¶ … Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is a classic that intertwines child innocence, and adventure together like the meandering Mississippi River upon whose shores the adventures take place.
When reading such a novel that also interplays social classes and nuances of the period, a variety of literary critical styles can be used to fully understand the scope of style, tone and content.
The novel starts off where "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" has left off. Initially I found myself using the style of 'Historical-Biographical Criticism' that seeks to comprehend by investigating the cultural, social and intellectual context that helped produce the novel. Mark Twain, or Samuel Clemens, lived during a particular time in American history that was terribly turbulent in social and ethical issues.
Of all of Twain's novels, this was one that sold best at its initial appearance. On the other hand, it was condemned by many reviewers in MT's time as coarse and by many commentators in our time as racist (Railton). Like many controversial novels in our times, I would imagine that the controversy of "Huckleberry Finn" sparked many people to read it, and perhaps find themselves reflecting on why they enjoyed it, or found it disturbing in nature.
Besides having the reader reflect on racial issues, Twain also had his reader look at their religious beliefs. Quite often, Mark Twain attacked organized religions and Huck Finn's sarcastic nature must have been the perfect voice for him to do so.
Mark Twain was also against slavery and in many instances, "Twain uses Jim, a slave who is one of the main characters, as a way of showing the human side of a slave. However, at the same time that Twain is attacking slavery, he also pushes the issue into the background for most of the novel. (ClassicNotes)."
The book took values held dear by the South and turned them upside down, giving people a raw opportunity to see how wrong or idiotic some of their practices were, especially when it came to slavery and injustices in civil rights.
Twain also increased the flow and credibility of the story by including real places and landmarks. Mentioning places like Cairo, New Orleans and Ohio gave an added dimension to Huck Finn's adventures as well as being an imaginative aid for readers.
Another useful approach was 'Formalist Criticism', if only for doing justice...
This experience had a profound effect on Huck, as he claimed that "It made me so sick I most fell out of the tree. I ain't a going to tell all that happened" (Twain 226). Huck sees more and more people being killed as he matures and comes to be certain that he does not want to be a member of a society where people see nothing wrong in
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn To dream of freedom is a sensational idea but experiencing freedom is as rare as the New Year eve among common days. While freedom is a great aspiration, it is not a dream that belongs to physical slaves alone. Huck and Jim; the characters painted by Mark Twin in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn depict that a person can long for freedom whether he belongs to a
Mark Twain, The Riverboat Pilot, Huckleberry Finn In his American classic Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain relates the adventures of Huck Finn and his companion Jim in such a way that the reader can sense that the story is based on true events, especially through characterization, setting and dialog. In essence, Twain has inserted himself into the novel via some very clever plot constructions and one of the best examples of this can
Leo Marx Critic on Huckleberry Finn Author's ideas: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has a controversial ending, which, as stated in Professor Leo Marx's 1995 analysis, resulted from: the enforced happy ending, the author's basic betrayal of Huck's companion Jim (Twain, 1994), and the return of the tale to the original mood, reflected at the novel's start (Broussard, 2011). Leo Marx states that Huckleberry becomes a powerless, naive and subservient accomplice of
Huckleberry Finn and What Makes an American What Makes Twain's Huckleberry Finn American? "Those canonic ideals -- self-government, equal opportunity, freedom of speech and association, a belief in progress, were first proclaimed during the era of the Revolution and the early republic and have developed more expansive meanings since then," these are the basic core ideals which make something truly American (Kazin & McCartin 1). The freedom to live as we want,
" (Henry James, p.45) Winterbourne knew that Daisy was basically a very innocent person and it was her innocence that was responsible for her disposition. Huck Finn was also guided by his innocent and generous heart. He tries to seek answers to moral issues through his own heart than any ill-guided dictates of the society. The most enlightening moment for him comes when he is torn between returning Jim to Miss
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