How Did Mark Twain Write The Adventures Of Huckleberry Fin Essay Questions

9/10/13
EN 210
Adventures of Huckleberry Fin: Essay Question
Living in a Persuasive Society “After all this long journey ... here it was all come to nothing, every thing all busted up and ruined” (Twain 233). In Mark Twain’s American classic Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the protagonist who has grown noticeably in maturity, humility, and leadership, instantly takes an abrupt halt and regresses to his submissive, gullible, and ignorant ways at the end of the novel. This new realization leads the audience towards feeling cheated and unsatisfied in how they’ve invested their emotions and concerns into Huck and his journey. The entire journey of Jim and Huck reflects values and moral standards dealing with slavery before and during the
Civil War. Mark Twain, growing up a witness of slavery and claiming the position of an abolitionist, focuses his novel on the justification of social criticism. Ending the novel as he did directly correlates with factors he dealt with as a child also following him into adulthood. As readers, expecting a different outcome in Huck by his personal growth throughout his journey, we feel completely lead astray by Twain. At the beginning of this novel, we meet Huck, a very uneducated, uncivilized boy who has no capability of leadership in the companions he surrounds himself with. In fact, he particularly falls under the influence of the character Tom Sawyer, who is not a rightful leader due to his selfish desire of adventure for himself above all else which includes: stealing, killing, and pirating around for fun like thieves in a gang. Even though it is pretend, the influence the boys are under become evident as we are able to see Huck’s submission when he says, “They talked it over, and they was going to rule me out ... I was most ready to cry; but all at once I thought of a way, and so I offered them Miss Watson-they could kill her” (Twain 111). He at once becomes easily manipulated and doesn’t think for himself. Huck discards the value of Miss Watson’s life, only finding killing her amusing because Tom does, in order to be affiliated with Tom’s gang. Saying they could kill Miss Watson just in order for him to be a part of the shenanigan Tom has spurring blatantly conveys Huck’s immaturity and gullibility from the beginning. Although, the moment Huck leaves Tom behind and takes off down the Mississippi River with Jim, he is forced to think for himself. As the audience starts to see the challenges and inner struggles Huck is faced with, we begin to see the true humility within him and the heroic character he beholds. He begins helping Jim and decides he would rather go to hell than put Jim back into slavery. It is here where we begin to fall in love with Huck for his heart, humility, and moral decisions he makes out of the compassion for a slave who he has no commitment to. Even at the beginning of their journey after playing a small prank on Jim, Huck realizes how awful and actually guilty he is of this cruel action. He even confesses, “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” (Twain 138). We as the audience know that Huck’s actions derived from something Tom Sawyer would have done, and after apologizing, a vast step in maturity has been made for Huck regarding Jim’s feelings and humanity. After this point, Huck begins to grow tremendously in maturity. We begin to rely on his humility and morality for everything to turn out right in the story. But unfortunately the end is completely unsatisfying and the audience feels lead astray. It feels as if all the investments the readers have made with their emotional connection and anxieties concerning Huck’s journey are completely wasted, because everything they’ve invested has now been discarded to the dust. As soon as Tom Sawyer comes into the picture, Huck immediately falls under his influence once again and doesn’t have an opinion or voice of his own anymore. The audience feels cheated and as if there was no point to the story since Huck doesn’t create a bold stand for what he has come to believe- the absurdity of slavery. We feel lead astray because society is still unchanged and slavery is still unresolved, nevertheless, the least bit confronted/argued at the end of the book. The climax of the story, when Huck decides, “All right, then, I’ll go to hell” (Twain 234), gives us the hope that Huck has the fervor to give up his life in hell for Jim. He’s going against everything Miss Watson and Widow Douglass have raised him to stand for, leading us to believe he will conscious effort to fight for Jim and fight for slavery. But unfortunately, we are completely thrown off when Huck falls once again under Tom’s influence and doesn’t seem to account for any of the maturity he gained throughout his journey against slavery. According to “Race” by Gregg Camfield, Mark Twain is said to have grown up under a racial background, coming from his uncle owning multiple slaves working on a farm and his father owning a couple of his own. Although, as Twain began traveling and studying, he steered away from his earlier racist views and became more liberal along with the friendships and ideas he came into contact with. As Twain started acquiring these views and writing this novel, racism and segregation were heightening to such a serious/controversial levels that it became a dangerous subject. The audience begins to believe the book is taking a direction toward a movement against slavery, giving us hope in the ending that something significant in racism will prevail.
After comparing Mark Twain and Huck’s situations and decisions, it seems as if their journeys mirror one another. As Twain leaves his home and begins to attain these liberal thoughts against racism and becomes an abolitionist, he starts to write the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This gives us the hope that this book is going to directly target an ending to slavery. But instead as Huck goes back to not speaking his own opinions and thinking for himself. Leo Mark best describes it as, “In the end, Huck regresses to the subordinate role in which he had first appeared in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Most of those traits which made him so appealing a hero now disappear” (Marx 285). In the same way, we believe that Mark Twain in his own life will stand up for what he believes in at the height of the controversy of racism. But as he gains all this knowledge of abolition and begins writing the novel, he remains quiet, sometimes stops writing the book for a while, and doesn’t publish it until 20 years after the Civil War. As a result, in and outside the novel, people feel let down and cheated that nothing is truly fought
for. Some people may argue that it addresses slavery and had an immense impact on the matter. Although I do believe that it helped people see slavery for what it truly was- an absurd segregate based on race, I have to argue that it discredited the humanity of slaves and the power of controversy over the matter. The entire novel brings into disrepute Jim as an actual human being. Almost as if Twain shifts our attention away from Jim’s feelings and conscious, because he is so uneducated and not perceived as a character of high respect. Also, the ending of the novel reveals there is controversy made over Jim’s freedom, but instead his freedom comes from the kindness and conscious of Miss Watson. As a reader, I expected Jim to either escape with the help of Huck to freedom, or get caught and Huck stand up for Jim because of the maturity he has gained. Unfortunately, neither happen or are accomplished, resulting in a missed attempt to stand boldly against racism and slavery. “What I have been saying is that the flimsy devices of plot, the discordant farcical tone, and the disintegration of the major characters all betray the failure of the ending” (Marx 285). A different ending resulting in Huck living in his new found maturity, standing up for what he has found to be rightful in his own conscious, and taking a step to fight for Jim in a movement against racism, Twain’s novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn would have been more effective and credited toward what some call it ‘The Great American Novel’. But without its integration of the major characters and Huck regression to his submissive and immature self, the novel cannot take full credit for a movement toward ending segregation.

Works Cited

Camfield, Gregg, Ph.D. "Mark Twain 's Mississippi: Race." Mark Twain 's Mississippi: Race. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Sept. 2013. .