A Comparison of Themes between The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn and Gulliver’s Travels.doc

哈克贝利芬历险记与格列夫游记的主题思想比较a comparison of themes between the adventureof huckleberry finn and gullivers travelsabstract: in mid and late 19th century, appeared a new literary trendcritical realism. the critical realists described with much vividness and artistic skill the chief traits (characteristics) of the society and criticized the capitalist system from a democratic viewpoint. mark twain and jonathan swift were the greatest representatives of critical realists. the adventures of huckleberry finn, makes its own contribution to the shaping of cultural and social history, as huck and jim go along the mississippi in the raft, mark twain represents the black and white co-operation, the mutual generosity, and potential for harmony realizes within the limits of this embryonic interracial community. however, provides a defusing of the accepted power relations and a model of a new racial dynamic. gullivers travels describe the author traveled some different countries， it was a successful novel with humorous and critical, it attacked british and european society through its descriptions of imaginary countries. all the critical realistic features can be found in their novels. the adventures of huckleberry finn， and gullivers travels are devoted to analyze the critical realistic，ironic e.t.c. elements. so making comparison of the themes between the adventures of huckleberry finn and gullivers travels are very good for our study concerned.key words: reality; satiric; theme comparison 中文摘要: 19世纪后期出现了一种新的文学趋势-批评写实主义。现实主义者使用很多生动的语言和艺术技巧以及社会特征来阐述自己的观点。马克吐温和乔纳森斯威夫特是批判写实主义的代表。马克吐温的哈克历险记对美国历史有着积极的塑造功用，马克吐温在作品中描写了哈克和吉姆沿着密西西比河漂流时，不同肤色不同种族的他们在竹筏上度过了相对自由而平等的时光，这样的融洽和谐虽然短暂，且仅限于暂时逃离了种族歧视的世俗规范的竹筏上，仍为种族问题的解决提供了一个有益的模式。格列夫游记描写作者游历不同的国家，是一部成功的幽默和批评小说，通过对幻想国的描写来抨击当时英国和欧洲的社会。哈克贝利费恩历险记与格列佛游记是代表作。他们具有批判写实风格、讽刺的艺术等要素。对哈克贝利费恩历险记与格列佛游记主题的比较研究有利于开展相关研究。关键词：现实主义；讽刺；主题比较contentsi. introduction.1a. introduction of huckleberry finn.11. life and works of mark twain.1b. introduction of gullivers travels.11. life and works of swift.2ii. the theme in huckleberry finn.2a. the humor in huckleberry finn2b. the adventures of huckleberry finns symbols.3c. satiric art in the adventures of huckleberry finn.3iii. the theme in gullivers travels.5a. the humor in gullivers travels.5b. gullivers travels symbols.6c. satiric art in gullivers travels6. a comparison of themes between the adventures of huckleberry finn and gullivers travels.7a. different points in the themes in these two novels.7.conclusion.9works cited.11a comparison of theme between the adventure of huckleberry finn and gullivers travels.introduction a. brief introduction of huckleberry finnthe adventures of huckleberry finn is one of mark twains masterpieces. mark twain, the pen name of samuel langhorne clements, was born in horida, missouri, on november 30, 1835. when he was four the family moved to hannibal, missouri, a small town of about five hundred people, situated on the mississippi river. hannibal was a small, backward, riverside town and twains recollection of his years there exerted a powerful hold on his imagination. it was the model for st. petersbury in the adventures of huckleberry finn. when his father died in 1847, he became a printers apprentice and then be a printer both in hannibal and in new york city. as the result of a steamboat journey down the mississippi in 1857, he decided to embark on a career as a river boat pilot. twain was a riverboat pilot for four years, during this time; he became familiar with all of the towns along the mississippi river which played such an important part in his creating the adventures of huckleberry finn. it was also during this period, he became acquainted with every type of characters depicted in the novel. (robert 67)the writing of this book was evidently not easy for twain and he kept doing it for a number of years. the adventures of huckleberry finn were a very personal novel for twain. this story of a young boy and a runaway slave journeying on the mississippi river involved twain complex attitudes to the past times of his own youth. more significantly, it was written out of a deeply felt concern with the whole question of personal freedom and integrity. (twain 66) at the deepest level, it explores the possibility of creative independence within the confines of human society. twain express his own thoughts and attitudes through the narration of huck finn. huck finn comes from the very lowest level of society. he is an outcast with no education and his father is a poor drunkard. but huck finn is good and noble. he desires to be free and escapes from the civilized world. he floats along with a runaway slavejim and tries his best to help him. he changes his prejudice against black people and comes to accepting jim as his friend. he is a shrewd and ingenious boy. he dependents on his such qualities to avoid dangers and difficulties during his travel.b. brief introduction of gullivers travelsjonathan swift was born in dublin, ireland. his father died before he was born, and he was compelled to accept aid from relatives. swift read widely, and started to practice his genius as a satirist. he wrote two satirical essays on “corruptions in religion and learning”,the battle of books and a tale of the tub(1704),which made him famous among literary figures in london. of course, swifts masterpiece is gullivers travels, which published in 1726.the book contains four parts that deal with the four voyages of its hero to strange places.gullivers travels is a very interesting book; the book is divided into four parts. in the first,“a voyage to lilliput”,gulliver describes his adventure in lilliput where the tallest inhabitant is six inches high, everything in the proportion of an inch to a foot as compared with things as we know them. the english political parties and religious conflict are satirized in the description of the wearers of high heels and low heels, and of the controversy on the question whether eggs should be broken at the big end or small end.on the voyage, gulliver is accidentally left ashore in a land of giants called brobdingnag.the third part is occupied with a visit to the flying island of laputa.in the fourth part swift describes the country of the houyhnhnms, their rational, clean, and simple society is contrasted with the filthiness and brutality of the yahoos, bests in human shape.