HUCK

“ All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. ”
— Ernest Hemingway 

There is something to be said of a great writer giving us insight into his craft.

Huck Finn was once called the prototypical "American novel" because it brought forth the striking detail of real life America, with rich but folksy characters, in a time like the nation was still in its global innocence. It is set in rural America in the mid 1800s, when the young nation was on the cusp of breaking a part due to the issue of slavery.

Huck was a secondary character in Twain's Tom Sawyer's novels, but when put into the lead role Twain could embellish the stereotypical characters of his era.

Even to this day, the novel incites wide debate among critics, academics and teachers. Many believe that the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn explores notions of race and identity. An obvious complexity exists concerning the runaway Negro slave character called Jim. While some scholars point out that Jim is good-hearted, moral, and not unintelligent, others have criticized the novel as racist, citing the repeated  use of the "N" word  and emphasizing the stereotypically "comic" treatment of Jim's superstition and ignorance. But one cannot ignore that Twain was a ruthless satirist. He had the gift of using a person's own words and actions as the literary sword of their own discomfort or demise.

The novel is a precursor to all our current culture's "road pictures." The format is simple: put the main character on the road away from the familiar security of his home and have him interact with new strange people and dangerous situations. It is how the character deals with these new stressful situations that brings out the true inner character of the person. 

Huck struggles not only with the challenges of his strenuous journey, but also with the 19th century social climate and the role it forces on him regarding Jim. Throughout the story, Huck is in moral conflict with the received values of the society in which he lives, and while he is unable to consciously refute those values even in his thoughts, he makes a moral choice based on his own valuation of Jim's friendship and human worth, a decision in direct opposition to the things he has been taught. Mark Twain, in his lecture notes, proposes that "a sound heart is a surer guide than an ill-trained conscience" and goes on to describe the novel as "...a book of mine where a sound heart and a deformed conscience come into collision and conscience suffers defeat." To highlight the hypocrisy required to condone slavery within an ostensibly moral system, Twain has Huck's father enslave his son, isolate him, and beat him. When Huck escapes – which anyone would agree was the right thing to do – he then immediately encounters Jim "illegally" doing the same thing. 

But the entire novel is not seen through the clarity of black and white morality. Huck has to navigate a minefield of criminals, deadbeats, drunks, highwaymen, murderers, thieves, con men and phonies who may make good arguments for their behavior as it being their own lot in life. It shows that American life at the time was as murky as the Muddy Mississippi.

The color of men and women of the lower classes, digging out a living on the edge of civilized society, made Twain's characters come more alive to the educated East Coast readers who was his audience. Twain wanted to transport his readers to a world so different, dark, wild and dangerous that it would make the small hairs on their neck bounce to attention. For many Americans had become their own gentry, wealthy enough to have estates and leisure time. The stark contrast between the American classes is what Twain's novels shed light upon.

Huck was not the brightest kid, but he did have what we would call "street smarts." He had enough gut instincts to get himself out of trouble. Likewise, he could be influenced to get himself into trouble. For in Huck's world, it was a self-sufficient time. He knew he had to take care of himself. He had to refine his natural skills in order to survive in the cruel world that was the river.

Wikipedia discusses that some scholars believe Huck's own character, and the novel itself, in the context of its relation to African-American culture as a whole. John Alberti quotes Shelley Fisher Fishkin, who writes in her 1990s book Was Huck Black?: Mark Twain and African-American Voices, "by limiting their field of inquiry to the periphery," white scholars "have missed the ways in which African-American voices shaped Twain's creative imagination at its core." It was suggested that the character of Huckleberry Finn illustrates the correlation, and even interrelatedness, between white and black culture in the United States.

But it could be simpler. Twain used the wild west simpleton culture of the Mississippi River basin to take and stretch the small people who lived and died in the country into bigger than life characters. Twain's stories were about America and how the American spirit was one of independence, freedom and self-reliance.

In the LOST story, the closest person to the Huck Finn character was Kate. She was from rural America. She grew up in the country. She got herself into trouble at a young age, but had the wits to charm herself out of punishment. She had the wild seed to runaway from home. She was not afraid to mix it up with the boys, to do crime in order to get what she wanted. She was a free spirit looking for adventure, while looking over her shoulder trying to avoid authority.

LOST came upon the American culture as we had turned the corner on the next century of progress. We were to accelerate the technology age that would rise all boats and continue to keep the U.S. the wealthiest nation on Earth. Just as Twain would have seen in his East Coast veranda party set, there was a laziness in comfortable surroundings that lacked the social responsibility of his peers. Freedom and independence has the cost of respect and accountability for one's fellow man and woman. It would be a hard sell to establish those mid 1800s themes into the LOST story line, except for the notion that many of the LOST characters refused to accept accountability or responsibility for their actions. The current American society is filled more with selfish children than in Twain's world of wild children lost in the coming moral calamity that would be the Civil War.