Huck Finn Criticisms

Twains Criticisms

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Wednesday, December 31, 14

Chapter I: Being sivilized

Quote:The Widow Douglas, she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me...The widow rung a bell for supper, and you had to come to time. When you got to the table you couldnt go right to eating, but you had to wait for the widow to tuck down her head and grumble over the victuals, though there warnt really anything the matter with them.


Chapter I: Being sivilizedSignificance:Huck displays one of the classic themes in literature: nature versus nurture. As a child who has largely grown up without adult intervention, much less such highly socialized manners as represented by the Widow Douglas, Huck sees little need for the trappings of society (i.e., saying grace or meal-time manners). Twains satiric tone is strong here; Hucks assertion that there warnt really anything the matter with them [the food] is comical in its innocent rendering of common social graces. However, there is real critique here: Twain, through Huck, underscores the sometimes absurd habits of civilized people.


Chapter I: HypocrisyQuote:She [Widow Douglas] said it was a mean practice [smoking] and wasnt clean, and I must try to not do it any more...And she took snuff too; of course that was all right, because she done it herself.


Chapter I: HypocrisySignificance:Twain again uses Huck to display some of the uglier realities of civilized society, namely its hypocrisy. The widow certainly takes a do as I say, not as I do approach to breaking Huck of his admittedly bad habits. Such behavior connotes a strong double-standard: adults wish to control others but dont want to be controlled themselves. Hucks respect for the widow certainly takes a hit here as hes able to draw conclusions and make wry, sarcastic observations of his own, of course that was all right, because she done it herself.


Chapter II: Toms games

Quote:Tom whispered to me and wanted to tie Jim to the tree for fun; but I said no; he might wake and make a disturbance...but nothing would do Tom but he must crawl to where Jim was, on his hands and knees, and play something on him.


Chapter II: Toms gamesSignificance:More than the uncivilized Huck, Tom embodies childish, reckless charm. However, there is a subtle dark side to Tom, specifically his inhumane treatment of Jim. Tom thinks nothing of cruelly tying Jim to a tree simply for his own amusement. Huck, as a foil to Tom, opposes such behavior not on moral grounds, but because it would simply be impractical. The interchange between the two boys surely shows Tom to be the leader though Huck often disagrees with Toms romanticized versions of events.


Chapter II: Twains critique of Romanticism

Quote:On the subject of kidnapping as part of a gangs activities, Tom says, That aint no sort of style...Some authorities think different, but mostly its considered best to kill them. Except some that you bring to the cave and keep them till theyre ransomed. To which Huck responds, Well keep them till theyre ransomed to death--and a bothersome lot theyll be, too, eating up everything and always trying to get loose.


Chapter II: Twains critique of Romanticism

Significance:Twains satiric tone takes center stage in this episode as Tom insists the boys follow the rules if they want to be a real gang. Toms romanticized version of things, which he gets from books, just isnt practical to the other boys . However, it makes for humorous, boyish exchanges as the boys discuss the pros and cons of their intended life of crime. The scene also highlights Toms immaturity and ignorance and his adherence to rules and a belief that there is a tried-and-true way to do things. This conflict between custom and common sense best epitomizes the difference between Huck and Tom.


Chapter III: Hucks problems with religion

Quote:Sometimes the widow would take me one side and talk about Providence in a way to make a bodys mouth water; but maybe next day Miss Watson would take hold and knock it all down again. I judged I could see that there was two Providences, and a poor chap would stand considerable show with the widows Providence, but if Miss Watsons got him there warnt no help for him any more.


Chapter III: Hucks problems with religion

Quote:In this excerpt the reader can sense Hucks ambivalence toward society and religion. In the hands of some practitioners (Widow Douglas), religion can be a calming, redemptive force forgiving of intrinsic human faults. In the hands of others (Miss Watson), religion can be threatening and awful in its vengeful tone and promise of searing pain and punishment for ones innate iniquities. Huck questions the value of such a cynical, harsh outlook as Miss Watson has and wishes to ally himself with what he conceives as the Widow Douglass Providence. However, the guilt and shame of Miss Watsons has infected Huck as he refers to himself as ignorant and so kind of low-down and ornery.


Chapter III: Hucks waning belief in TomQuote:I didnt see no dimonds, and I told Tom Sawyer so. He said there was loads of them there, anyway; and he said there was A-rabs there, too, and elephants and things...I reckoned he believed in the A-rabs and elephants, but as for me I think different. It had all the marks of a Sunday school.


Chapter III: Hucks waning belief in Tom

Significance:Previously their relationship had been subject to disagreements, but this instance marks Hucks major break from Tom. Tom goes so far as to call Huck a sap-head and suggest hes ignorant for not reading books. Hucks common sense tells him Toms overly pedantic approach to elephants and A-rabs is false. For Huck, such an assertion signifies the growth of his character as he learns to trust his instincts over the sometimes absurd suggestions of others. Such self-trust is important as Huck later learns to see the humanity in Jim.


