Mark Twain, in his novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his essay Nature, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, in his short story “The Birth-Mark,” all express an unstated disdain for the perfection of nature and, to an extent, portray an obsessive jealousy of nature reflected through their literary works. Twain emulates this premise through his use of superstition and his lack of respect for death. Emerson accomplishes the task through his comparisons of nature with humans and his beliefs on the qualities a person might possess that allow allow the individual to appreciate nature. Lastly, Hawthorne proves this point through his views of the birthmark and how characters react to it. This interpretation of the text is noteworthy
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After the King exchanges words with a group of strangers and discovers the whereabouts of where Peter Wilks died, he professes “Alas, alas, our poor brother – gone, and we never got to see him; oh, it’s too, too hard!” (122) This quote represents the onset of an elaborate scheme where the King and the Duke pretend to be the brothers of the deceased Peter Wilks and the uncles of his daughters for an extended period of time. At the end of the story, when Aunt Polly comes and sets all the facts straight about the identities of the boys, Tom goes on a rant about how Jim should not be a slave and then claims, “Old Miss Watson died two months ago, and she was ashamed she ever was going to sell him down the river, and said so; and she set him free in her will” (217). After Tom mentions the death of Miss Watson, no one seems to even acknowledge it, much less mourn over it. In both of these instances, Twain is not giving death the reverence that it deserves. Whether it be attempting to inherit the fortune of a dead man or being indifferent towards the death of a loved one, Twain is purposefully discrediting a certain aspect of
After the King exchanges words with a group of strangers and discovers the whereabouts of where Peter Wilks died, he professes “Alas, alas, our poor brother – gone, and we never got to see him; oh, it’s too, too hard!” (122) This quote represents the onset of an elaborate scheme where the King and the Duke pretend to be the brothers of the deceased Peter Wilks and the uncles of his daughters for an extended period of time. At the end of the story, when Aunt Polly comes and sets all the facts straight about the identities of the boys, Tom goes on a rant about how Jim should not be a slave and then claims, “Old Miss Watson died two months ago, and she was ashamed she ever was going to sell him down the river, and said so; and she set him free in her will” (217). After Tom mentions the death of Miss Watson, no one seems to even acknowledge it, much less mourn over it. In both of these instances, Twain is not giving death the reverence that it deserves. Whether it be attempting to inherit the fortune of a dead man or being indifferent towards the death of a loved one, Twain is purposefully discrediting a certain aspect of