Even though freedom is shown throughout the book as it is understood by the other characters, true freedoms only lies in Huck's behavior and in his thinking. "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel that does not blink about all that militates to keep genuine freedom under wraps and in control" (Pinsker)
From the very first pages of the novel readers are presented with the fact that even some of the most respectable men are inclined to put across immoral behavior. The central character of the book, Huckleberry Finn, relates to how readers are likely to know him from reading "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and to how Mark Twain "told the truth, mainly" (Twain 5)
There are many critics however; who do not see the satire regarding blacks as amusing at all, and think the book should be banned from schools, especially for its use of the word "nigger." In fact, one writer opens his argument with, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, is the most grotesque example of racist trash ever written" (Leonard, Tenney and Davis 16)
Of all of Twain's novels, this was one that sold best at its initial appearance. On the other hand, it was condemned by many reviewers in MT's time as coarse and by many commentators in our time as racist (Railton)
In his formative newspaper years, his personal business affairs were poorly run, and he had mood swings that led him to consider suicide (Hoffman, 1997). In San Francisco, where he landed in 1863 after working in Nevada for 2 years, he drank heavily and caroused plenty, and often paid hotel bills and bar tabs by writing some copy for the proprietor (Budd, 1983)
Conclusion It wasn't all glory for Twain. In his formative newspaper years, his personal business affairs were poorly run, and he had mood swings that led him to consider suicide (Hoffman, 1997)
But this modern imperialism cloaked itself in a hypocritical self-righteousness that he found particularly disgraceful. "Christian governments," he wrote, "are as frank to-day, as open and above-board, in discussing projects for raiding each other's close-lines as ever they were before the Golden Rule came smiling into this inhos- pitable world and couldn't get a night's lodging anywhere (Ward, Duncan, Burns, 2001)
The gospel of the monarchical patriotism is: "The King can do no wrong." We have adopted it with all its servility, with an unimportant change in the wording: "Our country, right or wrong!" (Zwick, 1992) In the critically acclaimed film for PBS, "Mark Twain," by Ken Burns - and the companion book by Burns and two co-authors, Mark Twain: An Illustrated Biography - the authors (p
Widow Douglas, and Miss Watson are members of a group that attends church regularly and they are as convinced in their belief about being good Christians they are about "the legitimacy of selling slaves," which is Twain's way of pointing to the hypocrisy of Christianity. Because they pray together with the slaves that they had locked up and put in chains -- and in some cases they had "snatched from their families -- the women seem to believe that they are "good-hearted," which Twain presents in an understatement tone that is very effective (Grols-Langenhoff, p
As to Twain's editorializing in the novel about the government, he brings up tensions in American due to the government's continued legalization of slavery. The attitudes of Pap and Silas Phelps -- in particular Pap's splenetic tirade in Chapter VI -- demonstrates Twain's approach to the "…vast cultural and social tensions in the early nineteenth century" (Reichardt, et al
The "grumble" in this case was the prayer spoken softly by the widow, and clearly Twain is making fun of this half-hearted prayer of thanksgiving for the food they were about to eat. Juxtaposed with the widow's seemingly insincere but quiet "grumbling" prayer was the crowd that had gathered for the Pokeville camp-meeting; they were "just crazy and wild" in their response to the preacher's rantings (Twain, 132)
variety of skin tones, their diversity of languages." More importantly, this sightseeing tour "was a step toward his gradual transcendence of Missouri slave culture provincialism" (Kaplan 65-66), meaning that Twain slowly came to understand that slavery was immoral and inhuman which obviously influenced his decision to use the character of Jim, the runaway slave, as Hick Finn's loyal companion
Soon after, Twain tried his hand at being a prospector; when this failed, he became a reporter in Carson City, Nevada. By 1862, he was the city editor of the Virginia City Enterprise in which he first used the pseudonym of Mark Twain, "a depth call of the Mississippi pilots" (Kunitz 159)
. In which a great river is one of the principle characters" and reminds the reader that Mark Twain had "to learn the whole river in order to become a pilot" (Twain 286)
Therefore, whenever the book pushes us into social dialogue, passions will rise, and deep feelings on the issues of race, discrimination, and equality would come to the fore. Furthermore, the book portrays the southerners in certain light that may not auger well with anyone who identifies with the south (Leonard 142)
His personality and the issues of the day provide much of the points in the arguments for and against the novel. During that era, there were plays in which the White imitated African-Americans on stage by acting out their mannerism, and Mark Twain liked the plays (Lott 137)
Furthermore, the book portrays the southerners in certain light that may not auger well with anyone who identifies with the south (Leonard 142). The specific use of dialects would leave one with no doubt as to the author's intention of placing the events in a given time (Wallace 17)
Pap does this through the introductory part, his ranting about the government, and his shadow over Huck till his death. Jim is an African-American and Huck is an independent soul (Barksdale 123)
However, it is crucial to note the fact that such a misunderstanding on the part of the majority of Americans (most of whom were Caucasian) was very deliberate. As Fishkin himself denotes, one of the "major lies of silent assertion" that were prevalent during the time both of these authors were writing was the "denial of what white America was doing to black America at the time" (Fishkin)
Thus, any sort of social implications spawned from such poetry would more than likely result in a lack of understanding about such works, rather than from a concrete understanding of them, since for the most part dialect was viewed by mainstream America as a sarcastic or a joking form of literature. According to Oswald "dialect writing was "used primarily for comic effect or to indicate stupidity and racial inferiority" (Oswald)