Mark Twain: Final Research Paper
Megan Drake
AP English Literature and Composition
Ms. Wilson - Bell 4
12 February 2014
I have read and understand the sections in the Student Handbook regarding Mason High School's Honesty/Cheating Policy. By affixing this statement to the title page of my paper, I am certifying that I have not cheated or plagiarized in the process of completing this assignment. If it is found that cheating and/or plagiarism did take place in the writing of this paper, I understand the possible consequences of the act, which could include a "0" on the paper, as well as an "F" as a final grade in the course. Drake 2
Winston Churchill once said claimed that criticism "fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things." (Churchill). Similar to pain, criticism is also very common. Every genre of life is subject to the constant influx of opinions. One opinion, however, stands out when it comes to criticism; Mark Twain was one of society’s ultimate critics. His reproach was not about what people did, but why they did it. He explored the hypocrisy of American daily life and "civilized" society as he condemned ideologies such as imperialism, romanticism, racism, and blind obedience. Twain didn’t ordinarily write, word for word, what he believed about any of these topics however - there isn’t any book titled The Adventures of Ideologies I Despise. Instead, he employed satire to convey the ridiculousness of what culture deemed acceptable.
One of the chief topics that Twain explored was the role of religion in society.
He didn’t necessarily criticize beliefs, but the way that organized religion functioned in everyday life. Throughout The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the boys were forced to attend church meetings, memorize scripture, and obey religious leaders. However,
through satire, religious allusions and metaphors, Twain is able to reveal that the boys learned the most about moral decisions and religious ideologies outside of society’s formal church setting.
On the 19th century Mississippi River, attending church was part of what made one "sivilized." Nevertheless, the focus of the organized Christian religions wasn’t necessarily to understand Christ’s teachings and apply it to one’s life, but to be a part of the Christian culture uses an entire chapter to parody Romeo and Juliet, not only does his satirizing and mocking the play itself, but slipping in a few scenes to demonstrate how Christianity had become an "only on Sunday" kind of religion for many of the people in the 19th century. He writes, "The men took their guns along, so did Buck, and kept them between their knees or stood them handy against the wall. The Shepherdsons done the same. It was pretty ornery preaching—all about brotherly love, and such-like tiresomeness…but everybody said it was a good sermon, and they all talked it over going home, and had such a powerful lot to say about faith and good works and free grace and preforeordestination" (Twain 95-96). Although they attend church, the two families aren’t practicing what they preach. The entire sermon on brotherly kindness somehow did not apply to their daily lives or to their feud with their neighbors. By juxtaposing the violence of guns with the peaceful preaching on "faith and good works," Twain is able to utilize his satire to prove that their practices aren’t complying with "beliefs." Critiquing American Christianity, Twain explains, ‘If Christ were here now, there is one thing he would not be- a Christian.’" (Taylor 2). Christianity in the 19th century, along the Mississippi River context was no longer about practicing the doctrine they were being taught at church, but simply attending so that others could see you there. There was prestige held in being a "church-goer," but the religion itself didn’t extend far past the doors of the chapels.
Many literary critics claim that "the gullible were prey to preachers and [Twain] used this point for comic effect in Huckleberry Finn" (Britton), but it wasn’t necessarily the corruption of religious leaders or what was preached that caused this "unhealthy" state of Christianity. The doctrine itself followed the bible closely; it was the church setting that prohibited true learning. The scriptures were the same as they had always been and the sermons didn’t differ too drastically from those of centuries past, but the members of the churches reacted differently to the preaching. Twain used his satire to depict how society was allowing religious traditions to replace faith and meaning. The traditions of Christianity – the rituals, the recitations, the readings – had become all that was left of the religion in both Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. Twain expressed "the need to rediscover religion in the debris of traditions passed off as Christianity" (Taylor 2). Society became so focused on the traditions of religion that they failed to practice the faith that went along with it. This is a problem seen time and time again in the bible itself, where the people would fall into focusing on the customs, and arguing about the nuances of the religious laws, that they would fail to follow the purpose behind them. Twain satirized the practices in order to depict the lack of faith in them, "’Now,’ said Joe, getting up, ‘you got to let me kill you. That's fair.’‘Why, I can't do that, it ain't in the book’" (Twain 89). Tom Sawyer’s obsession with living "by the book ," no matter what book it was, reflects society’s replacement of religion with tradition. It didn’t matter that if what the book said might be immoral, unjust, or unfair, it just had to be followed strictly. Tom echoes what his church had failed to instill in him: that going off "the books" wasn’t what religion was about.
