Huck Finn
Since the beginning of time people have been living on their own. They have been relying on themselves to survive for centuries. In many books the characters also must rely on themselves, as Huck Finn does in Mark Twain’s book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Huck Finn is a book about a boy growing up , and his flight down the Mississippi River. Through his actions and thoughts Huck is able to survive the dangers of the river and in doing so develops self reliance and independence as well as non-conformity to what is acceptable to society.
Huck Finn is definitely a non-conformist in the truest sense of the word. Non-conformity means to go against what all other people think and do. In the book Huck chooses not to go to school,. and therefore it makes him a non-conformist because everyone else goes to school. Another example of non-conformity that Huck shows is running away with Jim. No one ever would think about running away with a black man. It is absurd ,because it is going against the rest of society and what they believed about slavery. Huck’s actions definitely makes him a non-conformist. A third example of non-conformity in Huck is not wanting to be civilized. Huck says,”Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can’t stand it. I been there before.” (294) This quote shows that Huck doesn’t like to be civilized like the rest of society making him an outcast and non-conformist.
Huck Finn is a very self-reliant person and he shows it in his thoughts and actions throughout the book. Self reliance is to use your mind on your own to be able to do things. Just as Emerson said, “A weed is a plant with wise virtues which have not yet been discovered.” Huck throughout the book is a boy searching for himself. Huck is self reliant because he does not know what he wants but through testing situations he discovers what he likes. Huck tries school but realizes it isn’t for him. He is self reliant because he is able to make choices on his own without any help.. Another example of self reliance in Huck is his ability to use what ever means he can, to get out of tight situations. Throughout the book Huck uses elaborate tales and lies to help him get through life.
In the century where African-Americans had no rights and were highly discriminated, two men set out to make a new lifestyle for each other. Those two men where Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X. Frederick Douglass was a slave when he began to learn to read. Malcolm X was in prison when he began to learn how to read, he was in prison because he was an activist civil right. Both of this men have a great influence to the changes made for African-American rights. Both of this men have similarities and differences. Some of the similarities are why they wanted to learn, and their background. The differences are in the way that they learned to read and write and at what time they learned to read and write. Although both men have similarities they
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “ The Scarlet Letter’’ is a classical story about sin, punishment and revenge. It all began with a young woman named Hester Prynne who has committed adultery, and gave birth to a child in a Puritan society. Through the eyes of the puritans Hester has gone against their religious ways. Hester must now wear the symbol of the letter “A” on her clothing for the rest of her life as act of shame. Hester Prynne faces a long journey ahead and her strength enables her to continue on.
The portrayal of Hester Prynne in the novel, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, has led to many different opinionated views. Many debate whether or not Hester Prynne should be portrayed in an angelic or sinful light. The author and critic, D.H. Lawrence, focuses on Hester’s sin itself, and focuses on having the reader view an alternate perspective of Hester, seeing her not as the victim, but as the criminal, as she should be viewed based on traditional Puritan values. Lawrence achieves the perspective that Hester should be viewed in a sinful light through his rhythmic and fluid syntax, negative and hateful diction, as well as his sarcastic and critical tone.
This story started out sometime in the mid-1800s in the small town of Hannibal, Missouri. A few months earlier Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn discovered a chest full of gold. The two adventurous boys split the twelve-thousand dollars, and Judge Thatcher was keeping their money safe in a trust. In the meantime, Widow Douglas and her sister, Miss Watson, realizing Huck's unsophisticated ways, took him into their home to try to "sivilize" him. Huck learned to read and write and even acquired some religion, but he didn't like it too much that Miss Watson continually tried to vanquish his smoking and swearing.
Despite Hester never fitting the description of what a Puritan actually stands for, she emerges and transforms into a respected young woman of society during her revolution. Even though Hester’s humanity degrades itself based on her imprudent actions that resisted Puritan society, the scarlet “A” transforms her rebellion. Hester creates her own symbol for herself rather than one that masks her all along. In writing the Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne highlights the importance of being a nonconformist. Evidently, through the character of Hester Prynne, self-awareness is key in order to achieve happiness. To repress defining characteristics of a human being is to ultimately destroy their individuality.
... pillar of morality and righteousness within her community, in strength and becomes a source of support to him in his weakest moments. Lastly, Hester’s transformation from sinner to a symbol of strength is realized after her return to Boston “Women, more especially, in the continually recurring trials of the wounded, wasted, wronged, misplaced, or erring of sinful passion… came to Hester’s cottage, demanding why they were so wretched, and what the remedy!” (234) At last near the end of her life Hester Prynne, while never fully able to wash herself clean of her sin, has regained a place in her community as a counselor to other women due to of her ability to empathize with their situation and serve as an example of unwavering strength in the face of suffering and hardship.
Much like how society influences views on the novel, society influences huck throughout the novel. The timezone of the book is before the American Civil War. The way of life was based on slaves in the south, and the start of Industrial Revolution in the north. The country had just started to split between free slave states and slave states. The class system much like today was based off of material possessions. It went rich, middle class, poor working class, poor white trash, and slaves . Huck’s father was in the poor white trash area. Who was racist against the african americans because they were going to pass him in social class. Such as “ ‘I ain’t never in my life been beholding to no nigger’ says finn” (Clinch 37). As far as Pap was concerned the african americans had no right to take the power he had away. Here is the world Huck lives in. He has influences from his father, and from his adopted parents Miss Watson and Widow Douglas. Huck was satisfied with what he has, and does not want to reform the way Miss Watson and Widow Douglas wants him to. They want Huck to be proper and have a high society life. As well as to be proper was to be well educated and have fancy material possessions. “ I got into my old rags and my sugar-hogshead ag...