Chapter IV: Hucks anti-materialism

Quote:No sir, I says; I dont want to spend it. I dont want it at all--nor the six thousand, nuther. I want you to take it; I want to give it to you--the six thousand and all.He looked surprised. He couldnt seem to make it out. He says:Why, what can you mean, my boy?I says, Dont you ask me no questions about it, please. Youll take it--wont you?


Chapter IV: Hucks anti-materialism

Significance:In this exchange with Judge Thatcher we see Huck as a scared little boy. Having noticed Paps boot-mark, Huck wishes to distance himself from the money he had previously earned in an effort to avoid the wrath of Pap. Huck associates money with greed and evil, which he rightly assumes will make their way to his doorstep. To Huck, the ends which he has seen money bring about--drunkenness, violence, hatred--are not worth the means of keeping or maintaining it. Besides, what worth is money to a boy who is just as happy drifting lazily down a river? Huck truly has no use or need for money; what he needs he can find for free in Nature.


Chapter IV: SuperstitionQuote:One morning I happened to turn over the salt-cellar at breakfast. I reached for some of it as quick as I could, to throw over my left shoulder and keep off the bad luck, but Miss Watson was in ahead of me, and crossed me off. She says, Take your hands away, Huckleberry--what a mess you are always making. The widow put in a good word for me, but that warnt going to keep off the bad luck, I knowed that well enough.


Chapter IV: SuperstitionSignificance:One of the more comical aspects of Hucks nature is his sometimes foolish belief in superstition. Hucks ontological view (a branch of metaphysics concerned with the nature and relations of being or the existence of things) is that the world is made up of an interaction between highly controlled entities (some supernatural). Some critics believe Hucks adherence to superstition is evidence of his immaturity; others regard Hucks superstition as symptomatic of a sophisticated world-view in which the individual is keenly aware of the relationship between causes and effects--thus paving a way for Hucks very moral conscience.


Chapter V: Pap

Quote:Ill learn people to bring up a boy to put on airs over his own father and let on to be bettern what he is. You lemme catch you fooling around that school again, you hear? Your mother couldnt read, and she couldnt write, nuther, before she died. None of the family couldnt, before they died. I cant; and here youre a-swelling yourself up like this. I aint the man to stand it--you hear? Say--lemme hear you read.


Chapter V: PapSignificance:Pap finally appears and his persona proves to be just as pathetic and despicable as Hucks fears had alluded. As Hucks only living blood relative, Paps personality helps clarify Hucks general distrust of civilized society: as an abused child whose father rails constantly against the shortcomings of society as he sees them, Huck has developed a certain disdain for society. However, such disdain is rivaled only by the aversion he has to his father. As such, Huck deems it acceptable to put on frills as Pap puts it because it helps create a gap and a distance between the two--a distance Huck only hopes to increase with time.


Quote:Two months or more run along, and my clothes got to be all rags and dirt, and I didnt see how Id ever got to like it so well at the widows, where you had to wash, and eat on a plate, and comb up, and go to bed and get up regular, and be forever bothering over a book and have old Miss Watson pecking at you all the time. I didnt want to go back no more.

Chapter VI: Hucks rejection of civilization


Significance:Twain uses Paps kidnapping of Huck to reiterate one of the major themes of the novel: nature versus nurture. As Huck becomes distanced from civilization (nurture) and the widow, he reverts to his old ways: smoking, cussing, and lazing about (nature). This helps to underscore Paps ineffectiveness as a father; after all, the statement, pap hadnt no objections could apply to any of Hucks vices. This separation helps also to suggest what will happen if nature (human nature, that is, which Twain sees as base) takes over: you end up a drunken, rambling maniac like Pap. Hucks decision then is to reject both extremes of civilized life and uncivilized life and to attempt to synthesize the best parts of each to form his own philosophy.

Chapter VI: Hucks rejection of civilization


Chapter VI: Abuse

Quote:By-and-by he rolled out and jumped up on his feet looking wild, and he see me and went for me. He chase me round and round the place, with a clasp-knife, calling me Angel of Death and saying he would kill me and then I couldnt come for him no more. I begged, and told him I was only Huck, but he laughed such a screechy laugh, and roared and cussed, and kept on chasing me up.


Chapter VI: AbuseSignificance:In one of the more harrowing and truly frightening episodes in the novel, Paps drunken hallucinations and attempted murder help to sober the reader to Hucks very real plight. Huck is trapped in a situation not of his own making, and though he finds a freedom that eluded him with the Widow Douglas, he realizes he cannot abide such treatment and survive--his only method, of recourse, is escape. He cannot go back to the widows; hes already determined a sivilized life is not for him. Hucks decision to strike out on his own is uniquely individualistic and highly American. Huck represents the American spirit in his rejection of absurd, staid values as well as his refusal to be totally anarchistic. His assertion of self is at once dangerous, possibly foolish, but admirable; Hucks value as a distinctly American character is that he appeals to our ideology of what it means to be American.


Huck Finn Criticisms

Documents

Transcript of Huck Finn Criticisms