Major Themes: Mark Twain described the major theme of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as an irony: "A sound heart and a deformed conscience come into collision and conscience suffers defeat." We can define the "deformed conscience" as a conscience influenced by the laws of society and a sense of duty toward those laws. The laws of society at the time of Huck's journey considered people of African descent as property and, therefore, less than human. Huck's struggle with his "deformed conscience" represents a major conflict in the novel. Furthermore, the novel is rich in common themes, themes that we will discover in many other pieces of literature.
1. The conflict between the individual and society - Huck's struggle with his "deformed conscience"
2. The conflict between the emotional and the rational
3. Appearance vs. reality - hypocrisy and "phoniness"
4. Superstition - as a method of explaining and understanding
5. Tolerance vs. prejudice
6. Dehumanization - dehumanizing human beings to oppress them
7. Death and rebirth
8. Coming of age - the hero's journey
9. The role of the outsider
10. The nature and significance of the following human traits: gullibility, ignorance and naivete
Other significant themes include: the feeling of loneliness and isolation; the quest for freedom; romantic vs. real; implied vs. literal; the role of women; the concept of family.
No comments:
Post a Comment