(wang 95)ii. the theme in huckleberry finna. the humor in huckleberry finn huckleberry finn, in which twain used accents and slang words to bring his characters to life. huckleberry finn was different from anything most americans had ever read. twain wrote dialogues for his characters that made them sound like real people. he didnt make all his characters sound the same; instead they each had a unique voice. in such of new forms express an idea of himself, twain experimented in his western period with a variety of humorous devices .caricatures, puns, burlesques, hoaxes, twain tried them all .hid most interesting experiment, however, was “the celebrated jumping frog of calaveras country,” written the year after the author left nevada. (twain 78)the novel covey a dazzling display of humor ,from purely verbal wit and farce to burlesque to shape satire to comedy growing out of character and of behavior then the critic finds sound proofs to his thesis .they are ,to sum up :huck finns verbal humor is often a pure delight ;the humor arise from situation ;the book is mixed with the humor of irony, verbal and dramatic .by presenting substantial examples ,the critic makes his thesis a credible one .the author of this thesis also finds the analysis of the critic is ,of course ,a successful one ,especially that about the “verbal wit” but gibson neglects the irony in huckleberry finn-one of the key elements with which twain produces much of his dazzling humor and conveys most of his serious thought. (ding 56)there is an implied conflict in huckleberry finn, between the powers of society. twain used his humor to express that. while, by involving a boy of the old south in the freeing a slave, twain discovered the perfect act for the irony of his humor, for huck, is as morally powerless to avoid the “sin” of helping jim to free. but at last huck decides to “go to hell” to help jim and “takes up wickedness again”. this humorous language is to satire the “civilizing” society.b. the adventures of huckleberry finns symbols“symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.”(yan 2003)in the adventures of huckleberry finn, an important symbol is the mississippi river. “for huck and jim, the mississippi river is the ultimate symbol of freedom. alone on their raft, they dont have to answer to anyone, and the river carries them toward freedom: for jim, toward the free states; for huck, away from his abusive father and the restrictive“civilizing”of st.petersburg.(zuo 99) the fluid, fast-moving river reflects the characters at this point: free from society, huck and jim are in flux, willing to change the attitudes about one another with little prompting “they floating on the mississippi river, the river itself is by no means free from evil, but the land is shown as a stronghold of cruelty and prejudice.”(chang 56) id like to establish that, through twain, huck is the symbol of democracy and freedom of american. huck is on behalf of those positive american people at that time. hucks adventures are symbolic of the experience of american people. hucks adventures, his escaping from the “civilizing” society, have deeper content and meaning. huck, one of the symbol figure the american mythology, his adventures just reflect that american people demand to shake off the restriction of the “civilizing” society of europe. they just want to own their true style living and freedom. anymore, huck helps jim to escape; this theme represents the thought of twain that the black should enjoy the equal freedom and rights as the white.c. satiric art in the adventures of huckleberry finnin the adventures of huckleberry finn, huck finn is an outcast without education. he lives with widow douglas who wants to civilize him, but he likes to be free and he finds with the old lady very hard to endure, he says: the widow douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would civilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time considering how dismal regular in all her ways; and so when i couldnt stand it no longer i lit out. i got into my old rags and my sugar hog shed again, and was free and satisfied (twain 82). the restriction of living with the widow douglas accelerates the forming of the idea of huck finns quest for freedom. he wants to escape from the civilized world and to be free. living in the woods, his father beasts him quite frequently and sometimes leaves him locked up in the cabin for a long time. huck finns concept of freedom is modified only when he feels that his life is endangered and that his father does not “feel right and kind towards others”. (twain 57) the freedom is also modified by huck finns feeling of loneliness and isolation. huck finns desire to be free, at its deepest levels, explores the possibility of an individual achieving true freedom in society. the theme of the book is against race prejudice and racial discrimination, it praises the faithful friendship between whites and blacks, and also, it shows a distinct humanitarianism. first, this book reveals the racial problem of american, and criticizes the appearance of blacks suffer persecution. jims miserable experience is the epitome of the blacks fates. the author