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by Abby Wickman
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is
considered by many American readers as the
quintessential American novel. Thus, many can
easily come to the conclusion that Mark Twains
novel has been canonized. However, critics such
as Jonathan Arac, have criticized the
idolization of the novel in American culture,
arguing that the work has attained immunity
from criticism and questioning. The real
unfairness of the Huck Finns canonization is not
the status or esteem that the work gained from
its place of high regard in American minds, but
rather, the selective disregard of the role and
nature of Twains character, Jim, in evaluations
of the novel as a whole. As Morrison wrote, if
we release [Huck Finn] from its clutch of
sentimental nostrums about lighting out to the
territory, river gods, and the fundamental
innocence of Americanness [and] incorporate
its contestatory, combative critique of
antebellum American, we will be left with a
more complex and canon-worthy novel (310).
Huck Finn possesses merits as a classic work of
American satire and folklore, and provides a
material by which to critique the society that
Twain is writing within. However, the novels
overall portrayal and final depiction of Jim is
that of someone inferior to any of the novels
white character thus, reinforcing the racist
beliefs that the novel itself attempts to
comment on and critique.
Therefore, the solution is the undeification of Huck Finn by granting readers the
freedom to reevaluate the benefit of its
canonization a reevaluation which is only
made possible through criticism of both the
parts and whole of the novel. For example,
Morrison critiques the humiliation of Jim found
within the novels end, and argues that the