Since being published in 1884 “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” does not stop causing controversy in society as to whether this book is a story of children’s adventures, a racist manifest or an attack on society. No wonder the novel was met with different kinds of attitude: both with high praise and harsh criticism as well. The controversy was caused by several factors: M. Twain’s usage of indecent words in his characters’ speech, the way the runaway slave Jim was portrayed, the fact that the protagonist Huck Finn helped Jim to escape slavery. Almost no one seemed to understand the satire Mark Twain used. So, the language of the book being far from the literary norm became the reason of the writer being called a racist. But it was the role of satire to give the novel some pro-racism feeling. However, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is not a racist book at all, as it is the promotion of freedom for slaves. Mark Twain’s skills of a brilliant writer gave him an opportunity to describe Huck’s struggle with what he thought was right and wrong. Jim’s character is just a way to demonstrate a reader that slavery was a wrong phenomenon that caused much pain and grief and that African-American people deserve as much fair attitude and respect as other nations in the world.
The main character of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is Huck Finn. From the very beginning of the novel Mark Twain unambiguously proclaims that he is a boy from the lowest level of the society. His father is not bothered with Huck’s existence, so the boy is on his own. There are some merciful and kind people like Widow Douglas who try to help the boy. However, he is independent and thus struggles for his freedom. The novel provides a reader with an opportunity to observe Hick’s growth and change. Though he is a protagonist of the novel, he is a thief as well. As the narrative progresses, Huck’s thefts are closer and closer to reality – the boy dreams about “julery” and “ingots” and in the course of time switches to “real act of slave-stealing on the Phelps's farm--chart Huck's growing moral depth and awareness”. (Link) However, a reader can observe in Huckleberry’s character “a willingness to engage in increasingly serious acts of thievery, coupled with an expanding awareness of the moral implications connected to these same acts”. (Link) Huckleberry has an individual trust in people. He tries to come to logical conclusions, though sometimes they are naïve and childish. Thus, he believes that Jim is the property of his white mistress, but Huck’s logic tells him that he ought to help the slave to escape. The moral climax of the novel happens when Huck decides to help the poor slave and to gain the desired freedom for himself: “It was a close place. I took . . . up [the letter I’d written to Miss Watson], and held it in my hand. 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. It was awful thoughts and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming.” (Twain) The boy possesses a natural intelligence that cannot be acquired but is always innate. He wants to learn new things and that fact makes him more outstanding than narrow-minded people.
Jim is a black slave who travels with Huck along the river. He is a man of great intelligence and compassion. He possesses knowledge of the natural world. Some readers can criticize Jim for being too passive, as being a slave he is separated from his wife and children, he misses them terrible but at the same time he is too scared of running away. However, Jim totally realizes his situation and does not create illusions understanding that if something goes wrong some people may be hurt.
Hildebrand states that there are several scholars who after analyzing “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and especially Jim’s character “have associated Jim's 'superstitious' behavior with the racist caricatures presented by the nineteenth-century minstrel show”. (Hildebrand) This fact is not surprising. Mark Twain depicted his character in such a way that a reader does not necessarily have to look deeply in his personality. That is true about Twain’s other black characters as well. The author very often proclaimed his love for “whites-in-blackface minstrelsy”; that gives a reader a chance to suggest that Twain had his inspiration came from the false image of Afro-American culture he saw on the minstrel stage. (Hildebrand) He may have been influenced by the wrong stereotypes about black people. The other suggestion is that Mark Twain’s aim was to mislead his readers so that to make them have their own opinion and thus develop a deeper understanding of the book and of the problems of black slavery. Indeed, the literary critic of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” made a suggestion that “the closer Twain got to black cultural practices and to racially subversive meanings, the more, paradoxically, his blackface debts multiplied”. (qtd. in Hildebrand)
With slavery and racism as the main themes of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, the other themes of the novel are intellectual and moral education and the hypocrisy of “civilized” society.
The novel consists of 43 chapters that are told in the first person by Huckleberry Finn. The structure of the book is presented in three sections: Huck’s leaving the civilization (Miss Watson); travelling down the river with Jim; returning back to civilization. With these three sections the book does not have a neat flow of rising action, climax and conclusion. The book consists of several adventures with their own parts of development. The image of the river serves as a timeline for narration. The novel is written in the past tense as a recent perspective. In Huckleberry’s words Mark Twain expresses his own ideas.
The setting of the novel is the Mississippi River. Mark Twain knew this area very well. He lived here and knew a lot of cities such as New Orleans and St. Louis down the river. The river serves as a grand layout for adventures. The house of the widow Douglass helps to understand the image of society in general.
The writing style of Mark Twain in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is very simple and a little bit childish, as he conveys his ideas with the help of a little boy. This fact is itself an irony. The author gives the complex ideas and observations of such difficult topics as society, racism, slavery, morality and expresses them thought the speech of a boy.
The most powerful symbol in the novel is the Mississippi river. For Huck and Jim the river is a symbol of freedom. They are alone on their journey and they do not have to answer anybody. The river carries them down to their freedom. For Jim the freedom lies in the Free states where he will join his family. For Huck this freedom is a life without a useless father who does not deserve his son and the strictness and primness of the civilized society: “The Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me so when I couldn’t stand it no longer I lit out”. (Twain) Huck managed to escape his father and found an almost happy life: “But I reckon I got to light out for the territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can’t stand it. I been there before”. (Twain)
Though Mark Twain was accused in racism for many times, his book “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” appealed to a very broad spectrum of readers from children to adults and gained an immediate success. Though it contained violence and set “bad models” for boys, most readers liked this book due to its “comedy, characters, and pictures of life in the Mississippi Valley of about 1840”. (Cardwell) There is s suggestion, that Mark Twain deliberately chose a definite style of writing and presenting the black characters so that to give an opportunity to a reader to make his or her own decision in regards of slavery.
Works cited:
Cardwell, Guy A. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Overview. Gale Cengage Learning. 11 April 2012.
Hildebrand, Jennifer. 'I awluz liked dead people, en done all I could for 'em': Reconsidering Huckleberry Finn's African and American Identity. Gale Cengage Learning. 11 April 2012.
Link, Eric Carl. Huck the Thief. Gale Cengage Learning. 11 April 2012.
Twain, Mark. Huckleberry Finn. Project Gutenberg. 11 April, 2012.
