Huck Finn's Experiences In Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain presents the problem of slavery in America in the 19th Century. Twain poses this problem in the form of a character named Huckleberry Finn, a white boy raised in the antebellum South. Huck starts to question his view regarding slavery when he acquaints himself more intimately with a runaway slave while he himself tries to run away. Huck's development as a character is affected by society's influence on his experiences while growing up in the South, running away with Jim, and trying to save Jim. Although Huck decides to free Jim, Huck's deformed conscience convinces him that he is doing the wrong thing. Huck's experiences in the society...show more content...
– the only nigger I had in the world, and the only property" (Twain, pg 216). The frequent use of the word "property" shows how society has corrupted his views of blacks. He clearly view them as property and not people with rights of their own. Huck's views regarding black people come into question when Huck and Jim run away together. Their experiences together let them become closer to each other and let Huck recognize Jim as a human being with real feelings. Huck starts to view Jim as a caring individual when they are on the raft. This is a scene taken from when Jim and Huck were working together on the raft and Jim was trying to protect them both from the rain, "Jim took up some of the top planks of the raft and built a snug wigwam to get under in blazing weather and rainy, and to keep the things dry. Jim made a floor for the wigwam, and raised it a foot or more above the level of the raft, so now the blankets and all the traps was out of reach of steamboat waves" (Twain, pg 64). In this part of the novel, Huck seems to be all Jim has, and Jim is also all Huck seems to have, and they work together to build a place that the waves cannot reach them. Their feeling of friendship is born through working together and protecting each other. Even though Huck and Jim are having new experiences together, Huck's conscience is still going back and forth about the idea of freeing a slave. This quote is taken from when Huck
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Huck Finn Analysis The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn A Critical Analysis SECTION I– Chapters 1 through 11 The book introduces Huck as the first person narrator which is important because it establishes clearly that this book is written from the point of view of a young, less than civilized character. His character emerges as a very literal and logical thinker who only believes what he can see with his own eyes. In this section Huck's life with the Widow Douglas and her attempts to raise him as a civilized child sets up the main theme of this book which is the struggle or quest for freedom. Huck's struggle for freedom from civilized society is paralleled by Jim's struggle to escape from slavery. Irony as a key literary ...show more content...
The primary relationships of Huck with the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson as well as Huck with Pap and Huck with Jim are established. Throughout the novel, Huck takes on different identities to further his attempts at freedom. In this section three of these identities are seen. One is Huck, the dead boy when he "kills" himself in order to cover his escape from Pap at his cabin and the other is Sarah Mary Williams whom he disguised himself as when he attempted to get information and later George Peters emerges when Sarah is discovered to be a boy. SECTION II –Chapters 12 through 20 In this section, insight into the character of Jim is portrayed. Jim comes across as sincere and trustworthy. The loyalty of Jim and Huck to each other begins to be seen. An example of Jim's loyalty is seen when Jim is overjoyed to find Huck is still alive after they are separated in the fog. During this section, it begins to be apparent that Jim would be willing to sacrifice to be sure that Huck is safe but Huck does not yet return those feelings. During this section, Huck's moral dilemma about helping a slave escape begins to surface. The fact that the relationship is strengthening is revealed when Huck lies about having smallpox on their raft in order to prevent Jim from being caught as a slave. Huck again assumes several identities during this section, which reveal much about him. On the raft, Huck is very mature and responsible. He becomes the son of a
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Huck Finn I recently read the book Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. This story deals Mainly with a lost boy escaping his harsh existence, and a slave trying to reach freedom. During the course of this book, the slave Jim, and the Boy Huck Bond with each other. I enjoyed this book immensely for a couple different reasons. While I liked the story, and the plot kept me interested, the real reason I found myself enjoying this book so much, was Mark Twain's use of the underlying theme of racism.
In this story, I found myself admiring Huck's innocent approach toslavery, and the treatment of slaves. Is Huck Finn a racist? Now this is a tough question. I would be tempted to say no. He always treats his run away...show more content...
Aunt Sally asked Huck why the steamboat took so long getting there. Huck said, "We blowed a cylinder–head." "Good gracious anybody hurt?" "No'm killed a nigger." "Well it's lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt" (Twain 199). Whether or not Huck was trying to be racist is irrelevant, the fact is his home life taught him racism as a way of life.
