英语本科毕业论文-TomSawyerandHuckleberryFinnJourneyofInitiation.doc

第 13页Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn: Journey of InitiationI. Initiation Stories and Mark Twains Two Adventures1.1 Initiation StoriesThe word “initiation” originated from anthropology. It refers to, after a series of hardships and ordeals, the adolescent obtaining the knowledge, ability and confidence to face the society and the life independently, and therefore entering a new stage of lifeadulthood. These hardships and ordeals are often some kinds of ceremonies. Especially in primitive tribes, when boys come to certain age, they must experience some ordeals on their bodies in order to be accepted as adults by their society, such as cutting some part of their bodies, catching and killing animals, and completing a task which usually only an adult can.In the history of English literature, so far the name of “initiation story” has not been established. That is not because its amount is so small that it cannot become an independent subgenre of fiction, but, quite contrarily because there are large amounts of initiation stories, with different perspectives, then it is hard to express its broad literary vision and aesthetic scope with just a concise word. In addition, English critics have not made a profound study on it so that there are many names for it. Among them, the more commonly used ones are “initiation story” or “novel of initiation”, “growing-up novel”, “coming-of-age novel”, “novel of youth” or “novel of adolescence”, “novel of life”, etc. For so many names for English initiation stories, there is no unanimous view in academic circles. Mordecai Marcus, in his article “What is an Initiation Story?”, offers a provisional working definition which contains the main elements in initiation story: An initiation story may be said to show its young protagonist experiencing a significant change of knowledge about the world or himself, or a change of character, or of both, and this change must point or lead him towards an adult world. It may or may not contain some form of ritual, but it should give some evidence that the change is at least likely to have permanent effects. (Marcus, 1969:29) The famous theoretician of literature and art, Bakhtin, has ever made a specialized study on initiation stories. In his Bildungsroman and Its Significance in the Realist History he expounded the features, classifications and characters of initiation stories systematically. He pointed out that, Most novels only master the fixed characters, and they are in a large amount and dominant status. Besides that, there is another type of novel which is rarely known. Novels of this type create characters in static unities but dynamic ones. The characteristic of a hero in the formula of this kind of novel becomes a variable, and then the changes of the hero contain a sense of story. So the plot of the novel gets recognized anew and reconstructed essentially, and time goes into the hero and the image itself. So this type of novel can generally be called initiation stories. (芮渝平,2004:6)In short, an initiation story has a theme of narrating the course of ones growing-up; it tells the experiences of the character; through the narrative about one or more characters experience of growing-up, it reflects the course of changing form immaturity to maturity in mind and psychology of the characters. Initiation stories cannot be identified by the age of their heroes or be standardized. As a literary theme which can be discussed by people of different times over and over again, “initiation problems” are not merely the problem of maturity in physiology. Some heroes in initiation stories are even older than thirty years old, for instance, the hero in Song of Solomon. Since till now there has always been lacking of systematic study on initiation stories in China, and no enough attention, either, paid to the study or introduction of American initiation stories, then Professor Rui Yuping from Ningbo University published her book, A Study of American Initiation Stories at the proper time in May, 2004. It systematically introduces the development of initiation stories in Europe and in American, and makes more analyses on the features of American Initiation stories. And it gives the thesis much revelation.1.2 Mark Twains Two AdventuresAmong Mark Twains major works, the Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn most strikingly stand out. In the Encyclopedia American, we read “He(Mark Twain)is best known for two novel of boyhood life on the Mississippi River in the mid-19th century Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer”(Grolier, 1981:291). Also in the New Encyclopedia, we read, Mark Twain “won a worldwide audience for his stories of the Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” (Turner, 1980:806). Although more than ninety years has passed since his death, his two Adventures written a century ago still remain one of the first choices in literary reading.1.2.1 Social Background of the Two AdventuresAfter four years of fighting in the Civil War, the industrialized North defeated the agrarian South, which not only protected the integrity of the United States as an indivisible nation, but also made American head toward capitalism. Increasing industrialization and mechanization propelled an economic boom that made America step into a prosperous age. However, industrialization brought in problems, like a significant increase in evil and crime. Meanwhile, the old customs and conventions still remained in America, such as the abolition of slavery and equal chance for everyone was not perfectly achieved since some states in the south continued to deprive of the former slaves rights to vote through certain laws. Both the rising step and the dark side of America are reflected in Mark Twains two Adventures composed from 1870 to 1884. In the two Adventures, under the help