiences unveil what Johnson (1996) describes as “the brutality and senselessness that lie beneath the surface of human society” (6). Setting/Historical Context Twain wrote Huckleberry Finn in the late 1870s and chronicled a number of adventures of the poor, young Huck along the Mississippi River and the narrative is set in Missouri during slavery (Barksdale 1999, 49). As Barksdale (1999) explains, this setting and historical context is particularly important to the themes and plots in Huckleberry Finn. The Missouri Compromise 1920 resulted in Missouri joining the “Union as a slave state” (49). In this historical context and setting, Huck is portrayed as a decidedly rebellious teen in that Huck is attempting to escape a “society that had slavery at its core” (Barksdale 1999, 49). His escape is both literal and figurative. In Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, slavery and the treatment of slaves is germane to the themes surrounding societal values and morals. Barksdale (1999) provides a profound picture of the historical context and setting that exposes these societal mores. In Twain’s Missouri, the slave was confined to the property on which he/she was enslaved and more especially to the squalid confines of his/her living “quarters” (Barksdale 1999, 50). This was the world from which Twain’s Jim emerged. Similarly the society enabling this is the world from which Twain’s Huck emerged. In this historical context and setting, Jim the runaway slave becomes the outlaw and the hunted (Barksdale 1999, 51). When Jim meets Huck two casualties of this enslaved society meet. As Barksdale (1999) explains: When the hunted black fugitive and outsider meets the disaffected and poor white outsider – one long kept in childlike ignorance of a larger world by slavery’s dictum and the other long victimized by his po’ white trash status in a capitalist society – Twain, the storyteller, takes advantage of the situation and begins to weave incidents and events into a suspenseful narrative (51). In this setting, Twain was able to convey an ironic message that transcends the times. His message was and remains quite probably true today, that very few blacks and whites in America can form friendships and almost always in the “worst of circumstances” (Barksdale 1999, 55). Ultimately, this is the message that lurks beneath the surface of the adventures shared between Huck and Jim in America’s Deep South during the late 19th century (Barksdale 1999, 55). In this regard, Twain successfully uses historical context and setting to portray realism in 19 the century American life. Arac (1997) argues that there was more to Twain’s narrative than the racist undertones of the South and the rarity of inter-racial friendships. The friendship between Huck and Jim also goes beyond the mere bonding of two misfits and social outcasts. Despite the segregation of blacks and the racial and class divides, the relationship between Huck and Jim, in its historical context, is reflective of the fact that there were whites in the South and elsewhere in America that “gave sanctuary to black fugitives”(Arac 1999, 45). Perhaps more importantly, Twain takes advantage of the historical context and the slavery setting in the South to provide a convincing portrait of Huck’s moral struggles (Arac 1997, 48). What emerges is a youth brought up in a certain moral tradition but finds himself trapped between his own “conscience and the law” (48). Twain’s Huck is bright and insightful and even before he helps Jim escape society’s entrapment he too questions the wisdom of societal norms in the following passage: “Pretty soon I wanted to smoke, and asked the widow to let me. But she wouldn’t. She said it was a mean practice...That is just the way with some people they get down on a thing when they don’t know nothing about it. Here she was a-bothering about Moses, which was no kin to her, and no use to anybody, being gone you see, yet finding a power of fault with me for doing a thing that had some good in it. And she took snuff too; of course that was alright…” (Twain, 2003,2). With this kind of insightful reasoning and logic, it is hardly surprising that Huck would seek to escape the trappings of the largely hypocritical society that supports slavery. It is even less surprising that Huck would help a runaway slave escape. Ultimately, Twain uses the historical context of the slavery era of the South to illustrate its consequences for segregation and prejudice. It is in this setting that norms are challenged through Huck’s conscience and the power of his own logic and experiences. Point of View Twain’s use of narrative point of view is successful in that the narrator is young and uncorrupted by societal norms. Twain uses Huck as a quasi-moral reflector in that Huck’s seeming naivety, honestly and frankness, questions the wisdom of adults who shape and frame societal norms and moral values. Although Huck’s narration unveils some hard, cold truths in an entirely humorous way, there is nothing in Huck’s dialogue to convey the fact that he is aware of the humor in his delivery. In this regard, point of view is imparted satirically. As Bridgman (1966) explains: Huck Finn gains a good part of its power by using the language of a boy to describe the actions of adults. This establishes an ironic distance between the adult intention and its immature verbalization (31). Essentially, with Huck as narrator, the narrative’s point of view comes across from the perspective of a youth, who is experiencing a number of adventurous episodes and in course of those experiences he is gaining individualistic insight and opinions. As a young person and an outcast, Huck has not been influenced or indoctrinated by societal values and norms. He is able to acquire his own point of view and the message that invariably comes across is that Huck is the moral voice of an immoral and largely hypocritical society. Huck comes across as an innocent and perhaps even naively objective voice (Bridgman 1966, 132). In this regard he is largely accepted as a credible and realistic storyteller and observer. Huck is possessed of both boyhood innocence and naivety and the brutal honesty that accompanies the outsider living on the outer fringes of society. The irony is that, ultimately, Huck becomes the moral voice of the immoral society from whom he is alienated. The anti-racist point of view is put forth through Huck’s vernacular in his narration of his experiences with Jim. Through these experiences the reader is aware that blacks are unjustifiably segregated. Through Huck, Twain utilizes the anti-racist point of view through irony. As Kaufman (1985) explains with respect to Huck’s