Arcadia: A literal place -- a remote region in the Greek Islands encircled by mountains -- but
more importantly, a potent literary symbol from the Latin times
(cf. Virgil's Eclogues) on through today (cf. Tom Stoppard's play
of the same name). It's a deliberate look back to a mythic
Golden Age, when all was right with the world, and shepherds
roamed in a pastoral idyl. The physical place contributes to
its symbolic meaning: a place (and thus ideal) cut off from "real" world. Once the real world intrudes (a visitor from another
region), the gold tarnishes, and things fall apart. Stemming
from human's perennial desire for a mythic (longed for but never
really existing) perfect time, its obvious analogue is the Garden
of Eden Myth. Wolfgang Iser brings up an important point
about Arcadia: “Should the world intrude upon its borders, then
thanks to the total self-containment of the garden, it is the world that will seem
excluded and unreal” (73).
Iser, Wolfgang. Prospecting:
from Reader Response to Literary Anthropology.
Baltimore: John Hopkins UP, 1989. Print.
Southwestern humor: Characterized by tall
tales, exaggeration, dialect, and exotic (for those living on the
Eastern seaboard) locales, this genre presented the frontier (in
the mid 1800s, "the West" started at Missouri -- and for some,
Ohio) in a, well, humorous light. "Well-known noms de guerre
such as 'Artemus Ward' (Charles Farrar Browne), 'Petroleum
V. Nasby' (David Ross Locke), and 'Josh Billings' (Henry Wheeler
Shaw) preceded [Twain]. These comic writers, all forgotten now,
formed a school of seemingly illiterate backwoodsmen whose common
sense exposed the stupidities of contemporary American life; and
also, in the Huckleberry Finn manner, each spoke in his natural
idiom." (Hearn cliii)
Picaro/picaresque narrative: A picaro is a
lower class figure living on his wits -- and whose actions border
on the criminal. Often used to offer wry comments/critiques on
society. A picaresque narrative follows such a hero/rouge through
various and often seemingly random escapades. According to Harmon
and Holman's A Handbook to Literature, a picaresque novel
includes: 1) biography (whole or part) of a picaro -- first person
POV; 2) episodic; 3) picaro does not grow or develop as a person;
4) realistic in presentation (though at times fantastic in action)
and (usually) satiric in aim.
Burlesque : A work designed to ridicule a
style, literary form, or subject matter either by treating the
exalted in a trivial way or by discussing the trivial in exalted
terms (that is, with mock dignity). Burlesque concentrates on
derisive imitation, usually in exaggerated terms. Literary genres
(like the tragic drama) can be burlesqued, as can styles of
sculpture, philosophical movements, schools of art, and so forth.
See Parody, Travesty .*
Minstrel show/Blackface: A common form of
entertainment in Victorian America, this featured actors in
blackface (white men with painted faces and wigs to resemble
Negroes) speaking in broad Negro dialects, performing skits
(usually with music and dancing) that accentuated and perpetuated
stereotypes of the innocent/dumb/gullible "darky." It cast a
bright picture on a dark historic past, turning slavery into
comedic sketch. Twain loved minstrel shows.
See "Minstrel
Show" in The Oxford Companion to American Literature for a
brief overview, and an excellent
wikipedia page (great period illustrations) for a more
detailed explanation.
Jim Crow: Literally, stock character from
minstrel shows (see above). More generally, a stereotypical figure
originally used as a caricature of a black male. In the
years following Reconstruction, laws were passed throughout the
United States legalizing segregation and denying rights to
blacks. These laws were called Jim Crow laws.
Realism: A literary movement that focuses on the
matter of fact, the every day life, and attempts to report it
objectively. While purporting to ignore morality, simply
illustrating reality has a way of instigating changes.
Two criticisms of realism include 1) it generally focused on
middle to upper class life and thus didn't represent "real life."
And 2) any attempt at objectivity is doomed because an artist will
always be limited by their subjectivity.
