Should Huckleberry Finn be considered a great American novel

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn For over 120 years, there has been a debate of whether or not The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, should be considered a great novel and a “central document of American culture”. Over the years, many different critics have had different opinions on the greatness of the book based on its significant characteristics such as character development, cultural value, and the dialect of the novel. Lionel Trilling, a professor of literature at Columbia University, says that the great power of the novel is that it is a “boy’s book” and can be loved for so long by so many generations and that it has the power of telling the truth. Leo Marx, an MIT professor of American studies, agrees with Trilling by saying that it is a masterpiece; however, believes that the ending is a great flaw beginning with the part where Tom Sawyer returns to help Huck save Jim. Marx agrees with Trilling, saying there is a “falling off” at the end but he takes it much further by saying “it makes so many readers uneasy because they rightly sense that it jeopardizes the significance of the entire novel (351).” Ron Powers wrote in his essay that Twain had a different mindset of writing the novel after each time he took time off from it. Contrary to the beliefs of Trilling, Jane Smiley, a Pulitzer Prize winning novelist and professor of literature, believes the signs of failure of the ending of the novel actually start in the beginning because neither Huck nor Mark Twain take Jim’s desire for freedom seriously at all when Huck and Jim begin the voyage down the Mississippi River. In a way, Smiley disagrees with both Trilling and Marx, stating that the novel has “little to offer in the way of greatness (62).” I, on the other hand, agree with Marx and partially with Trilling in that the book was a masterpiece until Tom Sawyer arrives to help Huck save Jim, a black slave who is owned by Ms. Watson, and a woman whom Huck lives with. From that point on, the novel changes because all the morals and important themes seem to go away in the most important part of the story because of Tom’s immaturity. The novel has, at that point, reached its climax and begins to hit a downfall that, I believe, makes a case for leaving it out of the list of the greatest American novels. The ending takes away the true moral significance of the book because of Tom and Huck’s insensitivity and cruel schemes in the rescue of Jim. Although The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has many qualities, such as cultural value and the character development of Huck, that can qualify the novel as “great”, it should not be considered a great, central document of American culture, mainly due to its very poor “evasion” chapters. Mark Twain produces a strong sense of moral truth and honest compassion in Huck Finn. He is able to convey Huck’s empathy for others through Huck’s reactions throughout his adventures, and he succeeds in illustrating the innocence and truth of boyhood. “No one, as well he knew, sets a higher value on truth than a boy. Truth is the whole of a boy’s conscious demand upon the world of adults,” (Trilling 327). I think what Trilling is saying is that the most important thing to a boy is simply honesty; truthfulness will determine how a boy grows up and what values he possesses. If a boy is honest with himself and sees the world for what it is, he will appreciate its imperfections along with its beauty. Huck demonstrates the idea of moral truth by facing the idea of going to Hell to save Jim from slavery. While contemplating all of the options he has regarding Jim’s freedom, Huck tries to pray but realizes, “I was trying to make my mouth say I would do the right thing and the clean thing, and go and write to that nigger’s owner and tell where he was; but deep down in me I knowed it was a lie, and He knowed it. You can’t pray a lie-I found that out,” (Twain 185). Although Huck attempts to better himself by praying, he is aware that his honest belief is that Jim should be free, which thus prevents him from successfully praying. Because he was unable to pray a lie, Huck demonstrates his prominent moral conscience. He puts a strong value on internal honesty and comprehends that it is wrong to lie to himself about how to approach the issue of slavery. He considers the moral and physical consequences he may face by either telling on Jim or maintaining an honest relationship with him. He recognizes that in a way, he cares about Jim and his future, which makes him unable to deny or betray their friendship. Twain was able to portray the social hierarchy and the views on slavery of the time, both of which reflected on American culture and influenced the future. Huck proves to be one of the most complex and interesting characters in the novel when considering racism; he sees Jim as a human being with feelings, yet he doesn’t seem to consider the humanity of other slaves that he is unacquainted with. Huck indicates that he thinks of Jim as a human when he apologizes for playing a joke on him: “It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I warn’t ever sorry for it afterwards, neither. I didn’t do him no more mean tricks, and I wouldn’t done that one if I’d a knowed it would make him feel that way,” (Twain 78). By expressing regret for the trick he played on Jim and admitting he wasn’t sorry for apologizing, Huck once again shows his capability to distinguish right from wrong and his tendency to feel guilt once recognizing he has done something immoral. It is obvious that in this