Underlying Themes of Twain's "Huckleberry Finn"

For all of its past criticisms and censorship, Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" has in recent years been hailed as what its author intended it to be- a highly satirical work which portrayed bigotry and hypocrisy as the flawed mindsets they actually are. This paper will discuss Twain as a writer, take a closer look at "Huckleberry Finn", and discuss in detail how satire jumps from the pages of the book into the collective conscience of the reader.

Mark Twain's Critical Reputation as a Writer
Mark Twain was a pilot, a comic lecturer, a humorist, a short story writer, and a novelist, to name a few of his many accomplishments. On November 30, 1835, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, otherwise known as Mark Twain, became the first man of any importance ever to be born west of the Mississippi River (Long). He has become an icon as the American writer. This is because his way of writing cannot be simulated by Europeans or anyone else, due to the fact that the western setting of America creates a whole new atmosphere and style of writing. Mark Twain is a classic American writer that acquired fame by using satire, writing with single-minded use of words, and by writing the way that most people think and speak. Twain writes with single-minded use of words, which is understood to be plain and simple, yet still intelligent, which enhances American literature. He writes what comes into his mind without fear. While this had tarnished his reputation over the years because he was falsely identified as a racist (Champion), recent decades have seen more in-depth study of Twain's mindset and writings, thereby proving that he was not an advocate of hypocrisy and racism, but rather a critic of it.
Summary of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"

The conflict between society and the individual is a theme portrayed throughout Twain's Huckleberry Finn. Huck was not raised in accord with the accepted ways of civilization. He practically raises himself, relying on instinct to guide him through life. As portrayed several times in the novel, Huck chooses to follow his innate sense of right, yet he does not realize that his own instincts are more moral than those of society.

From the very beginning of Huck's story, Huck clearly states
that he did not want to conform to society. When Pap returns for Huck, and the matter of custody is brought before the court, the reader is forced to see the corruption of society. The judge rules that Huck belongs to Pap, and forces him to obey an obviously evil and unfit man. One who drinks profusely and beats his son. Later, when Huck makes it look
as though he has been killed, we see how civilization is more concerned over finding Huck's dead body than rescuing his live one from Pap. This is a society that is more concerned about a dead body than it is in the welfare of living people.

The theme becomes even more evident once Huck and Jim set out, down the Mississippi. Huck enjoys his adventures on the raft. He prefers the freedom of the wilderness to the restrictions of society. Also, Huck's acceptance of Jim is a total defiance of
Society (Twain). Ironically, Huck believes he is committing a sin by going against society and protecting Jim. He does not realize that his own instincts are more morally correct than those of society.
Huck meets some men looking for runaway slaves, and so he fabricates a story about his father on the raft with smallpox. The men fear catching this disease and instead of rescuing him,
they give him money and advise him not to let it be known of his father's sickness when seeking help. These men are not hesitant to hunt slaves, yet they refuse to help a sick man. This is
contrasted to Huck's guilt felt for protecting Jim when he actually did a morally just action.

The ending is perhaps most disappointing because it seems as though through all the situations that it seemed he was growing up and accepting his innate ideas of right, he hasn't grown at all. When he is re- united with Tom, he once again thinks of Jim as
Property (Fishkin).

Satire, as Found in "Huckleberry Finn"

By taking a look beneath the surface of "Huckleberry Finn", and putting aside the criticisms of the book that have been unfairly thrust upon it over the years, what one can clearly see is that the work is an excellent example of satire, as can be seen in several portions of the book itself.

To begin, the overall plot of the story is satirical in itself; a young boy, who decides that he will not conform to the rules of society and to live up to everything that is expected of him, simply chooses not to follow the rules that everyone else is forced to follow as they grow into adulthood. Taking this nonconformity a step further, when the burden of conforming to society becomes too much, he literally pretends that he is dead, thereby freeing himself of the requirements that society has placed upon him. Ironically enough, as mentioned before, when the town believes that Huck is dead, they are more concerned with finding his body than they are with the tragedy of his death itself. Huck's father carries the satire even further,; by being portrayed as a raging bigot with a drinking problem and the inability to get his facts straight, he is a characture of a bigot, showing just how absurd racism actually is in fact.