For additional information, see the "Realism"
paragraph entry in the Oxford Companion to American
Literature. For a richer discussion, see the Naturalism
and Realism essay from The Oxford Encyclopedia of
American Literature.
Irony : A mode of expression, through
words (verbal irony) or events (irony of situation), conveying a
reality different from and usually opposite to appearance or
expectation. A writer may say the opposite of what he means,
create a reversal between expectation and its fulfillment, or give
the audience knowledge that a character lacks, making the
character's words have meaning to the audience not perceived by
the character. In verbal irony, the writer's meaning or even his
attitude may be different from what he says: "Why, no one would
dare argue that there could be anything more important in choosing
a college than its proximity to the beach." An example of
situational irony would occur if a professional pickpocket had his
own pocket picked just as he was in the act of picking someone
else's pocket. The irony is generated by the surprise recognition
by the audience of a reality in contrast with expectation or
appearance, while another audience, victim, or character puts
confidence in the appearance as reality (in this case, the
pickpocket doesn't expect his own pocket to be picked). The
surprise recognition by the audience often produces a comic
effect, making irony often funny.
To be an effective piece of sustained irony, there must be some
sort of audience tip-off, through style, tone, use of clear
exaggeration, or other device.*
Manichean: A belief that life consists of a war
between good and evil and thus always involves strife and struggle
-- or sturm und drang.
Satire : A literary mode based on criticism of
people and society through ridicule. The satirist aims to reduce
the practices attacked by laughing scornfully at them--and being
witty enough to allow the reader to laugh, also. Ridicule,
irony, exaggeration, and several other techniques are almost
always present. The satirist may insert serious statements of
value or desired behavior, but most often he relies on an implicit
moral code, understood by his audience and paid lip service by
them. The satirist's goal is to point out the hypocrisy of his
target in the hope that either the target or the audience will
return to a real following of the code. Thus, satire is
inescapably moral even when no explicit values are promoted in the
work, for the satirist works within the framework of a widely
spread value system. Many of the techniques of satire are devices
of comparison, to show the similarity or contrast between two
things. A list of incongruous items, an oxymoron, metaphors, and
so forth are examples. See
"The Purpose and Method of Satire" for more information.*
Trickster: "World mythology tales that involve a
rule-breaking character type. As folklore dictates social
behaviors, the trickster identifies boundaries by crashing through
them. The archetypal fool, surprised by objects before him,
sometimes powerless, the trickster also embodies the magician,
whose mastery over the natural world initiates innovation. He is
the mutant gene propelling evolution, the fire bringer, the Old
Testament serpent elevating mankind from animal existence to
divine knowledge of good or evil. Western culture frequently looks
at indigenous tricksters and sees the devil, but the trickster is
amoral, not immoral, and certainly not evil. The trickster
indicates change and new ways of behaving" (Friedman).
Romanticism/Romance novel: For Twain, novels that
revel in hair-breadth escapes, damsels in distress, sword fights,
noble men fighting ignoble villains, pirates, highwaymen,
cannibals, (oh my!). In other words, escapist fiction: and
unfortunately, Tom Sawyer's daily bread.
For Twain, the nadir of the romance novel is embodied in Sir
Walter Scott, a (very) popular writer of historical
fiction. In Life on the Mississippi (1883), which he wrote
after completing half of HF, Twain argued (with tongue
only partly in cheek) that Scott, "with his enchantments [ . . .
checked the] wave of progress, and even turns it back; sets the
world in love with dreams and phantoms; with decayed and swinish
forms of religion; with decayed and degraded systems of
government; with the sillinesses and emptinesses, sham grandeurs,
sham gauds, and sham chivalries of a brainless and worthless
long-vanished society. He did measureless harm; more real and
lasting harm, perhaps, than any other individual that ever wrote.
Most of the world has now outlived good part of these harms,
though by no means all of them; but in our South they flourish
pretty forcefully still. Not so forcefully as half a generation
ago, perhaps, but still forcefully."
