adventures of Huckleberry Finn Themes, motifs, Issues, and Miscellany

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adventures of Huckleberry Finn----Themes,
motifs, Issues, and Miscellany

• Feraco
• American literature
• 17 january 2008

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As You Finish Huck

• Keep an eye on the topics we discuss today
• I strongly, strongly suggest re-reading the text
  before the final
• Youll be amazed by what you can discover on a
  second pass
• Its a good skill to develop
• Youll need it for college!

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Realism

• A Response to Romanticism
• Think Trans. And Anti-Trans.
• Post-Civil War
• Tried very hard to capture life exactly as it
  was, rather than romanticizing it
• Rather than focus on emotion or prize it,
  realists tried to prevent their works from being
  filtered through their emotional lenses
• Characters came from poorer, super-rural or
  super-urban backgrounds
• Included workers at factories, people living in
  slums, etc. the types of people who never
  showed up as romantic heroes

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R R

• How is Twains Novel Romantic?
• In what ways does it defy romanticism?
• How is it Realist?
• Shows the country/society as it exists, versus
  the idealized portrayals in other books (such as
  the ones Tom reads)
• Its very pratical, but it can come off as harsh

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Twain as a Realist

• Twain is one of the greatest realists possibly
  The greatest of all time.
• One of the reasons hes so great is that he dares
  to examine the whys why does society have
  problems? Why do characters experience
  conflicting emotions? Why do we act the way we do?

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Satire

• a literary work holding up human vices and
  follies to ridicule or scorn Merriam-Webster
• Satirical Authors usually use humor or Sarcasm to
  study an issue, or to attack something they feel
  needs to be fixed
• the point of satire is often to help point out a
  way for us to improve.
• Think Stephen Colbert, South Park, The
  Simpsons, etc.

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Satire In Huck

• Persons attempting to find a motive in this
  narrative will be prosecuted persons attempting
  to find a moral in it will be banished persons
  attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.
  twains notice on the first page
• Think of all of the things Twain takes on and
  portrays as silly or exaggerated realism,
  honor, society itself!
• Do you really believe there arent any messages,
  meanings, or storylines in the book?

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Racism

• This hovers over the text at all times, most
  obviously when Jim is featured.
• How does the text deal with racism? is huck
  Racist?
• Check out the hypocrisy of the slaveholders, many
  of whom are supposed to be upstanding citizens
• Twain published this after slavery was abolished,
  but set the action before the war

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Innocence

• Huck is innocent in a sense if nothing else, he
  is deeply naïve
• However, his naïveté is very different from
  toms, which is usually destructive and smacks of
  ignorance
• Contrast living in nature with living in society

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Development

• Because Huck is Young, He has the opportunity to
  grow and change
• Contrast this with Pap, who is old, ornery, and
  ignorant
• How are we reminded that huck is young? What does
  hucks youth contribute to the book?

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Honor/Pride

• Honor has its place in the novel Huck often
  behaves honorably (although youll see by the end
  of the book that Tom Sawyer doesnt follow his
  example)
• Jim is also honorable, in a lot of different ways
  hes the only decent male figures
• Huck Sets aside his pride when Jim rebukes him,
  which shows a lot about him
• However, the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons
  kill each other off over a misplaced sense of
  wounded pride honor

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Disappointment and the failure of society

• People often lie to huck
• His hopes are dashed, but he bounces back
• His prayers go unanswered
• No one protects him from pap
• He doesnt belong in school