Themes in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Themes and Symbols in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
A book can be popular for a few months or a few years just because it has a good story or because it deals with a currently interesting subject. But a book will not be considered a GREAT book 100 years or more after its publication unless it has the qualities that readers consider timely even many generations after it has been printed. Mark Twain’s Adventure of Huckleberry Finn is one of those books because it deals with timeless themes such as the ones mentioned below.
Racial Conflict
Since this is the most obvious one to us today, let’s examine it first. Times of great conflict and great tragedy in the history of a nation always spawn great works of art. The middle of the 19th century in America was one of those times because of the great division over slavery and the way local and state governments would decide this and other issues. So how does Twain deal with this theme in the book, and where does it show up? Twain dealt with the slavery issue itself through two uneducated young men, Jim and Huck, the black and the white. Neither of the two has had reliable information from his community; Jim’s community is the white power structure over him, and Huck’s is the white political establishment and the ignorance of his father and the women who try to civilize him. Moreover, they both have come to somewhat distrust the religious community; the Southern religious leaders were upholding slavery as acceptable and even right in the eyes of God, so Jim tries to be submissive to it; likewise, Huck tries to be ‘good’ as defined by the women in his life, but all that he can envision as good, even down to who would make it to heaven, was spurned by such good church ladies as the Widow.
Therefore, without the usual influences that guide people in their decisions, they learn about race through their friendship. At first Huck enjoys tormenting Jim with snake skins and makes fun of Jim’s superstitions, but as the story progresses, Huck grows in his understanding and appreciation of Jim as a grown man with deep family connections and great courage. Jim, who is dependent on Huck to help prevent his recapture, is patient with Huck and also learns that a white person can make a courageous choice as a result of his love of a black person.
Remember that, even though most people in the country at that time (at least outside the deep South) disapproved of slavery, they still maintained rigid social divisions between the races. Therefore, Twain goes beyond just the slavery issue itself and suggests that we really all are the same inside our skins and can do more than JUST “get along,” but can be really close to each other, just as close as to someone of a different race as we are to one of our own race. For this, Twain is way ahead of his time, and his novel begins the process of attacking prejudice long ingrained in American culture.
Distrust of Religion
The early part of the 19th century saw increasing changes in how individuals viewed religion and its role in their lives. Most people still went to church, but some people were no longer so sure that their religious leaders had all the answers. Since Jim and Huck have both been disappointed by the popular wisdom of the church establishment, they must depend on their innate sense of what is right, an ethical system as opposed to a particular Christian one. Jim cannot accept any life, right or wrong, without his wife and children, so running away is his only option. Huck, likewise, decides that no law of man or God’s is right if it separates Jim from his family and keeps his friend enslaved. So Huck’s moral choice of helping him defies the big social institution of the church. We know, from the distance of 150 years, that Huck did what Jesus would have done even though the church would not have thought so.
Twain examines this theme of distrust of religion by revealing the very narrow and literal biblical interpretations of the widow, such as making Huck get in a closet to pray. Twain also shows how the culture decides what is godly; since Huck’s church influences have taught that it is a sin to help a freed slave, he realizes that he may have to face hell itself by helping Jim.
Education
Just about all the characters in the novel are uneducated, with the exception of Judge Thatcher maybe. Such was the profile of most Americans at that time; education was usually limited to a few years of elementary school, if that. At least Aunt Polly and the widow try to keep Huck in school, but Pap does not trust education and repeatedly punishes Huck for trying to be more educated, uppity, than his father; so Pap remains blissfully ignorant. Once again Huck must rely on his powers of observation and his own reasoning, instead of book learning, and they serve him well. Maybe Twain is suggesting that we might all consider using our own brains, rather than believing everything we read in forwarded emails and see on television.
Romanticism vs. Realism
The literature of the 19th century abounded with romantic literature (see notes on realism), such as stories of ghosts and haunted mansions, books by women sentimentalists in which a good girl could be rewarded with marriage if she kept herself pure, books in which the good guys won and knights were noble, etc. Twain thought there was way too much of that sort of clap-trap and made fun of it through the character of Tom Sawyer in particular. Notice how Tom requires that the band of robbers have to perform certain acts to be in keeping with the rules of bandits in stories he had read. Later in the book, when he joins Huck in trying to free Jim, who has been locked up in a corn shed, he insists that they must dig a tunnel underneath the shed to free Jim. It takes three days and lots of sweat to dig that tunnel, when all they had to do was to break the lock on the door to let Jim out. But that would not have been what a true hero of a novel would have done, according to Tom.
Twain was an early proponent of “holding a mirror up to nature,” as the realistic writers would dictate.
SYMBOLISM
Several symbols emerge as another layer of the art in this novel, which has caused the novel to be so popular over the years. One of them is the RIVER. Notice that Huck goes and comes from the river several times and that he usually returns to the river when things go bad. In the absence of parents, the river provides Huck with food, sometimes clothes, and always understanding. The one thing he had to face was the death of his father, so the river provided a context for his death as his house/coffin floated down the river, so that Huck would at least know what happened to him. So the river then is like a parent, a parent that lets him go his own way, but that welcomes him back when he needs to come home.
Also, water is often a symbol of eternity in literature. Perhaps it is here. The Mississippi is constantly flowing to the great water beyond, first to the Gulf, then the Atlantic to be mixed with all the seas in the world, all the life on earth, recycled and sent back down. But between Hannibal and the Gulf are many dangers and trials and conflicts, just like life. Like a spiritual comforter, the river brings Huck and Jim a peaceful respite and ultimately carries them toward redemption.