Huck Finn Essay

Huck Finn Essay

Passage: Well, by the end of three weeks...and I see we hadn't no time to lose. (255-256).

Thesis: Through the use of symbolism and juxtaposition, Twain is able to criticize much of the events of pre-Civil War America as being only malevolent to the country and leading to division.

BP #1

The symbolism of the novel captures the stark reality of antebellum America and describes what was wrong with the time period. During the antebellum era, tensions had slowly been rising between the North and the South. However, neither side was able to come up with a concrete compromise that could put an end to such anxiety. At the end, extremely one sided action was inevitable to save the country. During the witch pie incident, Huck writes, "Every time a rat bit Jim he would get up and write a line in his journal whilst the ink was fresh" (255). The rat, being a dirty and infectious animal, symbolizes slavery. Slavery was the main source of division in the country. Every issue consisting of slavery made the country bleed a little more. Jim is technically free, but because of the racist realm of slavery, he is still imprisoned. Similarly, the United States government is founded upon freedom, but because of the constant issue of slavery, the government is imprisoned and cannot make a useful decision. Jim's journal, then, is the history of United States. Jim is not very literate and like all slaves, has a little to write about. Likewise, the young nation of the United States has a short, yet violent and hostile history. Furthermore, every time a body part bleeds, a scab is formed over it. This scab is symbolic of the useless compromises that seemed to hold the nation together, when in reality, the tore it apart even more. Huck goes on to write, "The bed leg was sawed in two, and we had et up the sawdust, and it give us a most amazing stomach-ache" (255). The bed is where a person sleeps and relaxes. With a bed cut in half, relaxation is impossible. The United States used to be a single bed. However, it wore out a little bit every time an important issue came about. The people of the nation, however, didn't try mending the bed until it inevitable broke and they had to. The national bed broke with the election of Lincoln, and it was mended in the Civil War. Even after it was mended, the bed was still unstable because blacks didn't have their true freedom; they only had the status of free people. The bed became completely fixed a century later the United States truly declared equality for all and meant it. Until then, they had a preached a lie about freedom, and as Huck discovered the hard way, can't preach or pray a lie. The sawdust symbolizes the results of the Civil War. The six million deaths of the war causes by fellow countrymen severely devastated the nation's