It was once said by the great writer Ernest Hemingway that, all modern American

literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.
(Hemingway) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn had an extremely important role
in the defining of American Literature. But what was it that made Huckleberry Finn
so unique in comparison to the works that came before it? What made this novel so
special was the strong emphasis on individuality.

An idea that was relevant to the relatively new independent country of America.
But this was not the first time that these ideas were addressed. Forty years earlier,
the Transcendentalist movement emphasized individual intuition as a central
means of understanding reality. (Quinn). These Transcendentalist ideas clearly had
a powerful impact on Twain. Although many themes are explored in Huckleberry
Finn, the most important theme of the novel is the struggle between individualism
and society, an idea strongly influenced by Transcendentalism.

Transcendentalism was a religious and philosophical movement took place during

the late 1820s and 1830s in the Eastern United States a protest against the general
state of culture and society. Transcendentalists believe that people are inherently
good and that society and its institutions corrupt the individual. In the eyes of
transcendentalists such as, Ralph Waldo Emerson, people are ultimately at their
best when they are self-reliant and independent. Emerson was at the head of the
movement and helped to bring the movement into the spotlight through his 1836
essay Nature. In Nature Emerson stated that man and nature are indissolubly
joined. (Emerson, Nature). According to Emerson, society helps to widen the gap
between man and nature.

Emerson also called upon people to be individuals and resist conformity. In his
essay Self Reliance Emerson stated that Whoso would be a man, must be a
nonconformist (Emerson, Self-Reliance). To transcendentalists, social-conformity
marked the death of the soul and was something to be avoided at all costs.

This social conformity is exactly what is being imposed on the young protagonist,
Huckleberry Finn. On the very first page of the book Huck mentions that The Widow
Douglas has taken him in for her son and is attempting to sivilize him. (Twain 1)
Already, Twain has introduced one of the major themes of the novel, the battle
between the individual and society; the young boy Huckleberry Finn representing
pure individuality and the elderly widow representing the overbearing pressures of
society.

Mark Twain carefully chose to use a young boy as the protagonist of his novel in
order to paint a picture of society from a fairly non-biased point of view. It is very
possible that Twain was influenced by Ralph Waldo Emersons essay Self-Reliance
when making this narrative choice. In Self-Reliance Emerson states the following
about children- Their mind being whole, their eye is as yet unconquered.
(Emerson, Self- Reliance). This relates to Huckleberry Finn, because although has
already been influenced by the world around him to some extent, in comparison
with adults, his mind is still fairly open and impressionable. Huck is not completely
convinced that many of ideas that are held by adults around him are true. He has
not been overly influenced or brain washed to think in a certain way. He is morally
underdeveloped and because of this provides the perfect eyes for which to observe
society through.

The novel begins as Huck is in the process of being converted into a proper
member of society by the Widow Douglas and her sister Ms.Watson. He is forced to
abandon his uncivilized ways and conform to the ways of upper class society. As the
novel continues, Huck, while still resentful of the rules imposed upon him, is
beginning to settle into his home with The Widow Douglas. All is well until Hucks
drunken father returns and eventually kidnaps Huck, forcing him to live with him in
his cabin. Even though Huckleberry Finn is no longer under the watchful eye of the
widow his individuality is still being suppressed. Instead of being told what to do by
the supposedly high end of society, he is now being controlled by the polar
opposite.

By showing the way in which Ms. Watson and the widow attempted to control Huck
and then immediately afterwards showing Hucks low life father attempting to
manipulate him in the same way, Twain exposes the flaws of both ways of living.
Although Watson and the widow hold the strong conviction that their way of life is
the correct one, by forcing Huck to conform to their ways, they only prove that they
are no different than Hucks scumbag father, who attempts to pull Huck in the
opposite direction. Deep down Huck knows that neither of these influences working
in his best interest. He then goes on to fake his own death and escape from the
clutches of his father. Once free, his true journey for individualism begins.

After escaping from his fathers cabin, Huck flees to Jackson Island to lay low for a
while. While there he meets a slave named Jim, who has run away from Ms. Watson
for fear of being sold away from his family. It is at this point in the novel where
Hucks inner battle begins. Although Huck has not been shaped completely into a
racist individual, he is still a product of the South during the 1800s and is therefore
infused with beliefs against African Americans. He is concerned with the legality and
morality of befriending a slave. Deep in his heart Huck is drawn to helping Jim
because he knows that it is the right thing to do. In contrast to this though, Huck
feels immense shame due to the fact that he is helping a runaway slave which is
extremely frowned upon in Southern society. This inner conflict is expressed by
Huck when he tells Jim people would call me a lowdown Abolitionist and despise
me for keeping mum- but that dont make no difference. I am not going to tell
(Twain 41). This is where Twain truly begins to explore Transcendentalism.
The fact that Huckleberry Finn actually feels guilty about doing something that the
vast majority of people today would agree was clearly the better moral choice
speaks volumes about the state of society at that time. The transcendentalist belief
that society corrupts the individual is extremely apparent from this point in the
novel onward. Although Huck knows through the use of individual logic and moral
standards that he was born with that helping Jim is right he has the constant urge to
turn Jim in due to the extent that he has been manipulated and ultimately corrupted
by society.

