HF Critical Lens Experts- Psycological Lens

From the psychoanalytical lens, Henry Nash Smith’s critique of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from his book ‘A Sound Heart and a Deformed Conscience’ appears to come from Mark Twain’s use of Huck Finn as the narrator of the story. Since Huck is the viewpoint character, his continual use of slang, and his uneducated accent make up a large amount of the text. In some ways, I agree with Henry Smith. By making Huckleberry the narrator, there is much less of a disconnect between the voice of the narrator and all the other characters inside the novel. However, I think that the true potential that Huck has as first person narrator is the unique insight into his character development. Huck’s overall ethical standpoint has been changing throughout the entire novel, so that by the time Tom Sawyer re-enters the picture, Huck is now much more capable of figuring out that Tom is a rather selfish individual.

Another part of the book that Henry Smith pointed out was that in most parts of the novel, Huck and Jim’s main and only recourse is to run away, since they are both powerless and most of their society, albeit for very different reasons. Huck is, and is proud of being, an uncivilized youth. Keeping this in mind, he cannot understand complex issues, and, unless his developing moral compass demands it, will run away when he is over matched. Jim is unable to do anything but run away because he is a black escaped slave in the South, with a bounty on him. As Huck so nearly demonstrates in one chapter, even a child could cause him to lose his freedom with the simple mailing of a letter to his bounty hunters.

The final part of the critique that I agree with is that Mark Twain wrote this story in such a way that it was impossible for Huck or Jim to ever actually find the freedom they were looking for. For example, the book ends with Jim receiving news of his freedom- however, he is still black in an era where he is most definitely a second class citizen, and he still lacks any skills outside of those he learned while in slavery. To put it another way, he is not significantly better off than he was when he and Huck were ‘adventuring’. Huck’s desire to go out West is equally implausible- what will likely happen is that the Widow Douglas will take him back, and he’ll live with her until Tom comes up with something else for them to do. Though better of than Jim, Huck will also never experience the freedom that he thinks he wants.