A Psychoanalytic Reading of Huckleberry Finn
Psychoanalytic conditions, stages and symptoms pervade the seemingly simplistic narration of a child-narrator, Huck Finn. Such Freudian psychoanalytic ideas as "Thanatos," "repressed desires" and how they seek their way back through dream work, through "parapraxis," can all find examples in this fiction. Besides, Lacanian concept of the unconscious as the "nucleus of our being," as "an orderly network," as well as his famous theory the "mirror stage" can be applied to this novel as a whole as well.
Lacan states that the unconscious, the "kernel of our being," is "an orderly network," like the structure of a language (Barry 111-113); this statement can be found true in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." In this particular picaresque of Huck*s adventures, episodes are ostensibly unrelated to each other just as most picaresque novels are. Huck Finn, however, in the unconscious of the text, follows a family pattern in which families come eventually to destruction. First take Huck*s six major lies for example. When Huck is in disguise, seeking information from Mrs. Loftus, he pretends to be a girl, Sarah Williams, whose mother is ill, and thus is on her way to get her uncle to come to help. Later, when his lie is discovered, he again invents a family in which both of his parents are dead and he is now a renegade apprentice. Next, in order to save the gang on the Walter Scott from drowning, Huck makes up a whole family including pap, mam, sis, and Uncle Hornbeck. Again, another family with pap, mam, and Mary Ann is invented in order to save Jim from slavery. And when with Grangerfords, Huck identifies himself with George Jackson and tells of the decline of a relatively ...
... middle of paper ...
...erefore explicates his final decision, justifies the ending of the novel.
Works Cited
Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: an Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. Manchester: Manchester UP, 1995.
Baym, Nina, et al., ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 4th ed. New York: Norton, 1994.
Bradley, Sculley et al., ed. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: an Annotated Text, Backgrounds and Sources, Essays in Criticism. New York : Norton, 1962.
Eliot, T. S. "Mark Twain*s Masterpiece." Huck Finn among the Critics: a Centennial Selection. Ed. M. Thomas Inge. Frederick, Md. : University Publications of America, 1985.
Green, Keith, and Jill LeBihan. Critical Theory and Practice: a Coursebook. London: Routledge, 1996.
Solomon, Eric. "The Search for Security." Bradley 436-443.
Stone, Jr. Albert E. "Huckleberry Finn and the Modes of Escape." Bradley 444- 448.
Violence inflicted upon other people cannot be justified unless it is in defense of one’s own life or the defense of a group of lives, such as a town where war has been waged upon it. In the case of John Brown, his raids were neither in self defense nor for the preservation of life for a people. Though it is a fact that many slaves were treated harshly and abused, there are many that were treated with kindness and respect, even given an education. The slaves, though oppressed, were not all in danger of losing their lives. John Brown’s use of violence is nothing more than bullying and intimidation, in attempt to persuade slave owners and their supporters to change their views.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel written by Mark Twain during the late 1800’s (Mintz). The book brought major controversy over the plot, as well as the fact that it was a spin-off to his previous story, Adventures of Tom Sawyer. This book has remained a success due to Twain’s interesting techniques of keeping the audience’s attention. Chapters eleven and twelve of “Huckleberry Finn,” uses a first person limited point of view to take advantage of the use of dialogue while using many hyperboles to add drama to entertain the reader by creating description within the story without needing to pause and explain.
As John Brown grew and became a man he became more and more active in the fight for abolitionism. Like his father he devoted his life to gathering money for slaves and housing those that escaped. Brown began to ...
Kaplan, Justin. "Born to Trouble: One Hundred Years of Huckleberry Finn." Mark Twain Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: A Case Study in Critical Controversy. Eds. Gerald Graff and James Phelan. Boston: St. Martin's, 1995. 348-359.
Kaplan, Justin. "Born to Trouble: One Hundred Years of Huckleberry Finn." Mark Twain Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: A Case Study in Critical Controversy. Eds. Gerald Graff and James Phelan. Boston: St. Martin's, 1995. 348-359.
... the Duke and the Dauphin seemed to be solely responsible for Huck’s newfound resolve to act on his own thoughts; while the unnecessary and entirely senseless death and destruction wrought by the feud between the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons resulted in an increase in maturity. Thus, it is possible that Huck Finn may in fact be a form of commentary, which targets the fallacies of Romanticism while upholding the accuracy inherent to Realism: for the various mishappenings Huck had witnessed on his journey simultaneously eroded his disposition towards adventure and contrasted with the romantic nature of the Mississippi River. Therefore, in spite of Twain having satirically remarked that, “[p]ersons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted”, it can be concluded that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn possesses a large degree of complexity.