After studying the text of "Huckleberry Finn", it is clear that the satire reaches a high water point in Chapter 6, when Huck and his "Pap" collide in conflict, and Pap makes his bigotry abundantly clear; along with it, he also shows his ignorance and lack of solid information on the topic of race relations, one of the pivotal topics of the day.

Chapter 6- The Epitome of Satire
Twain's use of satire is extremely obvious in Chapter 6, which uses humor and exaggeration to show the futility of racism and hypocrisy, both of which can be found to be in abundance in the person of Pap (Johnson). Once Pap regains control of himself from "mourning" the "death" of his son Huck, he hires a lawyer to sue Judge Thatcher for the money that once belonged to Huck. Although he occasionally catches Huck and beats him for going to school, Huck continues to go, to spite his father. Then one day Pap kidnaps his son and brings him to a log cabin on the Illinois shore, on the other side of the river.

Whenever he's away, Pap keeps Huck locked in the cabin. But when his father is there, they fish and hunt or just hang around doing not much of anything. Except for the imprisonment, Huck finds he likes getting back to his old style of living, and he doesn't want to go
back to the widow's home any more. The trouble is, he can't stay with Pap, either. His father beats him more and more, until Huck decides to work out an escape plan. He finds
a saw and cuts a hole in the cabin wall, then covers it up to wait for a chance to get out, while his father is away. Soon after this, Pap comes back from town in a terrible mood. He
starts drinking and complaining about the courts, the widow, and a number of other things. After a few drinks, he goes into a long speech about the government. This speech is important in at least one way- it shows how Twain felt about racial bigotry (Long). Pap complains about not getting justice from his government, when he has had all the anxiety and expense of raising a son. We know, however, that this isn't true, that Pap has been about as bad a father as anyone can imagine. We know that he isn't the good citizen he claims to be. And we know that his threat to leave the country is laughable, considering what an undesirable character he is.

As he does with Huck, Twain is talking over Pap's head to the reader, and we know how Twain wants us to feel. The same thing is true in the second part of Pap's harangue, in which he berates the government for allowing a black college professor to vote right along with a white man like himself. Twain makes Pap look ridiculous for suggesting that he is superior to the professor, simply because of a racial difference (Jackson).

In short, by painting the picture of a totally ridiculous case of bigotry, based on nothing but half truths and unfounded rumors, in Pap, Twain shows all that is ugly and absurd about racism and not sticking to one's word (Camfield).

Conclusion

In this paper, the research has indicated that in writing "Huckleberry Finn", Mark Twain was not a raging bigot or hypocrite; rather, he was in a sense a social commentator who pointed out the error of the ways of many of the people of his day, whose hatred, based upon false information, assumptions, and hasty conclusions, led to a wholesale bigotry on a huge scale. While Twain himself was accused of this bigotry, in closing, what can be accurately said is that "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is actually a complex editorial on the state of interpersonal relationships and society during a pivotal time in American history.

Works Cited

Camfield, Gregg. "Bends in the River: For Mark Twain, Writing the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, His Masterpiece, Seemed Easy . but Only at First." Book Nov.-Dec. 2003: 22+. Questia. 23 Mar. 2007 .

Champion, Laurie, ed. The Critical Response to Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1991. Questia. 23 Mar. 2007 .

Fishkin, Shelley Fisher. Was Huck Black? Mark Twain and African-American Voices. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. Questia. 23 Mar. 2007 .

Jackson, Barbara L. "Debating Huck Finn." College Teaching 38.2 (1990): 63-66. Questia. 23 Mar. 2007 .

Johnson, Claudia Durst. Understanding Adventures of Huckleberry Finn A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996.

Long, E. Hudson. Mark Twain Handbook. New York: Hendricks House, 1957.

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: P. F. Collier & Son, 1918.