Resumo de Huckleberry Finn - Critical Essay

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the
noblest, greatest, and most adventuresome novel in the world. Mark
Twain definitely has a style of his own that depicts a realism in the
novel about the society back in antebellum America. Mark Twain
definitely characterizes the protagonist, the intelligent and
sympathetic Huckleberry Finn, by the direct candid manner of writing as
though through the actual voice of Huck. Every word, thought, and
speech by Huck is so precise it reflects even the racism and black
stereotypes typical of the era. And this has lead to many conflicting
battles by various readers since the first print of the novel, though
inspiring some. Says John H. Wallace, outraged by Twain?s constant use
of the degrading and white supremacist word ?nigger?, " of Huckleberry Finn is> the most grotesque example of racist trash ever
written" (Mark Twain Journal by Thadious Davis, Fall 1984 and Spring
1985). Yet, again to counter that is a quote by the great American
writer Ernest Hemingway, "All modern American literature comes from one
book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn?it?s the best book we?ve
had?There has been nothing as good since" (The Green Hills of Africa
22). The controversy behind the novel has been and
will always remain the crux of any readers is still truly racism. Twain
surely does use the word ?nigger? often, both as a referral to the
slave Jim and any African-American that Huck comes across and as the
epitome of insult and inferiority. However, the reader must also not
fail to recognize that this style of racism, this malicious treatment
of African-Americans, this degrading attitude towards them is all
stylized of the pre-Civil War tradition. Racism is only mentioned in
the novel as an object of natural course and a precision to the actual
views of the setting then. Huckleberry Finn still stands as a powerful
portrayal of experience through the newfound eyes of an innocent boy.
Huck only says and treats the African-American culture accordingly with
the society that he was raised in. To say anything different would
truly be out of place and setting of the era. Twain?s literary style in
capturing the novel, Huck?s casual attitude and candid position, and
Jim?s undoubted acceptance of the oppression by the names all signifies
this.

Twain?s literary style is that of a natural southern dialect
intermingled with other dialects to represent the various attitudes of
the Mississippian region; he does not intend to outrightly suggest
Negro inferiority. Had Twain intended racial bigotry, he would not
write the about the sympathies of Huck towards Jim. This can easily be
seen in that Huck does, in various points in the book, realize Jim to
be a white equivalent at times. Huck tells the reader, when he realizes
that Jim misses his own family and children, "I do believe he cared
just as much for his people as white folks does for their?n" (150). I
do believe that Twain?s literary style, that is, his informal language
through Huck, is more a captivation of thoughts as though in a
conversation than as an intended use of white supremacist inclination.
Any words that seem to degrade African-Americans is merely a freelance
use of Southern jargon and not deliberate. That is, Huck talks the way
he knows how and was taught according to the society then to stylize a
specific treatment at black slaves. However, his sympathies towards Jim
throughout the river odyssey has taught Huck to overcome certain
stereotypes, such as black stupidity and apathy, but not quite
thoroughly to rebel against societal prejudices. Huckleberry still
believes Jim to be irrelevant and pig-headed at times, as in their
exchange over the Biblical story of King Solomon and the French
language. Huck does not tell Jim but to the reader," If he got a notion
in his head once, there warn?t no getting it out again?I see it warn?t
no use wasting words ? you can?t learn a nigger to argue" (76-79).

Huckleberry is also a very important character to study to further
contemplate Twain?s literary style in that Huck is the main character
and the voice through which Twain conveys the images of the South. The
reader will notice that Huck acts based on his own morals. Despite the
Widow Douglas?s and Miss Watson?s attempt to "sivilize" Huck by
teaching, sheltering, and instructing him on how to behave, Huck?s
actions throughout the novel do not always reflect their teachings. The
protagonist has limited perspective and his outlook in life is honest,
containing no propagandist suggestions. Huck neither advocates slavery
nor does he protest against it. He sees slavery as a natural occurrence
in daily life and the inferior disposition of slavery to be of little
significance. Whenever a situation occurs that requires Huck to assist
Jim, Huck does so accordingly to his own moral standards. He may
agitate over the morality of helping a runaway nigger, as southern
society condemns the act, but his own love for Jim allows Huck to
accept his own "wickedness". "I come to being lost and going to
hell?and got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim
before me all the time? But somehow I couldn?t seem to strike no places
to harden me against him?how good he always was? I was the best friend
old Jim ever had in the world, and the only one he?s got now? I
steal Jim out of slavery again; and if I could think up anything worse,
I would do that, too?" (206).

Finally, Jim and many other African-American slaves seem to accept
their lesser positions as contended to "white folks". This is the most
critical junction that has earned Twain innumerable criticism and
caused such long discrepancies among the scholars of American heritage
literature. The oddest, most peculiar description in the novel after
Huck?s almost symbolic acceptance of Jim?s persona, Twain makes a pivot
that then mocks Jim?s buffoonery towards the end. After all that Huck
and Jim has endured together, Huck seems to compromise it all simply to
please the childish and ridiculous ploys of tom Sawyer. Outrageous
proposals such as having rats, snakes, and spiders occupy the same
small "prison" Jim is in, that Jim water a plant with his tears until
it flowers, that Jim make engravings on stone to reveal his oppressed
imprisonment in the hut when Jim is living quite well, etc. All of
these preposterous acts might make the reader laugh aloud! Yet, they
serve a different meaning and belong to a wider course. For one,
Huckleberry extremely admires Tom Sawyer. The situation is not merely
targeting blacks and humiliating them, it is rather simplistic. Towards
the beginning of the novel, Huck specifically says, being proud but
humble about faking his death," I did wish tom Sawyer was there; I
knowed he would take an interest in this kind of business, and throw in
the fancy touches. Nobody could spread himself like Tom Sawyer in such
a thing as that" (33). Later and throughout the novel, anytime
Huckleberry managed to trick somebody, he would imagine Tom to be there
and more capable. Though the reader knows Huck is quite intelligent by
himself, seeing how he dupes so many people with his stories. Huck
continues this stark admiration of Tom even to the end when he says,
"He knowed how to do everything" (250). However, Huck does not
seem to possess a kind of jealousy towards Tom but still maintains the
innocence of simplicity. Try as Tom might, Huck is not swayed by his
"Spaniards and A-rabs", magicians, and genies. Claiming them, after
trying it himself by rubbing an old tin lamp and an iron ring, "was
only just one of Tom Sawyer?s lies" (16). This also suggests that Tom
plays on the ignorance of others. So when Tom makes plans to free Jim,
Tom is just bragging his knowledge and continuing his usual insulting
of others when they disagree or question him. He again plays o

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