Huckleberry Finn: hero or villain?

Origin every(prenominal)y developed in Spain, unity of the discordant styles of writing used by authors is that of the pic besque fable, which involves a picaro, or rascal sub, usu all in ally on a journey, and incorporates an casual biz by dint of miscellaneous conflicts. Mark Twains novel, The Adventures of huckleberry Finn (AHF), is a picargonsque novel, marked by its divided secret plan with a unifying theme of the river and the characterization of huck Finn as a scallywag wedge shape. The novels periodic plot is demonstrated by hucks many adventures in separate fortunes having independent conflicts.Gary Weiner, a former English teacher, states that the picaresque novel is episodic. Various scenes may have little to do with unrivalled another, and faultless scenes may be removed without markedly altering the plot as a upstanding (88). The conflicts that g everywheren hucka prats encounters with race like the dishonest and shifting king and the duke, the Grange rford family, or Colonel Sherburn are very different and disconnected from one another. Whereas one episode involves two crooks, the duke and the king, the other involves a long-standing family feud in the midst of the Grangerford and Sheperdson families, and the third involves a Colonel defending his honor, with very little connection among the episodes. tomcat Quirk, an author, editor, and English professor at the University of shedouri-Columbia, to a fault purports that huckabackleberry Finn is a highly episodic book, and the arrange manpowert of episodes observes no incontestable narrative logic. The feud chapters precede or else than follow the Boggs shooting not for self-evident artistic reasons simply when because we are to suppose that is the order in which huckaback lived them (97). The different conflicts exhibit the novels picaresque style and are used to relate the story of a stray scalawag hero.Though the storys plot is episodic in nature, there is, however, a unifying factor of the river, shown through with(predicate) the conflict and water diction. John C. Gerber, a well-known Twain scholar, affirms in Mark Twain Overview that though episodic in nature, the story nevertheless holds together because of the river and the constant presence of huck as narrator. Every episode in the book takes turn out along the banks of the Mississippi River, as Huck and Jim travel down the in grave order river, trying to find Cairo.From the crashed steamboat to the Royal None such spectacles along the river billet towns, the small conflicts are related by their proximity to the river. Leo Marx, senior Lecturer and William R. Kenan Professor of American Cultural History Emeritus at MIT, cites T. S. Eliot, a poet and also another critic, in saying that The River gives the book its form. however for the River, the book might be only a sequence of adventures with a happy ending (12). Water diction is used to purvey a ace of the unifying river in the boo k.As Huck and Jim raft down the river from capital of Mississippi Island, Huck comments Two or three days and nights went by I reckon I might say they swum by, they slid along so placidness and smooth and lovely (AHF 129). The river physically holds the story together and also underlies the whole novel. Huck can be compared to Weiners definition of a Picaresque hero as The picaresque novel is a witty, satirical form that revolves about the exploits of a lower-class hero of dubious morals, frequently called a rogue hero. This hero lives by his wits as he moves through the several(a) strata of his society.The hero is constantly in and out of trouble but often uses his street-smarts to emerge from compromising situations. (87) To that extent, these four character traits are seen in the hero of the story, Huckleberry Finn. Huck can be characterized as having dubious morals through his actions and reasoning. Huck justifies some of his mean actions, such as buying, by apply his p aps own actions as a precedent. Quirk states, Huck is often heart-to-heart of pseudomoralizing, citing his pap as authority for lifting a chicken or borrow a melon (92).As Huck tells the reader during the preparations to help Jim play from the Phelps residence, Along during that morning I borrowed a sheet and albumen fit out off of the clothes-line I called it borrowing because that was what pap al instructions called it (AHF 256). Also, Huck rationalizes his dissipated action when he sneaks into a circus without paying. He defends his action by saying that he did not need to waste money I aint opposed to spending money on circuses, but there aint no use in wasting it on them (AHF 159). Huck, therefore, carries out improper and immoral actions akin to thievery.Weiner verifies this there is no honor among thieves, and Huck, by necessity, has become one of them (83). Thus, Huck demonstrates the characteristic of beingness a rogue hero through his immoral actions and their justification. Rogue heroes travel through various neighborly strata through the episodes that Huck experiences, Twain presents the many levels of antebellum Mississippi valley American social strata. Huck starts traveling with Jim, a run off striver, down the Mississippi river, and in the end befriends him, a lower class individual. Huck, after playing a cruel joke on Jim, apologizes to him.This is highly out of convention for the milieu of the time, as Jim