{"id":446,"date":"2015-03-03T10:09:31","date_gmt":"2015-03-03T15:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nightowl.owu.edu\/?p=446"},"modified":"2015-03-03T10:09:31","modified_gmt":"2015-03-03T15:09:31","slug":"review-of-huck-finns-america-mark-twain-and-the-era-that-shaped-his-masterpiece-by-andrew-levy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/nightowl\/2015\/03\/03\/review-of-huck-finns-america-mark-twain-and-the-era-that-shaped-his-masterpiece-by-andrew-levy\/","title":{"rendered":"Review of “Huck Finn’s America: Mark Twain and the Era that Shaped His Masterpiece” by Andrew Levy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shea Faulkner
\n<\/b>
\nFor the past nine years, I have worked as an educator in one capacity or another. Over that time period, I can think of few books that have challenged the way in which I teach, but Huck Finn\u2019s America: Mark Twain and the Era that Shaped His Masterpiece<\/em> by Andrew Levy forced me to re-think everything I thought I knew about one of America\u2019s most iconic (and controversial) novels.<\/p>\n

As a student, I was taught to regard Twain\u2019s work as a commentary on race, spending countless hours deciphering Twain\u2019s messages about racism, discussing his use of the word \u201cnigger,\u201d and contemplating how all of this fit into modern society. The little time spent on evaluating Huck, as a character, was more a critique of Twain\u2019s linguistic choices rather than the development of his protagonist. As a teacher, I have echoed the tradition in which I was taught, perhaps spending more time analyzing Twain\u2019s use of the Mississippi River or debating why Huck Finn<\/em> is every bit as much an adult novel as a children\u2019s novel; nevertheless I failed to go beyond that or even consider there was a reason to look any further\u2014arrogantly assuming I knew best.<\/p>\n

For that reason, Levy\u2019s work\u2019s resonates with me on a much deeper level than anticipated. In Huck Finn\u2019s America<\/em>, Levy argues that over the last hundred years readers and educators have misinterpreted Twain\u2019s intentions by exploring the novel as a work primarily about the controversy surrounding race relations in America rather than the conversation about the appropriate manner in which to rear children.<\/p>\n

Levy does not negate the cultural implication about race presented in Huck Finn<\/em> rather he argues that Twain\u2019s novel was \u201cat best, only partly built for a multiracial audience.\u201d While educating the reader about Twain\u2019s transformation from juvenile racist to adult semi-abolitionist, he simultaneously develops a case regarding the audience Twain was writing for by focusing on Twain\u2019s love of minstrelsy, noting Twain\u2019s use of it in the novel as well as the irony that the nation embraced Huck Finn<\/em> as a book about racial integration just as minstrelsy disappeared from American culture. Furthermore, Levy suggests Twain\u2019s use of the word \u201cnigger\u201d also proves Twain\u2019s intended audience was white Americans. According to Levy, Twain never expected or intended for Huck to be a conversation starter or a parable on race relations.<\/p>\n

Instead Levy suggests Twain was taken by the ongoing conversations about boys in America\u2014a conversation that is still very active, which Levy addresses solidly\u2014and wrote Huck as a character who was the \u201cproblem\u201d child each of the conversations centered: he was poor, he was abused, he was uninterested in education. Yet despite these things, Twain shows the reader how a child, who would be medicated for ADD\/ADHD in present society, has goodness in him, even if it is likely he will never become interested in school and may never desire to work hard to become successful by societal standards.<\/p>\n

While Levy does outstanding work, marching the reader through Twain\u2019s history and the America in which he lived as well as exploring Twain\u2019s tour \u201cTwins of Genius\u201d in great depth, the one place I felt Levy left me wanting more was in the final chapter. Levy makes a strong case for how and why Adventures of Huckleberry Finn<\/em> is a great novel about youth that is applicable today and echoed today in works such as Harry Potter<\/em> and The Hunger Games<\/em>, yet I found the teacher and avid reader in me wishing Levy had spent more time making these connections more palpable, more applicable.<\/p>\n

With that said, Andrew Levy\u2019s Huck Finn\u2019s America: Mark Twain and the Era that Shaped His Masterpiece<\/em> is worth devouring for anyone who wants a better understanding of what Twain might have been trying to accomplish with his masterpiece.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Huck Finn’s America: Mark Twain and the Era that Shaped His Masterpiece<\/em><\/p>\n

Andrew Levy<\/p>\n

Simon & Schuster, 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shea Faulkner For the past nine years, I have worked as an educator in one capacity or another. Over that time period, I can think of few books that have challenged the way in which I teach, but Huck Finn\u2019s America: Mark Twain and the Era that Shaped His Masterpiece by Andrew Levy forced me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":540,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-written-by"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/nightowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/nightowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/nightowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/nightowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/540"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/nightowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/nightowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":450,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/nightowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446\/revisions\/450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/nightowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/nightowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/nightowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}