The Power of Emotion

I would like to focus on a passage from the beginning of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” for this blog- occurring in chapter 1 soon after Huck moves in with Miss Watson and The Widow and they spend the day trying to “sivilize him.” After a long day of this Huck says, “I went up to my room with a piece of candle and put it on the table. Then I set down in a chair by the window and tried to think of something cheerful, but it warn’t no use. I felt so lonesome I almost wished I was dead” (Twain 11). I think this may be the first moment in the novel, although there are many more, which really portrays a deeper hurt and sadness in Huckleberry Finn- and that that part of him, although it is below the surface, is there. In this instance he is in a house full of people but it seems as though there is no one in the house who really understands him and this makes him feel lonely. The loneliness resulting in him “wishing he was dead” could also be a portraying how the idea of “sivilization” makes him feel sad and lonely. Whatever the case may be, we can see that Huck holds deep sorrow inside himself.

                Huck also compares his feelings of loneliness and the idea of death, and mourning to natural processes, “the leaves rustled in the woods ever so mournful; and I heard an owl, away off, who-whooing about somebody that was dead…and the wind was trying to whisper something to me and I couldn’t make out what it was, and so it made the cold shivers run over me” (Twain 11). The leaves rustling becomes a mournful sound and the owls “who-who” becomes a cry of death, the wind even whispers in his ear. These are all very heavy descriptions and I wonder if it is possible that these references to death and nature are somewhat foreshadowing in this instance, could be a stretch but the concept of “nature” is a huge theme through the novel and at many points both Huck and Jim are vulnerable to the natural world and do in fact witness much death and loss on their journey.

                This passage also makes me wonder about Huck as the role of the “narrator” and the fact that he included such a verse in the retelling of his tale- for this type of talk about death and loneliness is a reoccurring theme throughout. For me, it brings up questions about how deliberate it was, on Huck’s part, that these passages were included. I think it’s safe to say that Twain very deliberately added them but what then was he trying to say about Huck as a narrator? When Huck is recounting his story is he sensitive to the deeper meaning behind all the loneliness and death he experiences and is that why they are included? Has he made sense of what all these things mean for him or is he still speaking as the naïve Huck who is merely depicting his feelings at the time because that is what he remembers? I also wonder what Twain is then trying to say about the fact that many humans do feel this way at different points in their lives- I think there is a possibility that Twain is trying to show the importance of feeling those feelings, the weight they hold, and how, in many ways they help a person grow, as we see with Huck.

Works Cited:

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Penguin, 2003. Print

The river

When the class was discussing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn great importance was placed on the symbolism of the raft.  We came to a general conclusion that the raft represents a model society; a place where Huck and Jim could better their relationship, without worrying about society’s pressure.  Huck and Jim can speak to one another as equals and lines become to blur.  Jim’s relationship with Huck becomes more paternal, and Huck even though he acts naïve knows he appreciates Jim. 

The quote I chose to analyze involves the river and not the raft.  “So, in two seconds, away we went, a sliding down the river, and it did seem so good to be free again and all by ourselves on the big river and nobody to bother us” (Twain, Pg.218).  Huck and Jim view the river as freedom.  Jim uses the river as an Underground Railroad to escape slavery.  Huck uses the river to escape his old life characterized by an abusive father who only wanted his wealth and the teachings of Miss Watson. 

The river and not the raft is where Huck and Jim feel most comfortable with each other.  The raft which can be seen as a Utopian society still has Jim tied up sometimes.  The river is dynamic and ever-changing just like the relationship between Huck and Jim.  Huck’s relationship with Jim is rocky sometimes because he has to fight the moral dilemma imposed on him by society, but it can be smooth and calm when they enjoy each other’s company. 

The river also represents the dangers that come with freedom.  In escaping a daily life characterized by rules and guidance Huck was able to receive the sense of adventure he wanted.  When traveling down the river he runs into a gang of robbers, saw the Grangerford family get murdered, and met two con-artists- the king and the duke.  Even though Huck is free there are limitations to his freedom because of the dangers.   

