Rodolfo Brandon Bernardino

P7 6/9/2011

Ms. Schofield

Huck Finn – Realism

Huck Finn should be taught as an example of Realism in American literature because the

novel contains critical elements of Realism in its content. The protagonist, Huckleberry Finn, is

a poor, average boy that lives in Missouri. His lack of larger-than-life talents or qualities reflects

the rejection of Romantic heroes that Realism promotes. Another element of Realism seen in the

novel is the lack of verbose speech and use of everyday language. The characters of the novel

speak in the dialect of a typical Missouri resident. The content within the book also focuses on

ethical struggles and real-life situations, which are also aspects of literary Realism. “The

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” should be taught in eleventh grade because the book is clearly

characteristic of Realistic literature.

Huck Finn is clearly a Realistic hero because he is shown to be a normal human being

that goes through events that reflect the real world. In chapter, three, Huck discusses how the

“Tom Sawyer Gang” dissolved to a lack of activity and the ineffectiveness of Tom Sawyer as a

leader. After a failed raid on a caravan of supposed Arabian merchants and Spanish sailors, Tom

explains that a magician summoned genies to change the caravan into a Sunday school. Huck

inquires Tom on the method of possessing a genie and afterwards attempts to summon one by

rubbing a tin lamp and iron ring. “I got an old tin lamp and an iron ring and went out in the

woods and rubbed and rubbed till I sweat like an Injun, calculating to build a palace and sell it;

but it warn’t no use, none of the genies come. So then I judged that all that stuff was only just

one of Tom Sawyer’s lies.” The preceding quotation clearly shows Huck being deluded into

thinking that rubbing a lamp or ring would produce a genie. His failure to distinguish fact from

fantasy shows readers that he is nothing more than a child who has been tricked by his peer. The

normal, human qualities of Huckleberry Finn reflect the elements of Realism inside the novel.

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