is naught more than a slave, while Huck is a white boy It was fifteen irregulars before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger but I make it, and I warnt sorry for it afterwards, neither (AHF 98). This exemplifies one instance where Huck mingles with a person of a lower class. Additionally, Huck cares enough about Jim that he resolves himself to free his friend and suffer the consequences I studied a minute then says to myself, All right. Then, Ill go to hell I would go to work and steal Jim out of slavery again (AHF 228). Huck sacrifices the most valuable dowry of himself, his soul, to stay with his lower class friend Jim. Huck also interacts with people of higher social classes Tom Sawyer, his aunt, the Widow Douglas, and Miss Watson are all drawn from the middle class. The Sheperdsons and Grangerfords represent the wealthy, aristocratic upper class (Weiner 73). Miss Watson, who cares for Huck in the beginning, and the Widow Douglas are not overly wealthy, but do have several slaves (AHF 11).The Phelps family, who Huck mingles with when they mistake him for Tom Sawyer, also belongs to the middle class. Huck describes them as well-off, but not overly wealthy family Phelpss was one of these little one-horse cotton plantations(AHF 232). The cotton plantations were very made at the time, but the Phelpss is one of a smaller size, denoting their middle-class status. When Huck arrives at the residence of the Grangerfords, an upper-class, aristocratic family who he stays with, he describes It was a mighty slender family, and a mighty nice house, too.I hadnt seen no house out in the country before that was so nice and had so much style (AHF 112). Huck also describes the house as having features like a fireplace and other luxuries that only the affluent could afford. Therefore, Huck satisfies another requirement of the rogue hero, interacting with characters from various social classes. Another look of the picaresque hero is his constant entanglement with trouble. Each episode that Huck experiences, embroils him in that conflict until he flails to stumble into the next conflict.After the episode where Huck and Jim are separated in the fog, they encounter a root of slave-hunters following that, more trouble befalls them as a steamboat runs into their raft, forcing Huck into the water. Eventually, Huck washes up on the property of the Grangerfords, where he faces the next conflict. In his attempts to escape from trouble, Huck often inadvertently stumbles into more trouble. Huck quick-wittedly resultant roles Goodness sakes, would a runaway nigger run south? to the king and the dukes wondering if Jim is a runaway slave (AHF 138). However, according to R. J.Fertel, a Twain scholar, Hucks quick-witted answer gets Jim and Huck out of the frying pan and into the fire the duke responds by printing the slave bills that enable their rafting by day and that leads ultimately to Jims being sold back into slavery (92). The different conflicts in the story as well as Hucks responses and reactions get Huck often into trouble. Finally, Huck fulfills the fourth metre for a rogue hero by using wits and practical acquaintance of the world to avoid or escape from trouble. Whenever Huck is tangled in a problem, he concocts a story for himself on the spot and manages his way out of trouble.According to Fertel, Huck, is an improviser always ready with a tall narration or scheme or counter scheme Hucks improvising is harmless, brought to bear o n others only to avoid trouble (94). After Huck tries to slip away from the duke and the king after the townsfolk find out that the two are not the real relatives of the deceased man, Peter Wilks, the king catches Huck and asks if he was trying to give them the slip. Huck quickly lies that the man that had aholt of me was very good to me and he was sorry to see a boy in such a dangerous fix he let go of me and whispers Heel it now, or theyll hang ye for sure and I lit out (AHF 219). Similarly, when Jim is in danger of being discovered by raftsmen, he quickly lies to them and convinces them that his father has variola gentlemen, if youll only pull ahead, and let me heave you the head-line, you wont have to come a-near the raft the men immediately back off Keep away, boy keep to looard. Your paps got the smallpox and you know it precious well. Do you want to spread it al over? (AHF 103).Huck lies again to protect himself as well as Jim. In addition, he uses his practical k nowledge to support his story when he is control by Mrs. Judith Loftus. To see if Huck was really from a farm, as he had told her while in the guise of a girl, she asks him questions, such as Which side of a tree does the most moss grow on? to which Huck cursorily and correctly answers North side Hucks practical knowledge convinces her, as she responds, Well, I reckon you have lived in the country, and relieves Huck of momentary trouble (AHF 71). right away concocting stories and lies as well as utilizing practical knowledge characterize Hucks wit, fulfilling this criterion of the rogue hero. An episodic plot and Huck Finn as a rogue hero establish Mark Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as a picaresque novel. The plot consists of many episodes with separate and disconnected conflicts, all bound by the river. Huck Finn can be characterized as a rogue hero, thus fulfilling all the necessary criteria for the picaresque novel.