마크트웨인과 노예제

Abstract

This paper investigates Mark Twain's critical attitude toward Southern American society with its slavery by analyzing his two major novels, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. These two novels share the common theme of slavery, and more significantly, illustrate the gradual change of Twain's deepening pessimistic views on human nature and social institutions. The first chapter deals with Twain's social criticism, paying close attention to the cruel and inhumane tendencies of the South and slavery as shown in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Through many episodes we can see the problems of slavery and Jim's symbolic meaning on the raft floating on the Mississippi. We can also trace how Twain deals with the relation between the white and the colored, using the raft-journey as a literary device to reveal slavery. Jim's escape form Miss Watson and Huck's final decision mean a pungent attack to slavery. The next chapter deals the problematic traits of slavery, the social institution of European medieval society, as shown in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. In this novel, Twain directly criticizes monarchy, aristocracy and an authoritarian church of King Arthur's England, but he presents the slavery of England as the allegory of American slavery through the allusion to American society. In conclusion, we can read slavery the universal vice of all times. Like this, Twain is essentially a fine social critic. Focusing on the evils of slavery, he has attempted to expose social degradation and criticize his own contemporary society. His cynical attitude continues to appear in most of his novels through the emphasis of human cruelty or the mistrust of human nature.