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.