Sentimentality: This kind of literature exults
in scenes depicting strong emotions, such as deathbed vignettes
(particularly with children), children being abused or separated
from their parents, and scenes of characters overcome with
emotions and/or crying. These are meant to evoke a curious mix of
pain and pleasure. Consider the following definition of sadness
after the death of a loved one from a popular 1854 gift-book.
After describing the initial realization of sadness as "gloomy and
solemn as the death-knell," it offers an interesting
qualification: "Still it is a delicious sort of sorrow; and like a
cloud dimming the sunshine of the river, although causing a
momentary shade of gloom, it enhances the beauty of returning
brightness" ( Scrap-Book 353). Pathos, in this case a
remembrance of things past, has the power to conjure up both
darkness and light. Which character in HF seems locked in
a sentimental waltz?
For a more detailed look at this literary genre, see this essay
on sentimental literature in the Oxford Encyclopedia of
American Literature.
Friedman, Monica. "Trickster Tales." The Oxford
Encyclopedia of Children's Literature. Edited by Jack Zipes.
Oxford University Press 2006. Oxford Reference Center. Ocean
County College. 3 February 2009.
The Life Essay
on the culture and time period of the novel
Mark Twain: "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," in Literature
and Its Times: Profiles of 300 Notable Literary Works and the
Historical Events that Influenced Them, Volume 2: Civil Wars to
Frontier Societies (1800-1880s), edited by Joyce Moss and
George Wilson, Gale Research, 1997. Reproduced in Literature
Resource Center.
See the introduction to the Twain section for a succinct
biography. On censorship of the novel, consider the following:
Susy Clemens wrote "Ever since papa and mama were married papa
has written his books . . . and she has expurgated them. Papa
read Huckleberry Finn to us in manuscript . . . and then he
would leave parts of it for mama to expurgate, while he went off
to the study to work, and sometimes Clara and I would be
sitting, with mama while she was looking the manuscript over,
and I remember so well . . . one part particularly which was
perfectly fascinating it was so terrible, that Clara and I used
to delight in and oh, with what despair we saw mama turn down
the leaf on which it was written, we thought the book would be
almost ruined without it. Be we generally come to think as mama
did" (Hearn xxvi)
Twain noted in 1906 "I often abused my editor's innocent
confidence. I often interlarded remarks of a studied and
felicitously atrocious character purposely to achieve the
children's brief delight, and then see the remorseless pencil do
its fatal work. I often joined my supplications to the
children's for mercy . . . and pretended to be earnest. They
were deceived as so was their mother . . . But it was very
delightful, and I could not resist the temptation . . . Then I
privately struck the passage out myself" (Hearn xxvii)
Richard Watson Gilder of the Century "deleted references to
nakedness, offensive smells, and the blowing of noses; such a
phrase as 'both of them took on like they' lost the twelve
apostles' was suppressed, perhaps for fear of being perceived as
blasphemous. Under Gilder's blue pencil, 'such a sweat' became
'such a hurry,' 'wet cloth' become 'shroud.' [. . .] Oddly, no
one thought of deleting the vulgar word 'nigger.'" (Hearn xxxi)
"'Mr. Clemens has great faults,' the cautious editor admitted;
'at times he is inartistically and indefensibly coarse . . .
there is much of his writing that we would not print for a
miscellaneous audience. If you should ever carefully compare the
chapters of Huckleberry Finn, as we printed them, with the same
as they appear in his book, you'll will see the most decided
difference. These extracts were carefully edited for a magazine
audience with his full consent" (Hearn xxxi)
Given this, it's surprising that while "He did not approve of
swearing before women and children[, h]e also recognized that 'in
certain trying circumstances, desperate circumstances, urgent
circumstances, profanity furnishes a relief even to prayer'"
(Hearn xxxiii).