describes all kinds of miserable condition. these spearmen pursued blacks like they pursued animals. second, this work shows all sorts of malpractices. in small town and village, the house leans this way and that, the path is full is the mud. we can see it filled with ignorant and poor and the author describes the friendship between white boy of 14 and an adult negro slave. this friendship seems to be so unusual, but it is very valuable in that society. it together with hucks inner conflict helps to deepen the theme of the novel. it is necessary for americans to fight against racial discrimination. it is an urgent thing to maintain negros freedom as well as their human rights and dignities. meanwhile, mark twain highly praises the goodness of human nature. mark twain is a courageous anti-slavery fighter. through the character “huck”, who not only admits black people is noble and loyal, but even says to an escaped black slave “it made me feel so mean i could almost kiss his foot to get him to take it back.” this sentence coming from a white people is absolutely unimaginable for most of white people in the pre-civil war in america. it is only this sentence that twain becomes an enemy to traditional society. otherwise, through the friendship between huck and jim, twain also implies that not only black people should have a good sense of independence, but black people must unite white people to fight against slavery during the anti-slavery war. hucks act is just the challenge to the traditional society in which slavery system is lawful. the fact that all hucks most natural impulses in his relationship with jim cause him to feel guilty is the most telling criticism of the society that formed his moral awareness. the story of a young boy and a runaway slave journey on the mississippi river involved twains complex attitude to the bygone times of his own youth. more significantly, it was written out of a deeply felt concern with the whole question of personal freedom and integrity. at the deepest level, the friendship between huck and jim explores the possibility of creative independence with the confine of human society. they try to find the balance at the point of real society and ideal society.the theme in gullivers travels a. the humor in gullivers travelsgullivers travels is a very interesting and humor embodied book; gulliver describes his adventure in lilliput where the tallest inhabitant is six inches high, everything in the proportion of an inch to a foot as compared with things as we know them.（swift 76）the english political parties and religious conflict are satirized in the description of the wearers of high heels and low heels, and of the controversy on the question whether eggs should be broken at the big end or small end. on the voyage, gulliver is accidentally left ashore in a land of giants called brobdingnag. then gulliver visits to the flying island of laputa. (swift 178)at last, swift describes the country of the houyhnhnmes, their rational, clean, and simple society is contrasted with the filthiness and brutality of the yahoos, bests in human shape.b. gullivers travels symbolswhile, gullivers travels also has symbols used throughout the novel to depict some very important ideas:“the lilliputians symbolize humankinds wildly excessive pride in its own puny existence.”(wu 65)the argument between lilliput and blefuscu over how to break an egg represents petty bickering that leads toreliguous intolerance, war, and other types of conflicts. the brobdongnagians do not symbolize a solely negative human characteristic, as the laputans do. they symbolize a dimension of human existence visible at close rang, under close scrutiny”.lilliput is clearly a comic distortion of life in europe.c. satiric art in gullivers travelsutopian theme developed in gullivers travels, swift is an advocator. paralleling with satirizing the existing social inconsistencies and seeking the spiritual refuge，swifts creative writing aims at a better life and social improvement and reform. in the novel，swift expresses the intention of his writing，where as a travelers chief aim should be to make men wiser and better and to improve their minds by the bad as well as good example of what they deliver concerning foreign places. his originality is to answer and react to situations he tries to influence or change. in lilliput，being acute political perception and insight in the status quo，swift wishfully describes the lilliputian ideal learning，laws and customs and the manner of educating their children. in brobdingnag，with the description of the giants，swift wants to help people enrich their thoughts and imagination，“which was my sole design in presenting this and other account of my travels to the world, ”and the problem of death in the part 3 and part 5 is the least soluble the ultimate problem for utopia，the ideal represented in houyhnhnmlandreason ruling over human behavior.(robert 43) in different articles, there might have varying ironic degrees for the ironic strength, although the same iconic ways have been adopted, however the very irony has been involved in the literature language; the ironic meaning comes from the distinct language style. and in gullivers travels, swift makes the best use of imaginary in method to describe all kinds of people in english society with an eye of criticizing. however，it is not all swift means to satirize and criticize the corruption. the status of the society still can not be changed. as far as the satire is leveled at human pride and folly: at the abuses of human learning: at the absurdity of speculative projectors: at those criminal or blundering expedients in policy，which readers are apt to overlook，or even to applaud，because custom has made familiar; so far the author deserves our warmest approbation，and his satire will be allow