In Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain simply wrote
about a boy and the river. In doings so Twain presents the reader with his
personal view of mankind, whether he wants to or not:
Persons attempting to find a motive in
this narrative will be
prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot will be shot. (2)
Possibly by
giving us this warning Twain admits to the existence of a clear motive,
morality, and a strong plot in his masterpiece. Nonetheless, Huckleberry Finn,
through examples of hypocrisy, greed, violence, and racism, shows Twain's
pessimistic view of society and corruption of the human race as a whole.
To understand the pessimism of the book, we
must first understand Huck. Huck is a character though whose eyes we see the
ugly truth about mankind. Huck is always on the run from people. In the
beginning we see him living a prim and proper life with the widow. He is then
abducted by his father, and for a time is relieved to get out of the moral
trappings of the town, and live sloppily, doing whatever he wanted to do.
"It was kind of lazy and jolly, laying off comfortable all day." (24)
After some time, and being unable to endure the abuse of his father, he runs
away. Huck is as dissatisfied by one extreme as he is by the next. Huck chooses not to take sides on any matter, but
instead be indifferent towards it. Huck avoids moral decision making throughout
the book as much as possible. In the end of the book Twain saves Huck's
indifferent persona by bringing in Tom to make the decisions for him.
Some may argue that in saving Jim , Huck saves
face for the human race, giving a sense of hope for the future. However, Huck
must go about freeing Jim in an underhanded manner, lying and stealing his way
down the river. Also, Twain himself cuts down the "salvation" of Jim
by, in the last chapters, revealing that the entire adventure was useless, that
the same ends could have been met by staying home.
Violence plays a large role in the unflattering
portrayal of man. In the opening chapters we see young Huck joining Tom
Sawyer's band of murderers and thieves. "We stop stages and carriages on
the road, with masks on, and kill the people and take their watches and
money." (10)
Although the reader realizes that the
"gang" never does any physical harm to real people, the fact that
this group of youngsters fantasizes about committing acts that were evil even
to the most ignorant, shows the acceptance with which violence is perceived by
man.
When Huck
fakes his own murder, he employs a fantastic knowledge of graphic violence. He
kills a pig so he can leave a trail of blood, marking the path the murderer
took to dispose of Huck's body. He takes the ax and "smashes" the
door in to make it seem as if some deranged maniac hacked through the door. It
takes this seemingly horrendous act of violence to begin Huck's journey. In the Grangerford and Shepherdson scenes,
violence is seen as a senseless act, committed by an inhuman instinct, rather
than through intellect and will. As soon as the Grangerfords hear that their
daughter ran off with a Shepherdson, their first instinct was to get the guns
and bag some Shepherdsons. They did not stop to think that there might be an
alternative solution.
The Grangerford and Shepherdson scene also
shows the grandeur associated with violence. Constantly Buck is whining about
how he never gets "roused" when they here a Shepherdson lurking
around. Buck boasts about how one day he too will shoot down a Shepherdson, as
if committing that mortal sin will propel him into manhood. Twain clearly
displays his disgust with violence in these scenes.
Huck's naivete does not mask the hypocrisy of
man shown in the book. In the scenes with the Grangerfords and the
Shepherdsons, huck fails to see the true gaudiness of the Grangerford
household. In describing their home one could use the contemporary term,
cheesy. Huck sees their furnishings, like the fake fruit, and marvels at how
they look prettier than real fruit. In reality the chipped and cracked fruit
is, as gaudy and fake as the Grangerfords.
The male Grangerfords jaunt around wearing
startling white linen outfits and panama hats. Huck regards and admires both
families, "They [the Shepherdsons] were as high-toned and well born and
rich and grand as the tribe of Grangerfords." (103) We the reader see the
"grand" Grangerfords and Shepherdsons going gun-toting to Sunday
mass, praising peace and harmony. This scene clearly shows the hypocrisy with
which Twain feels we are all immersed in.
The King and the Duke scene is in the book for
two reasons. First Twain needed an excuse to keep Huck and Jim traveling deeper
and deeper south. The second and more obvious reason is to show the element of
greed that further corrupts society.
In the scenes with the King and the Duke Twain
shows us the greediness of man. The King and the Duke pride themselves in
cheating people out of money. They steal from whomever, however, and whenever
they can. They have no sympathy for the Wilks girls. The King and the Duke
double their take from the Wilks's by at first handing over their share of the
bequeathed money and some of their own money earned from the Nonesuch, thus
appearing to the town as "good souls." Before leaving the King and
the Duke sell off every worldly possession of the Wilk's estate, as well as the
slaves.
Racism runs throughout the book. Huck is faced
with his own personal conflict with racism. He is faced with the dilemma
whether or not to turn Jim in. Huck makes his decision when he says, "I'll
go to Hell." (206) Huck decides that saving Jim is worth it, even if it
means going to hell. As noble as it seems, it was only one isolated instance.
Huck, and Huck's society was still decidedly racist. Huck fails to see Jim as a
black who is human, but as a black who is almost white.
In the end Huck does the only thing he can do,
he says he is going to escape:
But I reckon I got to light out for the
territory ahead of the rest,
because Aunt Polly is going to adopt me and
sivilize me, and I can't stand it. I been there before. (281)
It is the promise
that Aunt Polly is going to "sivilize" him with the ideals of a
civilization and society that is on the whole corrupt that forces Huck to light
out for the territory. Twain also foreshadowed a grim future for society when
he wrote, "But I reckon I got to light out for the territory ahead of the
rest." (281) By saying "ahead of the rest" he acknowledges that
wherever Huck goes, society, and subsequently the evil and corruption synonymous
with it, must follow.
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