Rodolfo Brandon Bernardino
P7 6/9/2011
Ms. Schofield
Huck Finn – Realism
Huck Finn should be taught as an example of Realism in American literature because the
novel contains critical elements of Realism in its content. The protagonist, Huckleberry Finn, is
a poor, average boy that lives in Missouri. His lack of larger-than-life talents or qualities reflects
the rejection of Romantic heroes that Realism promotes. Another element of Realism seen in the
novel is the lack of verbose speech and use of everyday language. The characters of the novel
speak in the dialect of a typical Missouri resident. The content within the book also focuses on
ethical struggles and real-life situations, which are also aspects of literary Realism. “The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” should be taught in eleventh grade because the book is clearly
characteristic of Realistic literature.
Huck Finn is clearly a Realistic hero because he is shown to be a normal human being
that goes through events that reflect the real world. In chapter, three, Huck discusses how the
“Tom Sawyer Gang” dissolved to a lack of activity and the ineffectiveness of Tom Sawyer as a
leader. After a failed raid on a caravan of supposed Arabian merchants and Spanish sailors, Tom
explains that a magician summoned genies to change the caravan into a Sunday school. Huck
inquires Tom on the method of possessing a genie and afterwards attempts to summon one by
rubbing a tin lamp and iron ring. “I got an old tin lamp and an iron ring and went out in the
woods and rubbed and rubbed till I sweat like an Injun, calculating to build a palace and sell it;
but it warn’t no use, none of the genies come. So then I judged that all that stuff was only just
one of Tom Sawyer’s lies.” The preceding quotation clearly shows Huck being deluded into

thinking that rubbing a lamp or ring would produce a genie. His failure to distinguish fact from
fantasy shows readers that he is nothing more than a child who has been tricked by his peer. The
normal, human qualities of Huckleberry Finn reflect the elements of Realism inside the novel.
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