I chose to look at the river because I believe it represents true freedom, while land represents the conventional life guided by rules and society.  The river also represents the dynamism of Huck and Jim’s relationship.  It can be calm and flowing with ease or it can be rough and hard to make out.          

Emotions When Huck And Jim Get Away

The part of the story that I chose to close read and reflect upon is the last two paragraphs of chapter 29 in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain. The narrator of the story, Huckleberry Finn, wants you to feel the pain and suffering that he had just overcome and how happy, but scared, he was that he just had ran from the king and duke. “Out with you Jim, and set her loose! Glory be to goodness, we’re shut of them!” This quote shows the amount of excitement and fear coming from Huck as he tells Jim to get the raft untied so they can get away. The end of the quote is interesting however because Huck is so happy to be away from the king and the duke. Twain makes the reader aware of how much of a coward the king and duke are, but Jim is still unaware that they are imposters. For Huck to spill the secret to Jim, Huck must have been very emotionally flustered. However the next part of the story just suggests that Jim was just extremely happy to see Huck that he must not have even registered what Huck had said.

“Jim lit out, and was a coming for me with both arms spread, he was full of joy; but when I glimpsed him in the lightning, my heart shot up in my mouth and I went overboard backwards; for I forgot he was old King Lear and a drownded A-rab all in one…” The beginning of this paragraph suggests the pure excitement of Jim to see Huck when he is coming down to the river’s edge. The other half of the passage suggests the disappointment of Huck because he remembers how they dressed Jim. I feel like at this point in the story Huck realizes that he feels bad for how they have to treat a true friend of his and feels a little bad for him.

Once Jim un-ties the boat and pushes off Huck sighs a sign of relief because they are “free” once again. This goes back before the Huck and Jim met the King and the Duke and how they treated being on the raft, out on the river, much like the Garden of Eden. It was a place that even though Jim was black and Huck was white, they were equally trying to escape to a better place.

Finally, in the last few sentences of the chapter Twain writes, “…but about the third crack, I noticed a sound that I knowed mighty well-and held my breath and listened and waited- and sure enough, when the next flash busted out over the water, here they come!” I believe that he did this to instill brief fear into the reader to preface the pain that was about to come. He then finished up the chapter by saying, “So I wilted right down onto the planks, then, and gave up; and it was all I could do from keep from crying.” This ending sentence really startled me because it truly shows Huck’s emotions and how much he wanted to get away from the duke and king. Considering everything that Huck has been through in his life Twain had only depicted Huck to be emotional one other time in the story, after the battle of the Grangerfords and the Shepardsons which was a very traumatic event, so to compare this near crying event to that emotional breakdown shows the mere disgust that Huck had towards the king and the duke.

Works Cited:

Twain, Mark. "Chapter 29." The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Comp. John D. Seelye and Guy Cardwell. New York: Penguin, 2003. 218. Print.

Nurture vs. Nature

When analyzing Pudd’nhead Wilson by Mark Twain there are a plethora of underlying themes one can examine; whether it be the search for identity or the need to hold pride, honor, and reputation in southern society.  The theme I am going to focus on is nurture versus nature.  What determines a person’s character is it their surrounding environment and upbringing, or is it already programmed in our genes. 

The struggle between nurture versus nature is seen in the character of Tom Driscoll.  Tom was born to Roxy, who was a slave, but Roxy switched Tom and Chambers at birth.  As a result, Tom grew up a spoiled kid and matured into a dishonest, betraying, unlawful adult.  What made Tom such a horrid individual?  Was it inherently “black” qualities given to him by his mother, or was it a product of his spoiled upbringing.  The American South at the time would agree with the former theory.  Roxy, his mother, even goes as far to say Tom’s cowardness is a product of his African American culture.  Twain reinforces the stereotype of Tom being a coward when Tom finds out he is an African American, his actions become more scared and everyone takes notice.  The opposite view can be said as well.  Tom grew up having every need met, giving him a sense of entitlement and reinforcing bad, dangerous habits, such as gambling. 

I believe Twain takes the nurture view.  For example, acts of theft by slaves are justified as being a sign of rebellion against their owners.  When Chambers is freed he is lost in society as a free man, but if it is nature that determines a person’s character, Chambers would have no problem assimilating into society.  Chambers is also really nice and caring towards Roxy offering her a stipend, something Tom’s upbringing and sense of entitlement would not allow him to do. 

