王春芳
上海政法学院语言文化学院 上海 201701
Introduction
As one of America’s first and foremost realists and humorists, Mark Twain continues his style in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In the fiction, the criticism on the America’s society of that time sometimes mixed with irony exists in the life of the adventures. Although the fiction has been banned for several times, it still becomes one of Mark Twain’s classical works. The following are some examples about the criticism of the realism in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
1. The judge and the widow
At the beginning of the story, Huck, as the protagonist, luckily began his new life. “Tome and me found the money that the robbers hid in the cave, and it made us rich. We got an awful sight of money when it was piled up. Well, judge Thatcher he took it and put it out at interest, and it fetched us a dollar a day apiece all the year round – more than a body could tell what to do with. The widow Douglas she took me for he son, and allowed she would civilize me.”(Twain, 2003: 01) Everything seemed to become better. Huck got the huge amount of interest every day because of the enthusiastic judge Thatcher and would live in a decent life due to a kind widow Douglas. A poor boy was saved by the decent society and will start a new life. All of these seemed to be due to the goodness of the people. Actually, these were all because of that amount of money. Under the cover of hypocrisy, they just had a special purpose to do it. The pure and decent men who were always promoting the love and sacrifice did something good just for one’s own purposes. That came into being a big irony. Twain had used the most usual language to disclose the hypocrisy in those decent people.
2. Tom Sawyer
In this fiction, Tom Sawyer was described as “a boy that was respectable and well brought; and had a character to lose; and he was bright and not leather headed; and knowing and not ignorant.”(Twain, 2003: 315) Absolutely, Mark Twain had built him as a decent, bright and well-educated boy. Contrasted to Huck, a poor, naughty and low-educated boy, he was considered to have a head and attempted to make a great plan to save Jim. Although Jim could be saved in an easy way, Tom thought “there’s one thing—there’s more honor in getting him out through a lot of difficulties and dangers, where there warn’t one of them furnished to you by the people who it was their duty to furnish them, and you had to contrive them all out of your own head.” (Twain, 2003: 322) It appeared to be a ridiculous idea. What’s the most important? “What’s the good of a plan that ain’t no more trouble than that? It’s as mild as goods-milk. Why, Huck, it wouldn’t make no more talk than breaking into a soap factory.” (Twain, 2003, 313) The answer is not the consequence but what people think. People do something just for what people will comment on. That’s so irony. Actually that’s why Huck was eager to escape from the decent society.
3. The Crowd
In a town of the state of Arkansaw, the crowd swarmed up in front of Sherburn’s palings and wanted to lynch him because he killed a drunk. When Sherburn stepped out and run his eye slow along the crowd; and wherever it struck the people tried a little to outgaze him; they dropped their eyes and looked sneaky. Then, Sherburn told why people behaved like that. “You didn’t want to come. The average man don’t like trouble and danger. You don’t like trouble and danger. But if only half a man shouts ‘Lynch him! Lynch him!’ you’re afraid to back down – afraid you’ll be found out to be what you are – cowards.”(Twain, 2003:198) That’s sounds unbelievable. A crowd of people dropped their eyes in front of a single man who was considered as a murder. In fact, that’s reasonable because the crowd didn’t really know whether the man was guilty or not or why they should come together. They come just in case of being considered as cowards. What a stupid reason！But it actually exists. Twain used the description of expression and took advantage of Sherburn to present his critics on the ignorance of people.
Also in this town, the king and the duke advertised for their tragedy and sold the tickets. The crowd swarmed into the theatre in the night. When they found that they were cheated, a man said, “We are sold – mighty badly sold. But we don’t want to be the laughing stock of this whole town, I reckon, and never hear the last of this thing as long as we live. No. What we want is to go out of here quiet, and talk this show up, and sell the rest of the town! Then we’ll all be in the same boat.”(Twain, 2003:205) “You bet it is! – the judge is right!” everybody sings out. The crowd compromised to keep this secret and sell the rest of the town in order to guard their honor. And this selfish idea was raised by a judge, such a decent man. The great contrast does help to reflect the irony. That’s what the high-class man does. That’s what the decent society is. That’s the morality which they advocated.
4. The symbol of realism
At the beginning of Huckleberry Finn, the river is a symbol of freedom and change. Huck and Jim flow with the water and never remain in one place long enough to be pinned down by a particular set of rules. Compared to the “civilized” towns along the banks of the Mississippi, the raft on the river represents a peaceful, alternative space where Huck and Jim, free of hassles and disapproving stares, can enjoy one another’s company and revel in the small pleasures of life, like smoking a pipe and watching the stars. As the novel continues, however, the real world beyond the Mississippi’s banks quickly intrudes on the calm, protected space of the river. Huck and Jim come across wrecks and threatening snags, and bounty hunters, thieves, and con artists accost them.
Although the river still provides refuge when things go wrong ashore, Huck and Jim’s relation to the river seems to change and become less friendly. After they miss the mouth of the Ohio River, the Mississippi ceases to carry them toward freedom. Instead, the current sweeps them toward the Deep South, which represents the ultimate threat to Jim and a dead end for Huck. Just as the Mississippi would inevitably carry Huck and Jim to New Orleans (where Miss Watson had wanted to send Jim anyway), escape from the evils inherent in humanity is never truly possible.
5. Conclusion
The rise and development of American literary realism was the product of the changes in American politics and economic development. American industrialization was the first important factor the development of American realistic literature. As one of America’s first and foremost realists and humorists, Mark Twain usually wrote about his own personal experiences and things he knew about from firsthand experience. Huckleberry Finn is a veritable recreation of living models. All the characters have prototypes in real life. This fiction touches upon the human situation in a general, indeed universal way: humanitarianism ultimately triumphs. It has become a masterpiece, the one book from which, as Earnest Hemingway noted, “All modern American literature comes.”
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