Huck And Jim example essay topic

In Mark Twain's American classic Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, we are told of the undertakings of the main character, Huck Finn. He is young, mischievous boy who distances himself from the torment of his home life by escaping with Jim, a runaway slave who is his only friend. As the novel continues, we find that the structure of Mr. Twain's writing is redolent of certain aspects of Freudian psychology. More specifically, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn can be interpreted using the Oedipus complex, which is one the defining works of Dr. Sigmund Freud. It basically states that a young male has an irrepressible subconscious desire to do away with his father so that he may be more intimate with his mother. Three aspects that corroborate this argument are: 1.

Huck Finn's unending will to separate himself from his father, 2. The Mississippi River as a symbol for Huck's maternal figure, and 3. The character of Jim is a secondary maternal figure in the novel. Huck Finn possesses an unending will to separate himself from his father, Pap. In the beginning of the story we meet Huck's father, a brutally hateful man who has absolutely no care or affection for his son. During Huck and Pap's first meeting in the book, we see how he actually treats his son.

The first words out of his mouth concerned the large amounts of money that Huckleberry and another character, Tom Sawyer, had stumbled upon. When Huck turns this money in to an unfair judge, Huck's father immediately wants to get his hands on it. When he finds out that he cannot cash in on his son's good fortune, things seem to turn much worse for the young boy. One thing leads to another and Pap continues to chastise Huck for the so called "outrageous instances" that Huck has undertaken in his father's absence. Not very soon after Huck and Pap's reunion, Huck decides that he must leave his father. Huckleberry decides that he must "murder" him in a sense, by deserting him and cutting off their relationship altogether.

Huck persists to separate himself from his father by creating an elaborate scheme to falsely portray his death. One day when Pap is on a journey into town, Huck implements his seemingly foolproof scheme by capturing a pig in the wooded area that surrounds their quaint cabin. Huck slaughters the pig and then pools the blood around the floor of the cabin to make it seem as if Pap has killed him to collect the money that Huck would legally leave behind in his untimely death. To make the scene even more convincing, he takes a few of his own hairs and sticks them to the blade of a nearby axe and also drags the pig carcass out to the river, creating the drag marks in the dirt of a child sized body, adding to the perfect crime scene. As Huck is hiding in the woods, he learns that everyone believes that he is deceased, which then allows him to escape from Pap, effectively "murdering" Huck's fatherly figure.

The Mississippi River is a symbol for Huck's maternal figure. According to the guidelines set down by the Oedipus complex, a male is subconsciously willed to become more intimate with his mother once his father is eliminated. This does not have to interpreted solely as physical intimacy, but as a need for closeness between the male and his maternal figure. The moment that Huck leaves his father, he needs a person or thing to guide him along. In this particular circumstance, it is the mighty Mississippi itself. For the first few days of his "life after death", Huck is entirely dependent on the river for everything that he needs.

In a sense, it is a pathway to a new life of freedom and clarity for Huck. Throughout the novel, Huckleberry seems to become closer with the river itself. This is accomplished by constantly being led to new and different places and opportunities that are available to Huck as the river moves him onward, which is one of the many roles of a maternal figure. The character of Jim is a secondary maternal embodiment in the novel. Even though the preeminent motherly figure in the book is the Mississippi River, Jim acts as a different kind of mother towards Huck.

When Huckleberry first meets up with Jim after being on Jackson Island for a small amount of time, Jim takes a submissive role of control with Huck. From this point on, Huck tends to envisage every possible outcome in their events while Jim is set more in the background of the reader's mind. Behind the scenes, Jim is actually controlling many of the occurrences in their lives without making it known to Huck. For instance, Jim always has a plan for what to do when he and Huck find themselves in a predicament, such as when they are caught on the steamboat that has run into a snag.

Jim maintains a level head and calm composure even in the presence of very dangerous criminals. This is the perfect paradigm in which Jim fulfills the role of Huck's main caretaker and supervisor, or shall we say, "mother". In addition to caring for Huckleberry's physical well being, Jim also is mindful of the boy's mental state as well. For example, Huck and Jim are searching for provisions on the bank of the river, when a fully intact house comes floating by the shore. They both climb aboard to see what they can salvage and end up stumbling on a very good find of cigars, money, and various comestibles.

When they are about to leave, a gruesome discovery is made. A man is lying in the corner of the house, naked and shot in the back. Jim investigates and proceeds to cover up the body with a cloth to discourage Huck from looking at it. It is not known who the person is and why he is there, but in the end of the story it is revealed by Jim that the body was that of Huck's father. In Mark Twain's American classic Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, we are told the entertaining tale of Huck Finn, a somewhat harmless miscreant who escapes with his friend Jim, his family's former slave.

As we delve further into the novel, we find that the structure of Mark Twain's writing is reminiscent of Freudian psychology. In more detail, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn can be interpreted using the Oedipus complex, which is one the defining works of Dr. Sigmund Freud. It states that a young male has an irrepressible subconscious desire to do away with his father so that he may be more intimate with his mother.