Leo Marx's analysis of moral development in Huckleberry Finn

Leo Marx Critic on Huckleberry Finn

The objective of this paper is to provide summary and analysis of the novel titled "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (Twain, 1998 p 1). The author's story contains problematic questions of freedoms, race, and identity. Twain's opening sentence notifies the readers about Huck Finn's personality describing him as a narrator who has an ability to narrate the story in his dialect and language, however, full of misspellings and grammatical errors. Overview of Huck's spoken language reveals that he sounds uneducated, young who come from Missouri. The first chapter introduces Huck's deadpan personality. Since Huck is a young, uneducated, and uncivilized, he uses a direct manner to describe events without using an extensive commentary. The theme of the novel explores the nation identity and race revealing Huck struggle with challenges of the strenuous journey because of the 19th-century social climate. Typically, Huck personality is in moral conflict with society, which he lives. In essence, the theme of the novel is related to the African-American culture because Finn character illustrates African-Americans voice as a whole showing a correlation between the black and white cultures in the United States.

2. Thesis Statement

The Twain masterpiece work of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is a classic American literature that departs itself from European literary model. The unique aspect of the novel was that the author used vernacular speech, frontier humor as well as uneducated young narrator to reveal and portray a general life in America. The theme of the book portrayed a deformed conscience that is in contact with conscience and collision that revealed Huck's moral development as continue encountering an array of haphazard situations and people. Another dominant theme in the book is about Jim's and Huck Journey that has been widely reflecting corruption in the society that encourages deception and greed.

"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (Twain, 1998 p 1) is a classic book that is widely read and praised. After the World War 1, the book became a required read book in most high schools and middle schools because it reveals many aspects of American history that includes existence virulent racial prejudice, and slavery in a country dedicated to equality and prejudice. Overview of the novel reveals that all modern American literature originate from Huckleberry Finn because it is the first major novel that narrator speaks dialect. Unlike the early literature where narrators speak a polished and refined language, the Twain's novel is about the Huck's autobiography revealing how Twain shows that moral authority can originate from a poor white when a juvenile delinquent is new in American culture. However, the book has been subjected to a bitter criticism between 1884 and 1885. In the late 19th century, many people considered the book as irreverent, unrefined, coarse, and vulgar. In the 20th century, some people condemned the book based on its frequent racial expletives because Huckleberry Finn novel offers complex portrayals of gender and race.

The real goal of the book is to describe a subversive confrontation of slavery and racism in the United States. The novel provides an adequate representation of the experience of African-American during the time of slavery leading to the ethical condemnation of racism. (Timothy, 2014). The racism is particularly revealed in the book because Finn is particularly referred as 'nigger' in the book. However, a word "nigger" is an abusive way of addressing the American Americans during the time. Typically, the "nigger" commonly used for the black characters in connoting a rough language of addressing Jim.

The novel introduces Jim as the Huck's future friend and companion. The book also reveals that most slaves in Missouri are domestic servants, thus, Jim's behaviors as being interpreted by Huck are the stereotype of laziness as being attributed to black. The author also introduces Tom Sawyer who is a contrasting character to Huck despite their obvious friendly and bond. While Tom Sawyer has a playful humor character, however, Huck is possessed with bitter satire. His tendency is to be romantic, exaggerate and control the situations.

Conclusion

"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is of the most banned book in the American history based on the complaint of its stereotypes and foul language. The book reveals how Twain discusses the stereotypes that were characterized the American society. The author also built a Finn' character as a boy who sacrificed his freedom and later emerged as a hero. In essence, the books reveal a subtle brilliant statement against racism. The book reflects the mirror that equality is not obviously attained in the American society. The content of the book has made some scholars to question the literary quality of the novel because it is being considered a cultural product. Despite the criticism, the popularity of the novel continues to increase.

Reference

Timothy, P. (2014). Love and Judgment in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Raritan. 33.4: 57-94.

Twain, M. (1998). Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Dover Publications.