Literature has always been seen as the reflection of humanity, especially those works which are read over and over and often canonized. An author’s good representation of culture and life in a certain time and place, calls out to what we as readers know of our world and our time. Even if our surroundings and culture are completely opposite of the author’s representation, the connection is made through opposites, but the reader also gains that outside view of life. Two works which exhibit this are Huckleberry Finn and The Ancient One. Both have young narrators who go on an adventure, and, through this adventure, they discover life lessons and views about the culture that surrounds them. The representation of the narrators, the settings, and the quests of the narrators are what connects the reader to the cultures of both novels.
The narrator of a novel, or any story, can tell the reader a lot. Both Huckleberry Finn and The Ancient One use narrators in different ways, to different effects. The narrator for Huckleberry Finn is Huck himself. He is presented in a first-person point of view which gives the feeling that a story is being told to the reader. There is a long story-telling tradition in the south, and this presentation of Huck follows that. The Ancient One has a teenage girl as a narrator. Kate is presented in a third-person limited point of view. This allows the reader to enter the story rather than have the story told to them by a first-person narrator like Huck. Both narrators and the points of view they are given vary the way the reader is able to experience the text and both are effective at conveying meaning and the overall intended feeling to the reader. Huck’s southern language conveys his status, location, and gives the text an “old timey” feel, while the third-person view that follows Kate gives a wider view of the surroundings, both physical surroundings and the surrounding views of others. The methods of narration are very different, but they both allow the reader to get a clearer idea of the culture and the author’s idea.
Huck could be said to be a semi-reliable narrator. He is reliable because he is wiser than the average teenage boy, even though his factual knowledge is limited due to a limited education. Many believe that his wisdom and often cynical view is really the voice of Twain coming through to comment on life and the surrounding culture (Smiley). However, Huck is undoubtedly a free, white male of the lowest class in the South so his personality, opinions and actions will be colored by this social status and location no matter how friendly he is with Jim. The quote, “Well, I can tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish, too, to hear him, because I begun to get it through my head that he was most free-and who was to blame for it? Why, me. . . . It was according to the old saying, ‘Give a nigger an inch and he’ll take an ell'” (Twain 123-124). Huck cannot escape his southern white culture. Chinua Achebe, in his essay “An Image of Africa,” believes that the author Joseph Conrad racially discriminates Africa and Africans in his novella, Heart of Darkness. One might say that Twain does the same in Huckleberry Finn but there are plenty that argue that Twain was only presenting the times as they were through the eyes of a boy, but the reader is left to wonder whether Huck’s representations are accurate and whether they should be believed (Achebe 323-333). Because of the social influence over Huck, though he defies it often, he is not a one hundred percent reliable narrator.
Kate, on the other hand, could be said to be a more reliable narrator than Huck because, through third-person point of view, the reader is given more views of the situation than just that of the main character or the author. The point of view is limited and so still conveys mostly the views of the main character and author, but gives a more overall view than first-person narration. When Kate is running from the loggers, you still see the loggers from Kate’s point of view, but you can also see some of their view as well (Barron 19-22).
But finally, on the issue of narrator, one could say that because both Kate and Huck are young and more innocent that older characters that the reader gets a more neutral view of the culture and situations surrounding the main characters. But both Huck and Kate are definitely influenced by the author, even if they are not greatly influenced by anything or anyone else in the novels. Barron wants to promote conservation of wildlife, so Kate is obviously on the side of conservation rather than the side of the loggers who are losing their jobs. Twain wants to present the South in an almost satirical way, so Huck seeks to get away from civilization and rules and people that don’t make sense, like in the chapter with the feuding families. Huck gets out of there as fast as he can as soon as he sees just how very dumb and very dangerous feuding is (Twain 132-155).
While the narrator is the reader’s path to the setting and the cultural motives in the novel, the actual setting and surroundings are what give the reader the backdrop for the issues and opinions covered by the author and the characters. Both Huckleberry Finn and The Ancient One are set, for the most part, in nature away from civilization and a lot of the corruption that goes along with it. Huck goes rafting down the Mississippi River on his adventure, while Kate goes into a redwood forest and back in time in hers.
Also, an important part of the setting is the time period. Huckleberry Finn and The Ancient One have very different locations and time periods. Huckleberry Finn is set during slave times before the Civil War, and The Ancient One is set in the later 20th century. There is no doubt that the two novels have different issues that are important to their particular time period. When Huck ponders whether or not he’s done bad by helping Jim run away to freedom, the reader can see that slavery is an important issue of Huck’s time (Twain). Indeed, the controversy is not completely over yet. The time Huck belongs to is full of racism and inequality, the placing of a price on another human being, and the owning of one person by another (Hamlin). One might ask why Twain wrote about such a central and sore issue. It could be just that, that it was so central and so sore, but there might be another theory. Wilson Harris, in his essay “The Frontier on Which Heart of Darkness Stands,” states that Heart of Darkness could be Conrad’s apology to the Africans who were treated so badly, just as Huckleberry Finn might be viewed as some sort of apology for the horrible treatment of slaves through the character of Jim (Harris). Also, Huckleberry Finn deals with civilization versus the rugged outdoors. This is present because western North America was only made up of territories instead of states. There was a lot of uncivilized and unexplored land out there at this time (Smiley).
