Examples Of Transcendentalism In Huck Finn

Emerson, Thoreau, Twain: Transcendentalist Writers Transcendentalists are believed to go above and beyond and be independent. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau both stress that transcendentalism is all about individualism. According to Emerson, the main idea of transcendentalism is to withdraw from society: “To believe you own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart, is true for all men(that is genius” (185). Emerson focuses on following the heart. Similarly, Thoreau relied on civil disobedience. He wanted people to stand out and take charge: “For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever” (193). He is saying that it takes one person to stand up
and make a change in society. These morals all are portrayed in Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Emerson and Thoreau would consider Twain to be a transcendentalist writer. He implies the ways of transcendentalism through the characters in the novel. He shows how the characters represent transcendentalists’ qualities. Transcendentalists are supposed to be their own people, meaning not caring what others think of them. Emerson says that a person should learn to trust himself and do whatever he thinks is right, not caring if it doesn’t make sense: “Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind” (186). Emerson clearly states that there is nothing more important than one’s mind. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain shows Pap, the father of Huck, the main character, as someone who follows his own ways. Usually, people may think that a father would want the best for his child, but not in this novel. Twain portrays Pap to be different; different from a normal father. Pap doesn’t like the fact that Huck is interested in learning: “And looky here (you drop that school, you hear…and if I catch you about that school I’ll tan you good” (27). A father is not supposed to act like that to his son. Normally, a father would support his son if he were getting an education, but not Pap. Twain shows Pap’s transcendentalists way by being unique, even if it’s not for the better. Thoreau shows transcendentalism as being the different one.
Like mentioned before, he describes it as having civil disobedience. He says when the world is doing right, man should go forth and do wrong. Twain clearly shows this when Huck Finn questions himself about turning Jim, the slave, in or not. Huck knows that the right thing to do is to turn Jim in but he doesn’t: “They went off and I got abroad the raft, feeling bad and low, because I knowed very well I had done wrong, and I see it warn’t no use for me to try to learn to do right…” (118). Knowing his right from wrong, he chose to do wrong. He followed his heart because he knew he would feel bad if he did do the right thing, giving Jim up: “then I thought a minute, and says to myself, hold on; s’pose you’d ‘a’ done right and give Jim up would you feel better than what you do now? No, says I, I’d feel bad” (118). Twain shows Huck’s strength by following his heart, and that is what Thoreau explains: “I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right” (191). Thoreau emphasizes that one should follow what he thinks is right first and then follow others.
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