Brady Campbell Psychoanalysis of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 3/10/14 Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a book of pairs: Aunt Sally and Uncle Silas; Miss Watson and the Widow Douglas; the Widow Douglas and Judge Thatcher; the King and the Duke; Huck and Tom Sawyer; Huck and Jim. All of whom have been critically analyzed again and again. However, Huck and Mary Jane Wilks receive very little critical attention. Regardless of the minimal attention this pair receives, it is undisputedly an important one. It is this relationship which helps explain the inconsistent actions of Huck. As he continually demonstrates that, despite his numerous mature actions, he is still merely a young boy searching for his place in the world. Robert Coles, in The Moral Life of Children, hypothesizes that the ego ideal is the primary foundation from which ones moral behavior is created; that the ego develops from a person’s interactions with their mother. As Cole states, “the ego ideal represents an effort on the part of the child to regain the kind of self-love once enjoyed so freely.”1 Huck’s evidential lack of a true mother explains why he has such trouble deciding how to act in society. Therefore, he often shows signs of maturity being undermined by childish acts. As noted by Christopher Lasch, “separation from the mother shatters self-esteem because it forces the child to confront his weakness and dependency.”2 In other words, motherless children should resultantly have a much harder time developing morally. Huck Finn is a motherless child who has not yet developed a truly mature sense of reality. Huck’s participation in Tom Sawyers multitudinous number of stories is evidentiary to his undeveloped cognition. It would be an oversi... ... middle of paper ... ...y or do “right” and return him to slavery reaches its pinnacle. Conclusively, his decision to help free Jim is most likely a result of Mary Jane’s impact on his moral character. As a direct result of Mary Jane, Huck seems to develop an ego ideal which leads him to mature action (i.e. “freeing” Jim from slavery). However, his seemingly abrupt disregard to his newly found maturity is often criticized. Many even blatantly disrespect Twain by claiming that Huck’s reversion is due to Twain setting down the novel and then picking it up again. But in truth, Huck’s reversion is due to his limited time with Mary Jane. For he simply was not exposed to a mother figure long enough for permanent change. Thus, Twain could not have been true to Huck if he did not allow him to struggle against mature action. Even though, that’s what his subconscious was grasping for the whole time.
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.
Mark Twain, the author of Huckleberry Finn, has written a story that all will enjoy. Huck is a young boy with not much love in his life, his mother died when he was very young, and he had drunk for a father. Huck lives with the widow and she tried to raise him right. While at the widow's, Huck went to school and learned to read and write. The widow also tried to civilize him. She would buy him nice clothes, and make him do his homework.
As it turns out life is not as easy as everyone makes it out to be, and for the most part human beings are particularly pessimistic people living in a constant state of fear. In the novels, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain, and “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin, the main characters,Huckleberry Finn and Edna Pontellier, of either novel are absorbed in their own respective fears, which coincidentally are manifested into feelings of isolation, confusion, and rebellion to the point that they go through a series of dramatically, life-altering psychological change. They have experienced unfortunate tragedies at crucial moments in their lives rendering in them an insatiable devotion to searching for identity, or meaning in life. They
At the beginning of Huck’s moral journey, Huck is no more than a young boy just starting to develop his understanding of what is right and what is wrong. Huck has grown up under the conflicting influences of his abusive, drunk father, Pap, and his guardian, Widow Douglas. The Widow tries her best to educate and civilize Huck, whereas Huck’s father tries to drag Huck down and feels that a son shouldn’t be better than a father. Up to this point in Huck’s life, Huck has never had to think about what is right or wrong; he was always told by the Widow or Pap. Huck’s moral journey begins when Huck breaks free from the influences of the Widow and Pap, and is finally able to begin to decide for himself what is right and wrong as well as to develop his own moral conscience.
Mark Twain’s masterpiece The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn through much criticism and denunciation has become a well-respected novel. Through the eyes of a thirteen-year-old boy, Huckleberry Finn, Twain illustrates the controversy of racism and slavery during the aftermath of the Civil War. Since Huck is an adolescent, he is vulnerable and greatly influenced by the adults he meets during his coming of age. His expedition down the Mississippi steers him into the lives of a diverse group of inhabitants who have conflicting morals. Though he lacks valid morals, Huck demonstrates the potential of humanity as a pensive, sensitive individual rather than conforming to a repressive society. In these modes, the novel places Jim and Huck on pedestals where their views on morality, learning, and society are compared.
This quote shows how much he cares about his family and what he would do for them. He even acts as a surrogate father to a white child and during this time period that is unheard of till Jim steps up. Where some people would say Jim wants to become free just like anyone in his situation, some contradict and say he holds bigger things to worry about and more than just his freedom is at stake. The doubters who say that Jim wants freedom only do not understand the longing of family and sadness Jim has. Jim feels that the only way to get retribution and the love of his family again was to be free and the only way that would have happens was if Jim was freed. Jim’s family and close friends show how much his life revolves around them. Even when his family and friends are around, he stays loyal like when Huck was at the Sheperdsons Jim does not leave, but instead stays in the swamp biding his time instead of running to freedom. This shows just how much Jim wants freedom, as well as the freedom of others.
