PHYSICAL JOURNEYS

Tibetan people believe that if they walk long distances to holy places it purifies the bad deeds they commit.
They believe the more difficult the journey, the greater the depth of purification. This journey, as any journey,
typifies travel. Yet the fundamental conception remains; a journey offers so much more, as the Tibetans
suggest. A physical journey is often aligned with an emotional and intellectual journey. The successful use of
stylistic and syntactical language and visual devices to convey meaning regarding the concept of “The
Journey” is central to the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn written Mark Twain, text two of the
Stimulus Booklet, “The Ivory Trail” and the film Rabbit Proof Fence directed Phillip Noyce. Indeed, physical
journeys alone will not carry one far, unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance
into the world within.

Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is… Huck Finn is… For instance, the novel
incorporates the ideology that blacks are inferior, a view that Huck initially held close, “you can’t learn a
nigger to argue. So I quit.” In setting the novel in the old South of the 1840s, before the abolition of slavery,
Twain actually opened up a number of developing points for his protagonist. It was Huck’s choice of
undertaking a journey that transformed him from an indiscriminate, often neglectful child into a principled
and mature adolescent, “conscience says to me…that you could see...and never say one word?” As Huck’s
choice signifies will and intelligence, it does not come as a surprise to the reader when he ultimately
disregards social labels. Informing all this is the presence of the Mississippi River, described in palpable detail
by Mark Twain, who transforms it into a richly metaphoric entity.

At several points throughout his journey, Huck deliberates upon his temperament and ponders upon the
validity of the enforcement of the commonly held Southern values, which serve to increase and legitimise
social inequalities. At one of these points, Jim’s poignant anecdote of his disabled child and the subsequent
pathos that is revealed problematises Huck’s behavioural and mental disposition with regards to accepted
social norms. It is the process of undertaking a journey, nonetheless, which acts as a catalyst for Huck’s
intellectual transformation. Thus Huck is empowered by knowledge as he learns perhaps the most important
lesson of all – that black people also have feelings. “…and I do believe he cared just as much for his people as
white folk do for their’n. It don’t seem natural, but I reckon it’s so”. The edifying nature of Huck’s journey
complemented by the picaresque, linear style of this novel is indeed a suitable medium for exposing the truly
incredible change in Huck’s way of thinking. The new concepts that are firmly entrenched within Huck’s
mind, reflected in his altered personality, have been attained through mere personal experience and
journeying; they are invaluable lessons that will be carried forever.

Through the characterisation of the Duke and King, the responders learn of Huck’s moral awakening. In
particular Twain uses hypocrisy to evaluate the voracious nature of the Duke and King as well as the credulity
of the townspeople. The responder, through the eyes of the protagonist, sees the iniquity present in the Duke
and King’s actions – they lie, steal, and deceive in an inebriated state on the raft. Nevertheless, having
journeyed thus far, Huck has developed enough prudence and forethought to distinguish between right and
wrong, friend and foe, and so destroys their malicious plans. The forces of good and evil have been
powerfully juxtaposed by Twain to expose the innocence of Huck and Jim in a cruel world. Although the
King and Duke do not learn anything, they, along with the other immoral personalities of this novel, function
as catalysts to Huck’s learning as he matures and learns how “awful cruel humans can be to one another”.
They even lead him to a point where he is “ashamed of the human race”. This reinforces the notion that
reflecting upon past experiences allows one to add a new dimension to one’s perception of oneself and one’s
surroundings.

Through his exposure to the intrinsically nefarious beliefs and licentious ways of the Grangerfords and
Shepherdsons, Huck learns of several significant realities, including the ironic truth about man’s inhumanity
to man. He gains extensive knowledge regarding different aspects of life, such as the nature of the family unit
and the inner relationships of man. He learns what a feud is, but more importantly he learns of the futility of
the infamous feud, as Buck involves himself in a fight of which he knows nothing: “What was the trouble
about Buck?”, “I don’t know…” The heads of these disreputable families preach brotherhood, yet there is no
peace among them. They carry guns to church, a place of peace and tranquillity. “I don’t like that shooting
from behind…why don’t you step into the road, my boy?” Twain’s use of irony to illustrate a father’s
continuous inculcation of immorality to his son emphasises the concept of inhumanity as the feature of irony
shapes the meaning opposite to its literal sense. This sporadic interaction that Huck had with society played an
important role in his development into an adult and this development is reinforced through the use of irony.

Finally, the experiences that Huck had with the townspeople and Colonel Sherburn further expanded his
horizons of understanding, which allowed scope for further moral development. The death of Boggs taught
Huck about the cold-bloodedness of man. Huck’s hatred of such callous personalities alludes to the concept of
his moral development. Huck felt ‘sick’ and this was a recurring motif throughout the entire novel. His moral
development is sharply contrasted to the character of Tom Sawyer, who is influenced by a bizarre mix of
adventure novels and Sunday-school teachings, which he combines to ambivalently justify his outrageous and
potentially harmful escapades. This maturation is an allusion to the deep power of the journey which Huck
undertook and the people that he interacted with and the use of a recurring motif helps to reinforce these
concepts. Indeed the book ends in the restoration of all pieces of the jigsaw puzzle and perhaps this fairy-tale
gratification is a vital part of life that propels us to carry on with our own journeys.