Huck's innocence severely handicapped his racism. Throughout the book Jim was just about Huck's only friend, yet Jim was black. Jim looks out for Huck like a father would. On several occasions Huck comes close to turning Jim in. Huck keeps thinking he is doing something morally wrong by helping Jim to escape. He never questions whether slavery is morally right or wrong. He just figures it to be a way of life. Huck never actually got to the conclusion that maybe he was doing the right thing by trying to free Jim, and that slavery might actually be wrong. I think that Mark Twain may be using Huck as an example of the human race as a whole. Sometimes we over look the real problems in life, because we are always so tied up in a bunch of trivial corals.
However, despite Huck's constant racist personality, some changes did occur in Huck's feelings about Jim during the course of the book. Until the end of the book, Huck never worried about Jim's whereabouts. Jim on the other hand was always terribly nervous about Huck's whereabouts. During the
Tim Lively Critical Analysis: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Setting: Late 1800's along the Mississippi River Plot: When the book begins, the main character, Huck Finn possesses a large sum of money. This causes his delinquent lifestyle to change drastically. Huck gets an education, and a home to live in with a caring elderly woman (the widow). One would think that Huck would be satisfied. Well, he wasn't. He wanted his own lifestyle back. Huck's drunkard father (pap), who had previously left him, was also not pleased with Huck's lifestyle. He didn't feel that his son should have it better than he. Pap tries to get a hold of the money for his own uses, but he fails. He proceeds to lock Huck up in his cabin on the outskirts of town....show more content...
This is exactly the kind of behavior that twain didn't like. However, the main theme in this book is breaking free. He urges his readers to do the right thing, not necessarily what everyone else is doing. He illustrates this ideal with Huck. Most everyone else thought of Jim, along with blacks in general, as something less than human. Huck knew this was wrong, and his actions followed this when he rescued Jim. Main characters Huckleberry Finn Huck is the narrator of the story and for the most part is honest to us, the readers. He dreads the rules and conformities of society such as religion, school, and everything else that will eventually make him civilized. A big debate surrounds Huck on whether he changes or not throughout the story. Huck, in the beginning, seems very set in the south's anti–black ways, however, Huck states that he will go to hell to keep Jim out of slavery. At this point it seems like he does change, but at the end of the book, Huck plays yet another joke on Jim and seems as though any change was temporary. Huck has little sense of humor, which is ironical, considering the book is satirical. Twain has also been criticized about Huck's character, in that it seems as though Huck knows too much for his age. In one of the movies Huck was about seventeen, in another he was about eight. I figure from the book that Huck is Get more content
Throughout the Mark Twain (a.k.a. Samuel Clemens) novel, The Adventures of HuckleBerry Finn, a plain and striking point of view is expressed by the author. His point of view is that of a cynic; he looks upon civilized man as a merciless, cowardly, hypocritical savage, without want of change, nor ability to effect such change. Thus, one of Mark Twain's main purposes in producing this work seems clear: he wishes to bring to attention some of man's often concealed shortcomings. While the examples of Mark Twain's cynic commentaries on human nature can be found in great frequency all through the novel, several examples seem to lend themselves well to a discussion of this sarcastic view. In the beginning of the novel, it would seem...show more content...
A good example of this was when Col. Sherburn shot the drunk Boggs and the townsfolk came after Sherburn to lynch him. After Sherburn, one man with only a shotgun, held off the immense mob and made them disperse, it was obvious that no individual really had the courage to go through with the lynching. The idea that people are basically savages, confined for the moment by society, is shown in more than one instance, such as when the group was preparing to hang Huck and the King over their plot to defraud the daughters, or, more obvious, in the war between the Shephardsons and the Grangerfords. The aspect of people being basically hypocrites is seen at the beginning when Miss Watson displays a degree of hypocriticality on insisting that Huck follow the Widow and become civilized, while at the same time deciding to sell Jim into a hard life down the river. A final point seems to be that Man is continually fleeing from something. At the end, Jim and Huck found themselves at the end of their journey, neither having anything left to run from as Huck's father was dead and Jim was a free man. It would seem, then that Huck and Jim had run a thousand miles down the river and ended up where they had started from. From the above examples, one can see some of the author's point in producing 'Huck Finn.' It is apparent that Mark Twain wishes society to realize its shortcomings and the limitations imposed by human nature. He realizes that people will not
River of Life and Realism in Huck Finn
In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain uses the river to symbolize life and the adventures of Huck to show the realism in the novel. These two elements are shown throughout the book in many different ways. Sometimes one would have to really sit down and think about all the symbolism in this classic novel.
