【Abstract】
Mark Twain is a great American realistic writer.
Adventures of Huckleberry finn is one of his greatest novels.The author of this thesis tries to focus on the analyzing the powerful artistic charm of this great novel——the theme of freedom.
【Key words】 adventure pursuit freedom
1Introduction
Mark twain is a great American realistic novelist in the 19th
century.He was considered as the father of modern American literature and Pioneer of American Humor.Mark Twains work has an immortal artistic charm and vitality because of his unique absorbing of American reality,his wide use of American reality,his presenting of native American material,his wide use of American vernacular,all of
which shaped the worlds view of America and had a profound impact on the development of American literature.
At the peak of his writers career,Twain contributed his masterpiece Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
to American literature and international literature as well.Huckleberry Finn has been praised over one hundred years of its existence for its remarkable originality.Enerst Hemingway said:“All American literature comes from a book called
Huckleberry Finn.[1]”The greatness of Huckleberry Finn
is just because Mark Twain provides us with
a nations life and spirit through the description of a 14-year old boys experience.The book gives literary form to many aspects of the national destiny of the American people.Moreover,the theme of the travel and adventure is characteristically American,and in Twains day it was still a reality of everyday life.The country was still very much on the move,and in the novel is moving with it .Therefore Hucks movements embody a burning desire to escape from the constrictions of a civilized society.Such a desire is ,of course,not uniquely American,but during the 19th century Americans took it and made it of their own.
2A Challenge to American Civilization
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
is the sequel to Adventures of Tom Sawyer.While American critics warmly welcomed the latter,the former was regarded as a rebels novel.
Tom,and Hucks personality in both books are considered as rebellious.Tom dares to consort with Huck,the outcast,responsibly testfies in court against the murderous Injun Joe and bravely saves Becky and himself from the cave.Generally speaking,he becomes a spokesman for genteel respectability,because his final insistence is that if Huck joins his gang,Huck must return to the constricting care of Widow Douglass.He told Huck,“Huck,we cant let you into the gang if you aint respectable,you know.”[2]In
Tom Sawyeryoung Huck has become something of a hero to the inhabitants of the little river village because of his help to Tom Sawyer in tracking down Injun Joe.He has been adopted by Widow Douglas,washed,dressed in clean clothes,and sent to school.With Tom he shared the incredible wealth of one dollar a day for each of them derived as income from the treasure they had discovered in The Adventure of Tom Sawyer.But Huck is not happy.First,Huck mentions that Widow Douglas wanted to “sivilize”[3]him.In contrast ,Huck wants to escape and be "free and satisfied”[4]Furthermore,the novel ends with Huck planning“to light out”for a different territory because Aunt Sally plans to “sivilize”him.The conflict between society and the individual becomes a major theme as the novel develops.That is why the theme——pursuit of freedom runs through the whole lines.Leo Marx believes that in this book freedom specifically means freedom from society and its imperatives.
Pap,Tom,and the Widow,that apparently illassorted crew,all represent aspects of bondage and aspects of civilization from which Huck flees.Avoiding being killed by Pap,Huck fleets from Pap to save his quite literal life.He runs to Jacksons Island,where he discovers Jim,Miss Watsons runaway slave.The two escape the searching group by floating down the Mississippi River on a raft for heading to free states,so the journey begins.
Hucks journey ranges over the length of the great River and cuts through the center of the whole nation.As it does so,it gains its scope by embracing all levels of society,It is a real world of hard characters:kind Widow,starchy spinster,confidence men,and feuds.They are hard in a way that D.H.Laurence described as typical of the frontier American“isolate,stoic,a killer”[5]
So Huck,not yet fourteen,has to struggle for a knowledge of adult society.Huck is more than a footloose wanderer,he is escaping from respective forms of bondage imposed by society,and Hucks freedom comes gradually from his radical criticism of his society.”So we have here a journey undertaken,at conscious level,a quest.”[6]
To speak of the journey as a quest ,the stages in the movement toward freedom,we refer to the fact that Huck,episode by episode ,is divesting himself of illusions .In other words,it means bondage.Toms lies,the lies of Sunday shool,all the lies that society tells to justify its values and extenuate its conduct,are the bonds for Huck;the discovery of reality,as opposed to illusion,means freedom.