As a result, Twain utilizes Huck to depict an evolving character in the novel. This is made prominent by Huck’s changes in morals against racism and maturity by being able to understand what is right and what is wrong. Which is displayed through the experiences that Huck goes through in the novel. Just as a child gets older and starts to break away from the environment that was given to him and the morals bestowed upon him. When the child begins to create it’s own morals and starts to realize what is right from wrong the child is no longer a child it becomes a mature adult of it’s own in a society. Paralleling to Huck going from an immature child to a mature young adult in the end of the novel.
Ransomed? Whats that???.. it means that we keep them till they're dead (10). This dialogue reflects Twains witty personality. Mark Twain, a great American novelist, exploits his humor, realism, and satire in his unique writing style in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain, born in 1835, wrote numerous books throughout his lifetime. Many of his books include humor; they also contain deep cynicism and satire on society. Mark Twain, the author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, exemplifies his aspects of writing humor, realism, and satire throughout the characters and situations in his great American novel.
In the beginning of the story, Huck seems to feel at ease to be with his father instead of being with the widow, "It was kind of lazy and jolly, lying off comfortable all day, smoking and fishing, and no book nor study." (Twain 24) Yet, Hucks' father is not exactly the father figure a child would want. He's an abusive, "But by and by Pap got to handy with his hick'ry and I couldn't stand it. I was all over welts." (Twain 24) and he's not thoughtful of Huck. Once Huck figures his father is crazed and is an alcoholic, Twain, through Huck's eyes, gives readers a feeling of fear towards Huck's father. "There was Pap looking wild, and skipping around every which way and yelling about snakes. He said they was crawling up his legs." (Twain 28) "Then he went down on all fours and crawled off, begging them to let him alone, and he rolled imself up in his blanket and wallowed in under the old pine table, still a-begging; and then he went to crying." (29)
He was even disappointed when all the gang did was cause trouble at a Sunday school meeting. Later on in the novel, Huck is also faced with a moral dilemma when he comes across Jim, Miss Watson’s runaway slave. As they travel down the river, Huck mentions, “I began to get it through my head that he was most free—and who was to blame for it? Why, me. I couldn’t get that out of my conscience, no how, no way.
“The judge and the widow went to law to get the court to take me away from [Pap] and let one of them be my guardian; but it was a new judge that had just come, and he didn’t know the old man; so he said courts mustn’t interfere and separate families if they could help it,” (21). The new judge did not take the time to know or assess Pap, so he figured that Huck better stay with his natural born guardian. Huck is then forced to stay with his drunk and abusive father who imprisons him in their cabin. Because Huck can no longer rely on other adults for help, Huck decides to fake his own death in order to escape. The idea that he has lost faith in adults depicts a picture that is not very optimistic towards the American people. Children are supposed to look up to adults and let them be their guide as they come of age, so Huck is showing that sometimes adults dismiss matters so quickly that a child must take them into their own hands. Another example would be the family feud between the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons. The families do not exactly remember why they are quarrelling, but they do know that they have to fight because they have been battling each other for many years now. Twain, through Huck, is showing how absurd these family feuds are because they are rather pointless, especially if neither of the
...e to Miss Watson (224). Huck’s own morals replace the belief society gave him and convince him that turning in Jim would be wrong. As a result, he resolves that he will set Jim free again, and continues helping him.
Mark Twain achieves his purpose of describing the natural world in the passage, “Miss Watson she kept … Tom Sawyer waiting for me” (2-3), in the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The purpose of this passage was to show how the night reflects the loneliness in Huckleberry’s life by using imagery, diction, and tone.
Huck Finn learns from the actions of people around him, what kind of a person he is going to be. He is both part of the society and an outlier of society, and as such he is given the opportunity to make his own decisions about what is right and what is wrong. There are two main groups of characters that help Huck on his journey to moral maturation. The first group consists of Widow Douglas, Miss Watson, and the judge. They portray society and strict adherence to rules laid out by authority. The second group consists of Pap, the King, and the Duke. They represent outliers of society who have chosen to alienate themselves from civilized life and follow no rules. While these characters all extremely important in Huck’s moral development, perhaps the most significant character is Jim, who is both a fatherly figure to Huck as well as his parallel as far as limited power and desire to escape. Even though by the end of the novel, Huck still does not want to be a part of society, he has made a many choices for himself concerning morality. Because Huck is allowed to live a civilized life with the Widow Douglas, he is not alienated like his father, who effectively hates civilization because he cannot be a part of it. He is not treated like a total outsider and does not feel ignorant or left behind. On the other hand, because he does not start out being a true member of the society, he is able to think for himself and dismiss the rules authority figures say are correct. By the end of the novel, Huck is no longer a slave to the rules of authority, nor is he an ignorant outsider who looks out only for himself. This shows Huck’s moral and psychological development, rendering the description of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” as a picaresq...
“The situation of the orphan is truly the worst, you’re a child, powerless, with no protectors or guides. It’s the most vulnerable position you can be in, to see someone overcome those odds tells us something about the human spirit. They are often depicted as the kindest or most clever of characters.” Michelle Boisseau describes how important these types of characters are. In a Sunday Times article, she states that a lot of the stories and novels are considered to be apologues about orphans becoming the hero of the book. Huck’s story is quite like this subject. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel written by Mark Twain, it’s about a boy named Huckleberry Finn, who sets out on a journey to discover his own truth about living free in nature, rather than becoming civilized in a racist and ignorant society. Mark Twain implies that Huck Finn resembles more of what he believes is right rather than what society surmises from him. Twain reveals this through the themes of satire, racism, and hero’s journey, which he uses constantly through out the book.