The Powerful Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
When Samuel Langhorne Clemens first published his story, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, he was criticized severely. On top of that, the book was banned from libraries and schools alike. The book was thought to be a bad influence on children because it represents the breaking of the law as moral, it recommends disobedience and defiance on the part of young people, it portrays churchgoers as hypocritical, and the most admirable characters in the book habitually lie and steal and loaf (Johnson XII). In this day and time, though, the book has become required reading for many schools, and is found in almost every library in the country. Why has there been a change in attitude about the book? I believe that it was Twain's ideas on slavery, and his views on the "code of honor" of the South that made critics and readers alike come to love his book and see it for what it really was below the surface.
Twain was completely and utterly against slavery. He viewed it as immoral and wrong. In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain writes on two aspects of slavery that particularly bothered him. One is the legal concept of the slave as property, and the other is the endorsement and support of slavery on religious and moral grounds by the established church. Repeatedly in the novel, the reader is reminded of the cruel absurdity by which one human being pretends to own another, much as one would own a cow or a horse, and that this is done in the name of religion adds makes it even more perverse (Johnson 110). The idea of a slave as property is introduced immediately after Jim, one of the main characters and a slave, runs away. He speaks of himself as property: "...
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...m completely that it was a very foolish way of life.
Works Cited
Adams, Richard P., Unity and Coherence of Huckleberry Finn. Twentieth Century Interpretations of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Simpson, Claude M., ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1968.
Crowley, Donald J., ed. One Hundred Years of Huckleberry Finn: The Boy, His Book, and American Culture. Columbia: U of Missouri, 1985.
Johnson, Claudia Durst. Understanding Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents. Westport, CT: Greenwood P, 1996.
Poirier, Richard, Huck Finn and the Metaphors of Society. Twentieth Century Interpretations of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Simpson, Claude M., ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1968.
Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. (1884) Secaucus: Castle, 1987.
The fundamental weakness and contradictions of the world economy was the actual cause of the Great Depression. The international economy was in shambles because of the cost of war and the American economy was indirectly damaged by this; however, October 29, 1929 is the official beginning of the Great Depression because of the stock market crash of 1929. Paper fortunes had vanished but money was the foundation of American life. People usually took loans from banks so they could start businesses but because of the Depression, they took out loans so they would have e...
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.
There are several causes of the Great Depression which Michiel Horn touches on throughout his writings. The initial tool that he used to help understand the situation was to look at statistical data from that time. Through use of this data, a greater understanding of the physical hardships could be quantified and compared to present day. The reading begins with statistics about the shocking rate of unemployment. In 1933, at the height of the depression, the unemployment rate was between 19.3and 27 percent. The industrial activity in 1933 was only 57 percent of the average activity for the years 1925-29. The causes for the Great Depression were easy to see, but hard to fix. The problems included the inability of foreign countries to purchase surplus goods produced by other countries. Before the Great Depression, the British used this tactic to stabilize the market. Unfort...
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.
The Great Depression was a period, which seemed to go out of control. The crashing of the stock markets left most Canadians unemployed and in debt, prairie farmers suffered immensely with the inability to produce valuable crops, and the Canadian Government and World War II became influential factors in the ending of the Great Depression.