Although the institution of a church is meant to teach religion and religious practices,Huckleberry Finn learns ethics, morals, and religious ideologies when he is outside of established religion and in "uncivilized" society. When Huck is faced with the dilemma to turn in Jim, the black slave, he finally decides to go against society and "take up wickedness again. I would go to work and steal Jim out of slavery again; and if I could think up anything worse, I would do that, too; because as long as I was in, and in for good, I might as well go the whole hog" (Twain 184). By having Huck condemn himself for making the moral decision to treat Jim as a human being, Twain satirizes society’s treatment of African American’s and racism. Christianity generally teaches that decisions based on incorrect morals lead to a form of Hell, but here, disregarding race and treating people equally is what is considered wrong. By abandoning what the Mississippi River Christians, Widow Douglas, and Miss Watson have taught him in his trip down the Mississippi River, Huck is finally able to form his own ethics that actually comply with Christian teachings. Here "Huck has made his first moral decision: he is not going to try to go to heaven if heaven is populated by representatives of conventional morality, such as Miss Watson" (Trites1). By separating the morals of the Mississippi River Christians from what is actually considered right or wrong, Huck is finally able to make decisions that follow the Christ-like teachings. Twain’s satirizes this heaven to represent a place that those who follow a conventional morality will go, instead of the actual Christian heaven depicted in the bible.
It isn’t just the Horatian satire that accomplishes the author’s purpose – Twain employs ongoing religious allusions and metaphors in order to depict where the spiritual growth is actually occurring. He constantly references the bible, to the point where his critics say "it seems that he had no other metaphors at his disposal" (Holland 2). In the book, The Liberal Imagination, Lionel Trilling addresses one of the ongoing conceits of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, as he writes, "’rivers are roads that move,’ and the movement of the road in its own mysterious life transmutes the primitive simplicity of the form" (Trilling). Biblically, a river, especially the Jordan River (King James Version, Matthew 3.6), can represent anything from purity, cleansing, a journey, or freedom, all of which are acts of progression. This river metaphor alludes to the same progression. Huck was finally "free again" as he "went a-sliding down the river" (Twain 29), and able to make that decision to forego what Miss Watson had tried to teach him about Christianity. He finally spiritually progresses on this river – it becomes a road to the discovery of his true moral character. Water itself is a biblical motif, referring to Christ as the "living water" (KJV, John 4.10), or one that will fulfill a thirst for knowledge, wisdom, and growth of faith. By setting The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn on this twisting, turning waterway, Twain is also able to depict the river as a source of spiritual life and growth, while contrasting it with the "the dry argument" (Twain 56) preached in their church. The biblical metaphor and illusion works as a structural foundation for
Huckleberry Finn, guiding the formation of the story as well as Huck’s theological development.
By depicting the "conventional moralities" as comical through his satire whilst filling his works with biblical allusions and metaphors, Mark Twain is able to demonstrate the flaws in society’s logic and criticize the "unhealthy state" of religious practices. Being "sivilized" does not necessarily make one a good person, but perhaps just one who follows society’s trends instead of standing up for moral beliefs. Not only were the boys unable to learn what was necessary for religious ripening inside the walls of a church, but they were better able understand their own beliefs and develop moral character in the least civilized of places.
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