Romanticism In Huck Finn

Many people are naturally inclined to a more positive and romantic outlook on life at younger ages, but when they are hit with the tragedies and sadness of the real world their views tend to change toward realism rather than their more imaginative view of a romantic world. This happened during the Civil War era in the United States. “Civilians of the United States viewed war as a glorious event, especially if their side was bound to achieve victory” (Dunnion). Realism shows the world how it really is including all of it’s flaws and shortcomings. Romanticism is the tendency to only show the good of society and make it look far more polished and lovely than it truly is. Romanticism paints life with an exclusively positive brush. On the other

The Civil War marked the country’s transition from romanticism to realism. When Huck and Jim are forced to confront the reality of citations they are met with, the reader is shown the realism that exists in the novel. Huck experienced the cruelty of this world first hand, even by his own father. When Huck’s father arrives home after a long period of being away, Huck is not greeted with love and kindness he is greeted with an angry man who is hellbent on taking his son’s money for his alcohol addiction (Twain ch 5). The alcoholism portrayed by Huck’s father was just one way the novel showed how the common man could truly live. Huck was then from his home with the Widow Douglas, his guardian, to be with his father across the river in Illinois. He decided he was going to leave his father captivity and go out on the river which he truly loved but he saw that he simply could not avoid all of the tragedies that life hold. After some time on Jackson’s Island Jim and Huck saw the body of a house floating down the river and decided to scavenge it to see what they could find that would be beneficial to them. While scavenging the house Jim stumbled upon a dead body and forced Huck back as to keep him away from reality saying, “It’s a dead man. Yes, indeedy; naked, too. He’s ben shot in de back. I reck’n he’s ben dead two er three days. Come in, Huck, but doan’ look at his face—it’s too gashly” (Twain ch 9). The acute observation of the dead body showed by Jim just showed how real the situation was, there was no sugar coating on land, just reality. After Jim and Huck pick up two travelers to join them on their trek down the river, they stop at a small town and hang around there for a few days. On one day a local drunk named Boggs rode in on a horse threatening to kill everyone, especially a man named Sherburn.