T. S. Eliot stated, “We come to understand the River by seeing it through the eyes of the Boy; but the Boy is also the spirit of the River'; (333). Throughout Huck’s adventure, as he and Jim are traveling down the river on a raft to Cairo, we see the admiration Huck has for the river. He sets it...show more content... The story of Huck Finn and his friend Jim would not have taken place were it not for the great and mighty Mississippi. The flowing and changing of the river symbolizes the progression of Huck and Jim’s adventure. It also symbolizes Huck’s growth and his realization of his mistakes and how he can turn them into better situations. In the end, both of the runaways’ dreams come true. Jim gained freedom for himself and his family and Huck gained knowledge, and freedom from his Pap forever. In Mark Twain’s, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the living river protected Huck and Jim and transported them to their dreams(Budd 102–12). There is a great deal of realism in the novel which is shown in many different ways. As Dean Howells once said, “Let fiction cease to lie about life.';(quoted in Budd 36). The realism of pride and revenge is shown in the Grangerford episode. The Grangerfords were a family caught up in a feud with the Sherpherdson family. No one really knows why they are feuding but each of them know that if they see one of the enemies that they are supposed to shoot and that shows the pride of family. This episode also shows the reality of revenge. After Buck’s dad and brothers are shot Buck and his brothers will
Huck Finn Racism The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a Mark Twain classic, wonderfully demonstrates pre–Civil War attitudes about blacks held by whites. Twain demonstrates these attitudes through the actions and the speech of Huckleberry Finn, the narrator, and Jim, Miss Watson's slave. These two main characters share a relationship that progresses from an acquaintance to a friendship throughout the novel. It is through this relationship that Mark Twain gives his readers the realization of just how different people's attitudes were before the Civil War. Twain also reveals the negative attitudes of whites toward blacks by the cruel manner in which Jim is treated with such inferiority. The beginning of Huck and Jim's...show more content...
Although Huck is a bit racist to Jim at the beginning of their journey, the negative attitude held by Huck begins to fizzle as their adventure continues on. The more Huck and Jim go through together, the closer the two become. Huck begins to see Jim as a friend and vice versa. By the end of their journey, Huck disagrees with society's idea that blacks are inferior. One example of this is evident when Huck doesn't tell anyone of Jim's whereabouts. Huck doesn't tell anyone because he knows that if he does, Jim will be forced to return to slavery. Instead, Huck chooses to "go to Hell" for his decision. He has shied away from society's acceptance of slavery. One of the ways Twain exposes the folly of the negative attitudes toward blacks is through describing the whites' cruel and pointless acts of hatred directed toward Jim. The least severe of the cruel acts toward Jim is that whites often ridicule him. Another dehumanizing act is when Jim is made to hide his face in the daytime. The most foolish and ignorant idea of the whites, however, is when Silas Phelps locked up Jim. Another demonstration of the whites' folly is when Pap, Huck's father, violently objects to the granting of suffrage to a black man. Pap does not take into consideration that this man is an educated professor; he believes that he is superior to this black man simply because of the color of his skin. In actuality, however, Pap is an uneducated drunk. This adds to the irony of the white's actions.
Huckleberry Finn
The novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written by Mark Twain and published on December 10, 1884. This picaresque novel takes place in the mid–1800s in St. Petersburg, Missouri and various locations along the Mississippi River through Arkansas as the story continues. The main character is young delinquent boy named Huckleberry Finn. He doesn't have a mother and his father is a drunk who is very rarely involved with Huck's life. Huck is currently living with Widow Douglas and Miss Watson who attempt to make the boy a more civilized and representable citizen. Later Huck runs away and meets this runaway slave named Jim and they become good friends. As Jim and Huck travel down river in their raft they experience many conflicts....show more content...
People from the south, especially the deep south like Missouri didn't want to be seen in that kind of way. They felt like they were more than just some racist and uneducated fools. Pearl James assertion of how "Twain creates the impression of American folk culture through his use of dialect and phonetic spelling, which mimics speech, rather than writing" is valid because in the real world people are not all the same, everyone is different. Their actions are different the way they speak and the vocabulary is different. Twain wanted to use this information and put it into his writing. He creates various dialects to all the characters he adds into his novel. For example, one reason why this book was first band from schools and libraries was because it had a vigorous debate over the numerous appearance of the "N" word. As awful and disrespectful word that is, Twain used it over and over again throughout the novel. The reason being was because that's how people talked back then. He wanted his novel to be as accurate as he can make it. Furthermore, without the use of this word the novel and dialect would change dramatically. It wouldn't seem to give it that extra kick to make the reader feel like they were there listening to the character's conversation. He uses this specific type of language to access the culture and to accurately define a character and to make it more believable, complex, and therefore dignified. Or it can make them seem merely uneducated, and caricatured.