passage, Huck discovers that Jim has the same emotions as he does, which enables him to treat Jim with a greater level of respect and virtually a slight gain of status. On the other hand, when Huck is faced with unfamiliar slaves, he lacks emotion towards them and often shows indifference to how they are referred to and treated. When Aunt Sally asks Huck if the explosion hurt anybody, Huck replies, “No’m. Killed a nigger,” to which Aunt Sally replies, “Well, it’s lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt,” (Twain 192). This indicates that neither Huck nor Aunt Sally consider a black slave a person of any importance whatsoever, if even a person. It is unclear whether Huck is acting as himself in this scenario or if he is still pretending to act like Tom, a traditional white Southern boy; regardless, this suggests that the white Southern society in the mid-1800s frowned upon the black population and thought of them solely as a source of labor. Although critics like Smiley argue that Twain did not convey the full extent of the mistreatment of slaves at the time, I do not believe it was necessary to do so in order to maintain the novel’s worth. Twain efficiently illustrated the slave society in the South while still focusing on the greater issues at hand, which were Jim’s quest for freedom and the adventures and means of assistance that Huck experienced and contributed to. He efficiently touched upon one of the greatest shames of America today that has long influenced our society and culture: the use and exploitation of African Americans. The last chapters of the novel, or the “evasion chapters”, really cause the book to lose any credibility of greatness. These final chapters change the whole perspective and purpose that Twain was trying to show throughout the novel, which is the increasing affection and care that Huck showed Jim as the book progressed. In these chapters, Huck finds Jim imprisoned on the Phelps farm, and then Tom Sawyer reappears in the novel and develops a cruel and unnecessary scheme for Jim’s escape. Before these chapters, the reader thought that Huck had overcome the fact that Jim was a slave and that he then worked for Jim to gain freedom and escape successfully. With the arrival of Tom Sawyer, the mood of the novel changes drastically. It goes from serious and culturally important to cruel and funny in a way that the morals of the book such as the relationship between Huck and Jim are turned around starting with the rescue of Jim. In his essay, Lionel Trilling acknowledges that the ending “certainly is a falling-off, as almost anything would have to be, from the incidents of the river” (335). Trilling is basically saying that these chapters were irrelevant to the events on the river, which were the events that had made Huck and Jim closer. It strays from the idea of Huck gaining respect for Jim on the river and throughout their journey. Rather, the ending of the novel shows the reader that Huck’s feelings for Jim are hard to maintain and could be lost very easily with the return of Tom Sawyer. Huck and Tom’s attempt to rescue Jim from the Phelps farm is absolutely absurd. First of all, Tom makes a game out of trying to save Jim. The novel and his growing care for Jim, the reader would not assume that Huck would go along with this game. Moreover, they would think that Huck would tell Tom to stop with Knowing Huck’s development throughout his games and be more serious when rescuing Jim. However, this is not the case. Instead, Huck goes along with Tom’s overelaborate attempt to save Jim while making a fool out of him. “…bought a wire rat-trap and fetched it down… in about an hour we had fifteen of the bulliest kind of ones… And so we went for the snakes, and grabbed a couple of dozen garters and house-snakes, and put them in a bag…” (264). Tom and Huck decide to get snakes and rats to throw in the shack Jim is in, in order to mess around with and torture him more. This continues to ruin the development of Huck’s character and the feelings he gained for Jim progressively throughout the novel. After a survey of hundreds of college students, critic Leo Marx found “only a handful who did not confess their dissatisfaction with the extravagant mock rescue of Nigger Jim and the denouncement itself” (Marx 191). Marx demonstrates that from a student’s perspective, it is hard to find the ending of the novel helpful to the development of the plot and the point of rescuing and freeing Jim. The ending of this novel proposed a huge problem that could not be overlooked by many. “I believe that the ending of Huckleberry Finn makes so many readers uneasy because they rightly sense that it jeopardizes the significance of the entire novel” (192). Marx suggests that due to the poor ending of the novel, readers question the whole entire journey and wonder if Huck got anything out of it. What is the point of the journey on the river? What does the ending say about Huck’s change of characteristics? It is obvious that the ending questions the meaning of the whole novel, and thus, is a poor ending. What really bothers me, personally, about the ending of the novel is when Tom says that Miss Watson had died two months earlier and that her will had made Jim a free man. “And his Aunt Polly she said Tom was right about old Miss Watson setting Jim free in her will; and so, sure enough, Tom Sawyer had gone and took all that trouble and bother to set a nigger free!” (290). Even though Tom had done a good deed by helping out Jim to escape, he knew all along that Jim was a free man! This contradicts the fact that they even had to work to help Jim escape. Some argue that