Mark Twain created two naughty children, one named Tom Sawyer and the other named Huckleberry Finn...
Everyone says Mark Twain (Mark Twain, real name Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910) is a master of humor. This is because he is good at using funny language to mock the world, and because his livelihood includes speeches, he has many opportunities to use his skills to amuse the audience. , laughed and cursed, leaving behind a lot of famous sayings. However, Mark Twain was not even an optimistic person. He lost his father when he was young, dropped out of school and had to work as a printing apprentice, and experienced the ups and downs of the world. In the United States before the Civil War, he also saw racial prejudice and the degradation of white behavior, and Impatient with the vulgarity of the church and the hypocrisy of preachers. These are the targets of his clever and vicious attacks.
Mark Twain created two naughty children, one named Tom Sawyer and the other Huckleberry Finn (nicknamed "Huck"). Nowadays, people know them from every corner of the world. However, books written in their names are also rare. For more than a hundred years since their publication, children's books have been boycotted or banned in every era. There are still libraries in the United States that have not allowed The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn (1885), which features Huck as the protagonist, to be put on the shelves. The biggest reason is that the book is racist and educational.
The nigger appears more than 200 times in "The Adventures of Naughty Boy", which has become a taboo in language. Both black and white people find it harsh. Apart from children, there are almost no positive white people in the story. They are either drunkards who want to steal the children's money, or they are grave robbers, murderers, and charlatans... Isn't this discriminatory against white people? People who support banning this book say that a child has read nigger more than two hundred times in the book. Can you close the book and ask him not to talk about it? The children in the book skip school, lie, swear, and smoke. They are all bad examples. Can they be allowed to read? These controversies have not stopped since the book was published in 1885.
But on the other hand, "The Adventures of Urchin" is considered to be the first novel written in American colloquial language, proving that the most vulgar American English can also become a superior creative language. Hemingway even said that all modern American literature began with a book by Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn! Bringing up bad children? President Reagan had the opposite opinion: "I wish our schools could teach our children to sail through life with the same ability that Huck gracefully sailed across the Mississippi River in his little raft; teach them to hate as Huck did Prejudice, love for the people around him, especially his big friend Jim" - Jim is a black slave saved by Huck. In fact, without further ado, "The Adventures of the Naughty Boy" has been a best-seller since it was published 121 years ago. American Public Television estimated in 2000 that this book had more than 60 translations and more than 700 foreign language versions around the world.
"The Adventures of Tom" (1874), written with another naughty boy Tom as the protagonist, was not so controversial. Mainly because Tom grew up in a normal and warm family, his mischief was that of a "normal" child. Several scenes in "The Adventures of Tom" have become classics. One is when he was assigned by an adult to paint a fence. In order to be lazy, he tricked a passing child into giving him an apple in exchange for the job of painting the fence. Not only was Tom happy, he also made money from apples. Another cute episode was when Tom fell in love with a girl in the same class who had just transferred to another school. One day, the girl accidentally tore the teacher's precious book. When the teacher came to accuse him, Tom heroically said that he had torn it up himself, but he was whipped several times by the teacher. . Afterwards, the girl gratefully said to him, "Tom, how can you be so noble!" Tom, who had completely forgotten the pain, passed a pond on his way home and asked his reflection in the pond: Tom, how could you be so noble!
"The Adventures of Tom" is a warm and interesting children's book, but "The Adventures of Naughty Boy" is recognized as a great classic, and goes beyond children's books to convey the truth that adults can be taught as well. Huck is unlike Tom. He has no home, no mother, and his father is an alcoholic scoundrel. Not only does he have no chance to receive a school education, he also has no family upbringing to speak of.
This foul-mouthed brat was a nuisance to all the parents in the neighborhood, but a hero to their children. In "The Adventures of Tom" he only appeared as a supporting role as Tom's good friend. In "The Adventures of Naughty Boy", Huck began to play the leading role. Mark Twain actually used this 13- or 14-year-old bully to perform his growing experience and life beliefs; he gave him the Mississippi River he had been familiar with since childhood as a stage, and incorporated the vocal modalities mixed with black spoken dialects. Be his voice. The book is narrated in the first person by Huck, so readers have the opportunity to see a young man who has no scruples in language, does not avoid slang, is superstitious and witty, and is kind-hearted and full of justice in his heart, performing his wanderings and adventures. .
What makes Huck's adventures great is that we know his limitations. The environment he lives in is that black slaves are slaves, and slaves legally belong to his buyers. Huck is naturally used to how the people around him treat black people. He is even instilled with the idea that helping black slaves escape will lead to hell. But when he accidentally discovered Jim who was running away and hiding, he established a friendship with Jim. The kindness and judgment of right and wrong in his personality caused him to enter a psychological struggle. This is a beautiful process, and the decision Huck makes must be based on The journey on a raft along the river was completed with great dangers and great winds. A similar example occurs when Huck sees a robber being falsely accused of being a murderer. Although coming forward to testify would risk retaliation from the real murderer, Huck still comes forward. And because it is in the first person, we only have to face the process and its completion, without being preachy or self-conscious. This is the moving part of the narrative strategy of "The Adventures of Naughty Boy". What Mark Twain taught "Little Big and Little" in the story definitely far outweighed the bad example he made Huck smoke and speak dirty words in flesh and blood.
Mark Twain published his works as a teenager, but he was already fifty years old when "The Adventures of Urchin" was published. He obviously did not just want to write a touching story, but when his humanitarian beliefs finally accumulated in the course of his life and became such a work. In the 1860s, Mark Twain worked as a newspaper reporter in San Francisco, and he repeatedly complained about the white people's arbitrary bullying of local Chinese. His humane spirit is obviously consistent, and young Huck was the one who finally summoned the flesh and blood to carry this spirit when he was half a century old. More than a hundred years of controversy still cannot shake Huckleberry Finn's classic status. The reason is that this immortal urchin has steel and bronze bones and represents the eternal value of humanity.