Romanticism flourished in America from 1800 to 1850, celebrating the power of the individual and celebrated emotions, feelings and imagination over logic. Authors like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau emphasized on imagination, adventure, nature, and independence. Soon after this time period, Mark Twain published his acclaimed novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, in which he held nothing back in order to satirize and mock the characteristics of the Romantic Period. His characters he creates are manifestations of opposite literary concepts- pragmatic versus romantic. He sets up these characters and events to effectively portray Romanticism in a ridiculous manner through their actions and the results that ensue. In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck’s …show more content…
Huckleberry is logical and pragmatic; his thoughts and actions are based off of facts and common sense. In stark contrast, Tom Sawyer is a dreamer, creating wild, elaborate adventures and living by the heroic plots of Romantic novels. Immediately shown in the novel is the difference in the way Huck and Tom think- Tom conjures a valiant game of “robbers”, in which Huck says they “...hadn’t robbed nobody, hadn’t killed any people, just only just pretended... Tom Sawyer called the hogs “ingots,” and he called the turnips and stuff “julery,” and we would go to the cave and powwow over what we had done, and how many people we had killed and marked. But I couldn’t see no profit in it” (Twain 16). Tom obsesses over make-believe adventures and gallant mischief, but Huck can see no logic behind it. He describes their game in a long-winded sentence, continuing on with four “ands”, creating a feeling of boredom for the reader as the phrase drags on. He follows up with a declarative statement, putting emphasis on his opinion and drawing attention to the lack of logic behind