of the two children protagonists, Mark Twain on the one hand, showed great concern for the good nature of human beings and symbolized Americans rise with Toms and Hucks moral growth, on the other hand, threw strong criticism on the society he lived in. 1.2.2 Literary Background of the Two AdventuresMark Twain drew a vivid picture of his hometown and the Mississippi region of which he knew best in Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. After the Civil a number of American writers accentuated “fidelity to a particular geographical section and a faithful representation of its habits, speech, manners, history, folklore, or beliefs” (吴定柏，2004:72) in their works, whose mode of writing is regionalism. Being a subordinate order of realism, regionalism indicates that an author writes about what is unique in his or her living section. The local color writing is the form of regionalism, which came to prominence in the United States in the late 19th century.The main features of local fiction are summarized by Wu Dingbo in the following ways. Local color fiction describes the exotic and the picturesque, namely, things that are not common to other region. Local color fiction glorifies the past. The writers are nostalgic about the past as they are really trying to describe things would be lost. But local color is not merely as nostalgia but also as realism in the service of social criticism. Local color fiction also attempts to show things as they are (吴定柏，2004:74). All these characteristics of local fiction are fully exhibited in Mark Twains Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. II. Toms and Hucks Initiation 2.1Toms InitiationAlthough at the end of Tom Sawyer Tom is still very much a boy and capable of thinking like the old Tom the readers know so well in the early chapters of that novel, Tom grows up psychologically in the course of the story. When the novel opens, Tom is a crafty, intelligent, and imaginative boy with an intuitive understanding of human nature. He expends his immense personal resources mainly on tricks and games. Tom is engaged in and often the organizer of childhood pranks and make-believe games, who rarely takes anything seriously and seems to worry about nothing. As the novel progresses, these initially consequence-free childish games take on more and more gravity. Tom leads himself, Joe Harper, Huck, and, in the cave, Becky Thatcher into increasingly dangerous situations. He also finds himself in predicaments where he must put his concern for others above that for himself, such as when he testifies at Injun Joes trial and when he saves Becky in the cave. The murder of Dr. Robinson is the first serious conflict to present itself in the story, and Tom begins to change after he witnesses it. In this incident, he must decide whether he will break his blood oath and endanger his life by testifying that Muff Potter did not kill the doctor, of whether he will let Muff Potter die for a crime he did not commit. Toms anxiety and guilt about Muff Potters fate are plain in the scenes in which he tries to get Huck to reconsider their vow to secrecy. After his attempts at making his conscience feel better by visiting Muff Potter in the jailhouse provide no relief from his torment, Tom decides to follow his conscience despite the ties that have bound him his devotion to loyalty and his personal safety. He goes and tells the truth bravely.In this incident, Tom rises not only above himself, but also above all the other villagers, for he is the only person with the moral courage to accuse Injun Joe. That ability to grow up and assume grown-up responsibility is what makes Tom able to stand up for Muff Potters rights. No one else has the integrity even to lead a mob in tarring and feathering Injun Joe for body snatching.Toms disregard of his own personal safety prepares the readers for even greater transformations in his character. In taking Becky Thatchers punishment, Tom exercises a preliminary heroism that conforms more to his storybook notions of chivalry and romance than it resolves a real conflict. His chivalry and competence while he and Becky are trapped in the cave, however, represent a more meaningful, adult version of the same lesson in self-sacrifice and concern for others. As Tom begins to take initiative to help others instead of himself, he shows his increasing maturity, competence, and moral integrity. In fact, the cave represents a trial that Tom has to pass before he can graduate into maturity. Coming-of-age stories often involve tests in which the protagonist is separated from the rest of the society for a period of time and faces significant dangers or challenges. Only after having survived on the strength of his personal resources is Tom ready to rejoin society.Toms adventures on Jacksons Island and in McDougals Cave take him away from society. These symbolic removals help to prepare him to return to the village with a new, more adult outlook on his relationship to the community. Though at the beginning of this novel, Tom looks up to Huck as much older and wiser, by the end of Tom Sawyer, Toms maturity has surpassed Hucks. Toms personal growth is evident in his insistence, in the face of Hucks desire to flee all social constraints, that Huck stay with the Widow Douglas and become civilized. There is really no need for Tom to try to convince Huck to burden himself with the shackles of respectability. The only possible reason for his wanting Huck to do so is that he himself has become convinced of the intrinsic value of civilized conventions. This is mature and principled attitude. In this final scene, Toms transformation is completed. Though he does not cease to be a playful and fun-loving character, he has learned through experiencing various dangers and mistakes to value the resources of home and community and to accept a certain measure of outside authority. 