Big Books Home

2006 Final Web Report

On Serendip

At its most basic level Twain's novel describes the story of a young boy, Huck Finn, and an escaped slave, Jim, traveling down the Mississippi River together on a raft. Throughout the book Huck and Jim face many trails together and encounter individuals from all walks of life like, town pariahs, social elites, the average citizen, a gang of robbers, feuding families and con artists. As the novel progresses the characters of Huck and Jim are gradually transformed, they develop and build a strong rapport. Perhaps the character that undergoes the greatest amount of change is Huck. Away from the traditional norms Huck is able to become friends with Jim, which, in turn, forces him to reevaluate how he perceives slavery. Huck is given several opportunities to act in a socially correct manner and turn Jim in and yet he never does. The Odyssey Huck and Jim embark on together is used by Twain to create a social critique by juxtaposing the idea of freedom against slavery, civilization and other social norms.

What is interesting is Mark Twain's use of freedom. Who exactly is seeking it and why? And how is this depicted? The author uses his depiction of Huckleberry Finn to emphasize that it is not only slaves who are searching for freedom. By all rights as a white male with money during the nineteenth century Finn should feel free and yet he does not. Instead, he feels confined and restrained by the society that should be assuring people like him freedom. Conforming to society's rules and restrictions proves difficult for Huck to handle. In the end he cannot take the structure and demands and, like Jim, tries to escape on a raft. The entire novel reveals Huck's resistance to conformity in a culture filled with hypocrisies. There are several characters and events in the novel that help document the being civilized, the escape of domesticity and the acquisition of freedom. Although they have a very short role overall in the novel, the female characters in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are central to the three concepts listed above.

This paper will examine how the women represent society and civilization and therefore for Huck Finn. Under consideration is why Huck views women as oppressors or enforcers of the social norm. Do the women in the novel reflect current social norms? It can possibly be argued that the women have the duty of carrying on traditional values of society and civilization because it has been their taught role in both the internal and private sphere. From birth women have had masculine restraints placed on them prohibiting certain behavior. Society acts as a type of loop, women do not deviate from what they learn and what they instill in others because it is not what they've been trained to do, they rarely have examples of any other type of behavior. Unlike women, Huck has the right to escape civilization and domesticity because as a male he is given the agency and authority to accept or reject the laws of society. The female characters Huck and Jim encounter, especially the Widow Douglas, Miss Watson, Aunt Polly, and Aunt Sally are the embodiment of the very restrictions Huck is trying to escape. For Huck the women represent the shackles of the society he is attempting to flee and place his freedom in jeopardy.

Although they only appear in the first few chapters of the novel, the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson are extremely central to the story. Perhaps more so than any other character in the book, they represent civilization and attempt to conform Huck into a socially acceptable individual. Throughout the rest of the book, Huck considers the Widow and Miss Watson in his important decisions in order to determine what his moral course of action should be. Huck moved in with the two women after he and his best friend, Tom Sawyer found treasure hidden by robbers. The transition was difficult for Huck; his father was a drunk who preferred for Huck to act uncivilized. Suddenly Huck was forced to follow rules that made no sense to him. Even the differences between right and wrong seem startling to him. Miss Wilson tells Huck he must behave if he wants to get into heaven, but from her descriptions it sounds like a place he probably doesn't want to end up anyway. What the two women see as deviant behavior he sees as ordinary and harmless.

It is clear that Huck does not think highly of the civilization and views it only as a pointless exercise and a form of entrapment. He can't stand being confined in a house and wearing starchy clothes. His life at the Widow's is constantly full of little rebellions; he leaves in the middle of the night, plays hooky and smokes his pipe. Huck's concept of civilization highlights the fact that the rules we follow to conform to society are flawed and, at times, absurd. What is the sense in being forbidden from smoking a pipe while the Widow has a snuffbox? How can civilization frown upon Huck's cussing and allow for his father to beat him with little intervention from the law? Later, after his father kidnaps him, Huck begins to realize how much he hates being civilized: " I didn't see how I'd ever got to like it so well at the widow's, where you had to wash, and eat on a plate, and comb up, and go to bed and get up regular, and be forever bothering over a book and have old Miss Watson peeking at you all the time" (Twain, 37).

After several months with his father Huck decides he must escape. He manages to find a way out of the locked cabin and even has a raft canoe that he can use to get away. The logical assumption would be for Huck to return to the Widow's house where he would be protected and cared for. After considering the issue, however Huck determines that this is not what he wants for himself, choosing instead to fake his own death so that no one will come after him. Huck's actions symbolize not only the escape from a dangerous situation but a rejection of the collective values and norms women like Miss Watson and the Widow represent.