3Hucks Three Major Decisions
To return to the theme of the quest,Hucks voyage toward spiritual freedom is the
counter pointed structurally by Jims search for quite literal freedom.This kind of relationship is complex,but the most obvious element is that any lies of society have to do with the enslavement of Jim.
This is not primarily an antislavery novel,nor even a novel in which two innocents encounter a corrupt society,although it is partly that.First of all,however,it is a novel about a boy escaping from civilizationfrom a civilization in which slavery is only the most conspicuous cruelty.Twain referred to the book as a conflict between a sound heart and a deformed conscience,and Hucks conscience still belongs to the society. Jims function is quite literally to be Hucks moral burden.Jim may,and does disappear from Hucks view temporarily,but he always returns,and finally,by his constant presence,his constant decency,and his constant humanity he forces Huck to do something more than drift with the River.He forces Huck to come to grips with that part of himself belonging to the society,forces him to decide,forever,between two things,a normal frame of mind or a distorted soul.
Huck makes his decision to free Jim from slavery on three separate but closely related occasions.The first decision is Hucks not revealing the secret of Jims flight for freedom;the second decision is Hucks not betrayal of Jims real identity;the third is Hucks final decision to help Jims runaway for freedom.
In a superficial sense,the three decisions are the same,but each means more than the one before,as Huck knows more about the society he has decided to oppose and because he sees more fully and clearly the implications of the decision and its possible consequences.In this sense,Huck gets more access to Freedom.
4The Freedom Imprinted with the Hallmarks of His Time
It is hard to measure Twains greatness,but one thing is clear;that his greatness developed because the time and the continent shaped him at their core.Only in relation to time and history we can explain his greateness.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
is the story of a boy who will not accept the kind of freedom the world is unable to offer,and so flees from it ,one after another,to become to many readers a symbol of mans inevitable,restless flight.The theme of the whole novelthe pursuit of freedomhas a powerful artistic charm which is filled with the specific features of his times.Some readers might read the opening chapter casually.However,Mark Twain here specifically marked the time and place of the story.Place:Mississippi Vally;Time:40-50
years before.The book was finished between 18841885.Thus the story was supposed to take place between the years of 18261845,that is president Jacksons time
It is Huckleberry Finn that gives us a historical realist description of the ideals of those Americans at that time,their hopes and their potential dreams.We might see this through the character of our traditional hero Huck.As we know,literature is different from history.However,it is Mark Twain who has captured the American national life and soul that makes the book such a powerful artistic charm.
In a word,such kind of pursuit of freedom is a pursuit of a new culture.That is a hot pursuit which comes from lower class Huck.It is also Mark Twains realization and condensation of the two major historical trends of the 19th
century.That is the Western movement and the Southern antislavery system.
5.Conclusion
More than a century has elapsed ,in the process earthshakng changes have taken place over the past one hundred and more years.Now we have ushered in the first glimmer of light and hope in a new Millennium.However ,Mark Twain and his best works still enjoy an immortal charm.Unfortunately racial discrimination still remains a social problem in the United States ,no matter how much progress it has been made.Crime and violence still remain a burning issue of the presentday American society.Though the road to Freedom is full of twists and turns,in the long run,freedom will
come to the people who are fighting for its realization.Lets hope for a real happy tomorrow—a world of real freedom,peace and exploitation of any kind!
NOTES:
[1]Bernard De Voto,“Mark Twains American,”Discussions of Mark Twain,P34
[2]Kenneth s.Lynn,Huckleberry Finn Text,Sources,and criticism,P8
[3]Ibid,P14
[4]Leo Mark,“Mr,Eliot,Mr.Trilling,and Huckleberry Finn,”Discussions of Mark Twain,P77
[5]Kenneth S.Lynn,Huckleberry Finn Text,Sources,and Criticism,P56
[6]Kenneth S.Lynn,Huckleberry Finn Text,Sources,and Criticism,P42
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