Blog #2: Huckleberry Finn Critical Lens Close Reading (racial and cultural lens)

"Oh, yes, this is a wonderful govment, wonderful.  Why, looky here. There was a free nigger there from Ohio—a mulatter, most as white as a white man.  He had the whitest shirt on you ever see, too, and the shiniest hat; and there ain't a man in that town that's got as fine clothes as what he had; and he had a gold watch and chain, and a silver-headed cane—the awfulest old gray-headed nabob in the State.  And what do you think?  They said he was a p'fessor in a college, and could talk all kinds of languages, and knowed everything.  And that ain't the wust. They said he could vote when he was at home.  Well, that let me out. Thinks I, what is the country a-coming to?  It was 'lection day, and I was just about to go and vote myself if I warn't too drunk to get there; but when they told me there was a State in this country where they'd let that nigger vote, I drawed out.  I says I'll never vote agin.  Them's the very words I said; they all heard me; and the country may rot for all me—I'll never vote agin as long as I live.  And to see the cool way of that nigger—why, he wouldn't a give me the road if I hadn't shoved him out o' the way.  I says to the people, why ain't this nigger put up at auction and sold?—that's what I want to know.  And what do you reckon they said? Why, they said he couldn't be sold till he'd been in the State six months, and he hadn't been there that long yet.  There, now—that's a specimen.  They call that a govment that can't sell a free nigger till he's been in the State six months.  Here's a govment that calls itself a govment, and lets on to be a govment, and thinks it is a govment, and yet's got to set stock-still for six whole months before it can take a hold of a prowling, thieving, infernal, white-shirted free nigger, and—" (Twain 24-25)

In this quote Huck Finn and his father are going to the to court because they are trying to take custody away from his father because he is always drunk and locks his son into a room every night. So they are at court so the judge can decide as they are waiting for their trial to start Huck's dad starts talking about the government and how is it a government when they are trying to take a son away from the father, then talks about how this is a government for letting some people vote and expressing his hatred for the government.

During this time period there was still slavery in America which can tell you a lot about why his father is angry about because back then people of color weren't  even considered a whole person. Twain emphasizes the racial and cultural perspectives through the use of the n word that was used as a negative connotation for African Americans during slavery. The multiple uses of the n word can tell use the racial and cultural perspective that his father has towards African american people and that he did not want for them to be treated equally and rather have them not have the same opportunity voting and having the same rights.

In addition Twain uses the n word as the father speaks to show the racial and cultural perspective in that he doesn't want everyone to be equal and that he rather have other people be more privileged than others. It says a lot about the fathers culture and how he had grew up and raised in that he he had supported having slave and thought every slave could have an opportunity to be successful like the man in Ohio did and fought for his rights to vote. It can also tell you a little bit more about the father that when he is in a problem he rather talk about how something else is wrong like he was saying the government then to confront his own problems.

Close Reading: Marxist Lens

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Marxist Lens

“Don’t put your feet up there, Huckleberry;” and “Don’t scrunch your feet up Huckleberry-set up straight;” and pretty soon she would say “Don’t gap and stretch like that, Huckleberry- why don’t you try to behave?” Then she told me all about the bad place, and I said I wished I was there. She got mad, then, but I didn’t mean no harm. All I wanted was to go somewhere; all l wanted was a change, I warn’t particular. She said it was wicked to say what I said; said she wouldn’t say it for the whole world, she was going to live so as to go to the the good place. Well, I couldn’t see no advantage in going where she was going, so I made up my mind I wouldn’t try for it. But I never said so, because it would only make trouble, and wouldn’t do no good.

In this quote, Huck is attempting to convert to the ways of a civilized man, but as we can all see; his attempts aren’t making any progress. Through this excerpt he strives to comprehend the seemingly complicated practices of civilization. What happens in this constant flow of thought is that it shows his confusion and somewhat unwillingness to conform to the way to society. As in his mindset, it is not easy to convert and his ideals clash with his attempts at understandings.

The interpretation of this first person narrative is Huck’s venture in trying to come to an understanding of the new culture that he has to face in noticing of the events in the last book. While in church, as his foster parent is trying to convert him by saying “ Don’t scrunch your feet up Huckleberry-set up straight” and “ Why don’t you try to behave”; by ushering him into a new culture of power, It is Huckleberry’s naivety about religion at this moment that leads him to saying that he wants to go to the “Bad place”, which we all know what that means. This scene signals a glimpse of his unwillingness to transform into society and his want to back to the life he originally had.

