Huckleberry Finn’s Impact on Modern American Literature Essay

Ernest Hemingway once said exclusively modern American literature began with Huckleberry Finn. Huckleberry Finn, a remarkably well pen legend by Mark gallus, has received almost excessive praise since it was written and first published in 1884. On the opposite hand, it has been condemned for vulgarity and criminate of stealing Uncle Toms Cabins thunder. Uncle Toms Cabin is a similar novel more or less slavery written about thirty-two years earlier. Huckleberry Finns impact on modern American literature was so great that it could be compared to Shakespeares impact on European theater.To be the true basis of modern American literature, a novel would have to be centered on American concepts. One of the most undischarged American concepts is the American Dream. Huckleberry Finn is the first novel to encompass the American Dream, chronically m any different Americans approach to their own American dream, and how they label it. One instance of this in Huckleberry Finn is when Huc k and Jim coincidentally become raft-mates with two swindlers, going about their dream of finding fortune in an illegal and virtuously wrong way, taking advantage of ladies, children, the elderly and even men.Twain does a superb job of demonstrating the American dream and the consequences of chasing it ruthlessly. Intertwined with the stories of dream chasers is another American concept, a black slaves mistreatment and his search for his dream, freedom. Although Twain wrote the novel after slavery was abolished, he set it several decades earlier, when slavery was still a concomitant of life. But even by Twains time, things had not necessarily gotten much better for blacks in the South.In this light, one might read Twains depiction of slavery as an allegorical representation of the condition of blacks in the United States, even after the abolition of slavery. This is shown prominently throughout the novel through the co- protagonist, a black slave named Jim, and his adventures and m isadventures. A particular instance is when Jim and Huck have been nothing simply accommodating to the two swindlers mentioned previously but the swindlers report Jim as a runaway slave and have him captured for monetary gain.The white swindlers show the unjust, repulsive way that blacks are being treated. Modern American literature is used expertly as a propaganda tool and Huckleberry Finn is one of the first instances of victimization literature to enlighten the masses about the evils of slavery. Another historic contribution that Huckleberry Finn has made to American literature is vernacular speech. This is a key characteristic of American literature and helps to show American regionalism from that time period. Dialogue in the book is directly affected by the race of the speaker and his or her region of origin.Through Twains sometimes inappropriate character speech, a reader feels as if they are truly listening to people talk because of the uncensored feel to the dialogue. Huck leberry Finn has also been under fire for its straight- talk, particularly for using racial slurs involving Jim and other slaves. However, Twains use of racial slurs ironically helps portray the anti- racist attitude of the book. Opponents to the statement that Huckleberry Finn is the basis for all modern American literature would venture to say that Uncle Toms Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe is a more influential novel.An argument for this is that Uncle Toms Cabin came earlier Huckleberry Finn and showed a more detailed account of the horrors of slavery because the novel was based simply on slavery. While it is correct that Uncle Toms Cabin came in front Mark Twains novel, Huckleberry Finn is the clear winner because of the way Mark Twain subliminally weaves in his view on slavery and is able to lead any reader to understand why slavery is morally wrong, without the reader even realizing it.While Shakespeare is inarguably the best playwright of all time, Huckleberry Finn takes on a similar deed for American literature, though somewhat less grand. Huckleberry Finn is such a prime American work because of its encompassment of American concepts, ability to persuade, subliminal anti-slavery morality, and vernacular language, of which no other American novel before it can also brag, including Uncle Toms Cabin. Huckleberry Finn is a novel entirely worthy of the honorable title basis for all modern American literature.