|
|
|
Need a Term Paper for College?
Our very best writers will produce any essay or term paper you are looking for! We offer reasonable prices and deliver top quality papers on virtually any topic. Our service is available 24/7. Be sure that we are reliable and consistent.
Order your custom term paper for only $12.95 a page!
Mark Twain’S Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn
they can really hurt.
In Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain develops
the plot into Huck and Jim’s adventures allowing him to weave in his criticism
of society. The two main characters, Huck and Jim, both run from social
injustice and both are distrustful of the civilization around them. Huck is
considered an uneducated backwards boy, constantly under pressure to
conform to the humanized surroundings of society. Jim a slave, is not even
considered as a real person, but as property. As they run from civilization and
are on the river, they ponder the social injustices forced upon them when they
are on land. These social injustices are even more evident when Huck and Jim
have to make landfall, and this provides Twain with the chance to satirize the
socially correct injustices that Huck and Jim encounter on land. The satire that
Twain uses to expose the hypocrisy, racism, greed and injustice of society
develops along with the adventures that Huck and Jim have. The ugly
reflection of society we see should make us question the world we live in, and
only the journey down the river provides us with that chance. Throughout the
book we see the hypocrisy of society. The first character we come across with
that trait is Miss Watson. Miss Watson constantly corrects Huck for his
unacceptable behavior, but Huck doesn’t understand why, That is just the way
with some people. They get down on a thing when they don’t know nothing
about it (2). Later when Miss Watson tries to teach Huck about Heaven, he
decides against trying to go there, ...she was going to live so as to go the good
place. Well, I couldn’t see no advantage in going where she was going, so I
made up my mind I wouldn’t try for it. (3) The comments made by Huck
clearly show Miss Watson as a hypocrite, scolding Huck for wanting to smoke
and then using snuff herself and firmly believing that she would be in heaven.
When Huck encounters the Grangerfords and Shepardsons, Huck describes
Colonel Grangerford as, ...a gentleman, you see. He was a gentleman all over;
and so was his family. He was well born, as the saying is, and that’s worth as
much in a man as it is in a horse... (104). You can almost hear the sarcasm
from Twain in Huck’s description of Colonel Grangerford. Later Huck is
becoming aware of the hypocrisy of the family and its feud with the
Shepardsons when Huck attends church. He is amazed that while the minister
preaches about brotherly love both the Grangerfords and Shepardsons are
carrying weapons. Finally when the feud erupts into a gunfight, Huck sits in a
tree, disgusted by the waste and cruelty of the feud, It made me so sick I most
fell out of the tree...I wished I hadn’t ever come ashore that night to see such
things. Nowhere else is Twain’s voice heard more clearly than as a mob
gathers at the house of Colonel Sherburn to lynch him. Here we hear the full
force of Twain’s thoughts on the hypocrisy an cowardice of society, The idea
of you lynching anybody! It’s amusing. The idea of you thinking you had pluck
enough to lynch a man!...The pitifulest thing out is a mob; that’s what an army
is- a mob; they don’t fight with courage that’s born in them, but with courage
that’s borrowed from their mass, and from their officers. But a mob without
any man at the head of it is beneath pitifulness (146-147). Each of these
examples finds Huck again running to freedom of the river. The river never
cares how saintly you are, how rich you are, or what society thinks you are.
The river allows Huck the one thing that Huck wants to be, and that is Huck.
The river is freedom than the land is oppression, and that oppression is no more
evident than it is to Jim. It is somewhat surprising that Huck’s traveling
companion is Jim. As anti-society that Huck is, you would think that he would
have no qualms about helping Jim. But Huck has to have feelings that slavery
is correct so we can see the ignorance of racial bigotry. Huck and Jim’s
journey begins as Huck fights within himself about turning Jim over to the
authorities. Finally he decides not to turn Jim in. This is a monumental decision
for Huck to make, even though he makes it on the spot. This is not just a boy
running away from home. It is someone who has decided to turn his back on
everything home stands for, even one of its most cherished beliefs. In this
way Twain also allows to let us leave our thoughts of bigotry behind also and
start to see Jim for who he really is, a man. Even though Huck has made his
decision about Jim, early in the voyage we see Huck’s attitude towards Jim as
racist. Eventually Huck plays a mean trick on Jim and we see Huck begin to
change his attitude, It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go
and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I warn’t ever sorry for it
afterward, neither (86). Later on in the story Huck becomes very caring and
protective for Jim, where this reaches a climax at the point where Huck saves
Jim from two slave catchers by tricking them to think Jim is was Huck’s small
pox ridden father. The dialogue between Huck and Jim also illustrates that Jim
is more than someone’s property. He is a human being with feelings, and hopes
for a better future. He is not some ignorant, uncaring sub-human, but plainly the
opposite. Twain does not necessarily come out and say that slavery is evil, that
is far above Huck’s understanding, but he gives us the ammunition needed to
make that decision for ourselves. Huck and Jim’s adventures give us a chance
to examine the society they live in. It also gives us a chance to examine
ourselves as well as the society today. The story is over a hundred years old,
but many of the social vices then, sadly, pertain to our society now. There are
more examples of human failings in this book, the trickery and cheating of the
King and Duke, the lack of caring by the townspeople for Boggs, the naiveté of
the Wilks sisters and the lack of common sense in Tom Sawyer. There is
cruelty, greed, murder, trickery, hypocrisy, racism, and a general lack of
morality, all the ingredients of society. All through the adventure you have
Huck Finn and Jim trying to find the one thing they can only find on the river,
freedom, but a person can only stay on the river for so long, and so you have to
go on land to face the injustices of society. Quite a contrast, the freedom of
being without authority, being able to think for yourself, running right next to the
constraints made upon you by society. Somewhere deep within the story Twain
is making a powerful statement, a wish for all humanity, that we can be brave
enough to break with what others assume is correct and just, and make
decisions for ourselves and the ability to stand on our own and do something
about it. We are that mob that stood outside Colonel Sherburn’s house, we are
the Grangerfords and Shepardsons, and we are the King and the Duke, and
even the foolish townspeople in every town they conned. Somewhere along the
line we must become I, someone has to have the courage to stand up for what
is right, to be what Colonel Sherburn would call a real man. Huck gives us that
chance, that ability to see things for what they are. His adventures along with
Twain’s sharp criticism are so uniquely combined to give us that realization.
The greatest thing is that it is done so well that we almost think that we are the
ones that discovered it.
Bibliography
rudy guiliani, the groin, cobble pot industries, fudge packer
illustrations by pillow biters, 1995
Word Count: 1349
|
|
|
Copyright 1999-2004 Wow Essays, All Rights
Reserved
Design by Dream Net Studio
|
|
