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Rayanna Riecss
ENG3014 R 12-1:15 pm
Essay #2: Topic A
Huck Finn: A Sexist?
What does Adventures of Huckleberry Finn tell us about how Huck views women? The
novel focuses on Hucks friendship with runaway slave Jim, but it is not devoid of female
characters. Critic Myra Jehlen argues that his encounter with Judith Loftus [opened] him and
Mark Twains imagination to rethinking the basic principles of personal identity and social
ideology (506). However, an examination of Hucks interactions with the Wilks sisters reveals
the absence of any drastic change with regard to his feelings toward women and femininity.
Huck encounters the sisters when his companions, the duke and the king, pretend to be
the English brothers of their recently deceased uncle in order to steal their fortune. When he
meets them, Huck fixates on their physical appearances. He frequently praises the beauty of the
eldest, Mary Jane, and he later says, And when it comes to beauty and goodness too she lays
over them all (Twain 183). Huck chooses to refer to the youngest not by her given name, Joanna,
but by hare-lip, a derogatory term for her cleft lip. Through these interactions, Huck
demonstrates a sexist view of womens looks. Mary Jane crosses his mind the most because he
deems her beauty the most worthy of his attention, while he refuses to think of Joanna as more
than just her facial disfigurement. He never discusses the appearance of the middle sister, Susan,
and rarely mentions her, indicating that she is so plain that she is just not worth his time.
Hucks sexist opinions of the Wilks sisters extend to more than just their looks. At one
point, Joanna interrogates Huck about his life in England as Adolphus, her uncles servant.

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He messes up quite a few times, but his frustration does not deter him from continuing in the
role. It is not until Mary Jane steps in that he starts to wonder if he should keep up the act. She
reprimands Joanna by saying, It dont make no difference what he said that aint the thing.
The thing is for you to treat him kind (170). While this is not, on the surface, a horrifying
notion, it reveals Mary Janes passivity in the face of Joannas aggression. According to feminist
Simone de Beauvoir, a woman is the Other, an object whose existence is defined and interpreted
by the dominant male (Bressler 149). To Huck, Mary Janes passivity translates as appropriately
feminine, so he accepts her more. It is only when Joanna apologizes that he admits the guilt that
he feels for deceiving her, and he remarks that she done it so beautiful it was good to hear; and I
wished I could tell her a thousand lies, so she could do it again (170).
One has to read for gender; unless it figures explicitly in story or poem, it will seldom
read for itself (Jehlen 508). Huck emphasizes the Wilks sisters looks and critiques their
femininity because of his position in society as a dominant male. Although his later actions
ultimately benefit them, he is still a perpetrator of sexism.
Word Count: 499

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Works Cited
Bressler, Charles. Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 5th ed. Boston:
Longman, Pub., 2011. Print.
Jehlen, Myra. Reading Gender in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn: A Case Study in Critical Controversy. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford St. Martins Pressk,
2004: 496-508. Print.
Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: A Case Study in Critical Controversy. Ed. Gerald
Graff and James Phelan. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford St. Martin's Press, 2004. Print.

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