the ending of the novel shows humor. However, I disagree with this. Humor is supposed to make one laugh at the characters, not feel bad for them. In this case, I did the latter of the two. I truly felt bad for Jim because the idea of him not being enslaved anymore was taken so lightly and joked around with. His freedom was not taken seriously at the end of the novel, not even by Huck. This did not make me laugh but rather feel very bad for Jim, who had cooperated with Huck this whole time just to get ridiculed at the end. With Tom Sawyer’s arrival, it seemed as if Tom and Huck were making a humorous attempt at rescuing Jim. Although Jim did not realize that he was being tormented by the boys, they still performed those harsh acts on him, mocking slavery and the idea of his freedom. Twain’s novel was tarnished by his attempt at a humorous prank which eventually took away from the cultural importance of the novel. The ending chapters of this novel are very important part of understanding why The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn should not be considered a great novel or a central document of American culture. I believe the true meaning and moral significance of the novel lies in the chapters before Tom’s return to save Jim. In these pages, the novel shows how, in those times, it was unusual for a white man to make friends with a slave, yet we see a true relationship form between Huck, a white boy, and Jim, a black slave. I do believe that it is great; however, it does not qualify as a great American novel as Lionel Trilling states. Leo Marx nearly fulfills my entire opinion. The beginning of the novel is by far one of the greatest in American literature but the ending is jeopardized and in my opinion, nearly destroys the novel when Mark Twain decides to bring back Tom Sawyer to find an escape plan for Jim. He then goes on to make humor of the situation when Tom is trying to make an adventure at the cost of Jim’s freedom. I also believe during that part of the novel, Huck betrays Jim to follow Tom. Instead of Huck rushing to free Jim and save his friend, he plays along with Tom and his cruel plan in the attempt to free Jim. The novel, in my opinion contrary to Trilling’s belief, is not about a god but instead about a boy who must learn to grow up and mature in life. Miss Watson freed Jim on her own will so that she could try to civilize Huck and make him a more responsible person. At the end of the novel, Jim breaks this news to Huck and that had been the reason, Jim said, why Ms. Watson had freed him. As far as the “community of saints” (331) between the two after Jim had held the secret all along and Huck had not taken Jim across the river, I don’t believe a community of saints existed between the two at the end of the novel. When Huck tries to make a fool of Jim after Huck denies that their raft separated them in the middle of the night, Jim becomes furious. To me, that doesn’t sound like a “community of saints” and it dampens the relationship between Huck and Jim for a few weeks until Jim admits Huck is his best friend. My opinion as far as the overall quality of the book is that it contains the characteristics and quality of a great American novel, however, I believe that when Twain comes back to complete it after stopping for a few years, the seriousness of the novel twisted to a more humorous side. Up to that point, the story focused on Huck and Jim and their growing friendship along with Huck’s maturity. However, when Tom arrived, the story turned to a humorous but cruel side as an adventurous and half-hearted attempt at saving Jim was taken. Huck doesn’t seem like he cares about Jim when he says, “we got a splendid stock of sorted spiders and bugs and frogs and caterpillars” which they later put in the shed Jim was in for Tom’s amusement (230). The mood changes and nearly sends a shockwave throughout the whole story that affects the quality and greatness of it. Therefore, I believe it cannot be considered a great American novel due to the fact that it completely changed the mood and tone of the story, in a negative way, after the climax was reached. Trilling’s opinion is that it is a central document of American culture, but this seems like an opinion made without taking into account the last chapters of the novel.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has caused many controversial arguments about whether the novel should be considered “great” and “a central document of American culture” or not. Leonel Trilling argues for the greatness of the novel, saying that it is “one of the central documents of American culture” and that its greatness lies “primarily in its power of telling the truth” (327). Leo Marx agrees with this idea of its greatness, but also believes that the ending of the novel greatly diminishes it and changes the reader’s whole view. In Pulitzer Prize winning Jane Smiley’s essay, she goes against all arguments of the novel being great and truly bashes it. Ron Powers agrees with Smiley and writes that the novel was a failed attempt to conclude a great tale which defines the torments of former slaves. I personally believe that this book could be considered great if it wasn’t for its horrific ending, which made me question the whole purpose of Huck’s role. This book does contain qualities of a great novel including its display of cultural significance. However, although this novel has certain attributes that can qualify it as “great”, it should not be considered a central document of American culture because of its poor mocking of Jim as a slave and Huck’s actions in the final, also known as “evasion”, chapters.