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Rollin Down the River: The Uniting of Theme and Plot in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 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 aware of the hypocrisy of the family
and its feud with the Shepardsons when Huck attends church. He is amazed that while the minister preaches about
brotherly love both the Grangerfords and Shepardsons are carrying weapons. Finally when the feud erupts into a
gunfight, Huck sits in a tree, disgusted by the waste and cruelty of the feud, "It made me so sick I most fell out of the
tree...I wished I hadn't ever come ashore that night to see such things." Nowhere else is Twain's voice heard more
clearly than as a mob gathers at the house of Colonel Sherburn to lynch him. Here we hear the full force of Twain's
thoughts on the hypocrisy an cowardice of society, "The idea of you lynching anybody! It's amusing. The idea of you
thinking you had pluck enough to lynch a man!...The pitifulest thing out is a mob; that's what an army is- a mob; they
don't fight with courage that's born in them, but with courage that's borrowed from their mass, and from their officers.
But a mob without any man at the head of it is beneath pitifulness" (146-147). Each of these examples finds Huck
again running to freedom of the river. The river never cares how saintly you are, how rich you are, or what society
thinks you are. The river allows Huck the one thing that Huck wants to be, and that is Huck. The river is freedom than
the land is oppression, and that oppression is no more evident than it is to Jim. It is somewhat surprising that Huck's
traveling companion is Jim. As anti-society that Huck is, you would think that he would have no qualms about helping
Jim. But Huck has to have feelings that slavery is correct so we can see the ignorance of racial bigotry. Huck and Jim's
journey begins as Huck fights within himself about turning Jim over to the authorities. Finally he decides not to turn
Jim in. This is a monumental decision for Huck to make, even though he makes it on the spot. This is not just a boy
running away from home. It is someone who has decided to turn his back on everything "home" stands for, even one of
its most cherished beliefs. In this way Twain also allows to let us leave our thoughts of bigotry behind also and start
to see Jim for who he really is, a man. Even though Huck has made his decision about Jim, early in the voyage we see
Huck's attitude towards Jim as racist. Eventually Huck plays a mean trick on Jim and we see Huck begin to change his
attitude, "It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and
I warn't ever sorry for it afterward, neither" (86). Later on in the story Huck becomes very caring and protective for Jim,
where this reaches a climax at the point where Huck saves Jim from two slave catchers by tricking them to think Jim is
was Huck's small pox ridden father. The dialogue between Huck and Jim also illustrates that Jim is more than
someone's property. He is a human being with feelings, and hopes for a better future. He is not some ignorant,
uncaring sub-human, but plainly the opposite. Twain does not necessarily come out and say that slavery is evil, that is
far above Huck's understanding, but he gives us the ammunition needed to make that decision for ourselves. Huck and
Jim's adventures give us a chance to examine the society they live in. It also gives us a chance to examine ourselves
as well as the society today. The story is over a hundred years old, but many of the social vices then, sadly, pertain to
our society now. There are more examples of human failings in this book, the trickery and cheating of the King and
Duke, the lack of caring by the townspeople for Boggs, the naivet‚ of the Wilks sisters and the lack of common sense
in Tom Sawyer. There is cruelty, greed, murder, trickery, hypocrisy, racism, and a general lack of morality, all the
ingredients of society. All through the adventure you have Huck Finn and Jim trying to find the one thing they can only
find on the river, freedom, but a person can only stay on the river for so long, and so you have to go on land to face
the injustices of society. Quite a contrast, the freedom of being without authority, being able to think for yourself,
running right next to the constraints made upon you by society. Somewhere deep within the story Twain is making a
powerful statement, a wish for all humanity, that we can be brave enough to break with what others assume is correct
and just, and make decisions for ourselves and the ability to stand on our own and do something about it. We are that
mob that stood outside Colonel Sherburn's house, we are the Grangerfords and Shepardsons, and we are the King and
the Duke, and even the foolish townspeople in every town they conned. Somewhere along the line we must become I,
someone has to have the courage to stand up for what is right, to be what Colonel Sherburn would call a real man.
Huck gives us that chance, that ability to see things for what they are. His adventures along with Twain's sharp
criticism are so uniquely combined to give us that realization. The greatest thing is that it is done so well that we
almost think that we are the ones that discovered it.
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