2.2 Hucks Initiation Huckleberry Finn, it is true, is also a story of growing up, but there is a crucial difference between the two versions. Toms growing up is by a process of achieving acceptance in society while Hucks is by the process of a radical criticism of society. Hucks escape from the Window Douglas and her sister and his cruel Pap, and he fleeing with Jim in Huckleberry Finn indicates that Huck begins his true natural growth by experiencing the adventurous life, by self-education, and by his own judgment. Through the journey down the river, Huck experiences all kinds of accidents and sees all kinds of people. The loafers of the town of Brickville amuse themselves by torturing animals, pouring hot tar over them and setting them on fire; civilized citizens quickly changes into violent mobs, ready to take the law onto their hands and lynch people, or to seize people and pour tar over them and ride them out town on a rail; the fact of brutal slavery and of human being, blacks are sold on the marked places like animals; and the poignant portrayal of swindlers which was a common sight in the South then, all these and many other incidents are depicted in true to life detail as the background against which Hucks awareness of good and evil develops. Having experienced all these adventures, Huck finds that most of the things he has been taught turned out to be wrong, for example, he is taught that slavery is good and right, and that runaway slaves should be reported, but he finds that Jim is such a kind person who takes care of him all along the river. So what Huck has to do is to cut off social prejudice and social discriminations to find truth for him. In short, he has to teach himself, and improve himself by using his own judgment. At first Huck looks down upon Jim much the same way the white Southerner does a slave. He often teases Jim, cannot treat him as a proper human being, and less as his equal. In Chapter 15, Huck plays a trick on Jim. Jims response makes Huck see the results of playing games with other peoples feelings. Huck realizes that he must right the wrong he has done. Although it is against everything he has ever learned about relations between white men and Negroes, Huck humbles himself to Jim. He says, “It made me feel so mean I could almost kissed HIS foot” (Twain, 2003:104). At this moment, Huck is really better than his father who grumbles at the law that allows a free Negro to vote, because he puts aside all the conventional notions of relations between men, and begins to treat Jim with the dignity that belongs to a human being. This is Hucks first real victory over himself. Hucks humble apology is a striking evidence of growth in moral insight. However, Hucks trials and his growth are not over. Hucks first inner conflict arises when he and Jim are approaching Cairo. In Chapter 16, when Huck hears that Jim “said hed be a free man the minute he seen Cairo and it made him all over trembly and feverish, too” (Twain, 2003:105). Huck feels “so mean and so miserable I most wished I was dead” (Twain, 2003:106) at the thought that he has now done ithe has helped Jim steal himself from a “poor old woman” who had “tried to be good to him every way she knowed how” (Twain, 2003:106). The guilty conscience keeps torturing Huck, because he is aware of right and wrong as his as his society explains it to him. Prompted by his “deformed conscience”, Huck decides to “paddle ashore at the first light and tell” (Twain, 2003:107). Clearly, in the process of reasoning, his “deformed conscience” gets the upper hand. He actually sets about no carry out his decision, but then, at the critical moment, Jim bursts out a moving speech, attributing all his happiness to Huck: “I couldnt ever ben free ef it hadnben for Huck; Huck done it. Jim wont ever forgit you, Huck; yous de besfren Jims ever had; en yous de only frenole Jims got now . Dah you goes, de ole true Huck; de ony white genlman dat ever kep his promise to ole Jim” (Twain, 2003:107-108). By appealing to Hucks sense of loyalty, the speech gets rid of Hucks scruples. Overwhelmed, Huck gives up his original plan. The second and climactic inner struggle appears in the famous Chapter 31, which is also the climax of the entire book. At first, Huck determines to write a letter to inform Miss Watson of Jims whereabouts, because he feels that there “was the plain hand of Providence slapping me in the face and letting me know my wickedness was being watched all the time from up there in heaven” (Twain, 2003:255). And after the writing, he “felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time” (Twain, 2003:256) in his life. However, when all the shared “ talking and singing and laughing” (Twain, 2003:256) and Jims appeal to his loyalty in an exclamation that Huck is “de bes fren Jims ever had; en yous de only frenole Jims got now” (Twain, 2003:107) ring in his ears, Huck, in a breath-holding atmosphere, tears the letter and decides to “go to hell” (Twain, 2003:257). At this critical moment, Hucks “sound heart” defeats the “deformed conscience”. Though their escape down the river, he gets to know Jim better. Jim is really a person who deserves Hucks protection, friendship and love. It is the genuine feeling for Jim that prompt Huck to destroy his letter to Miss Watson. Jim himself plays an essential role in Hucks education. Hucks last decision to remain loyal to Jims humanity against the combined force of law, social convention, and what he has been taught to understand as Christianity itself. His resolute action of tearing the letter and decision of helping Jim get freedom serve as a milestone in his growth, which manifests his courage to shoulder responsibility. At the end of the book, Hucks final escape demonstrates his full maturity. In the face of Aunt Sallys intention to adopt him, Huck says “I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she is going to adopt me and sivilized me, and I c