|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
In
Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn", the story's main character,
Huck Finn, feels alienated by the morals and norms of
1830's/1840's American society, and as a result, he runs
away with a slave, Jim, who Huck relates with, and feels
that Jim makes sense. Because Huck feels alienated by the
various people, and the civilized morals that were forced
upon him by them, which he encountered in the town where he
grew up, he seeks a way out. To get away from the
civilization, and the alienation which accompanies it, which
he so dislikes, Huck rafts down the Mississippi River with
Jim. Because this whole story is about someone feeling
alienated, and what he chose to do about it, Huckleberry
Finn is the perfect example of a play or novel in which a
character is alienated from a culture or society.Huck
feels that the society around him is just too strict, and
just doesn't make much sense to him. He seeks an escape from
the preachy, intolerant people which he was originally
surrounded by, such as Miss Watson. Although Huck is quite
superstitious, and believes in many pointless little
motions, symbols, etc. that are somewhat foolish to believe
in (although I should note that they definitely aren't
considered foolish by all people), he does realize a few
things about the society around him that most of the other
people around didn't see. I would consider the best, and
most obvious, example of a contradictory aspect, flaw, if
you will, in the small Mississippi River town culture which
Huck is immersed in, to be how he realizes the wrongness (if
not immorality) of slavery. Huck sees the fault and
contradiction present in the way that although most of the
townspeople are very religious, they also support the system
of slavery, which was ubiquitous in the pre-Civil War
(antebellum) south. Thanks to his sureness of himself, and
frequent doubts of the correctness of those around him, Huck
often realizes things that the general populace doesn't. For
example, when Huck comes across the two families along the
Mississippi who are involved in a "feud", he knows
immediately that this is not a place to be, and that their
situation is quite ridiculous. Huck gets out of there right
away. His
distrust of many typically trusted figures of social
conformity and sureness of his self-correctness allow Huck
to have an unobscured view of what makes sense and what
doesn't in society. And this story conveys Huck's rather
insightful observations to the reader through the words of a
boy, which adds to the innocence, and, in some cases, humor
of the story.Huckleberry
Finn is a great story to look at when studying social or
cultural alienation, because of how Huck feels very
alienated by society, and civilization in general, and what
he does to get away from it.
