Marx's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is regarded as one of the greatest novels in American literature. Through satire and the adventurous imagination of Huck, along with the struggles he faces, Twain reveals the truth and brutality of society during that time. Perhaps it’s the subject of the novel, or the unconventional way in which Twain presents reality, that causes so much controversy over this American classic. The two essays “Mr. Eliot, Mr. Trilling, and Huckleberry Finn” by Leo Marx and “Attacks on the Ending and Twains Attack on Conscience” by James Cox attempt to settle one of the biggest disputes over the novel: the ending. I find Marx’s essay more convincing because it effectively evaluates the contradictions that emerge …show more content…
He continues to say “Indeed, the very intensity of the novel derives from the discordance between the aspirations of the fugitives and the respectable code for which she is a spokesman. Therefore, her regeneration, of which the deathbed freeing of Jim is the unconvincing sign, hints a resolution of the novel's essential conflict” (Marx 294). The evidence Marx provides easily proves his argument that Miss Watson freeing Jim contradicts approximately the entire novel. It’s true because the central argument of the novel is grounded in the opposition between Huck and Jim and society. Miss Watson represents the society that oppresses Jim, yet she frees him, therefore undermining the main theme and conflict of the novel. Furthermore, Twain provides no reasoning “for Miss Watson’s change of heart, a change particularly surprising in view of Jim’s brazen escape” (Marx 294). Marx argues this ending is neither appropriate nor reasonable for what the book has built up. Along with the alleged change in Miss Watson’s character, Huck and Jim undergo changes as well. Huck “has grown in stature throughout the journey” (Marx 95). We first see Huck playing childish games, assenting to many of Tom’s erratic ideas, and allowing Miss Watson to enforce the rules of society upon him. Marx’s strongest argument introduces conceivably the most important part of the novel, Huck’s declaration: “All right, then, I’ll go to hell” (295). This is when Huck’s transformation is most conspicuous. He decides that he will take the risk of opposing society, and help Jim to

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