Marketing the book:
The publisher's write up assured potential readers that HF was
"written in Mark Twain's old style" "a cure for melancholy." It
was marketed as a " humorous book with
'side-splitting stories, sly hints at different weaknesses of
society, and adventures of the most humorous description"
"Nine-tenths of our ills are due to an over-burdened mind and
overtaxed brain, or imaginary troubles that never come. An
amusing book is a panacea more agreeable than medicine and less
expensive than doctors' bills" "a book for the young and the
old, the rich and the poor" (Hearn lxvi-vii)
Image from The Annotated Huckleberry Finn, ed. Michael
Hearn. Page 2
Racial views in the North? Glad you asked.
"In 1835, three young black men traveled from
New York City to attend a school established by abolitionists in
the town of Canaan, New Hampshire. 'Fourteen black boys with books
in the hands set the entire Granite State crazy!' recalled the
minister Alexander Crummell, for whites 'could not endure what
they called a 'Nigger School' on the soil of New Hampshire''" (Hodes 74-75).Crummell
was one of the boys.
Hodes,
Martha. The Sea
Captain's Wife.Norton, 2006.
The violence in the novel (sure to earn it a M rating today) is
part and parcel of life in the South.
The English writer, Frederick Marryat, touring antebellum
America (when Huck Finn
is set), wrote in his diary that "Every crime increases in
magnitude and proportion as it affects the welfare and interest of
the community [ . . . .] Of punishments, it will be observed that
society has awarded the most severe for crimes committed against
it, rather than those that offend God. Upon this principle, in the
Southern and Western States, you may murder ten white
men and no one will arraign you or trouble himself about the
matter; but steal one nigger , and the whole community
are in arms, and express the most virtuous indignation against the
sin of theft, although that of murder will be disregarded" (234).
And consider the following quotes from David Grimstead's Mobbing
in America (great title)
The South accepted extralegal
structures parallel to its flourishing legal system in part
because a slave society glorified mastery as its central
honorific. Its extralegal systems, personal and collective,
allowed Southerners to escape from situations of moral ambiguity
and embarrassment into ones of melodramatically simple and dead
certain answers (Grimestead America
xi)
In over three-quarters of the
Northern cases, rioters faced some serious opposition either from
intended victims or from authorities. In about a third of
the cases, evidence exists of arrests, and in about a fifth, of
trails or sentences. In the South, mobs acted generally in
situations where they were completely in control, and with little
fear that legal authorities would question their action. In
only four Southern mobs was there any hint of officials opposing
the mob, and in one of these a man jailed supposedly for his
protection was then murdered by a mob member in his cell.
The killer's argument of 'self-defense' in shooting the unarmed
prisoner when unquestioned (Grimstead America
13-14)
In the South,
sneak attack, attack from ambush,
attack on the unarmed or even the sleeping, attack on one by
several did little to detract from the honor of these public
maulings or murders (Grimestead America
92)
And finally, Twain himself, in a 1901 essay he considered too
inflammatory to publish, excoriated his Southern brethen's natural
recourse to violence. The essay, "The United States of Lyncherdom," saw print
only after his death. This reluctance to directly challenge
the racist ideologies explains, in part, the evasions, satire, and
irony of Huck Finn.
It also results in a font of humor.
For short histories of lynching in America, see "About Lynching" on the Modern Poetry web site.
Day 1:
The N word; Publishing history (see bottom of lesson plan for
photo); historical context; middle class; opening chapters;
southern violence; race; the civil war;
Day 2:
Violence (see above); Appearances v. reality; Arcadia; race; duke
and dauphin; the ending (Ah! Romance!)
Main characters: Huckleberry Finn, Jim, Tom Sawyer, Widow
Douglas, Miss Watson, Pap (119, 120) Duke and Dauphin
What do you make of the title page? Why so much information?
When does the Widow Douglas decide to take him in? What
happens to him first? (Chap 1; 109) ; what does she want to do
to him?
What does the observation that while she objects to tobacco,
Miss Watson takes snuff say about Huck? (Chap 1; 109)
What do you make of Tom's oath? (Chap 1; 112)
Since he's an outlaw, he trusts only his own ideas? (113)
Where does Tom derive his knowledge from? "Don't I tell you it's
in the books? Do you want to go to doing different from what's
in the books, and get things all muddled up?" (113)
Chap IV -- how is Jim presented? (119)
Chapter VI How is Pap's speech about the "mulatter" ironic?
