Rollin Down the River: The Uniting of Theme and Plot in Mark
Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
In Mark Twain's novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain
develops the plot into Huck and Jim's adventures allowing him to
weave in his criticism of society. The two main characters, Huck
and Jim, both run from social injustice and both are distrustful
of the civilization around them. Huck is considered an uneducated
backwards boy, constantly under pressure to conform to the
"humanized" surroundings of society. Jim a slave, is not even
considered as a real person, but as property. As they run from
civilization and are on the river, they ponder the social
injustices forced upon them when they are on land.
These social injustices are even more evident when Huck and Jim
have to make landfall, and this provides Twain with the chance to
satirize the socially correct injustices that Huck and Jim
encounter on land. The satire that Twain uses to expose the
hypocrisy, racism, greed and injustice of society develops along
with the adventures that Huck and Jim have. The ugly reflection
of society we see should make us question the world we live in,
and only the journey down the river provides us with that chance.
Throughout the book we see the hypocrisy of society. The first
character we come across with that trait is Miss Watson. Miss
Watson constantly corrects Huck for his unacceptable behavior, but
Huck doesn't understand why, "That is just the way with some
people. They get down on a thing when they don't know nothing
about it" (2). Later when Miss Watson tries to teach Huck about
Heaven, he decides against trying to go there, "...she was going
to live so as to go the good place. Well, I couldn't see no
advantage in going where she was going, so I made up my mind I
wouldn't try for it." (3) The comments made by Huck clearly
show Miss Watson as a hypocrite, scolding Huck for wanting to
smoke and then using snuff herself and firmly believing that she
would be in heaven.When Huck encounters the Grangerfords and Shepardsons, Huck
describes Colonel Grangerford as, "...a gentleman, you see. He
was a gentleman all over; and so was his family. He was well
born, as the saying is, and that's worth as much in a man as it is
in a horse..." (104). You can almost hear the sarcasm from Twain
in Huck's description of Colonel Grangerford. Later Huck is
becoming aware of the hypocrisy of the family and its feud with
the Shepardsons when Huck attends church. He is amazed that while
the minister preaches about brotherly love both the Grangerfords
and Shepardsons are carrying weapons. Finally when the feud
erupts into a gunfight, Huck sits in a tree, disgusted by the
waste and cruelty of the feud, "It made me so sick I most fell out
of the tree...I wished I hadn't ever come ashore that night to seesuch things."
Nowhere else is Twain's voice heard more clearly than as a mob
gathers at the house of Colonel Sherburn to lynch him. Here we
hear the full force of Twain's thoughts on the hypocrisy an
cowardice of society, "The idea of you lynching anybody! It's
amusing. The idea of you thinking you had pluck enough to lynch a
man!...The pitifulest thing out is a mob; that's what an army is-
a mob; they don't fight with courage that's born in them, but with
courage that's borrowed from their mass, and from their officers.
But a mob without any man at the head of it is beneath
pitifulness" (146-147). Each of these examples finds Huck again
running to freedom of the river. The river never cares how
saintly you are, how rich you are, or what society thinks you
are. The river allows Huck the one thing that Huck wants to be,
and that is Huck. The river is freedom than the land is
oppression, and that oppression is no more evident than it is toJim.
It is somewhat surprising that Huck's traveling companion is Jim.
As anti-society that Huck is, you would think that he would have
no qualms about helping Jim. But Huck has to have feelings that
slavery is correct so we can see the ignorance of racial bigotry.
Huck and Jim's journey begins as Huck fights within himself about
turning Jim over to the authorities. Finally he decides not to
turn Jim in. This is a monumental decision for Huck to make, even
though he makes it on the spot. This is not just a boy running
away from home. It is someone who has decided to turn his back on
everything "home" stands for, even one of its most cherished
beliefs. In this way Twain also allows to let us leave our
thoughts of bigotry behind also and start to see Jim for who hereally is, a man.
Even though Huck has made his decision about Jim, early in the
voyage we see Huck's attitude towards Jim as racist. Eventually
Huck plays a mean trick on Jim and we see Huck begin to change his
attitude, "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 afterward, neither" (86). Later on in the story Huck
becomes very caring and protective for Jim, where this reaches a
climax at the point where Huck saves Jim from two slave catchers
by tricking them to think Jim is was Huck's small pox ridden
father. The dialogue between Huck and Jim also illustrates that
Jim is more than someone's property. He is a human being with
feelings, and hopes for a better future. He is not some ignorant,
uncaring sub-human, but plainly the opposite. Twain does not
necessarily come out and say that slavery is evil, that is far
above Huck's understanding, but he gives us the ammunition needed
to make that decision for ourselves.
Huck and Jim's adventures give us a chance to examine the society
they live in. It also gives us a chance to examine ourselves as
well as the society today. The story is over a hundred years old,
but many of the social vices then, sadly, pertain to our society
now. There are more examples of human failings in this book, the
trickery and cheating of the King and Duke, the lack of caring by
the townspeople for Boggs, the naivet‚ of the Wilks sisters and
the lack of common sense in Tom Sawyer. There is cruelty, greed,
murder, trickery, hypocrisy, racism, and a general lack of
morality, all the ingredients of society. All through the
adventure you have Huck Finn and Jim trying to find the one thing
they can only find on the river, freedom, but a person can only
stay on the river for so long, and so you have to go on land to
face the injustices of society. Quite a contrast, the freedom of
being without authority, being able to think for yourself, running
right next to the constraints made upon you by society.
Somewhere deep within the story Twain is making a powerful
statement, a wish for all humanity, that we can be brave enough to
break with what others assume is correct and just, and make
decisions for ourselves and the ability to stand on our own and do
something about it. We are that mob that stood outside Colonel
Sherburn's house, we are the Grangerfords and Shepardsons, and we
are the King and the Duke, and even the foolish townspeople in
every town they conned. Somewhere along the line we must become
I, someone has to have the courage to stand up for what is right,
to be what Colonel Sherburn would call a real man. Huck gives us
that chance, that ability to see things for what they are. His
adventures along with Twain's sharp criticism are so uniquely
combined to give us that realization. The greatest thing is that
it is done so well that we almost think that we are the ones thatdiscovered it.