Essay 4 Rough Draft

Sam Maurer
Lauren Servais
English 1A
10/21/08
Essay 4 Rough Draft
The other day I watched a Santana concert on television, and I thought that Santana played guitar amazingly well and was very versatile. I did not think, “Yeah, Santana was great and all, but it’s a shame that the triangle player was so misrepresented”. In actuality, the triangle player’s representation never even crossed my mind. This is because he took, quite literally, a backstage role in the performance, and that the show was really about Santana, which is where the focus was rightfully placed. Similarly, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the focus of the story is on two male characters, so to say that the text is sexist because it portrays women as people who lack depth and variety is a ridiculous claim.
Women in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn appear as they do not because Mark Twain believed them to be unimportant in society, but rather because they all assumed second hand roles and were never given the chance to develop themselves as dynamic characters. In the novel the men stand in the forefront of the novel while the women stand in the backs and sides. It is obviously a male dominated book, where the women only play second hand roles. I think that for this reason, the women are never given the chance to shine or create themselves as characters with depth. Since the two main characters are men, and since the readers follow their stories exclusively, it is only natural that they are seen as dynamic. Readers chart their progress and are with them for every decision that they make. Any character looked at this closely would appear more dynamic than a character with a smaller role in the story. In this particular novel it is just the women who assume that backstage role, thus making them less significant to the story line, and therefore, not as much needs to be said about them. Walker states that Twain sees little importance to women, and this is why he presents them only as products of society. She proclaims that, “Mark Twain [is aware] of the final ineffectuality of women in his society”(490), and that for this reason they represent nothing more than motherly figures. I believe that Twain does not value women any less than men, but rather that he depicts them as they would appear according to the time period. I think that overall Walker delves too far into the novel, searching for forced stereotypes that do not exist. Had the novel centered around women, they would likely appear dynamic, but since that is not the case with this novel, the women never get the chance to shatter society sculpted image.
Some critics claim that the women who are seen in the novel are only seen as motherly characters who do not branch out beyond this stereotype, and in this the novel is sexist. A counterargument to this is that Twain utilizes historical realism to portray these characters, and they appear as they would in the setting of the novel.

Huck Finn Blog

Alice Walker’s essay suggests that the women from The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn are only seen as stereotypes, and as nothing more than motherly figures, who lack depth and personality. Walker states that Twain sees little importance to women, and this is why he presents them only as products of society. I believe that Twain does not value women any less than men, but rather that he depicts them as they would appear according to the time period. I think that overall Walker delves too far into the novel, and searches for forced stereotypes that do not exist. Since the novel’s focus is on men, they are the characters who the reader spends more time with, and thus, it is easier for their qualities to come out. The female characters are not the focus, and so they aren’t seen in this way. Since less time is spent with them, less is learned about them.

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