Response #2

Mark Twain himself was not always successful at business so his occupations included that of riverboat captain, newspaper reporter, and author. Twain himself seem to have his own form of self-fashioning in the writing of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. His constant movement across the then vastness of America allowed him to meet all types of Americans and to become familiar with all of their virtues and vices. His movement could be paralleled to that of the river that in the novel represents peacefulness and freedom. Huck’s innocence and goodness is in opposition to the corruptness of the 1884 society in which Twain lived. Twain could also be searching for his own freedom as a writer since his mother and wife were products of a traditional society that opposed personal freedom. The 13-year-old Huck Finn could make observations and comments about society that the adult Twain could not. Greenblatt’s other in this situation could be the falseness of the Victorian American society and an organized religion that condoned slavery and personal vendettas that approved murder. These elements have the power to control Jim’s freedom from slavery, Huck’s freedom from civilization, and Twain’s freedom from society’s restrictions of his writing style, language, and subject.