Huckleberry Finn

At the beginning of Huck Finn’s adventures, the reader is warned not to try and extract a moral, motive or plot from the narrative. There is something to be said for this, I think, in relation to the narrator’s own innocence. Huck Finn never once moralizes with the reader. He never has a definite motive for doing what he does. Plots are meaningless to Huck because his life can’t be organized on a chart. And so I believe that what Twain is trying to do is make us read the book as children. The innocent child, such as Huckleberry Finn, does not see the moral argument behind Abolition. He probably can’t even spell Abolition! But his own conscience tells him when something is wrong.

For a moment, I’d like to talk about Mark Twain. Mark Twain was certainly not comparable to Huckleberry Finn. He wrote opinionated, strong literature such as Letters from the Earth which denounces the very foundations of Christianity. Literature with plots, motives and morals. He was educated, highly intelligent and witty. So why should we judge his view from such a “narrow” perspective as Huck Finn’s? Is Twain trying to be deceptive?

The argument for Huck’s perspective as preferable to Mark Twain’s is found in the narrative itself. If we read as the simplest of children, then we allow our conscience to take over. Through the eyes of a child, slavery is wrong: not immoral, but simply wrong. And so the simple child Huck allows his conscience to take over and does what he feels must be done. Huck sees things around him which he is annoyed by. He doesn’t exactly think about them, but rather just says and does what’s on his mind. Therefore, the theories of an educated man (Twain) are confirmed through the beautiful innocence of a child.

In a sense, Mark Twain and Huckleberry Finn lead similar lives. The life I refer to is that of a Rebel. Huck, for whatever reasons, leads his own small rebellion against society by helping a runaway slave. In effect, he puts Twain’s words and theories into practical use. If this were really to happen, the general Southern populace would have been shocked. Twain gives a voice and a meaning to Huck’s actions. He knows that once we read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that we will moralize with ourselves. He is rebelling against the ignorant society which he so despises by cleverly using the children of that society to prove his point. To simply take this book at face value is to squander an opportunity to welcome pure innocence and the pure conscience into our hearts.