...Mark Twain: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The public debate surrounding Mark’s Twain’s Adventure of Huckleberry Finn has fair ground to be disputed in terms of context. However, to band the novel for the use of its language being brought in the text of the story may not be so justified. In order to get a positive understanding, you would have to take into the consideration Mark Twain’s possible motive, and question yourself if his true intention was to just depict the life of individuals along the Mississippi river before the civil war or was he trying to portray a difficult time in American history, and reveal how society in that time contradicted themselves in terms of their own personal morale? Surely, today I would not recommend reading the book to put my child to sleep at night, but I would not band the privilege of allowing other at certain grade levels to analyze Mark Twain’s story, and try to find what his main intentions were. My position would be not to band the novel and to change the words, but to use the book to reference a land mark in American history for older student to learn. In depth, the book has a bigger meaning and valuable lesson to learn about history, life, humanity, morale, society, law system, race and religion. The novel was published in England in December 1884 and takes place forty to fifty years ago from when it was published. Evidently, this took place well before the civil war period and what was mostly disturbingly common in society during...
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...passion of Don Juan. All three of these great works of literature have suffered the injustice of biased criticism and have been rejected from public schools, which wastes their educational potential. Candide has been place into the index of prohibited books, Huckleberry Finn has been banned almost every public school, and Don Juan has succumb to a similar fate. What people don’t understand is that these novels and works of poetry can show us more about how humans treat each other, how realistic some ridiculous things can be, and how we can understand ourselves. Candide is a novel written by the French writer Voltaire, it’s about a germen man by the name of Candide who goes on quite a journey meeting a variety of people, constantly running into political and religious figures with bad results. Meeting up with old friends and characters he believed dead, the novel consists of unrealistic situations in a comedic fashion but in the end, through all the hell he can say let’s just forget about it and move on in our life. This story can give you a real life perspective and show you that life shouldn’t be taken seriously, if a guy like Candide can go through what he did without a thought about it in the end, then so can you. One critic would agree, a man by the Edwin P. Grobe, who said “To work one's own garden is to embrace the present with fervor and dedication. It is to refuse to consider that which lies beyond one's own ken. It is to exhaust the possibilities of the immediate...
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...minorities, while the victors are titled the majority. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn himself creates a conflict with society and civilization, and as such takes it upon himself to be free of society’s cold, firm grasp that he had become a part of. Huckleberry runs away on a wild adventure with his slave friend Jim, and together they run and encounter many twisted individuals on their way towards freedom, which ironically for Jim, was in the southern portion of the United States. Mark Twain etches every thought and feeling either of these individuals onto the pages of his novel like a caveman desperately trying to carve a story into a cave wall, yearning for his message to be shared with anyone out there who could possibly be listening. This message is that minorities can never truly have freedom. No matter how far Jim and Huck ran, they were eventually brought back to where they began, and forced to live their lives as they once did, because they were not the victors in the splattered battlefield of these pages, the ink running away from the bodies of the characters like blood from the losers of the battle, telling a story of how it all happened. No, Huck and Jim were the losers, minorities forced to wait until they were given the same responsibilities as the victors who were oppressing them. Mark Twain did not write this novel to be a story. No, Mark wrote this to be an explanation, maybe even a confession, of his beliefs and thoughts. It...
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...without light, racism and cruelty darken the heart of people with their own indecent ignorance; the people refusing to see with their own humane eyes the cruel evil that was occurring for years. Families forcing to separate, people beating others, and the torturing of a race all because of simple trait; the color of one’s skin. In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, racism brutally appears in Mark Twain’s book and continuously seems to beat the reader with outrageous racial and cruel quotes that makes a person hate human society and their disgusting, despicable ways. The dehumanizing of people through the travesty of racism and slavery makes one shudder at how brutal the people of the 1800s acted. When Aunt Sally asks Huck, while he is pretending to be Tom Sawyer, if anybody has been hurt in a shooting he answers by saying, “No’m. Killed a nigger” (Twain 276). As if a slave dying does not count as a person, Aunt Sally goes on to say how great that...
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...Comparing and Contrasting the Controversies Surrounding Banning Books The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, deemed one of the great American novels, was published by Mark Twain in 1884. From the start, this novel has sparked a lot of negative criticism. There were heated debates among critics, and in schools debating whether or not to ban this controversial piece of literature. In today's society, this book still offends sensitive readers, because it was written in a time when people were not sensitive to the plight of African Americans. Just a month after it was published, The Concord, library in Massachusetts banned all copies stating that it was “Not suitable for trash.” (Ruta1) It was believed, that racism was at the heart of this book, and the content was, and still viewed as being harsh. Louisa May Alcott was a popular author who served on the very first library committee in Massachusetts, where The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was banned. She voted against this book from being sold, read or viewed. Criticizing Mark Twain saying that "Huck should not sweat. He should perspire." (Ruta1) Other libraries began removing their copies stating that it is inappropriate for children to read. The number of concerned citizens continue to debate on this subject today. Derogatory words are seen throughout this story in reference to showcase the difference between the two classes, white verses black. This book not only celebrates an unlikely friendship between these two races...
