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 ...
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...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.
Martin Guerre from Artigat had left his wife Bertrande and their son Sanxi and their inheritance to seek adventure in Spain as a mercenary. After leaving his family for nearly nine years a man claiming to be Martin returns to the village to claim his wife and land. Bertrande accepts the man as being her husband and they have another child together. Martin has a dispute with Pierre over the management of the family estate and ownership of the rents from Matins land during his absence. During their dispute a passing by veteran had claimed that "Martin" is not who he claims to be. He said that Martin had lost a leg at the battle of Saint Quentin and that he really was Arnaud de Tihl from a neighboring village. Both Martin and Arnaud had soldered together in the war, where they had became friends. The Guerre family was very divided over the story. Pierre and his sons-in-law believe the soldier's story, and Pierres daughters and Bertrande continue to believe "Martin" is Martin. As their ca...
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.
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.
Even seeming “facts” about the start of the Harlem riot need to be questioned. The alarming part is that they all seem to come from what should be fairly reputable sources. The Facts On File contains numbers quite different than those listed in The Harlem Riot Of 1943. Facts On File states that there were “5 dead, 500 injured and 500 jailed in 12 hours…” (“Facts” 242). The cost of all of the rioting also differs with “Facts” saying the damages were closer to five million dollars. These glaring differences could have occurred for varying reasons from publication dates to possible confused exaggerations.
On August 1, 1943, Harlem ?Boiled over,? according to NAACP leader Walter White (NY Times, 17). The start of the event was attributed to one, ?Private Robert Bandy, the 26-year-old Negro soldier?who is charged with attacking a white policeman who was arresting a Negro woman in a Harlem hotel? (New York Times, 17). Rumors soon spread that police officers had killed a black soldier who was trying to protect his mother. This caused a momentous outburst of rioting destroying much of Harlem. The statistics of the riot vary depending on the source, but around 500 persons were injured, five dead, 400-500 arrested, and property damage estimated at 500,000 to a million dollars. ...
... of downloads of the song being sold means it popular,right?Well Johns Brown Body song was like that.There was obvioulsy less people in the world back then but this song would have been a hit song.Thousands of papers of sheet music were sold.In this song the heroic actions of John Brown are told.The song begins talking about his body in the grave then goes on to talk about John Brown being a siolder.This song is an example of the legacy John Brown left behind and how imprtant his actions were to people. For many Northern people John Brown was rightious to try to help end the battle of slavery. Also on his death day, Brown was celabrated not only by free people but slaves.
The colours of France were raised on the British ships as they passed through the dangerous point. When the pilots rowed out to help guide the ships, they were captured. These men were given the choice of helping the British or being hung.
The first raid that John Brown led took place on the night of May 24th, 1856, at Pottawatomie Creek. It consisted of seven other men besides him; it resulted of a killing of five men. These five men were brutally hacked to death with sabers, and these men supported slavery but weren’t even slave owners themselves. And after that they even ran off with stolen goods. On October 16th, 1859 Brown led 21 men on another raid on Harpers Ferry. Brown had expected to steal weapons from the U.S.’ arsenal and once he had the weapons he thought the slaves would join him in a revolt to end slavery right then and there but even though Brown was fighting for them, the slaves did not join him because after seeing him in action, they felt he was too dangerous to associate with.
Clemens, Samuel. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter, et al. 2nd ed. Vol. 2. Lexington: Heath, 1994. 236-419.
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.
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.
Online predators, pornography, drug trafficking, piracy, and hate sites are just some of the dangers that a child can face on the internet. The article “The Undercover Parent” by Harlan Coben states that parents should use spyware to monitor their children. Coben argues that parents should be able to know what is in their children’s lives. he believes that spyware can prevent children from being targeted by internet predators on social networking sites and even prevent children from being cyber bullied. I agree with Coben’s claim that parents should consider using spyware as a protection for their teens online. There are many possible dangers facing children on the internet and it is essential that parents install spyware.
Kids now want to be more independent and have more freedom which might scare some if not most parents. A lot of parents look at the internet as a dangerous tool and not a tool where their kids can have some freedom. Although parents need to realize that they can’t protect their kids from all ...
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.