Huck’s Voice versus Herd Mentality: The Good, the Bad, and the Evil

Abstract

In Mark Twain's 1884 chef-d‘œuvre, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (HF), the voice of innocence—personified by Huck Finn—evolves as a graphic reflection of his unique social and ethical standing, portraying him as a nonconforming, Adam-like wanderer seeking refuge in nature and searching for a distinct identity. Employing literary theory, this article goes beyond exposing the moral bankruptcy and hypocrisy in an allegedly ‘civilized’ white society that purports to uphold high moral standards. Drawing on Nietzsche's doctrine of good vs. bad and good vs. evil, along with the psychological phenomenon of herd mentality, the article demonstrates how Huck's voice challenges and destabilizes orthodox linguistic conventions, societal norms, ethical constructs, and long-standing beliefs in the antebellum American South during the nineteenth century. Key findings reveal that such a unique voice can be seen as a profound critique of the antebellum South’s values, introducing a newfangled perspective on America's development of a distinctive identity and its quest to establish its own voice and literature after severing ties with Britain.