Victorian values "taught people to work hard, to postpone
gratification, to repress themselves sexually, to 'improve'
themselves, to be sober, conscientious, even compulsive" (Howe
521). Who embraces these values? Who rejects them? How is the
pursuit of these values portrayed in the novel -- positive or
negative? How does this compare/contrast with Ragged Dick ?
Now given the values above, why would so many institutions get
so worried and upset about this novel? As late as 1905, HF (and
even Tom Sawyer) was excluded from the Brooklyn public library.
Why?
Given this quote "This was the age of faith. We were as sure
of God as we were of the sun. Christmas had a reality that
clutched us hard; we were of it, and it was us." (Reese 5) from
Lizette Reese's Victorian Village, what would many readers think
of HF? Is it "sure of God"? Go to particular scenes and view
them from a religious perspective. What is Twain "saying" about
religion?
Does this have any connection to Rebecca Harding Davis's "Life
in the Iron Mills"?
Is the raft scene needed? (Chapter XVI 161-169)
Who is literally the whitest person in the book? (119) "In
terms of the racial politics of the novel, Pap's 'whiteness' is
exactly like any other southern man's, just a more extreme
version of it" (Messent 76) Is this true?
How does Huck resemble Dick Hunter? How is he different?
Most children's books have morals; since this is a children's
book, what's it moral?
Clothes in Huck Finn : do they function in a
similar manner than in Ragged Dick ?
Bible in the scene with Bogg's being murdered -- note that it
seems to take his life out.
In a late unpublished (and grand) work title "The Mysterious
Stranger," Satan says:
It is true, that which I have revealed to you; there is no
God, no universe, no human have revealed to you; there is no
God, no universe, no human race, no earthly life, no heaven,
no hell. It is all a dream--a grotesque and foolish dream.
Nothing exists but you. And you are but a thought--a vagrant
thought, a useless thought, a homeless thought, wandering
forlorn among the empty eternities!
He vanished, and left me appalled; for I knew, and realized,
that all he had said was true.
Much has been made of the turn in Twain's worldview; how he
turned from the humorous writer of children tales to a darker,
more pessimistic view of man. But some critics are saying "Not
so fast. This darker vision was there all along." Do you see
this darker vision in HF or is it just to sunny on the river?
Of course a central question today is the use of the word
nigger and the treatment of Jim. Can a work be considered to
represent a nation and use language that is now considered
inflammatory? Is this, ultimately, a racist novel or a novel
against racism?
When does Huck begin to realize Jim is, indeed, a person? Why?
What accounts for the change? At what points later in the novel
does he acknowledge this as well?
That said, consider the following line from HF "He was the
easiest nigger to laugh that ever was, anyway" (chap. XX). Twain
originally wrote 'fellow' in the manuscript (Hearn 226). Why
change it to "nigger"?
Are the differences between Huck's lies and, say, the Duke and
Dauphin's lies?
What are the differences between the Duke and Dauphin as
characters? Why not have them the same? What does Twain gain by
making them different?
Who's the most striking performing in the circus? (Chapter
XXII) What symbolic meaning could this performer have? Could he
echo other characters in the novel?
A Georgian girl, from a school composition titled "Things that
I Love," penned a rhapsody to graveyards which mirrors Nell's
passion: "I love to walk in the graveyard, and read the
inscriptions on the tombstones, the weeping willows fall so
gracefully over the silent dead; here and there you may see a
rosebush, or a bed of violets, planted and trained by some
gentle hand over a dead friend" (Saum 91). Who does this remind
you of in the novel?
"It is a law that humor is created by contrasts [wrote Twain
in 1891 . . .] It is the legitimate child of contrast" (qtd. in
Hearn xcviii). Do we see this "law" in Huck Finn ?
