The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain Boyhood ...
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain
Rationale by Norma Walrath
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For its humanism--the idea that every person is worthy of respect and compassion, for its suggestion of regional differences and the need for understanding others unlike ourselves, for its satirical attack against complacency regarding the evils in our world, for its use of original literary techniques, and for its profound insight into human nature and human foibles, Huckleberry Finn is one of the most teachable books. It is especially suited for the study of American literature in the eleventh or twelfth grades. This is the time when young adults are making decisions about their lives--moral, social, emotional, academic decisions. They are making choices of jobs and friends, choices that will affect directly their behaviors away from adult supervision, away from the confines of school and home. Since Huck has to undergo the very same initiations, the book serves as a model for young people everywhere who must be initiated into the world in which they are expected to function as active, contributing adults. The choices they make, like Huck's, are ones which will determine their characters and especially their moral lives.
Above all, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a moral book. Twain brings to the fore in Huck's simplistic dialect the universal questions of quests of youth: the search for meaning, the search for the self that can stand alone under pressure, the search for significant others who offer worthy models of behavior and thought. Huck Finn is a moral, ethical book dealing with racial bigotry and human decadence, things our world offers its youth too much of today. That Huck can decide for himself to save Jim from the slave catchers is the turning point in his moral development. Here, he shows independent moral courage. Going against all the precepts of his small, religious but prejudiced community, Huck's innocence and candid observations show us the cruelty and sham in his society, and by example, in ours. Students today can learn from his experiences.
The feuds between the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons and between Boggs and Colonel Sherburn are prime examples of Twain's theme of man's pettiness against man. Sherburn's words reveal Twain's bitterness towards a society of moral cowards. Huck's description of Colonel Grangerford reveals Twain's bitterness toward a society in which hate and egotism are admired when covered in charm and fancy outerwear. Always in an impeccable suit, Colonel Grangerford may be a "gentleman" as Huck says, but he is not beyond sacrificing his own children for the sake of hate. Twain forces the young reader to look behind surface frills to the real motives for people's actions. Disguise, a central theme in the novel, is Twain's way of inviting his readers to develop an appreciation of the inner person. Twain forces us to judge not merely by what a character says, but by what he does; not by what apparel he wears, but by how he does justice to others.
The novel contains humor and irony as well as cynicism, however. Twain also mocks the cynicism of a Colonel Sherburn who has probably lost his humanity much before his needless shooting of the drunken Boggs. Sherburn's homily serves also to display the disillusionment of Twain who could not understand the slavery and wanton cruelty he witnessed in his own growing up. Students must face these issues. Can the hate of people be stopped? How do we prevent the needless holocausts of millions if we cannot stop the mindless hate of the people in our community, our country, no matter how different they are in color, religion or race?
The novel is representative of America. In fact, many think it to be crucial to the sociological and literary-historical study of American literature. Of course, it is dated. The book is a product of the 1880's (1884 to be exact). It mirrors a country which is beginning to boom, to grow up industrially. Such an industrial society can communicate more closely, and the figurative size of the country therefore shrinks. People learn that they are interdependent, and learning to live together is a major task of the age. It is also a major theme of the book--a white boy and black man learning to live together harmoniously. Such a lesson is valuable in our own troubled age.
Huckleberry Finn demonstrates historical reality. Historically, Americans must come to terms with the fact that the first Americans did own slaves and did profit from the often cruel, inhuman labor of others. When introducing the novel to a class, the teacher must stress these historical aspects, especially the offensive term "nigger" which has changed over the years just as the attitude about humans as chattel has changed. According to Dr. James Cox, a Mark Twain scholar and author of Mark Twain: The Fate of Humor (1966) and several essays on Huck, "'nigger' is a term of derogation and slavery the institution of derogation." (James Melville Cox, in a personal interview at Dartmouth College, April 27, 1983.) Mark Twain was well aware of the poignant use of the term and yet chose to use it to display the imperfect, contradictory nature of a developing democracy. Twain's use of the term is historically accurate rather than a sign of bias.
Despite this "historical truth," it is understandable that the current controversy about the teaching of Huck Finn in public schools revolves about the use of the term "nigger" and Twain's supposed depiction of the black man as a fool--ignorant, superstitious, submissive, and subservient to the white man. Recently parents in Houston, in Philadelphia, and most notably in the Mark Twain School in Fairfax, Virginia (see newspaper clippings for The Day newspaper in New London, Connecticut, dates 2/18/82; 4/8/82; 5/10/82 and others in 1982), have objected to schools' choosing to keep Mark Twain's classic required reading in American literature courses. However, a closer examination of the text and the professional handling of the subject matter could easily assuage these would-be censors' criticisms.