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Huck Finn Throughout the ages The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been a treasured novel to people of all ages. For young adults the pure adventuresome properties of the book captivates and inspires wild journeys into the unknown. The book appeals to them only as a quest filled with danger and narrow escapes. It is widely considered "that children of 12 or so are a little too young to absorb the book's complexities" (Galileo: Morrow). However, as readers mature and become older, they read the book through enlightened eyes. They begin to understand the trials and moral struggles that this young boy undergoes in resisting society, struggles that no adult would relish. This paper delves into how Huck Finn rejects the accepted...show more content...
(258) This assertion tells the reader that most, in that time period, did have the same views, reactions, and ethics as offered in the book. Huck is in direct opposition and retaliation with almost all of these tenets. He first demonstrates this by wishing to leave the Widow Douglas because she wants to "sivilize" him. The interesting observation is, the irony of the Widow's attempt to teach Huck religious principles while she persists in holding slaves. As with her snuff taking–which was all right because she did it herself–there seems no relationship between a fundamental sense of humanity and justice and her religion. Huck's practical morality makes him more "Christian" than the Widow, though he takes no interest in her lifeless principles. (Grant 1013) Huck seems to have the inclination that something is wrong with her beliefs in God and how people should follow Him, unfortunately he "couldn't see no advantage in going where she was going, so [he] made up [his] mind [he] wouldn't try for it" (Twain 13). Huck could not endure these rigors of formal southern training and finally he "couldn't stand it no longer. [He] lit out" (Twain 13). Huck never did quite feel right in society, in his hometown or in any of the towns he visited during his daring journey. Only when he was in his rags and on the river by himself or with Jim did he feel "free and satisfied" (Twain
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Two people taking a trip down a river, is rarely thought of as anything more than just an adventure. Mark Twain, however, uses his novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, to explore and makes fun of many problems facing American society. Huck, the main character, is considered a boy who is under pressure to conform to the aspects of society. Jim, who comes along with Huck, is a runaway slave seeking freedom from the world that has been denied it to him for so long. Throughout the entire novel Twain uses satire to show problems with society.
Early in the novel, Huck scampers away with his good friend Tom and his other buddies. The boys form a gang and then decide one of their tasks in the gang will be to kidnap people and, hold them...show more content...
Huck didn't think very much of her lecture; "Here she was a–bothering about Moses, which was no kin to her, and no use to anybody, being gone, you see..."(3) Twain uses Huck to exhibit hisobjection to the blind faith that "civilized" society places towards religion.
During Huck and Jim's journey, they encounter two men who refer to themselves as the Duke and the King. Theses characters make their living swindling people out of their money. When they are eventually caught, they pay for their sins by being tarred and feathered. Huck expresses his thoughts on the subject by saying, "It was a dreadful thing to see. Human beings can be awful cruel to one another."(294) Through this event, Twain shows that crooks and criminals aren't the only ones that can be cruel. The crowd which considers themselves to be civilized and opposing any such imprudent and cruel acts, actually commits one themselves. Twain illustrates how a society that views themselves as civilized can display such irresponsible conduct.
Twain uses a boy and a runaway slave in, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, to not only tell a story, but to express what he thinks are the problems of civilized society. Satire is the key tool in which he uses to demonstrate these problems. Through Twain's use of satire, we can not only poke fun at American society, but we can learn from its mistakes. Twain
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Question: Should the word "nigger" be censored and replaced with the word "slave" in the newly published editions of Huck Finn? Defend or Reject claim
Ernest Hemingway once said, "all modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain, called Huckleberry Finn:" However, Huck Finn has had its share of controversy. There has been an ongoing debate to whether or not schools should continue to teach Huck Finn because of the obvious racial components and the constant use of the word "nigger". This word has evolved to be very hurtful and very sensitive to African–Americans and the constant repetition of this word in the novel causes teachers and students alike to be uncomfortable. A southern publishing company has...show more content...
The core of this depraved society is the institution of slavery. Huck Finn cannot simply be taken out of the curriculum; it is too important a novel for it not to be taught. The key component in teaching Huck Finn is properly establishing historical context of slavery and race relations in nineteenth–century America. There is no way to "clean up" Twain without doing irreparable harm to the truth of his work.
Works Cited
Carey–Webb, Allen. "Racism and "Huckleberry Finn": Censorship, Dialogue, and Chang." The English Journal 82.7 (1992): 22–34. JSTOR. Web. 9 Feb. 2011.
Nelson, Jill. "The Word 'Nigger' Is Part of Our Lexicon– Room for Debate – NYTimes.com." The New York Times– Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. Web. 11 Feb. 2011. Get more content