In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,Mark Twain creates a clever, kind, brave white boy named Huckleberry who fled to the Mississippi River for a life of freedom. On his way to escape, he met Jim, a slave. Jim was a hardworking, honest, loyal slave who escaped from his master's house to escape being sold again. The two men went through various adventures.This famous novel reflects many themes which invoked many people in that period.
In this paper,i will mainly focus on discussing the theme of the spirits of resistance:Resistance to slavary discrimination as well as Resistance to fate.
1.Resistance to fate.
By destiny, we mean that life and death, wealth and all suffering are predestined. In the face of fate, some people are willing to admit defeat and believe that it cannot be changed but some people struggle with their fate and resistance to fate. In this novel, Mark Twain creats two typically characters: Huckleberry Finn and Jim.That kinds of spirit of resistance reflected in the two person outstandingly.
About Jim, as a slave, had no right to choose his own future, and all his life was decided by his mistress. But Jim did not give in to his fate and struggle against the dark life.When he heard that his mistress was planning to send him away, he tried to run away. He also tried to save his wife and children and yearned for a free life.
About Huck,he has a drunken father who always abuse him, because of this, huck left his father and adopted by the widow, the widow is very good to him, and gave him all the comfortable life, but huck cannot habits and adapt to the religious life. So he ran away again in pursuit of real freedom.
After struggling with fate, Jim and huck went after the east they wanted.Therefore,from the two main characters,the theme of resistance to fate is obviously clear.We can figure out that they are try their best to get freedom and didn’t give in to their life even if there are many obstacles up ahead.
2.Resistance to slavery and racial discrimination.
This novel was written in the late 19th century, when slavery was legally abolished.But in fact, blacks are still at the bottom of society, suffering from discrimination and slavery. In this novel, Mark Twain wrote about huck's rescue of Jim-the slave to express his own opposition to slavery by the image of Huck and Jim.
First of all, in the beginning of the novel, when huck escaped from the widow,he met a runaway slave Jim.Regardless of his lonely and helpless situation,Huck is still try his best to help Jim.On the day of his escape,Huck was touched by Jim's kindness and selflessness .Therefore, in huck's hearts, he regarded Jim as a true friend. When Jim is going to be resold by the king and the duke to his old master, in spite of the fear and go to hell after death,Huck tore up the letter which report runaway slave Jim's trace.It is the development of the plot made it clear that blacks and whites can become truly friend, the black should be in the same position as the white society,and the slavry is also unreasonable.Therefore,form the main plot of this novel,we can clearly realized the theme of slavry resistance and racial discrimination.
In another aspect,some words between communication,for example the word“Polly-voo-franzy”(this word related to the local black people’s dialects)throughout the novel,reflect the social reality at that time that slavery didn't have the rights to control their life and just sold again and again by their slave owner.So it’s also emphasized the theme of resistance to slavery and racial discrimination from another indirect side.
3.Conclusion
In this novel,Mark Twain creates two characters Huck and Jim to reflect the theme of resistance to fate and resistance to slavery and racial discrimination through their experiences of escape and psychological description.Also,In this novel Mark Twain adapts some dialects into their communications from black people to highlight the slavery and racial discrimination.
All in all,The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn also fully embodies the artistic charm of Mark Twain's works.Through analyze the spirit of resistance in this novel,we also should learn from the Jim and Huck not give in to our unfair dark life.We need to struggle against that kinds of life and be owner of ourselves!
