The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ~ Mark Twain (1884)

Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) was once heralded by Ernest Hemmingway as being the source of “All modern American literature” and “It’s the best book we’ve had”. One of the reasons for its continued praise, specifically within the American canon, is its presentation of the American experience and the nation. Huckleberry Finn tells the story of a young boy running away from his home on a raft down the Mississippi, out of fear of being “sivilized” along with a runaway slave, Jim. The voyage of the protagonists encapsulates a vision shared by the later ‘Beat’ writers to escape from society and regain a sense of national identity which has been consumed by modernity.

The endearing image of the pair on a raft is a true rejection of progression, both in its archaic technology and metaphorically as a battle against the current: society hegemony. The raft also provides a platform for perspective: engaging in philosophical debates and ideas, Huck observes “You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft” in comparison to urban settings. The naïve voice of a child is Twain’s subtle attempt to persuade his readers to the return to the raw, natural environments which provide the background to the American identity. The river itself, the Mississippi, is a characteristically American symbol and by engaging with it, Huck connects with his national identity, indicating a return not only to nature, but to a ‘true’ America.

As the young protagonist travels, readers are granted an insight into the progression of his own identity as he struggles with the dichotomies of risking damnation through the title of ‘Abolitionist’ and dividing himself from his childhood self by marking a distinction from his friend Tom Sawyer, a symbol of adolescent irresponsibility. Twain and Huck later disappoint readers as he falls into Sawyer’s games once he begins to develop his own mature identity, yet clear progression is made throughout the novel. Finn is a bildungsroman hero, and his journey to maturity is made realistic through Twain’s attention to authentic vernacular, a feature which he emphasises in the opening ‘Explanatory’. From a genre perspective, this is Twain’s own linguistic return to the natural American identity, yet this is also a point of controversy: the novel frequently uses the derogatory terms against the African-American slaves which makes the text arguably unsuitable for teaching. The abundance of discrimination makes the novel difficult to read, yet it is often observed that irony arises through its usage as Jim and Huck are in fact close friends. The nature of irony is unstable, thus, so is the novel, and the inability to fully dissect this protagonist remains one of the reasons for its continued intrigue as well as controversy.

With this factor aside, Twain’s novel is an allegorical return to nature which ironically brings conflicting cultures together, to project an image of the American experience and identity to conflict segregated representations within Twain’s context and, interestingly, the modern era.