Huckleberry Finn Literary Analysis
Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, tells the tale of Huck, a rebellious young boy living in pre-civil war south who constantly rejects
society’s attempts to conform him. After faking his death and leaving society, Huck befriends Jim, a runaway slave. It is through this developing friendship that Huck comes to the realization of the powerful hold society has on the individual. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn reveals that no individual can truly escape the clutches of a powerful society, seen through the development of Huck and Jim’s relationship, Huck and Jim’s experiences on the raft and on shore, and Huck’s blind willingness to follow Tom, the perfect representation of the society he has tried so desperately to escape.
From the start of the novel, Twain establishes Huck as an outcast, emphasizing the ways in which he attempts to disobey the status quo. Huck
explains,“The widow she cried over me, and called me a poor lost lamb, and she called me a lot of other names too” (Twain, 131). Society has failed Huck in
every possible way. It has returned him to the custody of an alcoholic father, whom he has to save himself from. In effect, Huck has no reason to trust society, rejecting its social values. He doesn’t buy into religion, he’s not socialized, and he has a rebellious streak. To those conformed, he is seen as a lost boy who needs guidance. When The Widow Douglass attempts to educate Huck on religion, telling him the story of Moses, he says, “Here she was a bothering about Moses, which was no kin to her, and no use to anybody, being gone, you see” (Twain, 132). From the start, Huck rejects the norms of his society. He is the perfect narrator for Twain, as he can observe and make comments about society others cannot, due to his outsider status. He sees things simply, for the way they are, and makes judgments off of this, allowing him to be blunt in ways others cannot. At the beginning of the novel, his relationship with Jim is one that follows the conventions of society, for it is the system he is currently in. He and Tom view Jim as a toy, not a person. Twain describes this writing, “Tom whispered to me and wanted to tie Jim to the tree for fun” (134). Huck does not see Jim as another human, but as property, just like those around him. He believes society’s way of thinking about Jim and sees no alternatives. Jim is an outsider in society due to his slave status. However, both Jim and Huck’s outsider statuses are what allows them to bond and form an unexpected relationship, in response rejecting the traditional views and pressures of society.
Huck and Jim’s relationship develops into one of friendship once they leave society and isolate themselves in nature, giving the readers hope that
perhaps the individual can indeed maintain his or her individuality among a chaotic society. When Huck and Jim isolate themselves in nature, riding on their own in the raft, Huck explains, “It’s lovely to live on a raft. We had the sky up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them” (Twain, 203). When in nature, Huck and Jim are in a sort of paradise. They are allowed to speak to each other as simply a boy and a man, not a slave and a white boy. There are no social pressures on the raft. There is simply the beauty and freedom of nature. Jim explains, “There warn’t no home like a raft, after all. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft” (Twain, 202). The raft and nature represent freedom. The type of freedom Huck and Jim are searching for. It is the type of freedom that liberates Huck from societal conventions, allowing him to see Jim for who he is, not what he is. It is the type of freedom in which a white boy can humble himself enough to apologize to a slave and consider him a friend. It is on the raft that Huck begins to change his views of Jim, no longer seeing him as property, but as a human and eventually, a friend. Huck begins to realize that Jim has a family who he loves. Huck realizes, “He was thinking about his wife and children, away up yonder, and he was low and homesick; because he hadn’t ever been away from home before in his life” (Twain, 226). At first, Huck is astonished by this revelation. Society taught him that Jim can’t love and has no family. When this belief is proven wrong, Huck realizes that Jim has emotions and is a person, just like him.
Huck and Jim’s bond continues to strengthen while on the raft, allowing him to further separate himself from societal conventions. This is seen
when Huck plays a prank on Jim, thinking it would be fun to pretend he went missing and drowned in the river while on the raft. This prank is similar to the antics Huck and Tom pulled on Jim when Huck lived with Miss Watson and The Widow Douglass. Thinking it will be great fun, Huck is delighted in his scheme. However, he is stunned by Jim’s genuine concern for his well-being to the point in which he is unsure of how to react to Jim’s scolding, telling him he out to be ashamed of himself. He says “It made me feel so mean I could almost kissed his foot to get him to take it back” (Twain, 183). Huck’s reaction is a surprising one to even himself. Society taught him that slaves are property, not friends. They are to be owned. They are subservient to whites. This is why it is surprising to Huck that he, a white boy, can bring himself to apologize to Jim, a slave. Society has taught him that this is wrong, and while he realizes this, he finds himself questioning the morality of the views taught to him by white society. It is from this point forward that Jim and Huck’s relationship strengthens, eventually reaching the point in which Huck would even “go to hell” for Jim (Twain, 282). Away from society, Huck is able to break away from societal views and befriend and care for Jim. However, once they rejoin society, Huck’s progress stops, and he falls back into the clutches of social pressures.
During his time on shore, Huck becomes aware of the foolish place that is society, encouraging him to further question societal norms. While on
shore, Huck and Jim face several obstacles, most of them societal. It is on shore that Huck meets the Shepherdsons, a family who has lost some of its members due to a feud with a rival family known as the Grangerfords. It is by spending time with the Shepherdsons that Huck realizes just how violent and senseless society is. When Huck asks Buck, the youngest Shepherdson, if he knows how the feud between the families began, he responds, “How do I know? It was so long ago… They don’t know, now, what the row was about in the first place” (Twain, 197). The fact that the families involved in a feud responsible for the deaths of loved ones, don’t even know how the violence between them began is a reflection to Huck of just how senseless and violent society is. It is a place that is barbaric and cruel. It is flawed, violent, and is always marked by conflict. It is a place in which people are judgmental and irrational. It is a place Huck needs to leave, but can’t escape fully, as seen through his treatment of Jim on shore.
