Leo Marx was a strong supporter of this view, however this perspective misses the whole book. He, along with many others, sees the ending as Twain’s being evasive and as giving up on his Theme. They believe that Mark Twain found himself in a “structural” dilemma and merely conjured up the safest and easiest ending to sum up the book, even if it contradicts his whole novel. It is hilarious that anyone could think this. Marx shoots down Eliot and Trilling’s infatuation with form yet he goes on to claim that “ The return in the end to the mood of the beginning means defeat-- Hucks defeat. To return to that mood joyously is to portray defeat in the guise of victory.” Marx tries to justify his entire disapproval of the ending on this idea. Do these critics honestly think that Mark Twain was oblivious enough not to realize that in his own book he portrays Huck as being defeated? Marx makes it seem like Twain was forced to turn his back on the theme of the entire novel. Twain MUST know that he does this, therefore there IS a purpose, and his ending is not a set of evasive plots to slap on the end. Critics of Huckleberry Finn avoid exploring why Twain does this. Marx comes up with some very true realizations, yet they are obvious and just as much examining Twains Structure as Eliot and Trillings were. Hucks defeat is actually a part of the ‘form’ of the novel, and not just its theme.
Twain is by far more ingenious than what meets the eye. He is denounced because unlike most writers, his main goal is not to show the reader how a romantic hero should be. He does not create a novel, a plot, and a theme, just for the sake of writing it. If he had, he would be just like Tom Sawyer who seeks an adventure just for the sake of the adventure, without the intention of accomplishing anything. Twain strives to attain something, and in order to do so he is not afraid to sacrifice his characters, literary expectations, or the reader’s romantic wishes. His writing seems intent on stirring the reader’s emotions and ideas. What is not always apparent is that he really does a perfect job in this pursuit, without the reader even realizing it. So why does he do this?
It seems that Twain wants to create a sort of Frustration factor in the end. As the readers, we feel we are with Huck when he befriends the Jim on the island. We are with him as he lies on the raft starring up at the stars, we are up in the tree with him as he watches the Grangerfords and Shepardsons kill themselves. We Travel beside him through all the adventures and knowledge he gains. In the end when he turns his back on us and himself, we feel the need to jump into the book and drag Huck kicking and screaming back to the river; the one place that we are free to move forward and continue his voyage.
“After all this long journey. here was it all come to nothing, everything all busted up and ruined, because they could have the heart to serve Jim such a trick as that and make him a slave again all his life and amongst strangers too...for forty dirty dollars.” --Huck finn pg. 200.
This same resentment is felt by the reader who feels ‘tricked’ by Huck and Twain. In a way, we ARE tricked by them. We are in the same boat as the guests at the Wilks funereal who are deceived by the King and the Duke. The people disregard everything Dr. Robinson has to say because they want to believe that the King and Duck are who they say they are, and that they are virtuous. They have been taken in on the ‘journey’ that the king and duck swindle them into believing. Likewise, we want to believe that the Romantic ending will come. We want to believe that Huck will uphold our expectations. We feel trampled on at the end when he does not and want to run after him like the Wilks and their friends do once they realize how the King and duck deceived their hearts.
What makes it so easy for Twain to deceive us so easily? He only exposes Hucks rebellion through his thoughts. Only once does Huck actually act on his convictions physically. (When he helps the Wilks girls) Every other time his ‘great knowledge’ remains within himself. The reader sees Huck as being a heroic, rebellious character throughout the majority of the novel because we see that Hucks heart is good. We feel that he will always defeat the social conscience that is bearing down on him in every move. Huck is a passive character who does not even know that his sentimentality is good. He still thinks that he will “go to hell.” The only reason that we realize Huck is defeated in the end is because twain no longer shows us this struggle within Huck. Twain seems to compensate for this omission by filling the last few chapters with comical plot. In reality, Huck is being no more passive in the end as he is in the beginning. If Hucks adventures through the rest of the novel were wrote in the same matter as the end, we would not distinguish the change or defeat of Huck. In fact, we would not see Huck as being as rebellious as we thought he was.
All the critics share the same deceived feelings that we do in one way or the other. Like Marx, we vent our frustrations on Twain by denouncing his novel and stating that “the real ending is when the nigger is stolen from the boys.” Or like Eliot and Trillings we put Blind faith in Twain, and longing to believe that he did not abandon his principles, Praise his work as a masterpiece without stopping to analyze the end. Either way both sentiments are created by the lack of fulfillment that Twain imposes upon the reader.
This all being said, why would Mark Twain want to create this hostile sentiment? What does he want to accomplish by this sacrifice of his characters? The Late 19th century was a youthful era in which romantic sentimentalism was giving way to a rugged realism turning to coarse humor and drama. New realist writers started to initiate this new cause during the “gulded age” as Twain called it. The fact that this masterpiece was regarded as “ trash” by snobbish critics show that his audience was still too ignorant and afraid of change to possibly understand and appreciate the novel for what it really was. He unconsciously open “The damned human race” to the truths discovered in Huck’s adventures.
Mark Twain’s Novel was his way of encouraging individuals to leave the restrictions and fallacies of Society. He presents the idea that in order for (greatly needed) change to occur in a ‘motionless’ society of mob mentality, one must be released from society. We need to escape our social conscience to nurture our individual minds. He exposes this by showing the inevitability of Huck to assimilate into society and return full circle to where he was in the beginning, once he is re-exposed to Tom and the rest of society. The only time Huck was moving forward and maturing was while he was on the river. When individual thoughts cease to exist, so does movement and change. When movement halts, we are thrown back into the perpetual cycle that Huck exhibits. The adventures of Huckleberry Finn was masterfully written by Mark
Twain to stir the reader into feeling frustrated by the ending, which was actually the status quo of there society. It creates the desire to build a raft of our own, where we could finish the ‘quest’ that Huck had failed to accomplish, leaving our hearts waiting at the edge of the river contemplating which way to go.
