LITERATURA NORTE-AMERICANA

HUCLEBERRY FINN DE MARK TWAIN

-1-
Olá!
In this class you have an opportunity to identify the main issues of The adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a well

known novel of Mark Twain written in 19th century. Also, a focus on the characters and details about this novel

will be given. Throughout Huckleberry Finn’s analysis, the historical context of that time will be shown in

contrast with the present scenario.

Objetivos

In this class you will:

1 – Have an overview of Huckleberry Finn;

2 - Analyze Mark Twain’s work and The Realism;

3 - Have an overview of the the character’s features and their symbolism.

1 Introduction
This class will give you an opportunity to have an overview of Huckleberry Finn, an important novel written by

Mark Twain, whose real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens.

Huckleberry Finn mainly focused on the institution of slavery and the South. It was written during the early

1880s, when the hopefulness of the post–Civil War years were finishing, and a political program designed to

reintegrate the defeated South into the Union as a slavery-free region began to fail.

Having said that, the story of Huckleberry Finn became a popular novel and also subject of intense controversy.

It was banned in Southern states because of its critical take on the South and the hypocrisies of slavery.

In a nutshell, the historical context, in w hich Twain wrote the novel, made his style based on the realism

he wanted to create, and that makes the author different from modern authors, so to speak.

Samuel was born in the town of Florida, Missouri, in 1835. When he was four he moved to Hannibal, a town on

the Mississippi River, scenario of his two most famous novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884).

Twain began work on Huckleberry Finn, a sequel to Tom Sawyer, in an effort to capitalize on the popularity of

the earlier novel.

-2-
2 Mark Twain’s work: The Realism
Twain's style is based on colloquial American speech full of realism and definitely gave American writers a new

way of expressing their national voice. In fact, he represented life in a realistic way. However, his realism was not

simply a literary technique but a way of writing the truth and criticizing old conventions. In other words, the

themes of realism can be seen in most of Twain’s work, including both short stories and novels. One of the most

studied examples is The adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

-3-
Twain’s work exploits different aspects of human nature, and the different from the Romanticism, which paints

humans as heroes who overcome anything. Twain critically views humans as naturally ‘sinful’ people capable of

good and bad things equally. In works such as Huck Finn, he values innocents and criticizes the disillusion that

may come with adulthood. For all these features, Twain’s writing clearly contributes to the movement of

Realism.

The author uses in the character Huck Finn in the novel, a 13-year-old poor boy to live a realistic adventure.

Huck decides to follow his own ideas and help a negro slave escape to freedom, even being aware he was

breaking the law.

-4-
Realism in American Literature happened mainly from 1865 to 1900. That was a time of great confusion and

devastation due to the end of Civil War. Consequently, reconstruction, urbanization, industrialization and

technological advances were also present on the American’s mind.

3 The Huckleberry Finn’s characters: features and their

symbolism
The book shows the adventure of Huck who escaped from home and was kidnapped by his father. He began his

adventure with the also escaped slave Jim. The novel questioned both the morality of white southerners as well

as the institution of slavery. While travelling with Jim, Huck was unsure about the idea of helping Jim to reach

freedom.

Huckleberry Finn has inspired many literary interpretations. The escaped slave, Jim, represents a father figure

for Huck. While helping Jim, Huck grows morally beyond the bounds of his slave-owning society. It is Jim's

adventures that make Huck develop complexities of human nature and gives him moral courage. The novel also

dramatizes Twain's ideal of the harmonious community.

-5-
In order to have a general idea about the main characters, and better figure out their features and symbolism in

the novel, there will be a brief list of them:

The narrator and protagonist. Son of the local drunk of St. Petersburg, Missouri, a town on

the Mississippi River. Huck is thoughtful, intelligent (formally uneducated), and eager to
Huckleberry
come to his own conclusions about important matters, mainly the ones which contradicts
Finn
society’s rules. However, Huck is still a boy, and is influenced by others, particularly by his

creative friend, Tom.

-6-
 One of Miss Watson’s household slaves. He is superstitious, sentimental, practical, and

intelligent. He is also the most mature character and very selfless. His feelings about
Jim
family, and his friendship with both Huck and Tom demonstrate to Huck that humanity

has nothing to do with race. Jim is usually a victim of mockery due to his race.

Two rich sisters who lived together in a large house in St. Petersburg and who adopted
Widow
Huck. Miss Watson is extremely severe and is the strongest representative of the
Douglas
hypocritical religious and ethical values Twain criticizes in the novel. The Widow Douglas
and Miss
is kinder and more patient with Huck. When Huck acts in a wrong way, contrary to
Watson
societal expectations, he is afraid of disappointing the Widow Douglas.

Huck’s father, the town drunk. Pap has disgusting, ghostlike white skin and worn out

clothes. The illiterate Pap disapproves of Huck’s education and beats him frequently. Pap
Pap
represents both the general debasement of white society and the failure of family

structures in the novel.

Saiba mais
The adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.
The adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Disponível aqui (http://www.gutenberg.
org/files/76/76-h/76-h.htm).

Próximos passos
Na próxima aula, você estudará sobre os seguintes assuntos:
• A tradição do romance;
• A narrativa simbólica de Herman Melville em Moby Dick;
• A obra de Nathaniel Hawthorne para a tradição do romance.

-7-
CONCLUSÃO
Nesta aula, você:
• Reconheceu os temas principais da obra Huckleberry Finn;
• Analisou a obra de Mark Twain e seu estilo literário;
• Analisou a obra Huckleberry Finn, seus principais personagens e seu simbolismo.

Referências
BRADLEY, S. et al. The American tradition in Literature. 3rd ed. New York: Grosset& Dunlap, 1967.

-8-