The Final Episode of Mark Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Es

The Great Importance of the Final Episode of Huckleberry Finn      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   One of the things many critics of Huckleberry Finn   just can't seem to understand is the final episode of the novel where Tom returns and sidetracks Huck from his rescue of Jim through a long series of silly, boyish plans based on ideas Tom has picked up from Romantic novels, such as those of Walter Scott.   Critic Stephen Railton dismisses these final chapters as "just another version of their Royal Nonesuch" (405); referring, of course, to the silly play put on by the Duke and Dauphin in chapter 23.   From one point of view, this whole "evasion" sequence seems funny and humorous in the traditions of frontier and southwestern humor.   Twain had a reputation as a humorist, and some of his readers got a big laugh out of this section.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Many, however, are put off by it; think it seems out of place in this novel which deals with so many serious, adult subjects; who's theme is man's inhumanity toward man but still able to be surpassed by the simple friendship developed between a white boy and a Black slave on a raft.   To many, who don't look too deeply, this final episode seems out of place, anticlimactical, undermining, or just downright abhorrent.   Philip Young called the ending "irrelevant" (Gullason 357).   Leo Marx called it a "flimsy contrivance" (Gullason 357).   And William Van O'Connor called it "a serious anti-climax" (Gullason 357).   That's just a small sampling.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   But can it really be just some silly nonsense, some "Royal Nonesuch"?   Can we really think so little of Twain to believe that he would just abandon the seriousness of ... ...d E. Hudson Long.   New York:   Norton, 1961.   305-309. Railton, Stephen.   "Jim and Mark Twain:   What Do Dey Stan' For?"   Virginia Quarterly Review 63.3 (Summer 1987):   393-408. Rubenstein, Gilbert M.   "The Moral Structure of Huckleberry Finn."   College English 18 (Nov. 1956):   72-76.   Rpt. in Clemens, Samuel Langhorne.   Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:   An Annotated Text, Background and Sources, Essays in Criticism.   Eds.   Sculley Bradley, Richmond Croom Beatty, and E. Hudson Long.   New York:   Norton, 1961.   378-384. Stallman, R. W.   "Reality and Parody in Huckleberry Finn."   College English 18 (May 1957):   425-426.   Rpt. in Clemens, Samuel Langhorne. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:   An Annotated Text, Background and Sources, Essays in Criticism.   Eds.   Sculley Bradley, Richmond Croom Beatty, and E. Hudson Long.   New York:   Norton, 1961.   384-387. The Final Episode of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Es The Great Importance of the Final Episode of Huckleberry Finn      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   One of the things many critics of Huckleberry Finn   just can't seem to understand is the final episode of the novel where Tom returns and sidetracks Huck from his rescue of Jim through a long series of silly, boyish plans based on ideas Tom has picked up from Romantic novels, such as those of Walter Scott.   Critic Stephen Railton dismisses these final chapters as "just another version of their Royal Nonesuch" (405); referring, of course, to the silly play put on by the Duke and Dauphin in chapter 23.   From one point of view, this whole "evasion" sequence seems funny and humorous in the traditions of frontier and southwestern humor.   Twain had a reputation as a humorist, and some of his readers got a big laugh out of this section.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Many, however, are put off by it; think it seems out of place in this novel which deals with so many serious, adult subjects; who's theme is man's inhumanity toward man but still able to be surpassed by the simple friendship developed between a white boy and a Black slave on a raft.   To many, who don't look too deeply, this final episode seems out of place, anticlimactical, undermining, or just downright abhorrent.   Philip Young called the ending "irrelevant" (Gullason 357).   Leo Marx called it a "flimsy contrivance" (Gullason 357).   And William Van O'Connor called it "a serious anti-climax" (Gullason 357).   That's just a small sampling.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   But can it really be just some silly nonsense, some "Royal Nonesuch"?   Can we really think so little of Twain to believe that he would just abandon the seriousness of ... ...d E. Hudson Long.   New York:   Norton, 1961.   305-309. Railton, Stephen.   "Jim and Mark Twain:   What Do Dey Stan' For?"   Virginia Quarterly Review 63.3 (Summer 1987):   393-408. Rubenstein, Gilbert M.   "The Moral Structure of Huckleberry Finn."   College English 18 (Nov. 1956):   72-76.   Rpt. in Clemens, Samuel Langhorne.   Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:   An Annotated Text, Background and Sources, Essays in Criticism.   Eds.   Sculley Bradley, Richmond Croom Beatty, and E. Hudson Long.   New York:   Norton, 1961.   378-384. Stallman, R. W.   "Reality and Parody in Huckleberry Finn."   College English 18 (May 1957):   425-426.   Rpt. in Clemens, Samuel Langhorne. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:   An Annotated Text, Background and Sources, Essays in Criticism.   Eds.   Sculley Bradley, Richmond Croom Beatty, and E. Hudson Long.   New York:   Norton, 1961.   384-387.