By characterizing Uncle Silas as a righteous citizen, Twain emphasizes the insidious nature of institutional racism. At times a hilarious adventure, the novel is carried by a narrator who reveals, in the simple way that only children can, how things are not right in the world and not fair in the least. Superstition Superstition appears throughout the novel. Throughout the novel, Jim is treated with suspicion, and Huck often has to lie to prevent him being recaptured. To both characters, the element of the river served as a protection from the outside world. He wants to be free of his abusive father, who goes so far as to literally imprison Huck in a cabin.
Jim expresses the complicated human emotions and struggles with the path of his life. His education in sincerity and good will endear him to some, and his sharp, keen wit and ability to deceive endear him to others. As Jung would say, your shadow or opposite self within your own self that opposes you. Wants Huck to go to school and adopt religion. Huck may have fooled the King and the Duke into thinking that Jim is his slave, but it's possible that they'll see through his lies just as he saw through theirs.
Although Tom and Hucklberry Finn have many things in common and are very good friends, they also live a life of two totally different lifestyles. Your enemy, seen as a whole, might be considered that grand opposition symbol doing battle with you today. The Mississippi River The Mississippi River is perhaps the most well-known examples of symbolism in Huckleberry Finn. Yes, in that respect it's good. Other Symbols Twain also includes symbols aside from his characters. Since it's first publication, Twain's perspective on slavery and ideas surrounding racism have been hotly debated. The Widow Douglas Another symbol in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is actually a character--the Widow Douglas.
More symbolically, it stands for freedom. As a result, the river really does reflect the complicated time period in the region - the hope for freedom as they ride the current , the inevitable obstacles which the river carries , the constant struggle for individuality on a body of water that keeps on going regardless of Jim and Huck as individuals. First published in 1884, it followed the American transcendental movement when the nation was bursting forth into a new freedom. To escape the creeping influence of societal corruption, Huck and Jim escape to the natural world, which is farther from civilization and its faults. He is able to survive with the help of this knowledge and is able to participate in the various walks and modes of life. Twain seems to want to reinforce this message throughout the novel in the many mob scenes that occur — no matter how ridiculous an event or character is, the mob that congregates is always more ridiculous.
Morality The theme of morality is quite important in this novel, although it is confusing and muddled. It is really the current of the American nation. Although Tom and Hucklberry Finn have many things in common and are very good friends, they also live a life of two totally different lifestyles. Tom, who is a dreamer, lives a life out of romantic novels, and can be amusing and exasperating at the same time. Analysis In a larger sense, this story follows a young boy as he struggles to make sense of the world in which he lives. Education—Education is a theme that consistently comes up throughout the novel.
Although Twain wrote the novel after slavery was abolished, he set it several decades earlier, when slavery was still a fact of life. Research papers on the symbolism of the raft in the novel Huckleberry Finn will examine how the raft serves as a symbol for many aspects of physical and psychological factors within the novel. Just as slavery places the noble and moral Jim under the control of white society, no matter how degraded that white society may be, so too did the insidious racism that arose near the end of Reconstruction oppress black men for illogical and hypocritical reasons. For example, in the first chapter, the Widow Douglas feeds Huck, and later on Jim becomes his symbolic caretaker, feeding and watching over him on Jackson's Island. Tom Sawyer, the most obvious example, bases his life and actions on adventure novels. The imposition of Jim Crow laws, designed to limit the power of blacks in the South in a variety of indirect ways, brought the beginning of a new, insidious effort to oppress.
And what might these be? Alone on their raft, they do not have to answer to anyone. Jim must be very, very careful in this racist society. As a poor, uneducated boy, for all intents and purposes an orphan, Huck distrusts the morals and precepts of the society that treats him as an outcast and fails to protect him from abuse. To provide the greatest drama, the character of Huck must represent one of the great symbols in opposition today and the character of Jim the other. This introduces a theme that Twain will continue to explore throughout the novel: the innocent and naive are blinded by the corruption of those in power.
Note that Huck is returning to nature now that Jim is free. The idea of morality is very closely tied in with the racism that pervaded the South at the time the novel was written: seemingly very pious characters, such as Miss Watson and Aunt Sally, or Col. Lesson Summary The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remains one of the most popular and controversial books ever written in the United States. . In this way, Twain creates a character that highlights the scale and depth of institutional racism. Twain gives us these conflicting examples to complicate and deepen the theme of money in the novel.