Why Is Mark Twain Idealize Huck Finn's Life On The River

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Justin Garcia #51 Kelly English 3A 1/17/15 Samuel Langhorne Clemens, a native Missourian, spent the early stages of his life playing along the Mississippi River. As a young adult, he became a riverboat captain, operating steamboats on that same river. Shortly after, Clemens started writing under the pseudonym, Mark Twain. He took this name because of its meaning in nautical language, “twelve feet,” which is a suitable depth in which to go through. Because of his affiliation with the river, he idealized Huck's life on the river as how society should be. While on the river, Huck and Jim's days go by relaxingly, like a river is ever-flowing and easy-going, where Huck and Jim can be themselves without judgment. On land, society is corrupt and…show more content…
When on land, Huck's father, Pap kidnaps Huck in order to keep Huck from being “better [than] him [and to keep Huck from] fooling around [in] school” (19) because he never went to school, illustrating a very poor example of parenting and a closed-minded way of thinking. As a parent, he should want what's best for Huck, wanting him to be civilized and be a decent human being. Like the land, which is physically slow-changing, Pap doesn't want Huck to surpass him. When Huck is imprisoned within the shed, Pap beats him and suppresses him, keeping him unchanged and unable to improve physically or mentally. Huck escapes suppression by fleeing to the river, where he finds his ticket to freedom; “a canoe... riding high like a duck” (30). The river symbolizes, freedom from Pap and essentially freedom from the corruption of society. Civilized people, such as Judge Thatcher and Miss Watson, don't believe Pap raises Huck correctly, but they would never accord to Jim raising Huck because he is black, even though he is a parent, himself; this represents the land's closed-minded way of thinking. Society puts Pap over Jim, even though Pap is a horrible human being because Pap is white and Jim is black, illustrating society's corrupt

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