Questioning Morality

When you are part of a society that practices and upholds a law which allows humans to be bought and sold, where that idea is okay and ‘right,’ when you are consumed by a culture of fear and brutality, where it is in fact the norm, where you are victim to an inverted system of logic; ‘the worse you are the more you gain,’ where do you find morality? How does living in this type of toxic environment shape and influence humans sense of morality? We see this questionable moral code in “Pudd’nhead Wilson” when Percy Driscoll finds out his slaves have been stealing from him and he procures confessions from them by threatening to sell them ‘down the river,’ for in their minds that was “equivalent to condemning them to hell!” (Twain 68) This turns out to be an empty threat, a scare tactic performed by Driscoll, who rewards them for confessing by deciding to instead sell them locally. Upon hearing this news “the culprits flung themselves prone, in an ecstasy of gratitude, and kissed his feet, declaring they would never forget his goodness and never cease to pray for him as long as they lived. They were sincere, for like a god he had stretched forth his mighty hand and closed the gates of hell against them. “(Twain 68)

To me this proclamation seems to be dripping with Twain's signature irony, for how is Driscoll actually GOOD to his slaves in any way, yes he does them a kindness by not condemning them to “hell,” but they are enslaved humans, are they not already in hell that is made possible by Driscoll himself? It seems to me that Twain was attempting to bring to light the fundamentally twisted logic at the root of the whole situation, for Driscoll too believed he had done a good deed, “he knew, himself, that he had done a noble and gracious thing, and was privately well pleased with his magnanimity; and that night he set the incident down in his diary, so that his son might read it in after years, and be thereby moved to deeds of gentleness and humanity himself.”(Twain 68) GENTLENESS AND HUMANITY are the words used to describe his act, the act he wishes his son and heir to read about and copy. Is Twain not spoon-feeding us irony on the verge of sarcasm here? It seems to me that he is expressing the insanity behind the standard of humanity through this passage; that society was so corrupt a good deed could be classified by the location a human was to be sold at.

The consequence of this contorted morality can also be witnessed through Roxy’s actions. Namely, that of switching ‘Chambers’ and ‘Tom,’ inherently saving her blood from being ‘condemned to hell,’ while in turn burdening the other child with that very possible fate. We question Roxy’s decision—especially because we know the eventual repercussions of her actions, but in that same respect, how can we admonish her decision when we are aware of the situation she is in, the example that has been set for her, and the extreme fear instilled in her by her master? It seems to me that Twain added this layer of Roxy’s dilemma in order to accentuate the fundamental wrongs he saw in his society and highlight the fact that it is impossible to discern right from wrong when humans are subject to being sold as property. 

Works Cited: Twain, Mark. Pudd'nhead Wilson. New York: Penguin, 1986. Print.

The Fear of Being Sold Down The River

            To a slave, being sold down the river was one of the worst things that ever could happen to them in their life. This reoccurring theme of being sold downriver was the bases of Mark Twain’s story, “Pudd’nhead Wilson.” The story starts out with a slave, Roxy, who has a child the same day as her owner, and Roxy is asked to raise not only her child but also her owners. While Roxy was raising the children, her owner came in and looked at the two children and asked her which one was his child. Because the two looked so similar, Roxy got the idea of switching the children’s clothing and names around for the sole purpose that her blood line would never have to be sold down the river, ever again.

            This is where my interest begins wondering why it as so bad to be sold down the river. In the north the slaves were treated well, “They were incorporated into the family, and each puritan household being a sort of religious structure, the relative duties of master and servant were clearly defined. No doubt the severest and longest task fell to the slave, but in the household of the farmer or artisan, the master and the mistress shared it, and when it was finished, the white and the black, like the feudal chief and his household servant, sat down to the same table, and shared the same viands."[2] This showed that the slaves in the north were very well respected, even though they were still the property to the land owner. In the book this is also evident by Twain explaining Roxy look and stature. He said that “she had an easy, independent carriage- when she was among her own caste – and a high and sassy way withal; but of coarse she was meek and humble enough where white people were” (Twain Pg.64). This showed that she respected her owner and that she would do nothing to endanger herself from getting sold down the river. This become very important because later in the story her slave owner get robbed and the guys who rob him get severely punished.

