Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain's masterpiece The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn through much criticism and denunciation has become a well-respected novel. Through the eyes of a thirteen-year-old boy, Huckleberry Finn, Twain illustrates the controversy of racism and slavery during the aftermath of the Civil War. Since Huck is an adolescent, he is vulnerable and greatly influenced by the adults he meets during his coming of age. His expedition down the Mississippi steers him into the lives of a diverse group of inhabitants who have conflicting morals. Though he lacks valid morals, Huck demonstrates the potential of humanity as a pensive, sensitive individual rather than conforming to a repressive society. In these modes, the novel places Jim and Huck on pedestals where their views on morality, learning, and society are compared.

Huckleberry's first encounter with physical perplexity comes when he has woken up alone: " I set up and looked around, a little scared. Then I remembered" (Twain 240). Awaking from his accidental nap, he was stunned by the sudden realization that he did not know where he was. After gaining full awareness of his surroundings, he was once again calmed. Another illustration of Huck's physical disorientation was when he was found in a "solid white fog" (269). During his separation from Jim, Huck confessed that he "hadn't no more idea which way I was going than a dead man" (269). While he was still had not united with Jim, he suffers from another bout of confusion. "First I didn't know where I was; I thought I was dreaming" (270). This exemplifies how Huck's mental disquietude melted into the physical realm.

Throughout his voyage down the Mississippi, Huck has various arguments with Jim, which force him to question the facts that he has been taught from a white society. These serve as metaphors addressing different beliefs that are disputed amongst the rivaling races. Huck and Jim quarrel about "King Sollermun" (Twain 266), who threatened to chop a baby in half. Jim debates that Solomon had so many children that he became incapable of valuing human life. Huck then defends what he believes to be "de wises' man dat ever live'" (266) by explaining to Jim that he has "'clean missed the point'" (267). Huck's subsequent comments relate Jim's conclusion about Solomon and his view of white treatment of blacks as infinitely replaceable bodies. Instead of bickering, Huck "went on talking about other kings, and let Solomon slide" (267).

Shortly after, they commence a new discussion when Jim asks, "Why, Huck, doan' de French people talk de same way we does?" (Twain 267). Huck tries to explain the language barrier by pointing out that cats and cows, two fundamentally different creatures, do not communicate the same way, and by the same logic, neither should Frenchmen and Americans, two fundamentally different cultures. However, Jim challenges the equivalence of the comparison on the basis that both the French and the Americans are men, making the analogy unsound. His argument is an additional indication that in this society not all men are equal. Their numerous deliberations show that both Jim and Huck are clever, but the former is less constrained by conventional wisdom than the latter, who has grown up in conservative white society.

Whereas Huck, through introspection, comes to his own conclusions, Tom, Huck's foil, surrenders himself to dogmatism, gathering his opinions and knowledge from misunderstood Romantic novels and teachings from Sunday school. In their first encounter, Tom admits that he has derived all of his of ideas from popular, fictional books that he has read. Fascinated with fancy language, contracts and scandalous acts, Tom stresses that literature must be preserved even at the expense of human dignity. While Tom places great importance in fictitious models, Huck is guided by empiricism. He seems to be excessively pragmatic