Once on shore, Huck changes in his treatment of Jim, reverting to society’s norms and expectations in order to keep his friend safe. When Huck and
Jim are on shore, they encounter the Duke and the King, a pair of con men seeking to steal money from the gullible. They pull countless antics, each more dangerous than the last, in order to benefit themselves. It is while they travel with these men that Jim literally must become enslaved again in order to keep his freedom. Not sure how to explain traveling with a slave, the Duke and King make flyers with “a picture of a runaway nigger, with a bundle on a stick, over his shoulder, and “$200 reward” under it.” (Twain, 212). They decide to literally enslave Jim in order to “help” him keep his freedom, and although he is not comfortable with the idea, Huck agrees to it, seeing no alternative. This is representative of society’s hold on the individual. While Huck and Jim try so desperately to leave society and isolate themselves in nature, it is impossible. Society will always have a hold on the individual no matter how hard he or she tries to escape. Although Huck and Jim sought sanctuary from the Duke and King in their raft, the Duke and King were able to join them, intruding on their freedom. Huck explains, “I wilted right down onto the planks then, and gave up; and it was all I could do to keep from crying” (Twain, 256). This scene is representative of society attempting to enter Huck and Jim’s paradise, showing that no matter how hard one tries, one cannot fully maintain his or her individuality. Society will intrude, influencing your choices, your way of thinking, or your way of life. Society has a hold on the individual that is unshakeable. This is seen when Huck attempts to save Jim from the Phelps’s plantation.
Huck’s inability to fully escape from society is evident in his blind willingness to follow Tom when attempting to free Jim from the Phelps’s
Plantation. After the Duke sold Jim to the Phelps’s, Huck bravely decides to save his friend, deciding to go against the norms of society and risk going to hell for Jim. The audience is meant to view this as the climax of the story, for it is at this point that Huck has fully transformed as the hero of Twain’s story. Readers believe that Huck has decided to leave society behind fully, becoming his own individual who makes it on his own. As readers we admire the rugged individualist, and we believe Huck is one. However, this unravels when Tom arrives at the Phelps’s plantation and Huck decides to take his lead all too willingly. While we know that Huck made the right decision in deciding to free Jim, he can’t fully free himself from society think. When Huck informs Tom of his plan to rescue Jim, he admits, “Tom Sawyer fell, considerable, in my estimation” (Twain, 269). Instead of being grateful for his friend’s help, Huck does the opposite. His respect for Tom lessens. Tom is the symbol of society. He is a “good boy” who follows the rules. He comes from a “good” family and lives a happy life. He is the mold of the perfect societal boy and who Huck should be. The fact that Huck is disappointed in Tom’s decision shows the influence societal think has on him. If Huck were fully free from society, his opinion of Tom would not have lessened. He would have simply been glad for his friend’s help. The fact that his opinion of Tom did indeed fall shows that society’s way of thinking still has a hold on him. While he is an outsider, he can’t fully extract himself from society’s way of thinking. This continues through his blind willingness to follow Tom’s lead.
Society’s hold on Huck is present through his willingness to follow Tom without question, showing that an individual can never fully escape society
and maintain his or her individuality. Tom attempts to make an adventure out of Jim’s rescue saying, “There’s more honor in getting him out through a lot of difficulties and dangers” (Twain, 277). Being the perfect boy, Tom has read several adventure novels and has taken his cue from them. He believes they have to dig Jim out into freedom, while in the process cutting off his leg and having him write on the walls in his own blood. Society’s literature has shaped his beliefs on adventure. Because of this, his view on Jim’s rescue is a bit extreme and outrageous. While the audience is aware of this, Huck is not. He supports Tom’s decision, although he had a much simpler plan consisting of stealing a key and freeing Jim. When Tom turns this plan down and tells him his more “adventurous” version, Huck notes, “I see in a minute it was worth fifteen of mine, for style, and would make Jim just as free a man as mine would, and maybe get us all killed besides” (Twain, 273). Although Huck has a sense that there is a safer route to be taken, he willingly follows Tom’s dangerous scheme. To a certain extent, Huck wants to be respected and accepted by Tom, inadvertently showing his want to be accepted by society, as this is whom Tom represents. This want for acceptance puts Jim in danger, showing that although Huck freed himself from society, he only did so to a certain extent. Society still has a hold on him, just as Tom has a hold on him. The extent of society’s hold on Huck is most evident when he says, “I knowed he [Jim] was white inside” (Twain, 299). Instead of accepting his friendship with Jim for what it is, he has to support it with the fact that Jim isn’t like other slaves Although Huck has constantly rejected society’s expectations, he can never fully escape them. Society’s hold on him is so strong that he will always have some sort of society think. Huck rationalizes his relationship with Jim, claiming that Jim is the exception. He has a little bit of a white man inside of him, making their relationship okay. To some extent, he follows the norms of society and thinks the way society does. In the end, although Huck claims he is going to move west to escape society, he never truly will be able to, no matter how hard he tries. He will forever be in the clutches of a powerful society. He is trapped.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn proves that the individual can never fully escape society. Society will always maintain a hold on the individual, prohibiting the individual from maintaining his or her individuality. Although Huck formed an unlikely friendship with Jim while away from society, this bond is constantly put in danger when faced with society think. In a way, the novel serves as a cautionary tale. If society is so powerful in shaping even an outsider like Huckleberry Finn, what hope do we have as members of this society? We must be cautious and aware of the power of society think and its hold on us or we will forever be trapped in a never-ending cycle of cat and mouse.
Works Cited
Twain, Mark. “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” The Norton Anthology American Literature.Vol. C. Nina Baym and Robert S. Levine. New York: W. W.
Norton, 2012. 130-309. Print.