Harry Thurston Peck 1910: "It is only short-sighted persons
who talk of Mark Twain's profound 'philosophy of life,'" "He had
no philosophy of life, any more than a Fielding had or Steele or
Harte. But like them he had an instinct for pure humor, which
was most effective when it was unconscious" (qtd. Hearn cxxix).
Two points here: one on Twain's "philosophy" (i.e. is he saying
we should follow a particular emotional/social/intellectual
path) of life, and one on his humor, which to Peck seems
accidental. Can you peck on Peck? Can you show that he does,
indeed, suggest a philosophy of life in HF? Can you find a
method to the madness that is his humor?
Michael Hearn argues for the centrality of the "Moses and the
Bulrushers" section of the novel. He writes that
This casual reference to Exodus 2:3-10 introduces a central
theme to the novel: Like Moses who freed the Israelites from
bondage in Egypt , so too does Huck Finn aid a Southern
slave in this flight from his master. Both outlawed boys
escape by a river. Moses in an ark of bulrushes on the Nile,
Huck by raft down the Mississippi . And both are wards of
women of the upper class, the slave-owning class. This
scripture especially appealed to slaves who knew that one
day they too would be liberated. 'Go down, Moses!' they
sang. 'Tell Pharaoh, let my people go!' Ironically, although
he led his own people out of bondage, Moses provided for
slavery among the Israelites in Exodus 21; and it was this
holy ordinance that Southern slaveholders clung to as proof
that God not only sanctioned but ordered their system of
servitude" (Hearn 19)
Is this too much to hang on one idea/quote or does this work?
What does this short (relatively speaking) quote reveal about
interpreting literature?
Huck is "reborn" several times: towards end of novel he states
"it was like being born again." Why?
Peter Messent, in the very good (and short) The Cambridge
Introduction to Mark Twain, argues that Twain "addresses
themes and issues of vital relevance to his own time; the impact
of modernization and what it meant to previous ideas of human
agency (the authority to control and direct one's own fate); the
changing racial landscape and the problems associated with it;
anxieties about business values and masculinity in an era of
capitalist expansion" (16). Do find all of these elements in HF?
What's the name of the wrecked steamboat in
Note the description of the Grangerford's house in chapter
XVII (177) -- how is that description ironic? How does Huck
judge the house? What impression do reader's get from his
description?
Irony/Satire: What's the purpose of the church scene in the
Grangerford chapters? (Chap XVIII 183)
Regionalisms: Leslie Fiedler sees homo eroticism in Jim's
reference to Huck throughout the novel as "honey" (187). Is this
an accurate reading?
Note last line of Chapter XVIII -- what words seem "loaded"?
How does Huck view Colonel Grangerford? How does Twain want
readers to view him? (Chap XVIII)
Take a close look at the structure of Chapter XIX (187). How
does it open? What's the tone? What mood does it set? When is
this mood broken? What does Twain suggest by this?
Describe the human/social relations/interactions as Huck and
Jim move deeper into the south. Do they change?
Many critics argue the final evasion chapters constitute a
falling off of the nobility of the novel, in particular in its
treatment of Jim? Is this true, or is Twain using Jim's
treatment as a metaphor/symbol?
In Chapter VI, Pap calls Huck the "angel of death" -- given
the rest of the novel, how is this true? 151,
Why is Huck always making up stories?
David Grimstead observes that "The South accepted extralegal
structures parallel to its flourishing legal system in part
because a slave society glorified mastery as its central
honorific. Its extralegal systems, personal and collective,
allowed Southerners to escape from situations of moral ambiguity
and embarrassment into ones of melodramatically simple and dead
certain answers" (America xi). Do you see this played out in the
novel?
