Glimpsing the American childhood
Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:
Dr Senarath Tennakoon
Mark Twain is the pseudonym of the writer Samuel Langhorne Clemens
(1835-1910). From childhood Mark Twain’s life had intimate connections
with the River Mississippi and in 1859 he was given his license as
steamboat pilot. In 1861 he left the Mississippi at the outbreak of the
American Civil War and took a number of different jobs across the
continent which involved long travels.
The pseudonym Mark Twain means a cry used by river boatmen who take
soundings to measure the depth of water for safe travel. The cry would
be ‘by the mark twain’ (meaning two fathoms, ie 12 feet).
Mark Twain published his first book Jumping Frog in 1865. The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper and The Adventures
of Huckleberry Finn are his well known literary contributions to
American literature.
Twain’s Life on the Mississippi is not a novel but a series of
incidents on the river life. Mark Twain is seen as a great American
writer who introduced an original form of the American novel. His
idiomatic style of narration, the choice of his main theme, and the
criticism of civilization and culture in the American society are well
recognized. Mark Twain is a humorist and a social commentator as well.
In many of his novels the life and experiences of his childhood days on
the Mississippi river have been described.
The context and setting of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are set
in a small town on the Mississippi river, called St Petersburg.
Petersburg is a fictitious name for the town of Hannibal, Missouri where
Twain spent much of his childhood. Although this novel was published in
1884 its contextual background was set before the American Civil War
(1861-65) at a time period when the Mississippi river was a very
important artery of communication and transport connecting large areas
of the USA.
Huck is a young boy thirteen to fourteen years old, the outcast of a
drunken, shiftless father. He is living with the Widow Douglas. Huck is
the narrator of the novel. Huck has some money ($ 6,000) which he has
saved from robbers mentioned in Mark Twain’s previous novel. The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer. But this money is with Judge Thatcher, his
banker, and he receives a dollar a day from the interest. Huck’s father
is a reckless drunkard who tries to get his money back to him. He
kidnaps Huck and keeps him locked up in the woods. But Huck escapes and
goes to Jackson’s Island in the middle of the Mississippi river where he
meets a black slave Jim. Jim has been owned by one Miss Watson who
wanted to sell him. So Jim has escaped to this island.
Huck and Jim become friends and they live together. One night they
rescue a raft which is floating past and another time they see a
frame-built wooden house floating by, uprooted by the storm. On
investigating the house they discover the dead body of a man who has
been shot. Jim examines the dead body while Huck removes everything from
the house including some women’s clothes. After the rains, they sail
down the Mississippi as far as Cairo and take a steam ship passage for
the Northern states where Jim can gain freedom.
During this journey they meet different people living by the river.
They encounter theft, fraud, violence and death among these people. But
their steamship has been drifting further south. So they find a canoe
and try to go up the river.
But a steam ship disturbs their journey and their raft is run down.
The two friends are separated. However Huck swims ashore and is given
shelter by one Gangerford family. This family has a bitter long standing
feud with the neighbouring family, the Shepherdsons and Huck observes a
severe
fight between them. In this fight most of the members of the
Gangerfords are killed. Huck meets Jim who too has survived the wreck of
their raft and the two friends once again continue their journey down
the river. On the way they are met by two confidence tricksters who call
themselves one as the Duke of Bridgewater and the other as the King of
France. This Duke and the King plead Huck and Jim to save them from
their pursuers.
These two characters are rogues and they pretend to be missionaries
and make dramatic performances and play tricks for collecting money from
the townspeople they meet during the river journey. They pretend to be
brothers of the recently deceased Peter Wilks and rob the family money.
But Huck prevents it. These two tricksters become intolerable to Huck
and Jim and they sell Jim to one Mr Phelps. But fortunately Huck comes
to know that Mr Phelps is the husband of his friend Tom Sawyer’s Aunt
Sally. Huck, with Tom plans to save Jim from slavery. But during their
escape Tom is shot and Huck has to go to find a doctor. Because of this,
both Tom and Jim are discovered and they have to be handed over to Mr
Phelps, in his farm. |