The Ancient One is set in Oregon, in the late 1900’s, outside of a redwood forest and a crater containing some of the oldest trees in the world. Environmentalism was a strong movement in the late 20th century, so it is no wonder that the novel’s ties to the wilderness have to do with preservation and environmental concerns. In fact, Kate’s aunt, who she is staying with, is the main fighter for preservation in the story. Kate, as a result, gets swept up into the conflict and is able to help in the end. However, there have been reviews, like the one by Margaret Chang, that state that the novel is not environmental enough, that there are holes in the facts of the novel, but either interpretation is for the reader to decide based on what they take to and take from the story (Chang). Also, at that time, there were conflicts-as there are now-between jobs and preservation, and so the reader is shown the conflict that arises between the loggers and Kate’s aunt (Barron).
Other people or beings are also a part of the setting. Huck meets many different people during his travels, from murderers to con-artists, from aristocrats to a town full of fake ones. Kate also meets various characters and beings which include the loggers who oppose her aunt and her discovery of the ancient Indians and the lizard people when she goes back in time.
There is also a setting for the author that effects the story. Twain spent a large part of his life along the Mississippi River, so of course the river and its terminology find their way into the novel. Also, Twain spent time out west in the territories, away from so-called “civilization” much like Huck took to the river and to the territories as well at the end of the novel (Smiley). Barron built a log cabin to raise his family in and to be close to nature. He enjoys hiking and the outdoors, so naturally this love for nature comes through in his writing and from his writing to the novel, in the form of the ancient trees and the fight to preserve them from the logging companies (“Questions for T.A. Barron”).
The quests for both Huck and Kate are similar in nature though maybe not in the way they are presented. Huck’s adventure is fiction, but it is realistic fiction. Kate’s, on the other hand, is fiction also, but it is fantasy fiction and not realistic; it contains time travel, lizard people, magic, and other supernatural objects, people, and events. Martha Nussbaum, in her essay “The Literary Imagination,” would say that fantasy like that in The Ancient One and a reader taking it at face value is a restoration of the literary imagination. She says that that imagination has been disappearing thanks to criticism and overly academic studies of literature, rather than just reading to escape and enjoy (Nussbaum). This could apply to both Huckleberry Finn and The Ancient One, since they are both fiction, but is more evident in The Ancient One because of its fantasy genre.
However, in their quests, both Kate and Huck are driven out and into their adventures by outside events; Kate is driven into the woods to start her journey because of a preservation rally, and Huck is driven from his home by his dangerously drunken father. Also, there are stages to both quests. Kate goes from the tree to the swamps and from the swamps to the circle of stones, and so on. Huck goes from the cabin to the river, from the river to the island, and from the island to every other place he visits before he comes back to his home town. And both quests end well for the main character.
The culture and social conditions presented through the elements of each novel are what absorbs the reader and makes them care about the questions, problems and issues presented by the authors and the characters. Both Twain and Barron succeed in making the culture and setting stand out through the techniques they use with the narrator, the time period, the genre, and the details of the characters’ quests. These outside details are what glue the story together though they are often not consciously noticed by a leisure reader. These details are what make both Huckleberry Finn and The Ancient One great novels that are well read and beloved by readers.
Works Cited
Achebe, Chinua, “An Image of Africa.” Richter, David H., ed. Falling Into Theory. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2000.
Barron, T. A. “Questions for T.A. Barron.” T.A. Barron Official Website. 2008 12 March 2008 http://www.tabarron.com.>
Barron, T.A. The Ancient One. New York: Philomel Books, 1992.
Chang, Margaret A. “Book review: Grades 3-6.” School Library Journal 38.11 (Nov. 1992): 88. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Jackson Library, Greenwood, SC. 18 Mar. 2008 .
Hamlin, Annemarie, and Constance Joyner.. “Racism and Real Life.” Radical Teacher (2007): 12-18. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Jackson Library, Greenwood, SC. 18 Mar. 2008 .
Harris, Wilson, “The Frontier on Which Heart of Darkness Stands.” Richter, David H., ed. Falling Into Theory. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2000.
Nussbaum, Martha C., “The Literary Imagination.” Richter, David H., ed. Falling Into Theory. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2000.
Smiley, Jane. “Say it ain’t so, Huck. (Cover story).” Harper’s Magazine 292.1748 (Jan. 1996): 61. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Jackson Library, Greenwood, SC. 18 Mar. 2008 .
Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2001.
