The way in which a young boy loses his innocence by realizing the truth in life symbolizes how the evolution of Transcendentalism to Realism destroys a nation, as the United States moves towards the Civil War. American transcendentalism began with the formation of the Transcendental Club in Boston, in 1836. Transcendentalists were influenced by romanticism, especially such aspects as self-examination, the celebration of individualism, and the extolling of the beauties of nature and humankind. As it spread throughout the country, the people lived in complete harmony, with themselves and among themselves, in a fantastic world. American Romanticism was followed by Dark Romanticism, in which Nathaniel Hawthorne is its most symbolic character. Realism was then introduced to American literature. It encompassed the time from the Civil War to the turn of the century during which William Dean Howells, Rebecca Harding Davis, Henry James, Mark Twain, and others wrote fiction “accurately !
representing the American Lives in various contexts.”1 The Realism, which was a major cause of the American Civil War, can be defined as “the faithful representation of reality.”2 Mark Twain’s novel Huckleberry Finn symbolizes the loss
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“Twain made a great job of unmasking romantic imagination and helping us understand about the dangers that it can cause. The realizing of this truth, that for a long time people could not see and then preferred to ignore, led to the Civil War in the United States, thus the loss and breakdown of a nation. Mark Twain and William Howells are the most representative figures of this movement. Huckleberry Finn symbolizes these three stages throughout his adventures in Twain’s novel. - "Twain,Mark," Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 99.
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1. ”5 During this period the Americans began to realize the truth in things and stopped fantasizing. ”3 Transcendentalism, highly influenced by English Romanticism and by Neoplatonism, “is a belief in a higher reality than that found in sense experience or in a higher kind of knowledge than that achieved by human reason. He begins to learn!
that things are not like he wished it would be, but somehow he prefers to remain in silence to not cause any trouble. This period is represented in Huckleberry Finn’s life as he is beginning to lose his innocence and simplicity.
American Romanticism or Transcendentalism is an essential movement in the American history and literature. ”(Page #161-162) In this novel Twain makes us realize that we must not ignore the truth, otherwise we most confront it and fight it. ”(Page #95) The same way that Nathaniel Hawthorne reveals the truth that is hidden under ordinary daily life, Huckleberry Finn begins to realize the truth about certain things and begins to lose his innocence.
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