David L. Smith states that Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the story of slavery and freedom, death and rebirth (to escape from his father, Huck cleverly faked his own death) has not only specific, but also a symbolic meaning. This novel is not only about the legalized slavery of black Americans, but also about the lack of freedom of the white man, enslaved by social conventions and prejudices of the environment, not only about the "revival" of the hero after his supposed death, but also about the actual birth of his personality, which gained emotional breadth. Huck’s and Jim's desire for freedom is that eternal human impulse to spiritual liberation.
The novel "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is adjacent to "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer": here the same characters and the same duration. But this thing reveals a more mature attitude of the author, richer covers all aspects of human experience, and has a deeper meaning synthesis. Purely artistic evolution as a writer is evident. The style, which Twain had already fully formed in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" as one of the best in the American literature, light, sharp and sensitive to the nuances of dialect, is now moved to a new quality (History.com, 2009).
“Though it contains some such elements, it is more fundamentally a critique of those socially constituted fictions- most notably romanticism, religion, and the concept of "the Negro" - which serve to justify and to disguise selfish, cruel, and exploitative behavior” (Smith, n.d., p. 1473).The writer returned to his favorite and repeatedly proven form of narration in the first person. Thus we have the hero-narrator of Tom, a boy from a bourgeois family, and Huck, a homeless tramp, a child of the people. It had a double effect. Firstly, masterfully reproduced, strong and colorful, truly national language in which the book is written, gives a picture of American life special plastic expression, creates the impression of a conversation "without a mediator" - as if his own voice spoke of America itself. Secondly, it is possible to more fully and more deeply reveal the character of the hero, only briefly outlined in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", show the formation of his personality.
Huck's mind is free from romantic clichés, and the nature of reality is formed. It has no external ostensible virtues, but he has all the essential qualities. Nature gave him a solid faithful heart, open to all humiliated and rejecting brazen force, whatever it is not expressed. Huck has a sense of inner independence, forcing him to flee from the pleasure and comfort that offers him the widow of Douglas, in a threatening world. His love of freedom is a rejection of hypocrisy, philistine prosperity and institutionalized lies (Twain, 1885).
“Furthermore, Huckleberry Finn offers much more than the typical liberal defenses of "human dignity" and protests against cruelty.” (Smith, n.d., p.1473). Compared to "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", in the character of Huck there is a new, very large characteristic - civil courage. From the first chapters of Twain's book, Huck makes an active participant in social conflicts. Saving Jim from the slavers, he risks losing his own freedom. But Twain points out that the need of the struggle for freedom of Jim as organically inherent Geku as hatred to everything that hampers him. Though not fully conscious, Huck’s fight for social justice makes his rebellion much more profound than that of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer".
The character of Huck is given in development, and this development is clearly motivated. Huck has grown in the South, where slavery imposes its imprint on the thinking of any white. It is long and with great difficulty wade through the thicket of slaveholding prejudices in his own mind, until people finally win him a southerner, until he finally decides to stay true to Jim. Twain never for a moment separates the hero from the environment, nurtured it, and at the same time shows him in a constant state of struggle against prejudice of the environment. The dialectical contradiction that lies at the basis of the image, making it especially vivid and dynamic, gives it a psychological authenticity.
“Most obviously, Twain uses "nigger" throughout the book as a synonym for "slave.” (Smith, n.d., p.1474)It is curious that in the novel, Huck, a pariah of society, standing in the eyes of others is still at a higher level of the social ladder than the Negro. But just as Tom, Huck has superior courage and spiritual qualities, just as Jim Huck is superior in fidelity and natural courage. To portray the black the most honorable man in the novel, to draw a picture of the friendship between a white and a black man, a friendship that has given so much to both of them - for this in America of 1880s, the author needed a lot of courage and boldness.
“Twain's use of the word "nigger" has provoked some readers to reject the novel. As one of the most offensive words in our vocabulary, "nigger" remains heavily shrouded in taboo” (Smith, n.d., p.1474). No less bravery and courage was needed by Twain, for the sake of the truth of life, to so defiantly violate the generally accepted norms of the literary language. Just how innovative this work was suggests a stormy debate that unfolded around the novel on its publication. Adherents of belles-lettres, requiring impeccably smooth style, perfectly virtuous hero and certainly "good manners", denounced the book as "obscene, vulgar and coarse." "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" were removed from the city libraries as "trash suitable only for a landfill," in Concord (Massachusetts). However, writers perceived the novel as the product of an innovative and highly artistic style.
The main drawback of Twain’s previous style, which remained with him from the time of his work as a reporter, is the composite superficiality. It was successfully overcome in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". Almost all the books of the writer were characterized by free composition, close to associative thinking. His friend W.J. Howwels had advised Twain to fight it. In "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," the lack of dignity looked bright. The author's intention was exclusively organic. Free composition of the novel just as the surprise satisfaction are very important here for the image of the great river, which takes place against the background of the colorful picture of life, painted humor, fiction, romance, and true tragedy.
The image of overflowing Mississippi River not only combines the action, but in contrast emphasizes the meanness and meaninglessness of human passions and ambitions: pictures follow one another, and the river continues to slowly roll their waters for vast expanses of America. The river defines the state of mind of Huck - blows his anxiety, gives him peace and wisdom. The image embodies the freedom of the great river, which is the ultimate heroes of the novel - to flee from the monster-father Huck and runaway nigger Jim - and gives them the desired eternal, timeless value (Goodreads.Inc, n.d.).
The internal spring of the novel, the driving story is Jim and Huck's escape from slave states and their journey on a raft down the river in search of freedom. This allows Twain to push the narrative framework, to deploy a broad picture of the American life. “Twain recognizes this invidious tendency of race- thinking, however, and he takes every opportunity to expose the mismatch between racial abstractions and real human beings” (Smith, n.d., p.1475). The story reveals a much darker side of life, rather than the occasional drama "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer": indifference and sadism of poor whites, the cowardice of the crowd, going to have a lynching, fraud merchants and senseless hatred of wealthy landowners.
Behind all this lurks the fear; not only superstitious, but fear of an impressionable teenager or dark man Jim. This is a very real and well-founded fear of endless confusing chain of robberies, beatings, drownings, and murders. Behind every bend in the road, every bend of the river opens the danger of violent death. In this cruel world the protagonists are thrown: a homeless orphan boy and a runaway nigger Jim who, relying solely on loyalty to each other, trying not to get hit by terrible news of white supremacy and adults.
References
Smith, David.(n.d.). From Huck, Jim, and American Racial Discourse.
History.com. (2009). Twain publishes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. History.com. Web. 15 Feb. 2016. Retrieved from http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/twain-publishes-the-adventures-of-huckleberry-finn
Twain, Mark. (1885). Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Web 15 Feb. 2016. Retrieved from http://www.gutenberg.org/files/76/76-h/76-h.htm
Goodreads.Inc. (n.d.). The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Quotes. Goodreads.com. Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1835605-the-adventures-of-huckleberry-finn
