Huckleberry Finn himself is the most
American of heroes: he is the boy-man in a
male world . . . and solitary--alone even
among others, a first-person narrator who is
at home in nature and, …Huck Finn, an
American orphan . . . is, above all, a lonely
survivor, one who accommodates to his
changing world. . .
--Eric Solomon (1985)
1st Thoughts, agree, disagree, why?
It is Huck who gives the book style. The River gives the
book its form. But for the River, the book might be only a
sequence of adventures with a happy ending. A river, a
very big and powerful river, is the only natural force that
can wholly determine the course of human
peregrination.[travel] . . . Thus the River makes the book
a great book. . . . Mark Twain is a native, and the River
God is his God.
-- T. S. Eliot
A close look at the part women play in Huck Finn's life
thus makes clearer the extent of his moral regression at
the end of the novel. In his relationships with his
principal female mentors--the Widow Douglas, Judith
Loftus, and Mary Jane Wilks--he has achieved an
appreciation of those virtues that begin to separate him
from the hypocrisy and violence of the society in which he
lives. …With the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson he
plays the part of the unruly boy; with Judith Loftus he
tries to be a girl and fails; and with Mary Jane Wilks he
assumes the role of the male protector of female
innocence. Finally, with Jim, he arrives at a mature
friendship with another man, one for whom he is
prepared to risk eternal damnation.
--Nancy Walker
What does Twain mean when he says:
“The first time I catched Tom private I
asked him what was his idea, time of the
evasion? -- what it was he'd planned to do if
the evasion worked all right and he managed
to set a nigger free that was already free
before?” and what are the implications of
this?
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – page 294
Professor Maghan Keita explains,
"I ask people to do a juxtaposition when
confronting Jim. Take for a moment the notion that
Huck is not the central character, but Jim is. How
does this change notions of what this book is
about? How is it that he -- a slave and a 'nigger' -represents all the best qualities in the book, and
how does he humanize Huck? How can Huck rise to
heroic proportions without Jim? Jim teaches him
how to be a hero."
No matter how often the critics “place in context” Huck’s
use of the word “nigger,” they can never excuse or fully
hide the deeper racism of the novel--the way Twain and
Huck use Jim because they really don’t care enough
about his desire for freedom to let that desire change
their plans. And to give credit to Huck suggests that the
only racial insight Americans of the nineteenth or
twentieth century are capable of is a recognition of the
obvious—that blacks, slave and free, are human.
Jane Smiley from Say it Ain’t so Huck
Huck never speaks of or considers returning
to his hometown to carry on with his
erstwhile best friend, but wants to leave
civilization altogether is more than
understandable. Huck cannot have an
enduring relationship with Jim; he refuses
one with Tom.
Toni Morrison from “This Amazing, Troubling Book”
Does Huck need Jim to live a fulfilling, meaningful life or can he
go west alone?
"Huckleberry Finn knew, as did Mark
Twain [Ellison wrote], that Jim was not only
a slave but a human being [and] a symbol of
humanity . . . and in freeing Jim, Huck
makes a bid to free himself of the
conventionalized evil taken for civilization
by the town" -- in other words, of the
abomination of slavery itself.”
Ralph Ellison
Kaplan sees the book as inculcating an
admirable set of ethical values, especially in
its representation of Huck’s decision to go to
Hell. [He] finds it a “bitter irony” that
Twain’s “savage indictment of a society that
accepted slavery as a way of life” has come
under attack for its treatment of race.
from “The Controversy over Race.” page
336
Should Twain be criticized considering the messages of the
novel?
Peaches Henry consistently calls attention to
the differences between readers of different
races and abilities. With regard to Twain’s
use of the word “nigger,” she points out that,
in general, whites have a much easier time
…seeing the use of this word as part of
Twain’s irony.
From “The Controversy over Race” 337
How might who you are (your identity) have
affected your reading of this novel?
“I have no color prejudices nor caste
prejudices nor creed prejudices. All I
care to know is that a man is a
human being, and that is enough for
me; he can't be any worse.”
Mark Twain
Based on your reading of the novel
how do you feel about what Twain
said?