Huckleberry Finn and Jim continue to live on the peaceful island until Huck learns
that nearby citizens have noticed smoke coming from the island and are beginning
to get suspicious. Huck and Jim take off down the Mississippi river on a raft. The
Mississippi river is the ultimate symbol of freedom and individuality in The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. On the raft Huck and Jim are free from the clutches
of society. They do not have to answer to anyone. They simply let the river guide
them to freedom. Jim is moving towards liberation from slavery and Huck is moving
towards freedom from his abusive father and the overly controlling Ms. Watson.

Huckleberry Finn and Jim are abandoning society and its corrupt was and
surrendering to nature. The Transcendentalist approached the natural world not
empirically but subjectively, in that truths were perceived through ones own
experience of the natural world, not through objective scientific information;
through intuition, not formal learning (Wayne). This approach is exemplified in
Huckleberry Finn. Hucks escape from society marks a rejection of traditional beliefs
and formal learning and a greater acceptance of individual perception of nature
and intuition. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once stated in his essay Nature, nature is
the apparition of God the organ through which the universal spirit speaks to the
individual and strives to lead the individual back to it (Emerson, Nature). The
Mississippi River represents nature, leading both Huckleberry Finn and Jim towards
freedom and individuality.

They continue down the river for some time and come across a sinking steamboat
on which they encounter robbers. Huckleberry and Jim manage to escape from the
boat with the bandits loot. This encounter brings them closer together but it is not
long before their friendship is tested.

One night thick fog engulfs the raft and makes it very difficult to see. They end up
missing the mouth of the Ohio River and continue down the Mississippi River,
further into slave territory. The pair runs into men who are searching for escaped
slaves. Once again Huckleberry Finn is morally conflicted. He feels guilty about
concealing stolen property, but again decides against turning Jim in. He tells the
men that the man on the raft is his father who is suffering from smallpox. The men
are eager to get away from the diseased man and leave without further questioning.
Afterwards Huck reflects on the situation by saying
They went off and I got aboard the raft, feeling bad and low, because I known very
well I had done wrong Then I thought a minute, and says to myself, hold on;
spose youd a done right and give Jim up, would you felt better than what you do
now? No, say I, Id feel bad Id feel just the same way I do now. (Twain 87).

Much later in the novel Huck and Jim allow two con-men onto their raft. One of the
men claims to be a duke and the other a dauphin. As the group moves down the
river, the duke and dauphin stop at various locations along the way to scam people.
Huck and Jim do not particularly like the two con-men, but realize that they ar
powerless against the wishes of two white adults. Eventually the duke and dauphin
prove themselves as men of absolutely no character by selling Jim to a farmer.

Huckleberry Finn soon learns where Jim is being held and is now faced with a
predicament. He considers sending a letter to Ms. Watson to inform her of Jims
location so that he would at least be returned to his family, but he soon decides
against this due to the fact that Ms. Watson would probably sell Jim right back down
the river. Huck is very upset about Jim being captured and comes to the conclusion
that he is being punished by God for helping a runaway slave in the first place. He
states on page 202,

And at last, when it hit me all of a sudden that here was the plain hand of
Providence slapping me in the face and letting me know my wickedness was being
watched all the time from up there in heaven, whilst I was stealing a poor old
womans nigger that hadnt ever done me no harm, and now was showing me
theres One thats always on the lookout, and aint agoing to allow no such
miserable doings to go only just so fur and no further, I most dropped in my tracks I
was so scared. (Twain, 202).

This sentence is a great example of the Transcendentalist belief that society

corrupts the individual. Huckleberry Finns environment has shaped him into
believing that helping a slave is extremely wrong on a moral level. Twain masterfully
satirizes the racist society that existed at the time by exposing how hypocritical it
was. By using words that have strong negative connotations such as wickedness
and miserable Twain is able to evoke a strong emotional response from the reader
because they do not seem to fit the description of a young boy who is trying to help
a friend. This allows the reader to become aware of how society can negatively
affect the thoughts of the individual.

Huck continues to deliberate about what he should do about Jim. He even writes a
letter to Ms. Watson explaining Jims location but once again decides against it in
the following passage. It was a close place. I took it up and held it in my hand. I
was a trembling because Id go to decide forever betwixt two things, I studied a
minute, sort of holding my breath and then says to myself: All right then, Ill go to
hell- and tore it up. (Twain 204). This marks the moral highpoint of the entire
novel. It is in the moment when Huck states All right then, Ill go to hell. That he
truly makes a large stride towards individualism and self-reliance. Although Huck is
well aware of the views held by society at the time he makes the choice to follow his
own soul regardless if it means that he will be condemned to hell. This decision truly
establishes Transcendentalism as the main theme of the novel.