Historical Context in Mark Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn essays

Historical Context in Mark Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn essays While great literature is timeless, it is important to examine the historical context of literature to gain a greater understanding of people, places, and events. This insight allows us to see not only the characters clearly but it also brings us closer to understanding why people behave the way they do. When authors capture elements of history and place them into their works, we feel as if we are somehow closer to experiencing that history as reality. In mark Twains novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, we have a novel that demonstrates how historical context explains characters and events with clarity. In his novel, Twain demonstrates how issues such as slavery and folklore affect individuals in almost every way. In fact, historical events and societal traditions shape the characters we encounter in this novel. The Civil War, Reconstruction, and a country torn between right and wrong make The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn a masterpiece for capturing a slice of American l ife complete with its imperfections. The novel, in its apparent simplicity, peaks volumes about southern society. Justin Kaplan notes that Mark Twain wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as a man desperately needing to resolve his own bewilderment about conscience and the restraints and freedoms of the community (Kaplan 227). Kaplan also quotes Twain as saying, The consciencethat unerring monitorcan be trained to approve any wild thing you want it to approve if you begin its education early and stick with it (Twain qtd. in Kaplan 228). Kaplan observes that the conscience may not necessarily be the voice of God but only the voice of the people (Kaplan 228). The understanding is that if man can reject the voice of the people, freedom from the tyranny of conscience (228) could be discovered. Through the very historical adventures of Huck and Jim, we see an awakening take place in one of the m...