The Romanticism and Realism in The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn
In Mark Twain’s The Advanture of Huckleberry Finn, there are both realistic elements and romantic elements in the story. Mark Twain demonstrates characteristics of both Romanticism and Realism in his novel to express his ideas of that time period. Romanticism in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is evident by the adventurous turn of events the characters experience throughout the story, and is also based on the importance of feelings, imagination and individual creativity; on the other hand, realism is intended to portray the lives of the common man, the ethical struggles and social issues of real-life situations which are included in giving the story a more serious tone. By combining both elements, Twain is able to create a story that is both enjoyable to read, but also gives a serious message.
The realism elements of the story are the parts of social evil including the existance of slavery, the racism thinking that the white always not comsider black people as human but animals, the king and the duke’s behaviors to take advantage of other people,and last but not least, the dialects in the book, which has been extremely true-to-life in mimicking the peculiar verbal tendencies of individuals along the Mississippi. However, when it comes to boys swearing, smoking, and fake his death in running away from family,these parts which, according to the introduction of Mark Twain, was the main reason that libraries and schools around the country banned the novel and denounced in pulpitsm was seem more like romanticism than realism to me. I think Twain’s purpose in including those part was not to encourage young children to do inappropriate things. The personality of Huckleberry Finn was just showing the readers the kind of romanticism that is always true to the heart, which Twain preferred.
The Boggs-Sherburn episode, for example, leads readers to reconcile whether...