Yet how is it that women come to represent society and civilization in literature? Throughout the entire novel Twain uses Huck's adventures to critique society. His experiences with the Duke and the King highlight that not everyone is necessarily trustworthy. At one point Huck encounters a group of men along the river looking for escaped slaves. Huck knows that if he lies and asks them to come help his family aboard the raft because they have small poxes they will actually stay away. Again, the failing of society is shown. Perhaps then Twain is trying to reflect what he sees occurring around him with his depictions of women. In our class discussions on March 28 we examined the philosophical understanding of emotions. What is interesting is philosopher Rousseau's take on women. According to Rousseau women cannot be active and functioning citizens because they are too immersed in caring for the children. All of their attention and energy is focused on making sure the children become part of society and that the male children especially become citizens. This is precisely the situation we see happening with Huck Finn. Huck grew up with a drunken father, never went to school, and, most importantly he did not have a mother. He therefore could never operate in society as a citizen because he was lacking the rules and structure Rousseau sees women and society shaping in children. Perhaps then Mark Twain uses Miss Watson and the Widow Douglas to reflect what he finds in everyday life. The two women go to great lengths to tame Huck and make him an acceptable component of society. They become his mother trying to fulfill Rousseau's prophecy.

Huck's actions then, faking his death, fleeing on a raft, helping a slave escape represent a rejection of the collective values and norms women like Miss Watson and the Widow symbolize. The company he keeps on the raft alone, an escaped slave and two con artists would isolate him from society. These people go against what should be the conscience of a small Southern boy in the nineteenth century. Huck's greatest moments of guilt occur when he is thinking about the Widow and Miss Watson, because aiding Jim goes against all the civilized laws they tried to instill in him. When Jim and Huck thought they were within sight of Cairo the full ramifications of his actions hit Huck. Jim is his friend, but is he really willing to help set him free? Huck tries to use the thought of Miss Watson to figure out what he should do: should he hurt her by helping Jim get free or betray proper social norms? (Twain, 107). He first tries to follow the norms the women placed on him and decided to tell Miss Watson where her slave was and he feels he has done the right thing, "Why, it was astonishing, the way I felt as light as a feather right straight off, and my troubles all gone" (Twain, 241). Even more shockingly Huck states, "I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever felt so in my whole life, and I knowed I could pray now" (Twain, 241). His decision to do the right thing by society's standards makes him feel as if he really can join the civilized world of Miss Watson and the Widow.

It is clear at this point that Huck is not yet fully liberated from civilization. He sees his dilemma as hiding his role in the escape from Miss Watson, so he won't be in disgrace. He doesn't want to injure Miss Watson, but he cannot fully conform to the beliefs she represents. As long as he continues to figure the reaction of women like Miss Watson and the Widow in his actions he is still imprisoned by their civilization. After much inner turmoil, Huck decides to do what feels right to him, to do what will give him the most peace.

The issue comes to a head when he must decide if he will steal Jim from slavery again. He is well aware society will perceive him as a reckless renegade and spurn him. When discussing the problem with his best friend Tom Sawyer, he states, " I know what you'll say. You'll say it is a dirty low down business; but what if it is? –I'm low down" (Twain, 255). The importance of Huck's decision is reflected in Huck's bemusement at Tom's quick acquiescence to steal Jim out of slavery-again, "Here was a boy that was respectable, and was well brung up; and had a character to lose; and folks at home who had characters...and yet here he was, without more pride, or rightness, or feeling than to stoop to this business" (Twain, 263-264). From what Huck has understood from Miss Watson, he recognizes this decision will mean the difference between going to heaven or hell. It will forever solidify his place in society. In the end he chooses to reject civilization, this time for good: "never thought no more of reforming. I shoved the whole idea from my head; and said I would take up wickedness again, which was my line, and the other warn't" (Twain, 242). This speech highlights Huck's ultimate freedom. His struggle with his conscience was the last tie he had with his previous life, the morals the women tried to instill in him. Since Tom knew beforehand that Jim was already free, Tom is not really attempting to break from society, he is just playing at it. For Huck this is a real and important decision, it required a great deal of soul searching and it clearly has ramifications for him. Tom is just playing another one of his games. It is the motivations behind Huck's actions that mean he is no longer confined by the rules that govern everyone else.

At the end of the novel Huck is once again given the opportunity to reenter society. Again women, Aunt Polly and Aunt Sally, represent the choice between a civilized life and freedom. Aunt Polly has curtailed his freedom by informing Sally that he is really Huck Finn and not Tom Sawyer. Sally plans to eliminate his freedom all together with her threats to adopt Huck. Again, Huck decides he wants his freedom, "Aunt Sally she's going to adopt me and sivilize me and I can't stand it" (Twain, p328). Instead, he decides to go on another adventure with Tom, this time to Indian Territory. Does Huck have it right? Does escaping domesticity equal the attainment of freedom? If it does how come Huck has the right to do this? To answer these questions it might prove fruitful to examine what another author, Margaret Fuller, was saying at this time. What did she perceive to be the roles of women, what did she think of the domestic sphere?