The Mayflower Compact was signed on November 11, 1620 on board the vessel Mayflower. The Mayflower Compact was signed by forty-one men on board the ship. The main person responsible for this was William Bradford. He said the reason for writing this is he was afraid of mutiny, and another reason was he thought they needed a form of self-government. This document was the first colonial agreement that formed a government by consent of the governed. The compact gave the settlers a plan to frame and enact laws for the general good of the organized settlement.
consequence. The Christian community respected women like anyone else, they were treated the same as others. (Jesus) (Christian)
Since the beginning of time there has been an ever present divide between the male and female genders in every way. From politics all the way down to expectations, the common denominator in categorizing who takes care of what has always been decided by gender. In earlier times this divide led to the strict and often harsh treatment of women, but as time continued and the emergence of equal rights and feminist movements arose, the divide between the two genders has since begun to close, and has led to better relations between men and women.
In Mark Twain's novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the adults in Huck's life play an important role in the development of the plot. Pap, Huck's father, constantly abuses the boy, never allowing him to become an intelligent or decent human being. He beats and attacks Huck whenever they meet up, and tries to destroy Huck's chances of having a normal life. This situation is balanced by several good role models and parent figures for Huck. Jim, the runaway slave, embraces Huck like a son, and shares his wide ranging knowledge with him. He also protects Huck on the journey down the river. Widow Douglas is another good role model for Huck. She tries to civilize him and make him respectable to society, while also being caring and compassionate. There is a stark contrast in the ways Huck is treated by adults, and all have an affect on him.
Mark Twain is a one of the famous American author who set a milestone in American literature history. He used a humor and ironic elements in his book to portray the lesson to his readers. Also, he liked to satirize the social system and morality to educate the people. Therefore, in his three famous works, The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn, The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, The Mysterious Stranger, he satirized the human’s selfishness, evilness, and greediness.
Before any external forces unleash their influence, a person is born into this world with a clean slate untouched by the prevailing attitudes that shape modern society. In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the character Huck is a boy who has grown up wild and for the most part free from the rules that govern the society in which he lives. Due to the unfortunate circumstances of an absent mother and a drunkard father, Huck has had the task of raising himself which has contributed to the development of his own moral code. Although there is plenty of violence and action abound in the novel, there is equal excitement to be had in the moral choices Huck encounters along his journey due to the potential danger in which his decisions consistently place him. In his novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain creates suspenseful and dramatic instances by emphasizing the internal moral struggle and danger sprung from the difficult choices his main character is forced to make.
Baym, Nina et al. Ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter 8th ed. New York:
This world has become immersed in online media from socializing on networking sites to seeking information on search engines. People of all ages have become reliant on online media, but the most engaged users are the younger, more easily impacted generations. Although there are many positive uses for online media, there are many negative uses as well. Unfortunately, it is all too easy for these negative effects to impede upon the perceptions of adolescents. Some countries have been trying to reduce this effect by expelling the inappropriate content of online media ("Influence on Children Media...”). However, in the United States, children are thrown in the waves, expected to stay afloat in this massive sea, but many are being dragged under the surface by the nefarious temptations media creates. Content that is not appropriate for the young, growing minds of children are easily accessible; a myriad of devices may be used to access this material, all at the click of a button. Without adult content filters on online media, adolescents of various ages are exposed to dangerous conceptions. A world of pornography, violence, and public humiliation lay in the user’s fingertips.
A novel structured on the theme of morality, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain focuses on Huck Finn’s multifaceted growing up process. Huck, through his escapades and misfortunes is obliged to endure the agonizing process from childhood to adulthood where he attains self-knowledge and discovers his own identity. Throughout the journey down the Mississippi River, Jim, Ms. Watson’s runaway slave, accompanies Huck, and is later joined by two con men. It is during this journey that a great moral crisis in Huck’s life occurs where he must make a painful decision as to whether he is going to give Jim up to the slave hunters or notify Ms. Watson about Jim’s whereabouts and assist him to remain a free man. This is the turning point in his character where through deep introspection, he learned to think and reason morally for himself. He comes to his own conclusions, unaffected by the accepted, and often hypocritical, perceptions of Southern culture. Huck also deciphers the truth in the face of lies held by the antagonistic society with its evil nature.