Humor in American Literature: Twain, Hawthorne, Irving & Poe

The Role of Humor in American Literature

American literature is unique in that the attitudes of its works tend to reflect the spirit of the nation and of its citizens. One of the trademarks of American literature is that authors display a tone that can be very serious yet also interpreted as humorous. Whereas texts from other cultures are often more concerned with delivering a message in a dry, even stoic manner, American literature is uniquely capable of mixing the earnest and the humorous. Even in the most serious and heartfelt stories, the sensibility of American humor can be detected.

Of course, there are different types of humor. Some stories are flat-out ridiculous and make the reader laugh outright. Others are more sarcastic in their approach, and the funny moments must be analyzed to be fully understood. Still other tales are anecdotal and function as humorous asides directed at the reader. Finally, some forms of humor in American literature take the shape of parody, where an issue that would be treated gravely in another text is modified so that the tone shifts from serious to sly and playful. There are also books that are extremely serious in overall tone but still contain moments of lightheartedness. This tendency is made evident in several works, including Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle," and Edgar Allan Poe's "The Purloined Letter."

Comic Relief and Parody in Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain's novel Huckleberry Finn is a serious narrative about a young white boy who decides to escape the process of civilization in order to retain his sense of self. In doing so, he helps a slave named Jim escape from bondage and comes to the realization that slavery as an institution is wrong. Jim is his friend, and Huck does not want him to be enslaved or to be anyone else's property. Jim is a good man who deserves freedom. At first convinced he is committing a sin against God by helping Jim escape, Huckleberry finally concludes that it is worth even the worst penalty — burning in Hell forever — to do what he feels is right (Twain 97). By writing the story from this boy's perspective, Twain allows readers to relate to Huck and arrive at the same conclusions about racial inequality and slavery in the United States. Yet within this novel full of weighty ideas, the humor characteristic of American literature is clearly visible.

Some of the funniest moments in Huckleberry Finn are perpetrated by the characters known as the "Duke" and the "King." These are two men whom Huck and Jim encounter on their journey. They pretend to be high-ranking members of royalty deserving of reverence, but in reality they are con men who attempt to bilk innocent, hard-working people out of their money. Their schemes include a theatrical performance titled the Royal Nonesuch, which features the two men acting like buffoons. The townsfolk are so disgusted by what they see that they not only pay for the first night's performance but for a second night as well, planning to barrage the "actors" with rotten food as punishment. The villains anticipate this assault, however, and flee with two days' worth of earnings. On another occasion, the pair pretend to be the long-lost relatives of a recently deceased man in order to claim his estate and rob his daughters of their rightful inheritance. As is fitting for a story that interrogates moral right and wrong, the two men receive their just comeuppance and are tarred and feathered by a township they had intended to swindle with yet another performance of the Nonesuch.

Another section of Huckleberry Finn that leans more humorous than serious occurs near the end of the novel. Jim has been captured and turned in by the same fraudsters for the reward money. Tom Sawyer, Huck's best friend and something of a schemer himself, devises a plan in which, instead of simply freeing Jim — which would be entirely feasible — the three must carry out a series of elaborate activities in order to escape "properly." After everything the reader and these characters have endured, the audience is rooting for Jim's freedom. Yet rather than relying on the practical logic that has carried Jim and Huck so far down the river undetected, they defer to Tom and his needlessly complicated plans. Among other requirements, Tom insists that Jim carve messages on pie tins using a sharpened spoon, that they braid ropes out of bed sheets despite the shack being a single-story structure, and that Tom fill the shack with insects to make Jim's imprisonment resemble the adventures the boys have read about in books. To make things still more exciting, Tom even alerts the white men to Jim's impending escape, seriously jeopardizing their chances of success.

Just as the carpetbagger con men were written to mock the notion that white men are somehow morally superior to black men, the Tom Sawyer episode functions as a parody. Rather than trusting their own sound judgment, Huck and Jim defer to this other boy because they believe him to be somehow superior — intellectually or emotionally. The reality, however, is that they were far better off when they were free of Tom's imagination.

Conclusion

Not all stories are meant to be humorous. Some are sad. Others are romantic. Many are intended to be deeply serious. However, in the United States something interesting tends to happen regardless of an author's intent. America possesses a sense of humor about itself and its culture that makes itself visible in the literary works of its authors. As the four texts examined here demonstrate, that humor — whether absurdist, sarcastic, anecdotal, or parodic — is never merely decorative. It serves the larger moral, social, and literary purposes of the work in which it appears.