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...Samuel Langhorne Clemmons, who wrote under the pen name Mark Twain, was the leader of the literary style of realism, and an American literary icon. Twain was born November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri. Later the family moved to Hannibal, Missouri a developing port town. While growing up in Hannibal, Twain was exposed to the Mississippi river, to steamboats, and the people who made their living by working upon them. In several of his stories, he wrote regarding his admiration and respect for the river. Twain’s style of writing entwined themes of social commentary. Hallmarks of Twain’s writing include capturing colloquial speech, he uses metaphors, and similes create vivid depictions of his characters, and show their similarities and differences....
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...life, dinner before desert, be yourself, and treat others the way you would like to be treated are just a few. In Mark Twain’s Essay, “Advise to Youth” the dos and don’ts of life are broken down with comedic whit and enlightened charm. Twain contradicts typical wisdom in an interesting way, telling you the realities of life in a more “bread and butter” manner, skipping over deep advice and giving you the authentic truth to how the world works. In this work the reader is left with simplistic, real advice to how the world works but because the morality of it is wrong, you’re left to wonder if Twain has taught you right from wrong simply by telling you the truth. Twain starts his essay by talking about dealing with parents and your superiors. Rather than telling you to listen because they are wise and know best the way one is typically taught, Twain suggests his readers humor their elders with the idea that they know best. In doing this Twain speaks directly to his teenage audience whom already believes that they know what is best for themselves. Going further into the sarcasm and contradiction throughout the essay, one could suggest Twain was humoring his target reader. By pointing out that humoring adults who believe they know better will get you further to teens who believe they know better, Twain is using his own advice to get through to his reader. When Mark Twain writes about dealing with people who have offended you he suggests you hit them with a brick when they are unaware...
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...“It is agreed, in this country, that if a man can arrange his religion so that it perfectly satisfies his conscience, it is not incumbent upon him to care whether the arrangement is satisfactory to anyone else or not.” – Mark Twain (476) Introduction Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, traveled the world and got to know imperialistic endeavors from many different nations. After he returned to America on 15 October 1900, he joined the “Anti-Imperialist League” and actively opposed policies of the United States and Great Britain (William D. Howells and Mark Twain 723). In 1905, Mark Twain composed the short story The War Prayer in an effort to open the eyes to patriotic, war-loving people. This term paper will be a close-reading on Twain’s short story The War Prayer. The focus will not be on what was said about this short story by other authors, but rather give an explanation and deeper understanding on its satirical criticism on people’s patriotism and their glorification of war. The First Paragraph “It was a time of great and exalting excitement” (Twain 652). After reading these first nine words in Mark Twain’s The War Prayer one expects the time of “great and exalting excitement” to be one of technological advances or economic strength, or at least having to do with another peaceful connotation. Twain diverts these associations with his satirical competence by writing “The country was up in arms, the war was on . . .” Therefore, a “time...
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...American Realism rose out of. Prior to the Civil War, America was knee deep in the Romantic Movement which included writers such as Hawthorne, Thoreau, Melville, Poe and Whitman. Their writings focused on the puritan aspects of their ancestors or of the dark romance and psychological perspectives writers such as Poe and Melville used. However, after the war, this movement began to fade and Realism increased as the choice reading of the people. This was due to multiple events and changes in culture that led to Americans looking for something better to relate to. The first event was the end of the Civil War. The Civil War showed the violent intentions men had towards each other and also showed the vulnerability of men and the nation and how ungodly man actually was. However, Realism did not begin immediately after the Civil War but rather took off in the 1880’s. So what happened in the 1880’s then? The 1880’s saw the major migration of the typical American from the country to the city due to the rise of the industrial revolution and the increase in jobs in manufacturing and more efficient distribution methods. The migration to the city led to a new culture of Americans whose hard work days with long hours left little room for the desire for imagination and symbolism as American Romanticism had...