            The salves punishment was to get sold down the river. “’I give you one minute’- he took a look at his watch. ‘If at the end of the time you have not confessed, I will not only sell all four of you, but- I will sell you DOWN THE RIVER!’ It was equivalent to condemning them to hell” (Twain Pg.68). Twain really expresses how brutal it was for a slave to be sold down south to the cotton plantation. He uses the comparison of hell to convey how bad it is to be owed in the south and there are many stories off slaves killing themselves just so they didn’t have to suffer the rath of the southern plantation owners.

            The threat of being sold down the river was a fear in every northern slaves mind before the civil war. I believe that Twain implemented this major controversy into a story because he saw it happening all the time while he was living in Missouri and working on the steamboats. Twain saw the suffering first hand from the slaves and he knew that the fear alone kept slaves on the right path so that they stay out of trouble.

Twain, Mark. Pudd'nhead Wilson. Comp. Malcolm Bradbury. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973. Print.

[2] Sedgwick, Catharine. "Slavery Denial." Slavery Denial. N.p., 2003. Web. 14 May 2014.

Commentary on "The Diary of Adam and Eve"

Like all of  Twain’s other works we’ve read so far, “The Diary of Adam and Eve” plunges us into a world of irony, interpretation, and layered meaning, forcing us, or rather, allowing us to find significance and a multitude of perspectives from the text. As we have discussed, Twain held great store in satire often manifesting itself in critiques of the many practices and belief systems held sacred by society in his time.

 There are elements of satire found within this story, namely the exaggeration of male and female stereotyping. This component grabbed my attention almost immediately; Adam thinking of Eve as somewhat vain, “she fell in the pond yesterday when she was looking at herself in it, which she is always doing” (Twain 276) and Eve making assumptions about Adams intelligence, believing “he is not bright, and is sensitive about it and wishes to conceal it.” (Twain 286) These type of assumptions made by him and her respectively, could possibly also be a commentary on the many ways men and women misunderstand each other. Adam thinks Eve is being vain by staring at herself in the water, when in reality she has no idea she is look at herself and is merely finding comfort and solace in the reflection she perceives to be a friend while she in turn has difficulty understanding the lack of fear felt by Adam during his excursions into the falls.

There are many differences that go unreconciled and although both stereotyping and misunderstanding are themes heavily emphasized in the text, what really struck chords for me, and what I really want to discuss, is the possibility that hints of sincerity can be found within the text, most often in Twain's portrayal of Eve herself. Honestly it took participating in the class discussion for me to put my finger on what felt different about this text versus others we’ve read because reading the Diary didn’t leave me feeling the way I do after reading most of Twain’s stories. I do think there is irony in his portrayal of Eve and that cannot be ignored, but at the same time I really think there are some moments where a truly sincere and somewhat beautiful tone prevails, shining through the irony and representing Eve as a wondrous creature, a namer of names, a curious and intuitive being, and an artist in her creation of fire through poetry, “soon brilliant yellow and red flares shot up through the smoke, and I named them in an instant- flames –and I was right too, though these were the very first flames that had ever been in the world. They climbed the trees, they flashed splendidly in and out of the vast and increasing volume of tumbling smoke, and I had to clap my hands and laugh and dance in my rapture, it was so new and strange and so wonderful and so beautiful! (Twain 289) It is in that moment where I saw that spark of earnestness, and maybe that is MY own naivete but could this be an instance where Twain is not merely satirizing Eve’s love of beauty and instead commending her on her marvelous creation and her appreciation for it? And what about the very last line? When Adam remarks, “Wheresoever she was, there was Eden.” (Twain 295) could this not be him genuinely speaking of his love and appreciation for Eve and all that she was? These things I cannot ignore and I do believe that there is at least one layer of this story meant to be viewed with sincerity. 

Works Cited:

Twain, Mark.  The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain. Ed. Charles Neider. New                   York: Bantam Classic, 1957. Print.