...nce. She could have stayed in a place where no one knew of her sin, but she had transformed into an independent woman who decided for herself what she did with her life. Hester’s sin proved to be a lot more life changing than she bargained for. Her whole life was turned upside down, from a new child, to social banishment. Hester couldn’t live how she once did, speak to those she once knew, or act the way she once did. However strenuous life was, Hester still prevailed in a society controlled by sin. Hawthorne states, “Such helpfulness was found in her- so much power to do and power to sympathize- that many people refused to interpret the scarlet ‘A’ by its original signification. They said that it meant ‘Able’; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength” (152).
In the book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck rejects "sivilized" life. He dreads the rules and conformities of society such as religion, school, and anything else that will eventually make him civilized. He feels cramped in his new surroundings at the Widow Douglas's house. He would rather be in his old rags and sugar-hogshead because he was free and satisfied. He felt out of place when he tried being "sivilized" because he grew up fending for himself and to him it felt really lonely. Huck Finn grew up living in the woods and pretty much raised himself because his pap was a drunk. He never had a civilized lifestyle and he believed that his way of living was good enough for him. He was free to do what ever he liked and that is how he learned to live. He did not believe in school because all you need to know to live is not found in a book that you read at school. He believed that you learned by living out in the wild. Huck would rather be an individual than conform to society. Huck would rather follow his heart then his head and because of this Huck is ruled as a bad person because in society your suppose to use your head. Huck is being penalized for his beliefs and he does not want to be apart of a lifestyle that does not support his ways. For instance his choice not to turn in Jim shows that Huck understands why Jim is escaping. Huck sees Jim as a friend not as a slave and so he truly is able to see that society's way of treaty Jim is wrong. Huck is portrayed as a boy who sees life at face value and not by the set "standards" of the "sivilized" society. The rejection of the "sivilized" lifestyles shows that Huck does not agree with it rules. Because of this, he is able to see life from different perspectives. He can sympathize with all the class in society. He learns to figure out what is morally correct and wrong. Through out his journey down the river, Huck is able to learn more about himself and others.
Douglass and Malcolm X shared similarities in having an ambition to achieve how to properly read and write, they were self taught, and made use of their circumstance no matter the difficulty. Douglass and Malcolm X were different throughout their educational background, circumstances,and slightly different ways of educating themselves. Douglass was a slave with no educational background who wanted to learn how to read and write knowing that it was better opportunities that were being held from him while being a slave. He took risk and every opportunity he could take , “ I was compelled to resort to various stratagems” (Douglass 100). With his circumstances as a slave he had to keep his reading and writing on low key due to the possible consequences of being caught with learning materials. Malcolm X was a criminal with some educational background. He had a desire to express his thoughts and knowledge but was held back by his eighth grade education and imprisonment at that moment. With this obstacle, he wanted to be able to speak properly and to share his thoughts in a proper letter to the great Mr. Elijah Muhammad, “How could I sound writing in slang,...say[ing] it, something such as, ‘Look, daddy, let me pull your coat about a cat, Elijah Muhammad-’ ” (Malcolm X
Hester Prynne, the central character in the Scarlet Letter, realizes and accepts the consequences of the adulterous act she committed against her husband, Roger Chillingworth, as Hawthorne shows in this quotation. Hester, throughout the book, excludes and humbles herself because of her crime, rather than simply running away. At the same time, she advertises her sin through the brilliantly embroidered “A” and through her daughter, Pearl, born out of this sin. Hester realizes that she indeed sinned in committing adultery, and, being the strong individual that she is, accepts the consequences of her actions.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, a female protagonist named Hester Prynne is subjected to public humiliation and alienation from the Puritan society because she committed adultery. This “sinful” act is further enhanced when her husband, Roger Chillingworth, comes to Boston, and Hester is forced to keep the secret identities of her lover, Arthur Dimmesdale, and her husband concealed from the community. Over the course of her seven-year journey, she becomes more independent, more free, and a model of feministic power to the Freudian society that had once marked her bosom with the letter “A” to shame her. Hawthorne depicts the contrasting views of the patriarchal Puritan society, which is characterized by the town and Dimmesdale against
In Nathanial Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the reader meets the character Hester Prynne who as the novel progresses, one notices the changes in her character are very dramatic. The changes are both physical and in her mannerism’s. There are many significant events which took place before the start of the novel and during the novel. Some of these events that lead to this dramatic change include the affect of wearing the scarlet letter, the secrets which she keeps, and her daughter Pearl’s evil characteristics. By these events, Hester Prynne’s image is transformed throughout the time of the story.
The portrayal of Hester Prynne in the novel, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, has been highly criticized, and many debate upon the angelic or sinful light that Hester Prynne represents. The author and critic, D.H. Lawrence, focuses on Hester’s sin in his critical essay, where Lawrence targets her, not as the victim, but as an ultimate sinner as she should be viewed, based on traditional Puritan values. Lawrence achieves his purpose that Hester should be viewed in a sinful light through his bullet-like syntax, negative and hateful diction, and his critical and disapproving tone.
All things considered, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, suggests that people are subject to various enslavements and attempt to pursue freedom from these enslavements. The reason I selected this theme as the most important is due to its real world application. This theme is relevant to real life due to the fact that numerous people are deprived of freedom and are attempting to obtain the freedom that they desire. People throughout history and even today seek their freedom. In this novel, one of the freedoms sought after was the end to racial discrimination, this was achieved in the 1960s by the Civil Rights Movement and famous American hero’s we now admire such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr..