COMMENTARY Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) Adventures of Huckleberry Fin was written by Mark Twain and published in 1884. It is commonly named among the Great American novels. The work is among the first major American literature to be written throughout in vernacular english. The story is told in the first person, by Huckleberry Fin, a friend of Tom Sawyer. The excerpt we are studying is a vivid description of the life on the Mississippi River. Thus, we are going to study how the description of the life on the Mississippi River by the narrator is turning the place into an idealized heaven, mostly through the senses. We will first see the hundrun of the life of the two characters present -Huck, the narrator, and Jim-, then we will analyze the setting itself and the way it is represented, and finally we will study the idealized heaven through the use of the senses. Mark Twain uses the opportunity of the scene in the text to portray the beauty of the Mississippi and its surroundings. During this time, Huck's narrative is filled with calm images of approaching dawn, small breezes, hot breakfast and a sky « speckled with stars «. Indeed, the scene takes place into a calm atmosphere of pleasant solitude, while both children, Huck and Jim, are watching the « daylight come «. The description of the place adorns it, through the use of a poetic language, in a Romantic way, in order to depict the hundrun of the life on the river. Indeed, one can notice the alliterations in « s « - « slid into the river and swim so as to freshen up « and the rhymes - « bottom « with « come «. This same hundrun is emphasized by the use of the modals « would «, « could « and the verbal form « used to «. So, this everyday life is depicted by the narrator as « lovely «. The child describes his habits as sacred ones. The way it is depicted seems mechanical : everything has a time to be done and is done by the time the children are allowing it. For instance, they are eating first, then having a nap, then shaving « soon as it was night «. The actions are ennumerated, which emphasize the idea of a mechanised and sacred habits « soon as it was the night out « « then we lit the pipes « « and dangled (…) and talked «. The situation also has its specificities, which are introduced by the term « sometimes «. Sometimes, the daily life knows its moments of change : « sometimes, we'd have the whole river to ourselves for the longest time «. The place is a sanctuary which has not to be shattered and invaded by society. The fact that they are naked most of the time is symbolic : it represents the reject of society. Indeed, it is part of the « being one with nature « idea. The clothes that were made for Huck represents the will of society of transforming him into a good-looking man, but the use of the term « confortable « has a doble meaning because just as the clothes do not fit with him, the society makes him ill-at-ease. The nature has not to be altered by man, and the only presence which breaks the quiet and silence is that of animals. The characters are living life simply, feeding themselves from the gifts of nature. The place is an idealized land for the two children who seek nature and nature only. The weather is nice, everything smiles to the sun and the birds are singing just as if this delightfull place was the paradise. It is also showed by the use of superlatives and exclamations (l.15 and l.18). The tension of the setting is shown by its horizontal line, because it represents the vast expense of the water, as opposed to the growing cities during that period with the industrialization (which is criticized by author such as Mark Twain). The immensity of the place is showed first by the comparison « the whole world was asleep « : the whole world is reduced to the Mississippi river because of its hugeness. The vastness of the expense is emphasized by the repetition of « away «, because distance equals greatness, and it is indeed highlighted by the use of the superlative « so far away «. This immensity recalls the idea of sublime in Gothic descriptions of settings, because it brings out the spectacular in nature. Still, immensity holds in itself a tension raised in the text : the problem of perception. Indeed, we can notice many verbs of perception, repeated many times such as « see « and « look «, and they are often emphasized by the modal « could «, which underlines the fact that it is a hypothesis, not a strict reality (even if the probablity is high). The perception is blurred, for instance, the woods on the other side are reduced to a mere « kind of dull line « ; the trading scows are « dark spots « and the rafts are « long black streaks «. The perception has another effect with colours, because indeed, the authors displays a sharp contrast with the horizontal lines of the setting : the black river as opposed to the paleness of the sky. The sky is characterized as a « place «, just as if it was heaven. The river, though, softens up and becomes gray, may be to allow the darkness to be associated with the the trading scows and all that comes to break the everlasting fullness of the river, because it is manmade. It looks as if the author wanted us to assimilate the white sky as the good, and the black as the evil, and the shade of the river so as to allow us not to have a manichaean vision of the world, and so as to criticize the notions of good and evil at that period. The river is also going from object to subject. Indeed, at first, it is described as a mere object of amusement (“had a swim to freshen up and cool off”). It is then becoming a true being, a subject, because it is humanized : “watch the lonesomeness of the river”. The river is a human being that the two children are gazing at. The term which is employed to characterized the lonesomeness is “solid”, and it seems just like the narrator is giving the river a form, a material form, that of a human. The lonesomeness goes with the stillness of the water. Even though it describes an lack of movement, the term umployed remains still significant. The quiet of the river, or rather the humain being, is delayed by the negations : “nothing to hear” “nothing to see”; it shows again the nature, the pure nature, but still, it is altered by man, such as the galoot, which is turned into derision. Still, one cannot pass under the use of the senses to describe the environment. The first one is the hearing : there is “not a soung anywheres -perfectly still”. We can notice that we have a synesthesia, because the narrator is associating sounds witch visions, as it happens, motion with sounds. Line 9, once again, the hearing is associated with the stillness, and it is emphasized by the use of the superlative “so still” and “so far”. The smell is also present, in both positive and derogatory aspect. The dead fish's smell is opposed to that of the wood and the flowers, which are themselves highlighted by the use of the superlative “so cool and fresh”; but still, the bad smell goes by fast enough not to alter the vision of a paradise according to the narrator. The sight is also present and represents a lot in this excerpt, and this issue has already been raised previoulsy, because the perception is blurred. It is shown by another synesthesia, while they are supposed to see the stillness, they are “listening to the stillness”. Still, we can notice another failure of the senses in the excerpt. First, it is the vision which is biased. But then, when the vision is clear (l.25 to l.27), it is the hearing which has a problem because of the echo which doesn't reach the kid immediately. Finally, the senses are biased, and when it is not one, it is another one.Then, the problem is switch once again : they can hear the seamen but they cannot see them, they even are thinking that they are wandering spirits. Is the river still a paradise, or is the child who seeks to no longer be in touch with society only idealize the place ? Just as the synesthesia is melting everything in the text, the author, Mark Twain, blends all kind of literature together. Indeed, the intertwining of all kind of different literature is present, because the author first describes the setting in a Romantic way, then it appears to be Gothic, while it is only supposed to represent regionalism. Indeed, the aim of Mark Twain is to describe the local habits, and mostly the dialects, and the excerpt is relevant because of the language used by the narrator. The narrator is not using correct grammar, melting “was” and “were”, confusing “frog” with “fog”, reasoning like a child because he believes stars just “happened”, but still trying to show he is an adult (“No; spirits wouldn't say (…)”) while he adds an “s” to say (l.33). The narrator is the one initiating the process. We can notice that it looks like a quest of the divine or the beauty because of the romantic and gothic genre, but that quest of the perfect American literature unables the universal scale to enter the text. From local scale, we are going to universal, also making the reader think about the same important question : what is american literature ? To conclude, one can see that the place is, at first, the perfect shelter for children as Huck and Jim. The hundrun pleases them because they are rejecting society, seeking pure nature, trying to be part of the nature. The same setting also has its flaws, even if it seems to be the paradise they were searching for. Finally, more then a simple place to live on, the Mississippi and its description, because it is blending all kind of different literature, enables the reader to see more then a blurred setting, but rather a quest of the true american literature and its true and pure essence.
