Mark Twain's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain criticizes the south for what he believes has a flawed social structure. He criticizes romanticism throughout the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Romanticism is a movement that emphasizes inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of an individual. Twain uses the characters to show different instances of romanticism. Tom Sawyer, a friend of Huckleberry Finn, is seen as a romantist. Tom Sawyer likes to find ways to make his adventures more difficult than it has to be. Tom makes a band of robbers. He states that they must sign the contract in blood, he then goes on to explain what would happen if they go against the oath “never tell any of the secrets; and if anybody done anything to any boy in the band, whichever boy was ordered to kill that person and his family must do it, and he musn’t eat, and he musn’t sleep till he has killed them…have a curse put on it and forgot forever” (6). Twain uses this situation to show Tom’s actions are playful, unintelligent and naïve. …show more content…
Tom came up with a complex plan to free Jim. Tom Sawyer knew Jim was free because of the will Miss Watson left for after her death. Tom wanted to free him complexly because he was inspired by The Count of the Monte Cristo. “But there’s one thing- he can have a rope ladder; we can tear up our sheets and make him a rope ladder easy enough. And we can send it to him in a pie; it’s mostly done that way” (214). Tom did not have to make a ladder because Jim was only in a one story building. This shows how romantics liked to go through a long process and exaggerate