American_Novel

Critical Essays Freedom versus Civilization in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn As with most works of literature, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn incorporates several themes developed around a central plot create a story. In this case, the story is of a young boy, Huck, and an escaped slave, Jim, and their moral, ethical, and human development during an odyssey down the Mississippi River that brings them into many conflicts with greater society. What Huck and Jim seek is freedom, and this freedom is sharply contrasted with the existing civilization along the great river. The practice of combining contrasting themes is common throughout Huck Finn, and Twain uses the resulting contradictions for the purposes of humor and insight. If freedom versus civilization is the overarching theme of the novel, it is illustrated through several thematic contradictions, including Tom's Romanticism versus Huck's Realism. The Romantic literary movement began in the late eighteenth century and prospered into the nineteenth century. Described as a revolt against the rationalism that had defined the Neo-Classical movement (dominate during the seventeenth and early eighteenth century), Romanticism placed heavy emphasis on imagination, emotion, and sensibility. Heroic feats, dangerous adventures, and inflated prose marked the resulting literature, which exalted the senses and emotion over intellect and reason. Authors such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allan Poe all enjoyed immense popularity. In addition, the writers of the New England Renaissance — Emerson, Longfellow, Holmes, and Whittier — dominated literary study, and the public's appetite for extravagance appeared to be insatiable. By the end of the 1870s, however, the great age of Romanticism appeared to be reaching its zenith. Bawdy humor and a realistic portrayal of the new American frontier were quickly displacing the refined culture of the New England literary circle. William Dean Howells described the new movement as "nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material." A new brand of literature emerged from the ashes of refined Romanticism, and this literature attacked existing icons, both literary and societal. The attack was not surprising, for the new authors, such as Mark Twain, had risen from middle-class values, and thus they were in direct contrast to the educated and genteel writers who had come before them. Literary Realism strove to depict an America as it really was, unfettered by Romanticism and often cruel and harsh in its reality. In Huck Finn, this contrast reveals itself in the guise of Tom and Huck. Representing the Romantic movement, Tom gleefully pulls the logical Huck into his schemes and adventures. When the boys come together at the beginning of the novel to create a band of robbers, Tom tells the gang that if anyone whispers their secrets, the boy and his entire family will be killed. The exaggerated purpose of the gang is comical in itself; however, when the gang succeeds in terrorizing a Sunday-school picnic, Twain succeeds in his burlesque of Romanticism. The more Tom tries to convince Huck and the rest of the boys that they are stealing jewelry from Arabs and Spaniards, the more ridiculous the scene becomes. After the gang steals turnips and Tom labels them as jewelry, Huck finally decides to resign because he "couldn't see no profit in it." Because the practical Huck is an agent of Realism, he finally decides that the "adventures" are simply lies of Tom Sawyer. Huck cannot see the purpose behind Tom's reasoning and imagination, and his literal approach to Tom's extravagance provides much of the novel's humor. Although Tom resurfaces at the novel's conclusion, Twain makes use of other devices to attack Romanticism during the course of the novel. When Huck hears a "twig snap" in Chapter 1, the subtle allusion is to James Fenimore Cooper and his Leatherstocking Tales, such as The Last of the Mohicans. In "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses," a satire of the early-nineteenth-century American novelist, Twain argued against the Romanticism that caused Cooper to prize "his broken twig above all the rest of his effects el. In fact, the Leatherstocking Series ought to have been called the Broken Twig series." In addition, when Huck and Jim come upon a crippled steamboat during their flight down the river, it is not coincidental that the boat's name is the Walter Scott, the same name as the Romantic author of Ivanhoe and The Abbott. Twain's burlesque of Romanticism represents more, however, than simply a literary method of humor. The imagination of Tom also symbolizes the constructed idealism of civilization, and its contrast with Jim's right to freedom becomes evident at the end of the novel. In this manner, the mistaken belief that nineteenth-century American society, especially in the South, had overcome its racial bigotry and hatred is as ludicrous as Tom's extravagant plan to free Jim from the Phelps farm. In contrast, as Huck questions the validity of Tom's Romanticism, he also questions the validity of the society around him, including its religious teachings and social laws. But, because Huck believes that Tom's education and upbringing make his judgment sound, Huck feels that he is the one who is destined for hell. The satiric comment is a harsh one and notifies readers that the interplay between Tom and Huck is not simply for humor. The contrast between Tom's Romanticism and Huck's Realism is also Twain's condemnation of a society that was still divided and unequal even after the Emancipation Proclamation. Bruce, Robert. CliffsNotes on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. 5 Apr 2011 .