What Twain employs in the book with using the tool of language to make the reader understand upon what Huck’s confused and uneducated feelings are, along with using the era’s language in phrases like “ Well I couldn’t see no advantage in which where I was going” and “ All I wanted was to go somewhere, all I wanted was a change, I warn’t particular”. This is typical child’s innocence. Huck is a youthly renegade from the dirty side of town and evidently doesn’t  understand the complications that come with learning religion and learning the difference between god and the devil. We can empathize with that a little; remembering what it was like to hear about the wonders of god and all that but we didn’t understand the material in the bible until we were much older why things transpired and why people did what they did. This rounds off the fact of what it means to rapidly transfer to a culture of power he knows nothing about, and how society can sometimes be critical of the newest of entries into their group.

Entry #1

For this project I chose the historical and biographical lens.  I feel as if when reading books from a different time period it is very important to examine the historical attitudes present at the time in which they were written.  In some ways all the issues addressed by other lenses are heavily dependent on the social context of the time, allowing me to touch on many subjects in my analysis.  In 1884 when Mark Twain wrote Huckleberry Finn it had been less than 20 years since slavery was abolished.  However, Twain chose to set his novel nearly 50 years in the past, before the legal abolition of slavery.  This, paired with the book’s inclusion of a black character lends itself to all sorts of racial undertones.  The historical and biographical lens allows for the exploration of not only a book’s themes, but all the rich history and context surrounding the book’s writing.

Why I Chose This Lense

I chose to read Huckleberry Finn and Song of Solomon through the Feminist/Gender critical lense. The Feminist Lens focus on how genders are represented in literature. This lens interested me the most because I want to focus on how the characters are being treated throughout the novel and if they are treated different because of their gender. This also interested me because I know that women are always getting treated less just because they are females, so I wanted to see how this affects the characters in both novels. Women never have the same opportunities that men do and they are always being treated less, my personal beliefs about this are that both males and females should be treated equally. I believe this is unfair because women have been fighting for their rights for a long time now. Something that I am hoping to get out of this project is to be able to analyze the novels through the Feminist lens see how it has changed throughout time.

Entry #1

I had chose to read the two books through a Racial and Cultural Lens because I was interested in how your race and culture might have affected how you were treated by other people. This particular lens had interested me more than others because it seemed like the most straightforward in what it was asking for things like seeing how is empowered and why they might be in power. I was also interested in this lens because I wanted to see how race was different in the past and how that has changed from now. Previous experience with this topic is that there has been now recently a lot to do with race, like the Ferguson case when a man was killed by police  and there was protest on race and that it wasn't right for him to do that. My beliefs toward this lens is that I don't think that you should be judged on the color of your skin or what they believe in but that everyone should understand that not everyone is the same skin color or believe in the same thing but not to judge people by that but understand them and treat them with respect. In this project I hope to get a better understanding in how it was different in the better or the worse before and see how it has changed or maybe gotten worse compared to now.

Why I chose Historical/Biographical and Psychoanalytical lenses

The critical lenses I chose to use when analyzing the novels The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, were the historical/biographical lens combined with the psychoanalytical lens. I decided to do this because I wanted to use the historical/biographical lens, however, I thought it was too broad of a lens to do by itself, so I decided to narrow it down by incorporating the psychoanalytical lens. The historical/biographical lens stood out to me most because I really believe that authors write about their experiences and enjoy finding connections between their experiences and events of the characters. After choosing to use the historical/biographical lens, I knew I would need a second lens so that I could narrow the lens down. I came down to either the feminist or psychoanalytical lens. I was interested in both, however, I ultimately went with the psychoanalytical lens. This is because psychology is my favorite subject and just had more of a fascination with psychoanalysis in general. I love being able to analyze things from a psychological perspective and discovering why people may be doing certain things through psychology. I also believed that it would be more of a challenge, which is what I wanted.

Why I chose this Lens

As stated earlier in the choice survey, I simply said that the feminist/gender lens applied to everybody’s situation. But this project is to expand on that answer with a little more specification.  We have all experienced some sort of sexist/gender discrimination; that so far is true. But what I think needs to be explored is the reasons behind that. Do parents implant the idea in their children’s minds at a young age that there is a structured order of everything; that this is what the men should be and what the women should be? When did these sexist views first begin to appear and develop? If so, I want to know these reasons because I’m sort of an advocate for societal equality. And if we could take it further, we would be able to take these sort of cases to public attention. I want to find the basis of these reasons and uproot some of them to even the playing field for the many stereotypes that are cliched or obsolete. My beliefs lie within my personal morality that the current gender discrimination should be diminished by half. I know it might be slightly addressed in this project but I will make the attempt to dig a little deeper. I did consider the marxist and society lens, but I found they weren’t too direct to my satisfaction. I chose this particular lens because I felt this reached everyone, and affected all groups.