Close Reading Of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain’s essay “Fenimor Cooper’s Literary Offences” is one of the primary reasons Cooper’s work is not read much today. Cooper is well known for his Leatherstocking Saga, comprised of 5 novels. However, these novels are under fire by Mark Twain for breaking so many rules of literary art. In particular, “Chapter 1” of Deerslayer breaks three of these rules right off the bat. The rules that are broken in the first chapter alone are 3, 4, and 6. Rule 3 states that the literary art “requires that the personages in a tale shall be alive, except in the case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the others.” (1432-1433). In “Chapter 1,” the reader is briefly introduced to Judith Hutter. The confusion arises when there are two characters named Judith Hutter, Tom Hutter’s wife and daughter. After giving a little background to the drowned wife, Hurry Harry says “But Judith I

However, these details do not give any indication as to why she was drowned by her husband. Rule 6 states that literary art “requires that when the author describes the character of a personage in his tale, the conduct and conversation of that personage shall justify said description.” From what Hurry Harry says, it seems that the Judith Hutter was a good wife, only getting into occasional arguments with Tom but having an overall happy relationship. Hurry Harry, when inquired by Deerslayer about the reason for drowning her, proposes that “old Tom sunk her as much by way of saving pains, as by way of taking it.” (21) This statement does not give a reason as to why Tom drowned Judith other than to say he did not want to kill her in a way that would hurt her. With the lack of details about her and the relationship, the reader is unable to match up the purpose of the murder with the personage. This contradiction makes identity all the more confusing, breaking rule