Illusion And Disillusionment

It is universally acknowledged that Mark twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a great 19^th century American apprenticeship novel. The apprenticeship novel as a genre originated in Germany. Perchance because Americans think of their country as a youthful nation, their fiction has dealt preponderantly with youths, too. One of the great strengths of American writers of the apprenticeship novel such as Mark Twain is their ability to breathe new life into stock fictional forms. The ways in which the artist adheres to or departs from the apprenticeship novel conventions generate our interest in the genre. This dissertation is meant to be an artistic critique of Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and to explore the formulation of the main features of the American apprenticeship novel. The research starts with the reflection on the question: How do we account for Huckleberry Finn's refusal to be accepted into the society?So far, much criticism on the American apprenticeship novels has focused on the European influence and on the persistent similarities between the European or classical apprenticeship novel and the American apprenticeship novel. This study will break new ground by pointing to the profound differences between the classical or European and the American views of the maturing subject and the process of formation, and by initiating the formulation of the distinctly American features of the genre. By comparative study in respects of theme, characterization and structure, the dissertation points out the main differences between the classical apprenticeship novel and its American counterpart: the former presents the moral and spiritual development of a child from subjective pre-occupations to the affirmation of objective activity, concluding with the hero assimilating into society - a happy and close ending, while the latter narrates the story of a child pausing on the threshold of adulthood without finishing his initiation into life and the real world, staying out of society and usually walking to unknowable future - a tragic or open ending; the linear textual structure of the former shows a clear path of the hero's advancement toward a goal, whereas the circular textual structure of the latter deconstructs the presupposition of a definitely attainable goal.Based on the close reading of the novel, the dissertation concludes that Twain's novel belongs to the genteel tradition, focusing on the expression of the agonized conscience and morality. It depends on the cultural goal or social milieu whether the novel emphasizes the adaptation or rebellion, accordingly the protagonist's reconciliation with the society or his alienation from it with a result of either his confusion or his renewed search in the world. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn represents the major initiation in the American apprenticeship novel - the uncompleted initiation. Accordingly, the artistic expression of the apprenticeship pattern unfolds on this track: on which the apprentice progresses from illusion toward disillusionment, ready finally for another journey.By formulating the main features of the American apprenticeship novel and analyzing the specimen I chosen, this study is intended to combine theory with practice, to bring a Chinese critic's view into the Western discourse of apprenticeship novel.