Appearances v. Reality
American culture has a long history of reveling in the disjunct
between appearances and reality. Sometimes, people are confused
by them -- as when poor white farmers supported (with their
lives) a system -- slavery -- that ensured their poverty. As
we've seen in Ragged Dick, con men (usually urban wits)
roamed the streets, ready to take in dupes (often country
bumpkins). Herman Melville published The Confidence Man
in (1857) exploring some of these ideas. The modern critic Karen
Halttuen explores this territory in Confidence Men and
Painted Women, though her focus is primarily on antebellum
America.
2 questions:
1) how is this idea of the differences between appearances and
reality apparent in the novel? How many discrepancies can you
pick up on?
2) Why do this? What is suggested by this?
Consider the violence of chapter XXI; what's it doing in a
children's book? And more generally, what is Twain suggesting
about the culture by including this episode -- and note it
bleeds into the next chapter (don't stop just at the shoot out).
For starters, consider the following from Frederick Marryat's
1839 diary "Every crime increases in magnitude and proportion as
it affects the welfare and interest of the community [ . . . .]
Of punishments, it will be observed that society has awarded the
most severe for crimes committed against it, rather than those
that offend God. Upon this principle, in the Southern and
Western States, you may murder ten white men and no
one will arraign you or trouble himself about the matter; but steal
one nigger , and the whole community are in arms, and
express the most virtuous indignation against the sin of theft,
although that of murder will be disregarded" (234).
Why does Huck light out for the territories at the end of the
novel? What is Twain suggesting?
Works Cited
Hearn, Michael, ed. The Annotated Huckleberry Finn. New
York : Norton, 2001.
Marryat, Frederick . A Diary in America: With Remarks on Its
Institutions. Vol. 1. London : Longman, Orme, Brown, Green
& Longmans, 1839.
Messent, Peter. The Cambridge Introduction to Mark Twain.
Cambridge UP, 2007.
Group Questions Remember to include quotes from the readings to support
your answers
Day 1
Victorian values "taught people to work hard, to postpone
gratification, to repress themselves sexually, to 'improve'
themselves, to be sober, conscientious, even compulsive" (Howe
521). Who in the novel embraces these values? Who rejects them?
How is the pursuit of these values portrayed in the novel --
positively or negatively? How does this compare/contrast with Ragged
Dick?
And speaking of Ragged Dick . . . how does Huck
resemble Dick Hunter? How is he different?
Chapter VI How is Pap's speech about the "mulatter" ironic?
Note the description of the Grangerford's house in chapter
XVII (177) -- how is that description ironic? How does Huck
judge the house? What impression do reader's get from his
description?
Michael Hearn argues for the centrality of the "Moses and the
Bulrushers" section of the novel. He writes that
This casual reference to Exodus 2:3-10 introduces a central
theme to the novel: Like Moses who freed the Israelites from
bondage in Egypt , so too does Huck Finn aid a Southern
slave in this flight from his master. Both outlawed boys
escape by a river. Moses in an ark of bulrushes on the Nile,
Huck by raft down the Mississippi . And both are wards of
women of the upper class, the slave-owning class. This
scripture especially appealed to slaves who knew that one
day they too would be liberated. 'Go down, Moses!' they
sang. 'Tell Pharaoh, let my people go!' Ironically, although
he led his own people out of bondage, Moses provided for
slavery among the Israelites in Exodus 21; and it was this
holy ordinance that Southern slaveholders clung to as proof
that God not only sanctioned but ordered their system of
servitude" (Hearn 19)
Is this too much to hang on one idea/quote or does this
interpretation work? What does this short (relatively speaking)
commentary reveal about interpreting literature?
Day 2
Peter Messent, in the very good (and short) Cambridge
Introduction to Mark Twain, argues that Twain
addresses themes and issues of vital relevance to his own
time; the impact of modernization and what it meant to
previous ideas of human agency (the authority to control and
direct one's own fate); the changing racial landscape and the
problems associated with it; anxieties about business values
and masculinity in an era of capitalist expansion. (16)
Do find all of these elements in HF?
In a late unpublished (and grand) work by Twain
titled "The Mysterious Stranger," Satan says:
It is true, that which I have revealed to you; there is no
God, no universe, no human have revealed to you; there is no
God, no universe, no human race, no earthly life, no heaven,
no hell. It is all a dream--a grotesque and foolish dream.