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...Explore young Mark Twain’s transformation from a proslavery Southerner to a staunch unionist. How did Twain view the Civil War? In time, Samuel Clemens came to understand and despite slavery, but in his youth, slaves were an accepted part of life. Jennie, the Clemens’s’ house girl, was a second mother to Twian, and the slaves children were his playmates. On the winter evenings, the whole family, black and white, would gather in front of an open fire to hear Uncle Ned, a slave, tell weird and wonderful stories about ghosts, spells, charms, and other manifestations of the supernatural. On at least one occasion, a slave saved Samuel from drowning. Such human relationships with blacks were the source of Twain’s tender account of Huckleberry Finn and the runaway slave Jim on their Mississippi raft. There is little doubt that Huck and, by implication, the young Clemens found more genuine affection and fatherly guidance in black men than he ever did in whites. The busy, cold John Clemens, in particular, was never close to his children. He died when Samuel was twelve. He did “vividly remember,” He later wrote, “seeing a dozen black men and women chained together lying in a group on the pavement, waiting shipment to a southern slave-market. They had the saddest faces I ever saw.” For the US as well as for Samuel Clemens, the decades immediately preceding the Civil War were, on the whole, a time of confidence. The nation’s future appeared bright. The anxious, uncertain years after independence...
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...Some of us prefer to tell our stories in a very straight-forward manner, just to get all the facts down. Some of us like to use a lot of emotion, and we may even say more adverbs and adjectives than actual facts. But for writers, using an objective or subjective style depends on the overall effect they are trying to make upon their readers. Mark Twain and Frederick Douglas both wrote about their childhood in the 19th century, but they use two very different styles to create specific emotions in their audiences. Twain and Douglass wrote about the childhood in two very different ways. In the narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass’s approach to his childhood is that of pure objectivity. In order to keep his story unbiased and let readers decide how they feel for themselves, he does not include any emotion in his writing. When he speaks about how he was beaten as a slave, he says “I was seldom whipped by my old master, and suffered little from anything else than hunger and cold.” Douglass refrains from using any words that...
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...The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain, author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, created a very controversial book because it spoke very sensitive topics such as slavery. Throughout the book, we follow the adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a fictional character, as he travels the Mississippi River. Highlighted during Huck’s journey, slavery and greed are attributed to many American norms. Huck is confronted with these societal issues such as slavery with a slave Jim, owned by Ms. Watson. Huck also faces greed when Pap returns to claim him. Greed is also very evident when he meets the fake dauphin and duke, two con artists who scam many characters in their journey. Twain is very clear on his opinion about slavery and greed in America. Twain is very clever in allowing the reader of the book to connect with Jim on an emotional level, and not portraying slaves as property like many did during that time. Additionally, many of the antagonists are driven by self-serving greedy motivations which portrays Twain’s opposition to greed. This...
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...An actor that I look up to massively named Alan Rickman once said “actors are agents of change. A film, a piece of theatre, a piece of music, or a book can make a difference. It could change the world.” I firmly support this statement because I believe performing arts is special. Art in any form has an effect on everybody, whether it be a romantic musical, a beautiful painting, or a touching monologue it tells a story. Actors tell stories through their emotions and make an audience member forget about their everyday life by bringing them to another world in the story they are telling on stage or on the big screen. However, being an actress has always been a dream of mine. In Mark Twain’s “Life on the Mississippi” he shares his struggle with having dreams and ambitions, and in the end he picks...
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...In countless literary works, authors create a character that acts as a parallel to the protagonist. These characters, called foils or foil characters, are compared to the protagonist in such a way to highlight specific qualities or character development. One such foil character is Tom Sawyer from Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Tom is a character that represents society along with its ideals and tendencies. Huck changes from a character that is only slightly different than the general population to someone who is tolerant and mature. Twain deliberately uses Tom’s personality to accentuate the change Huck has undergone throughout the story. Experience: As far as experiences go, Huck had seen and done far more than Tom, even at the beginning. His father, an abusive alcoholic, forced Huck out of his innocence at a young age. He was exposed to cruelty and rage that many people never see, which he...
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...The author Mark Twain created the character Huck in 1884 as the protagonist in the Great American Novel. Huck has a friend named Jim, a runaway slave. Jim not only symbolizes freedom as Twain shows him journeying down the Mississippi River to escape but he also represents rebellion. Throughout the novel, Jim travels with Huck to find freedom. Little did Jim know Mrs.Watson, his owner, granted him freedom before she died. In the book, Jim also rebels against the society of the south and proves no matter what race or background a person comes from, they are just as important as the man next to them. The book Huckleberry Finn has many forms of symbolism. Overall, Mark Twain exposes hypocrisy in the south and persuades the reader to view the south in a new light or from a different perspective. Jim, as a symbol, teaches readers about the cost of freedom and the unfair nature of...
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