First of all, a teacher, a professional accustomed to dealing with the intricacies of literary styles of novelists--their use of irony, dialect, local color, narrators, humor, satire, all of which Twain uses in Huck Finn, must introduce the book with the necessary historical, moral, and literary background of the use of the term "nigger." It is often the very first concept I deal with in my classes so that students will pay particular attention to Twain's use of realistic dialect and will recognize the strong moral undercurrent in the book. This is not a novel for speedy reading. The seemingly simplistic, easy flow of Huck's narrative can be as misleading as the characters he meets on this journey to the heart of darkness, the heart of slave country, the shameful heart of an American civilization that mistreats other human beings.
No one is held sacred in Twain's satire. Even lovable Huck is seen as ambivalent and torturously unsure of what is morally right. He is torn between what his corrupt society tells him to do and what his conscience and loving spirit tell him to do. He shifts in his guises and his resolve to do "good"--a very human response. A teacher necessarily will point out the contradictions in Huck's behavior, his language, and what is considered moral good. Nor does Twain's comprehensive satire spare Jim.
Much critical comment has centered around what some have called Twain's unrealistic, insensitive depiction of Jim in the novel: he is the butt of Tom Sawyer's jokes; he is the willing foolish black whose ignorance dwarfs him in the presence of whites, even young, romantic youngsters like Tom. Well, a closer examination of Jim's traits easily cleans up these false presumptions and distortions. Above all else, Jim is a compassionate figure, a real human being with strong feelings expressed for his family, for Huck, for his personal independence, and for sacrifice and love. He is the symbolic father Huck has never had. Huck's genetic father, Pap, is a drunken, pigheaded, racist blackguard who beats and maims his only child. Throughout the story, Jim tells Huck of his desire for freedom, not a foolish wish for any man; he also speaks of his love for his wife and children, and even of his mistakes as a father. Jim shows compassion for Huck, and in their idyll on the raft they are equals, equals in humanity. Huck's sense of equality and compassion is his most notable characteristic. (He even shows compassion for the brutal Duke and Dauphin who get tarred and feathered and run out of town.) At the end, Jim is even willing to sacrifice himself and his freedom to save Tom's wounded leg. Some may call this act foolish, but it is not the action of a fool. Some may call this submissive, the black man deferring to the white, but it is the heroic act of a peaceful man. No, Jim is not a fool. At every turn of the Mississippi, he is as shrewd as his sure escape to Jackson's Island. He is aware of Huck's dilemma as he is of his own selfhood, especially when he upbraids Huck for the terrible joke in the fog. Huck apologizes to him and his pride becomes ours. We sympathize with both these fugitives. Other examples of Jim's gentleness, honesty, loyalty, fatherhood, etc., can easily be evoked from a class of attentive readers.
That Jim was a slave and that "nigger" is an objectionable term is simply the current of contemporary history. Today readers who have seen Roots on television, presentations of the holocaust of World War II, and newsreels of man's inhumanity to man can understand the inhuman treatment of others as presented in this novel. They are aware that it is the artist, the writer in society, who often allows us to see ourselves as we are, to laugh at our follies and to correct our erring ways if we can. That is satire's purpose, and that is Twain's purpose in this novel.
We cannot stop teaching Huckleberry Finn because some people object. Twain's intent is commendable and painfully honest. To deny that some used the term "nigger" and that slaves were treated cruelly is to deny history. We cannot romanticize the evils of the world. We can only expose evils so that the young may gain insight to make the changes that are needed for a peaceful world. The remarkable quality about Twain's novel is that he exposes evil with clarity, with drama, without all that preaching and sermonizing that puts even adults to sleep. He does this through adventures and humor, with power and zest. Students enjoy this book, not only for its humor and revelations and integrity of mission, but because it is a good book to read. Huck's idyll on the raft is a dream, a dream of youth, of freedom and of moral courage. Twain does not lose sight of what man has done or what he can become. Neither do the young people who read this book. It is a "must" in the American literature classroom.
Reviews
Branch, Edgar, "Mark Twain and J.D. Salinger: A Study in Literary Continuity," American Quarterly, 9:144-58, Summer, 1957.
Kaplan, Charles, "Holden and Huck: The Odysseys of Youth," College English, 18:76-80, November, 1956.
Rubenstein, Gilbert M., "The Moral Structure of Huckleberry Finn," College English, 18:72-6, November, 1956.
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[At the time of original publication,] Norma Walrath teaches English in Ledyard, CT. She is Editor of the CCTE Newsletter.
From Rationales for Commonly Challenged Taught Books. Themed issue of Connecticut English Journal, Diane P. Shugert (Ed.), vol. 15, no. 1, Fall 1983. Used with the permission of the Connecticut Council of Teachers of English.
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