1. Discuss The Esthetic And Ethical Aspects Of Realism As Shown In Mark Twain¡¦s Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn.
Submitted by freefortermpapers on 06/24/2008 03:00 PM
- Category: American History
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1. Discuss The Esthetic And Ethical Aspects Of Realism As Shown In Mark Twain¡¦s Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn.
Mark Twain¡¦s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn includes the symbolic elements of realism either in estheitc or ethical aspect. For example, there¡¦re two major symbols shown in the work ¡¥death¡¦ and ¡¥Missouri River.¡¦This redefines the relations among Huckleberry, Jim and Tom. Huck's Missouri River implies part of his uncertainty and the desire for his spirit. His father distoured him and then was adopted by another Widow Douglas and Miss Watson who both tried hard to re-educate Huck and bring him back to the so-called 'sivilization.' However, Huck didn't appreciate this. He also tried hard to escape from this sivilization and refused the so-called family idea. It looks like Mark Twain raises the idea of 'anti-family' because Huck refuses the family. However, in a further interpretation, Huck is to fulfil his spirit and eager for his ideal motherland. He set for a series adventures which occurred along Missouri River. This River here at a sense is to imply a mother for Huck. Therefore, his adventures with Jim is a jurney to realize and develpe his deep spirit. For most people, the idea of family is to stay at home with parents, but for Huck, Missouri River is his spiritual home. Huck does not want that kind of family onstructed by the patriarchal law, and that image of family to Huck is a trauma which always repeats in the text. In fact, Huck wishes a family constructed by the maternal laws, like the Mississippi River. All of the families in human society betrays Huck; those families never satisfy Huck's idea of Family. They are not the real signifieds for the signifier Family. The real family lies in the Great River, the Mother Earth. That is why Huck wants to back to the River, a return to the mother's womb and the realm of the Imaginary in which Huck wishes he were dead. In a word, Huck never feels the lack of a culturally-constructed family and desires one. That family to him is a restrains of which he wants to get rid. Thus, Huck strives to back...
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