various reflections and self-judgments: The more he chastises himself for doing the ‘bad’ things that will land him in hell, the more the reader is convinced that they are the same ‘good’ things that will send him in the opposite direction. This is one of the most important aspects of the mask which is Huck Finn’s narration – the ever-present sense of denunciation with which he confronts himself (93). Kaufman (1985) argues that Twain uses Huck to extol a consciousness that is lacking in experience. In Huck, Twain uses the innocence of youth to provide the reader with an entirely uncorrupt point of view. Through Huck’s narration and through his innocence, the reader is able to view racist America in its historical context from an entirely objective perspective. In other words, through Huck’s narration, the reader is privy to a point of view that is not clouded by prejudices or pretentions. By virtue of Huck’s naïve and innocent point of view the reader is given a dose of realism (Kaufman 1985, 95). The reader comes face to face with the cruelty of racist America through slavery and the cruel society that perpetuated slavery. Conflict Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is heavily themed by conflict. The conflict resides in his young protagonist who is caught between his own conscience and the societal norms and values. Inevitably this conflict creates tension for Huck as he is in a constant state of conflict between acquiring his own identity and complying with societal norms. These conflicts are more poignantly portrayed through Huck’s interaction with Jim. He is constantly shifting from regarding Jim as a human being and then he reverts back to the “nigger” perspective (Kaufman 1985, 94). Huck draws on his own experience which is often conflicted by race and class stereotypes. He sees the inconsistencies between Jim the man he has come to know and society’s fictionalized version of the slave and the African-American. Even so, Huck does try to conform to societal norms (Kaufman 1985 93). However, his conscience and independent nature ultimately leads Huck to make the right decision. For instance, he knows that according to societal norms and values, Jim’s escape is wrong. In fact, it is illegal. Even so, Huck’s own conscience won’t allow him to turn Jim in. As Kaufman (1985) explains, throughout Huckleberry Finn, Huck’s conscience and independent nature are in constant conflict with societal norms and values. Huck, in all his innocence is able to form his own opinion about slavery and the society that perpetuates it. He is able to perceive slavery as no more than a reflection of a flawed society. Huck is keenly aware that Jim’s escape is a betrayal of Miss Watson. Even so, he believes that aiding Jim in his escape is essentially the right thing to do. When he first encounter’s the runaway slave, in his uncorrupted innocence and youth, Huck sees Jim as a companion rather than a runaway slave. He notes from the outset “I was ever so glad to see Jim. I warn’t lonesome now” (Twain 2003, 41). When Jim implores Huck not to turn him in, Huck assures Jim: I said I wouldn’t, and I’ll stick to it. Honest injun, I will. People would call me a low-down Abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum – but that don’t make no difference (Twain 2003, 43). It is obvious that Huck is very well aware of the conflict between his own conscience and society’s norms. Yet he invariably makes the right choice, even though, he knows it is wrong by society’s standards. The more time Huck and Jim spend together the more they both begin to realize that society’s prescription is flawed. The irony is, Huck still thinks society is right and he is wrong, but he is still determined to ignore society and do what he feels is right despite the views and dictates of society. Huck’s conflict comes to a head when Jim is captured by the Phelps. He agonizes over whether he should write to Miss Watson through Tom and disclose Jim’s whereabouts or set about helping Jim escape yet again. In this conflict he sits down and writes a letter to Miss Watson disclosing Jim’s whereabouts but having thought about how valuable Jim has been to him sets the letter aside and opines: I was a trembling, because I’d got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: “All right, then, I’ll go to hell” – and tore it up (Twain 2003, 214). It is at this time that Huck resolves the conflict between his own conscience and societal norms. He resolves to help Jim escape regardless of how wrong it may be from society’s perspective. His solemn promise to himself was to rescue Jim from slavery and he wasn’t going to care what society felt about it. He has reached a point in his self-growth where he is able to regard slavery as inherently wrong, at least from his own perspective. In this regard, Huck’s independence resolves the conflict between his own beliefs and those of society. Conclusion Twain’s Huck grows up independent of parental and societal influence. Experience teaches Huck his most valuable lessons and through it all a young, unbiased boy develops strength of character, independence and his own sense of right and wrong. Twain’s choice of historical setting is timeless because the truths that were unveiled by the Huck’s vernacular remain relevant today. Prejudices are a reflection of societal norms and practices and only those who choose to ignore them remain uncorrupted and develop their own sense of self-identity in much the same way as Twain’s Huck did. Time and place makes no difference as society’s norms are not always consistent with reality and this is the underlying theme in Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. Works Cited Arac, J. “All Right, Then, I’ll Go to Hell: Historical Contexts for Chapter 31.” Cited in Arac, J. Huckleberry Finn as Idol and Target: The Functions of Criticism in Our Time.”37-62. University of Wisconsin Press, 1997. Barksdale, R. “History, Slavery and Thematic Irony in Huckleberry Finn.” Cited in Leonard, J.; Tenney, T. and Davis, T. (eds) Satire or Evasion?: Black Perspectives on Huckleberry Finn. Duke University Press, 1999. Bridgman, R. The Colloquial Style in America. Oxford University Press, 1966. Johnson, C. “Literary Analysis: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Forms of Enslavement.” Cited in Johnson, C. Understanding Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents. 1-28. Greenwood Publishing, 1996. Kaufman, W. “The Comedic Stance: Sam Clemens, His Masquerade.” Cited in Giddings, R. Mark Twain: A Sumptuous Variety. Barnes and Noble Books, 1985. Twain, M. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Bantam Classics, 2003. Read More