Summary:
Many contrasting elements occur in both Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Two such comparisons in which both novels provide entirely different perspectives are truth and women.
Many contrasting elements can be found to occur in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Heart of Darkness. Truth and women are two comparisons that open up entirely different perspectives in the stories. Each comparison teaches inspiring lessons that, in result, lead to opposite outcomes. When looking at both aspects, one will learn much more if they look at both sides. The lessons that are taught in these stories can be applied to everyday life to create a more well rounded person.
The portrayal of women in Huck Finn and Heart of Darkness are opposites in every way. In Huck Finn women are dominant, independent, and strong. Miss Watson is a perfect representation of these women. She is educated and is the one who attempts to civilize Huck.
" Miss Watson would say, 'Don't put your feet up there, Huckleberry;' and ' don't scrunch up like that, Huckleberry - set up straight;' and pretty soon she would say, 'Don't gap and stretch like that, Huckleberry - why don't you try to behave"' Then she told me all about the bad place, and I said I wished I was there.
Women are portrayed as inferior to men and uneducated in Heart of Darkness. Marlow makes reference to Kurt's Intended as a statue. Conrad makes many references to women being dense. He thinks that women are too dumb to handle any situation by themselves.
"It's queer how out of touch with truth women are. They live in a world of their own, and there has never been anything like it, and never can be. It is too beautiful altogether, and if they were to set it up it would go to pieces before the first sunset. Some confounded fact we men have been living contentedly with ever since the day of creation would start and knock the whole thing."
Huck Finn and Heart of Darkness represent two opposite opinions to truth. Even though attempts are made to hide the truth in Huck Finn, truth always sets those who are hiding it free. When Jim and Huck come upon the flooded house, they find a dead man. Even though Huck didn't know it at the time, there was a reason that Jim wouldn't let Huck see the man. "It's a dead man. Yes, indeedy; naked too. He's ben shot in de back. I reck'n he's ben dead two er three days. Come in, Huck, but doan' look at his face - it's too gashly." Huck asks Jim about the man that they had found a few days earlier, but Jim hurriedly states that he doesn't want to talk about it, and then changes the subject.
"After breakfast I wanted to talk about the dead man and guess out how he come to be killed, but Jim didn't want to. He said it would fetch bad luck; and besides, he said, he might come and ha'nt us; he said a man that warn't buried was more likely to go a-ha'nting around than one that was planted and comfortable."
At the end of the story Jim finally tells Huck that the man that they had found in the boat was Huck's father. "Doan' you 'member de house dat was float'n down de river, en dey
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wuz a man in dah, kivered up, en I went in en unkivered him and didn' let you come in? Well, den, you k'n git yo' money when you wants it; kase dat wuz him."
In Heart of Darkness, the truth is avoided at all costs. Kurtz is an evil man, yet everyone tries to pretend that he is a much better person. People hide the truth about the real man that Kurtz is. Kurt's Intended would never speak anything but the best of him. "All of his promise, and all of his greatness, of his generous mind, of his noble heart ..........." If she had only known that he was being unfaithful with a mistress behind her back, then she probably wouldn't have thought so great of him. Despite being told of how Kurtz is a remarkable genius, Marlow refuses to be fooled. After finding him in the heart of the jungle, Marlow sees how deceitful and greedy Kurtz really is. When Kurtz goes to the Intended to tell her of Kurtz's death, she begs to be told of his last words. Marlow cannot bring it to himself to tell her the truth and break her heart, so he tells her that Kurt's last words were her name. Sometimes what people don't know won't hurt them and may actually make them feel a sense of closure.
Mark Twain and Joseph Conrad's opinions and view on different subjects were viewed in The Adventures of Huckleberry and Heart of Darkness. No one can say that one is right and the other is wrong. Each is an opinion of the individual themselves and is a lesson that everyone who reads the books can learn from.
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