Nothing exists but you. And you are but a thought--a vagrant
thought, a useless thought, a homeless thought, wandering
forlorn among the empty eternities!
He vanished, and left me appalled; for I knew, and realized,
that all he had said was true.
Much has been made of the turn in Twain's worldview; how he
changed from the humorous writer of children tales to a darker,
more pessimistic view of man. But some critics are saying "Not
so fast. This darker vision was there all along." Do you see
this darker vision in HF or is it just too sunny on the river?
Harry Thurston Peck 1910: "It is only short-sighted persons
who talk of Mark Twain's profound 'philosophy of life,'" "He
had no philosophy of life, any more than a Fielding had or
Steele or Harte. But like them he had an instinct for pure
humor, which was most effective when it was unconscious" (qtd.
in Hearn cxxix). Two points here: one on Twain's "philosophy"
(i.e. is he saying we should follow a particular
emotional/social/intellectual path) of life, and one on his
humor, which to Peck seems accidental. Can you peck on Peck?
Can you show that he does, indeed, suggest a philosophy of
life in HF? Can you find a method to the madness that is his
humor?
Of course a central question today is the use of the word
nigger and the treatment of Jim. Can a work be considered to
represent a nation and use language that is now considered
inflammatory? Is this, ultimately, a racist novel or a novel
against racism?
Many critics believe that this is a flawed novel: that the
demeaning treatment of Jim at the end of the novel, mitigates
its attacks against social ills or more broadly that the
structure of the story falls apart and its narrative impulse
just peters out. Do you agree? Do the final scenes on the farm
with Tom and Huck and Jim "fit" with the rest of the novel? Does
the novel "hold together" at the end? How or how not (and yes, I
know "how not" doesn't make sense but it seemed too good to
resist)?
Pictures, Pictures, Pictures Currier and Ives, the most esteemed and respected
lithographer of the day, best known now for their beautifully
detailed and panoramic prints of cities and of the halcyon days of
Victorian America, also published a "Darktown" series, filled with
blatant stereotypes of African Americans. It's instructive in
understanding the representation of Jim in the novel, and how he,
at times, almost seems a caricature of a caricature: Twain seemed
to consciously model him on a minstrel Negro, which was itself a
caricature of an actual Negro.
When Huck was using the Bible in the Solomon episode, it "may
seem to be gratuitous to the action of the story, it nevertheless
repeats an important theme of the novel, that one's morality must
come naturally from within oneself (as it does with Jim here) and
not from some abstract set of values or from some 'authority' (as
with Huck)" (Hearn 140).
Sunrise scene Chapter 14: "The trouble lies not with Nature but
with Man. The boy explores all five senses: sight (pale
landscape); sound (bullfrogs' chattering); smell (fragrant
breezes); taste (fish breakfast); and touch (swimming nude). Man
need only enjoy and stop fighting the river to discover its
wonders. But those on the land cannot be bothered. They are too
busy cheating their customers or killing gars or swearing to share
Huck and Jim's communion with the Mississippi . Never on the raft
are Huck and Jim entirely free of the threat of 'sivilization.' It
lurks around every bend in the river. So long as the fugitives
stay on water and away from land they are safe; they need not
leave Eden" (Hearn 205).
"There has been much critical debate as to whether Jim is
represented as a demeaning minstrel stereotype (the racist
representation of the African American as uneducated,
simple-minded, insensitive and unfailingly cheerful, common in all
forms of popular entertainment in the period), or whether he is
[83] presented as an intelligent and clear-thinking adult
determinedly looking to bring himself to as full a freedom as can
be gained in the America of his time" (Messent 83)
Consider the oppositional structure of the novel "black and
white, instinct and impulse and social belonging and learned
language, river and shore, raft and permanent 'home,' civilization
and wilderness, child and adulthood, male and female, slavery and
freedom" (Messent 114)