n the history of the United States The Great Depression was the most detrimental economic depression to ever happen. It lasted from 1929 to 1939. There were many things that caused the Great Depression. Historians and Economist believe the stock market crash was one of the first causes that lead to the Great Depression. The stock market had just reached record highs the summer of 1929, but had started to decline in September. On October 24th, the stock market plunged and five days later it crashed. Many people were in a panic. The value was lost by 12 percent and wiping out $14 billion of investments. With in only 2 more months, more than $40 billion dollars were lost by stockholders. The economy was destroyed and America entered into the
Great Depression was one of the most severe economic situation the world had ever seen. It all started during late 1929 and lasted till 1939. Although, the origin of depression was United Sattes but with US Economy being highly correlated with global economy, the ill efffects were seen in the whole world with high unemployment, low production and deflation. Overall it was the most severe depression ever faced by western industrialized world. Stock Market Crashes, Bank Failures and a lot more, left the governments ineffective and this lead the global economy to what we call today- ‘’Great Depression’’.(Rockoff). As for the cause and what lead to Great Depression, the issue is still in debate among eminent economists, but the crux provides evidence that the worst ever depression ever expereinced by Global Economy stemed from multiple causes which are as follows:
The Great Depression is often to be known for starting on October 1929 on the day the stock market crashed. In reality that was not the only thing that caused the Great Depression. Although this was a major contribution when the stock market crashed, banks foreclosed and it caused a major panic when people tried to get their money. People in America were not able to get their money because the banks didn’t have it. Many people believe that, “The crash, and its aftermath of unemployment, bank closures, bankruptcies, and homelessness, was caused by fundamental flaws in the prosperity of the 1920s.”(Shindo 295). When the crash happened industrial output began to decrease until it was the same amount of production in 1932 as it was in 1913. Gale stated that, “ By 1929 farmers’ earnings amounted to only one-third of the national average.’’(Gale 82). The Great Depression was a very devastating time in American history.
October 29th, 1929 marked the beginning of the Great Depression, a depression that forever changed the United States of America. The Stock Market collapse was unavoidable considering the lavish life style of the 1920’s. Some of the ominous signs leading up to the crash was that there was a high unemployment rate, automobile sales were down, and many farms were failing. Consumerism played a key role in the Stock Market Crash of 1929 because Americans speculated on the stocks hoping they would grow in their favor. They would invest in these stocks at a low rate which gave them a false sense of wealth causing them to invest in even more stocks at the same low rate. When they purchased these stocks at this low rate they never made enough money to pay it all back, therefore contributing to the crash of 1929. Also contributing to the crash was the over production of consumer goods. When companies began to mass produce goods they did not not need as many workers so they fired them. Even though there was an abundance of goods mass produced and at a cheap price because of that, so many people now had no jobs so the goods were not being purchased. Even though, from 1920 to 1929, consumerism and overproduction partially caused the Great Depression, the unequal distribution of wealth and income was the most significant catalyst.
...cantly, and investors began selling quickly. On the following Tuesday and Wednesday the prices began to stabilize. Then on Thursday, October 24, stock prices fell hard and even the biggest investors gave up on the market and sold their stocks. On the following Tuesday the stock market fell and the market was not able to get back up. This day is forever known as “Black Tuesday,” and the official start of the Great Depression.
Economic historians usually consider that the start of depression is the sudden collapse of US stock markets on October 29, also known as Black Tuesday. And among the problems involved in assesing the causes of depression none is more intractable than the responsibility to be assigned to the stock market crash. The rise of mass unemployment is considered as a result of the crash, however the crash is not the sole event that caused the depression. The Wall Street Crash is usually seen as having the greatest impact on the events that followed and consequently is widely accepted as pointing the devastating economic circumstances that led to the Great Depression. True or not, the consequences were terrible for almost everybody. Most academic experts agree on one aspect of the crash: Billions of dollars of wealth vanished in one day, and this immediately depressed consumption.
5. Schultz, Stanley "Crashing Hopes, the great Depression" (1999) American History 102 July 30 2005
The Great Depression not only affected the United States but the world in general. In my estimation some the reasons for the depression was the combination of the greatly unequal distribution of wealth throughout the 1920’s and the debts not paid back from WWI.
"In other periods of depression, it has always been possible to see some things which were solid and upon which you could base hope... but as I look around about, I now see nothing to give ground to hope.” This great quote was made by former president, Coolidge. In the great depression people in cities and towns already lost too many jobs. Farmers struggles have already been happening since the 1920s, and farmers tried to do anything to save their farms. However, farmers may have been better off than city folk. The government tried to pitch in multiple times, but did not succeed as people hoped. After the great depression, people were all shaken up and scared. Also Hoover, was not very much liked during this time period either. The great depression was a terrible period, and many people often struggled to get by.
In the "Dawn of Affluence" J. Stevenson and C.Cook discuss the effect of the Great Depression on the world economy, in particular, the British economy. They start the account by contradicting the long held view of many, that the Depression was a time ."..of unrelieved economic disaster." Through-out their account, they point out many facts and figures that support their view, either neutral or positive growth figures, e.