The Uniting of Theme and Plot in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Uploaded by Admin on Jan 22, 1999
In Mark Twain's novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain develops the plot into Huck and Jim's adventures allowing him to weave in his criticism of society. The two main characters, Huck and Jim, both run from social injustice and both are distrustful of the civilization around them. Huck is considered an uneducated backwards boy, constantly under pressure to conform to the "humanized" surroundings of society. Jim a slave, is not even considered as a real person, but as property. As they run from civilization and are on the river, they ponder the social injustices forced upon them when they are on land.
These social injustices are even more evident when Huck and Jim have to make landfall, and this provides Twain with the chance to satirize the socially correct injustices that Huck and Jim encounter on land. The satire that Twain uses to expose the hypocrisy, racism, greed and injustice of society develops along with the adventures that Huck and Jim have. The ugly reflection of society we see should make us question the world we live in, and only the journey down the river provides us with that chance.
Throughout the book we see the hypocrisy of society. The first character we come across with that trait is Miss Watson. Miss Watson constantly corrects Huck for his unacceptable behavior, but Huck doesn't understand why, "That is just the way with some people. They get down on a thing when they don't know nothing about it" (2). Later when Miss Watson tries to teach Huck about Heaven, he decides against trying to go there, "...she was going to live so as to go the good place. Well, I couldn't see no advantage in going where she was going, so I made up my mind I wouldn't try for it." (3) The comments made by Huck clearly show Miss Watson as a hypocrite, scolding Huck for wanting to smoke and then using snuff herself and firmly believing that she would be in heaven.
When Huck encounters the Grangerfords and Shepardsons, Huck describes Colonel Grangerford as, "...a gentleman, you see. He was a gentleman all over; and so was his family. He was well born, as the saying is, and that's worth as much in a man as it is in a horse..." (104). You can almost hear the sarcasm from Twain in Huck's description of Colonel Grangerford. Later Huck is becoming...