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What is twain commentary on religion by huck in the adventures of huckleberry finn
What is twain commentary on religion by huck in the adventures of huckleberry finn
What is twain commentary on religion by huck in the adventures of huckleberry finn
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Spirituality In Mark Twain’s The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn
The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, written by Samuel Clemens, is a novel that challenges the views of society and questions life through the eyes of an adolescent boy. By sprinkling traces of spirituality and religious views throughout the story, Clemens creates a "martyr-like" profile for his lead character Huckleberry Finn. Huck uses his religious views as his own conscience and challenges the status quo rules of his pious society to make his own decisions which leads him on a path to personal growth.
Though Huck was not blessed with a loving family to teach him the ways of the world, and instead grows up more independently, he was taught by many others that in Heaven "...all a body would have to do there was to go around all day long with a harp and sing, forever and ever" (30). Of course, this is not an appealing image for an adolescent boy who fantasized about being in a gang of robbers with his friends. Perhaps even if it is appealing, it may seem out of possible reach to a boy who lives the life that Huck does- with a drunkard father, reading stories of murder and robbery, and witnessing the cruelty and injustice to slaves. Without a firm foundation and someone to teach him, Huck must continually rely on the pieces of information that he hears from others and his own observations which often leaves him confused and misinformed.
One of the most noticeable traits of Huck's personality that reflect his opinion on religion and spirituality is that he often dismisses such popularly accepted beliefs as Moses (because he is dead), but will put his faith into a hairball that he believes is magic because it was taken from an oxen's stomach and therefore he believes that "it had a spirit inside of it, and it knowed everything" (38). In fact, he even asks it about his father and supplies it with a fake coin for it's services. Perhaps Huck truly believes in it, or he is searching for something to believe in that he could depend on. In either case, he is wise enough not to give it his real dollar.
Clemens gives the entire story a religious vibe through the continual use of phrases that relate to or have a biblical sense to them. Just one example of this is when Huck is describing his father after coming home from laying drunk in a gutter the entire night before, and as Huck narrates "A body would have thought he was Adam, he was all mud" (44).
Initially, religion is appealing to Huck when the Widow Douglas tries teaching him: "After supper she got out her book and learned me about Moses and the Bulrushers; and I was in a sweat to find out all about him" (220). Salvation seems possible to Huck, but he prefers to go to the "bad place" instead of spending eternity with Miss Watson (221); also, he abandons the concept of morality as a result of Miss Watson imposing it upon him. "I couldn't see no advantage about [helping others]...so at last I reckoned I wouldn't worry about it anymore, but just let it go" (226). Huck does not realize that he is not a selfish person, but resolves to sacrifice salvation instead of living selflessly simply because of the source and c...
November 1998, written for FILM 220: Aspects of Criticism. This is a 24-week course for second-year students, examining methods of critical analysis, interpretation and evaluation. The final assignment was simply to write a 1000-word critical essay on a film seen in class during the final six-weeks of the course. Students were expected to draw on concepts they had studied over the length of the course.
When one is young they must learn from their parents how to behave. A child's parents impose society's unspoken rules in hope that one day their child will inuitivly decerne wrong from right and make decisions based on their own judgment. These moral and ethical decisions will affect one for their entire life. In Mark Twains, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck is faced with the decision of choosing to regard all he has been taught to save a friend, or listen and obey the morals that he has been raised with. In making his decision he is able to look at the situation maturely and grow to understand the moral imbalances society has. Hucks' decisions show his integrity and strength as a person to choose what his heart tells him to do, over his head.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, is a novel about a young man's search for identity. Huckleberry Finn goes through some changes and learns some life lessons throughout his journey. Huck changes from being just an immature boy at the beginning of the novel to being a more mature man who looks at things in a different perspective now.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, is the story of a young southern boy and his voyage down the Mississippi River accompanied by a runaway slave named Jim. Throughout the journey Huck and Jim face numerous obstacles and encounter a variety of interesting characters. These experiences help Huck to develop physically, intellectually, and most importantly, morally. Throughout the long expedition, readers can observe Huck’s transformation from an immature boy with poor values and ethics, to a matured young man with a moral conscience and a heightened sense of what is right and what is wrong despite what society says.
