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.New York: Norton, 2006.Print
Violence in the South
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)