First the question of whether or not Huck is right to view domestic life as a form of entrapment? Fuller would argue that in the nineteenth century, and for women especially, society and domestic society was indeed constraining. According to Fuller men and women are trapped in a loop. Society places us in certain circumstances, women in the home and men in keeping them there and controlling them. We fashion ourselves to please others and to fit into society. One might think since it is the woman who is tied to the domestic sphere it is only she who needs to find some degree of freedom. Fuller, however, argues that men are slaves too, slaves to their own habit. Not granting women equality and treating them equally will only have a detrimental affect on them as, "an improvement in the daughters will best aid the reformation of the sons of this age" (Fuller, 158-159). Society places restrictions on women and men, but it is only the men who are able to break free of them.

As a result of their very positions in society, men are better able and more equipped to break free of the restrictions society places on them. According to Fuller:
"It may be said that man does not have his fair play either; his energies are repressed and distorted by the interposition of artificial obstacles. Aye, but he himself has put them there; misfortune in women's lot, it is in obstacles being interposed by men, which do not mark her state, and if they express her past ignorance, do not present her present needs. As every man is of every woman born, she has slow means of redress, yet the sooner a general justness of thought makes smooth the path, the better." (Fuller, 168)

Huckleberry Finn has the option of getting the freedom that he desires, the ability to break away from society if he so chooses. As Fuller states, men put restrictions upon themselves in society so if he decides to break away from them it is his right. Women do not have that option. They are trapped in the loop and the cycle for Fuller. Huck's leaving home and traveling down the river almost alone is odd, because he is so young. If Twain had described a story of a girl traveling down the river it would have been shocking because she was young and a girl. It breaks too many norms and taboos. As a result women are in the novel to present a backdrop for Huck. They are moral pillars that Huck responds to throughout the story.

A paradox is created, however, with Huck flight and journey down the river. He escapes so that he may escape the social confines, have freedom from moral and be free of civilization. This is not what happens. Instead Huck comes to find he is not happy without civilization. Immediately after his escape Huck is alone on an island for a few days. At first he is happy but begins to feel terribly lonely. He needs the company of Jim in order to be happy. Over the course of the story there are several instances where Huck states that he is glad that he had Jim's company, he is glad Jim is with him. Jim's companionship at once breaks from and reinforces nineteenth century values. The fact Huck is traveling with an escaped slave in the first place breaks the social norms that Huck, as a white male, should have, especially since he hates abolitionists. The norm is reinforced, however, because Huck does at times treat Jim as a slave. Huck's time with the Grangerfords, the Duke and the King are perfect examples. Huck leaves Jim alone for days or weeks on end without giving him much thought.

If Huck had fully escaped from the ideas and ideals society, Miss Watson and the Widow Douglas, had instilled in him then he would have had no qualms with the actions of the Duke and the King. When the King and Duke decide to steal the money from the Wilks girls Huck can't stand it. The idea that three orphan girls are going to have everything they have left in the world is enough to make Huck sick, so he decides he will risk personal injury to himself and steal the money back for them. By attempting to leave society Huck has his conscience, morals and sense of decency tested. The irony is that by going against what he perceives are the ideals of society, Huck is achieving a moral decency that in today's society we would find commendable. Huck proves himself to be, overall, a decent, sympathetic and sensitive human being.

For Huckleberry Finn women are the embodiment and enforces of a society and civilization he would like to do without. As Rousseau and Fuller might argue women help to carry on and instill social norms onto their children whether they want to or not. On a superficial level he escapes the norms they place on him, he can curse when he wants to, he can smoke, no one will tell him to dress nice, and he does not have to take a bath and stay clean all the time. On a deeper level however, Huck is unable to escape his own feelings of conscience. He may not think in exactly the same terms as the rest of society but he usually does the right thing in the end. Twain's novel demonstrates that unlike women, Huck has the ability to escape the constraints if he so decides. As a male he is give the agency he needs to break away from the laws of society. Huck has a sense of propriety; he chooses not to follow it. What does all this mean for a Bryn Mawr student reading the text today? Can we identify with it at all? I think that the intelligent reader gets out of the text what he or she needs. I don't agree with Fetterley that by identifying with Huck Finn I am in some way emasculated. As a reader of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn I take from it that society is constraining, but by following conscience and individual guidelines it is possible to still do what is morally right. And for where I am right now in my life at this very second, that is enough.


| Course Home | Serendip Home |