When the novel begins Huck has a very care-free and childish personality, especially towards Mrs.Watson and the Widow Douglas. The Widow Douglas continuously tries to teach Huck about Christianity and the Bible, but Huck, like most kids, is never interested. When Mrs. Watson attempts to tell Huck about “Moses and the Bulrushers” (Twain 14), he seems to be interested until he finds out that Moses is no longer alive. Huck then says that he doesn’t “take no stock in dead people” (14) and goes on with his business. This response shows Huck’s blithe personality because of his apathetic reaction to learning about someone who is no longer alive. Huck also makes quite childish decisions that hurt people throughout the novel. When Huck makes
To begin with, the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson are two wealthy sisters who adopt Huck. Thw two sister’s want to teach Huck the importance of religion, manners, and behaving. After staying in the house for a while, Huck realizes that “it [is] rough living in the house all the time”, because the Widow Douglas wants to “sivilize [him]”(Twain, 1). When dinner is ready the widow would call Huck to the table, but before they began eating the widow needs “to tuck down her head and grumble a little over the victuals” (1). Huck knew there was nothing was wrong with the food but because the widow was religious she was trying to instill in Huck that he needs to bless his food and give thanks to God for it. The widow is trying to make religion a part of Huck’s life, which seems to be a negative impact on his life considering the many times Twain portrays religious persons as being gullible. Miss Watson, the more forceful of the two sisters, is adamant about getting huck to behave. To help mold Huck into a person that “go[es] to the good place” also known as heaven, Miss Watson constantly tells him things to do to help him behave such as “don’t put your feet up there” and “set up straight”(2). Besides adopting a religion, and behaving, Hucks appearance needed to be neat and respectable. Although the new clothes made Huck “sweat and sweat,...
Arnheim’s body of theory suggests that the necessity of human intervention to implement plot, tropes, and culturally legible symbols raises a film to a higher level than a mere copy of reality, and that this interpretation and expression of meaning is “a question of feeling” or intuition on the part of the filmmaker. (“Film Theory and Criticism” 283) One consequence of effective directorial intervention is that differences in speed, stops and starts, and what would otherwise be jarring gaps in continuity can be accepted by viewers, because if the essentials of reality are present, th...
Lehman, Peter and Luhr, William. Thinking About Movies: Watching, Questioning, Enjoying. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003.
Rascaroli, Laura. "The Essay Film: Problems, Definitions, Textual Commitments." Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media 49.2 (2008): 24-47. JSTOR. Web. 08 May 2014.
Conformity is defined as the occurrence of people yielding to social pressures as a result of pressure from a group of their peers; when faced by the pressure to conform, people will alter their behaviour and actions to fit the norm demonstrated by their peers (Lilienfield et al., 2012). Conformity is studied so that is can be understood and used in society to facilitate positive outcomes, and help avoid situations where peoples’ predisposition to conform leads to negative consequences (Lilienfield et al., 2012). By understanding conformity and other social processes society as a whole is able to understand themselves better and motivates them to work on improving as a whole (Lilienfield et al., 2012).
Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is an American classic which analyzes and satirizes most if not all of the major issues at the time of its making. These issues are viewed through the eyes of the twelve-year-old Huck who has a unique perspective on the world due to his lack of family and overall wild nature. Huck’s innocence supports the novel as a whole through supporting Huck’s perspective on people, and his innocence also helps begin his journey and transforms as he grows throughout the novel.
While living in the Widow Douglass’ home, Huck had been exposed to and forced to participate in religious practices. He was forced to read the bible and say prayers at meal times. “When you got to the table, you couldn’t go right to eating, but you had to wait for the widow to tuck her head and grumble over the victuals” (Twain 12). Huck depicts the widow as an over-the-top Christian who is dedicated to her religion, while Twain uses this to satirize religion in general. At this time in history, society views being religious as knowing passages from the bible and saying your prayers. These standards classify Widow Douglass as a good Christian woman with strong val...
At the beginning of the tale, Huck struggles between becoming ?sivilized? and doing what he pleases. He doesn?t want to listen to the rules that the Widow Douglas and her sister force upon him, even though he knows the widow only wants what is best for him. Miss Watson pushes Huck away from society even more through the way she treats him. She teaches him religion in such a dreary way that when she speaks of heaven and hell, Huck would rather go to hell than be in heaven with her: ?And she told all about the bad place, and I said I wished I was there?I couldn?t see no advantage in going where she was going, so I made up my mind I wouldn?t try for it? (12-13). Huck is taught a very different kind of morality by his father who believes ?it warn?t no harm to borrow things, if you was meaning to pay them back?? (70). He likes his father?s idea of morality better because he is not yet mature enough to fully understand right and wrong, although living with the widow...
Katherine: So what is conformity? The Psychological Sciences textbook defines it as “the altering of one’s behaviors and opinions to match those of other people or to match other people’s expectations” (Gazzaniga, 2012).