Text two of the Stimulus Booklet, the book cover, “The Ivory Trail”, is essentially a montage of appropriated
images that have been digitally reconstructed and contains several strong links to the concept of the journey.
The title itself immediately conveys a rare journey – ‘Ivory’ being a rare and valuable item found in tusks, and
‘Trail’ referring to an unpaved region across a wild expanse. The novel appears to be about a physical journey
down “The Ivory Trail” where the protagonist overcomes mental and physical obstacles to obtain an
understanding of the unknown but more significantly to gain an understanding of himself. In this sense, the
concepts explained in this text tie in with those of the focus text, in that both adolescents surmount obstacles
and experience self-awareness. This growth and understanding is what makes the journey more important than
the arrival for both Huck and the young adolescent depicted here.

The text uses an assortment of dominant, exotic imagery and varying sizes, shapes and colour to achieve its
purpose as a book cover – to boost sales of the novel by attracting attention and encouraging a new
imaginative journey in the viewer’s mind. Deep oranges and reds draw together the images with darker
colours at the edges, suggesting the natural light of a sunset. This synthesises highly charged images into an
overall impression of excitement, mystery and intrigue that the responder’s mind immediately begins to
explore. The cover has three main segments – foreground, mid-ground and background. The idea that the text
has no boundaries suggests the extensiveness and limitlessness of “The Ivory Trail”.

A triangular reading path is established that leads the viewer’s eye from a flood-lit sphinx and pyramid to the
silhouetted domed temples to a human face superimposed against rippling desert sands. The concept of
journey is subtly built up by the rippling ‘movement’ of the sands, the anticipation in the expression and eyes
of the face, and the false perspective created by the layering of images. Also significant to this meaning is the
prominent placement of the tag “Not all journeys have and ending”. The sentence begins in the negative, with
the word ‘not’. Short and simple, this textual interjection contrasts this journey with other’s from the
responder’s experience, implying that although other journeys may have an end, this one is strikingly
different. The lack of punctuation of the sentence reflects the message it conveys – the journey in the text has
no ending and the sentence has no grammatical conclusion with a full stop.

The supplementary text, the film Rabbit Proof Fence, by Phillip Noyce is an account of the truly remarkable
journey of a young Aboriginal girl, fleeing the inhumanity which she and her family were forced to endure
under the yoke of the West Australian Government’s draconian policies of the 1930s. It is important to
consider the cultural and historical paradigms that shape the meaning that responders derive from this film. In
many areas, Europeans challenged the whole structure of Aboriginal traditional society and the authority of
tribal elders was broken down. By the 1930s, when the story of Rabbit-Proof Fence is set, many communities
had become reliant on government handouts for food, clothing and other necessities, since their traditional
ways of life had been eroded over time. Thus the significance of the fence, which is a central entity in the
film, much like the river in the novel, as a symbol of freedom, is fully understood.
“Come on, I’m not going to hurt you.” These are the ironic words of the Chief Protector, Mr. Neville who,
after stripping the girls of their inherent rights, and subjecting them to torment and anguish, expects full
cooperation in return. Mr. Neville uses many words and phrases to justify taking the girls away, ‘in spite of
himself, the native must be helped’; they are our ‘special responsibility’, etc. Thus just as Twain uses irony to
show that Huck has more common sense than most of the adults, so too does Noyce expose the irony of an
entire philosophy – that of assimilation. And this enormous rejection is nothing less than fitting for a film that
depicts the arduous journey of an individual’s battle to understand her position while simultaneously
discerning correctness in a world of external pressures and internal responsibility. This ‘difficult’ nature of
journeys is also present in the journey of the protagonist of the focus text, Huckleberry, as he too experienced
many fluctuation of conscience as did the adolescent of “The Ivory Trail”, made apparent by the silhouetted
structures of the cover. A panoramic shot of the landscape shows the viewer this immensity of the journey,
the image of the fence, stretching towards infinity, symbolises the enormity of their quest for freedom.

The success of the girls’ journey clearly represents triumph over the forces of oppression. At one point of the
film, the girls are trapped like animals behind bars in the train, the high camera angles emphasising their
vulnerability and entrapment. Regardless of their evident situation of despair, Noyce points to the idea of
maintaining determination, applying survival skills, acquiring guidance and adopting an optimistic approach
in order to reach the destination. These elaborate themes are also evident in the focus text. Without these
essential tools neither Molly nor Huck would have escaped. Furthermore, the theme of racism is central to
both texts – Jim faces racial discrimination as do the young aborigines. Ultimately, The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn has proved significant not only as a novel that explores the racial and moral world of its
time but also, through the controversies that continue to surround it, as an artefact of those same moral and
racial tensions as they have evolved to the present day. These notions resonate clearly in the stimulus and
supplementary texts.

Whatever the type of journey undertaken, it produces some form of effect within those who take part, often
leaving them fundamentally altered. This change could be a subtle shift in perspective or, as in the case of
Twain’s protagonist, it could be as far-reaching as a major change to their way of thinking. Through the use of
effective language and visual devices, the composers of the above texts incorporate such notions of alteration
and incremental, positive development. As the journey progresses so too does the traveller’s state of mind, and
the resultant illumination is indeed quite apparent.