Social Values Reflected in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

ABSTRACT

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of the great novels in the 19th- century, written by Mark Twain. It was created to criticize slavery, racism, and the differences of social class that exactly happened in the United States, especially in the place along Mississippi River. In this novel, Mark Twain shows the social phenomena that happen between the Whites and the Negroes, also the social values (both positive and negative) that can be taken as the example for the readers of the novel. Mark Twain also expresses how the Whites treat the Negroes, and like what their view about the Negroes’ lives and rights. This novel not only contains of slavery, racism, and the differences of social class, but also the friendship between the White boy, and a runaway slave. This study aims at finding out how the social values presented in the novel of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, exactly in the form of slavery, the differences of social class, and the love between the two friends who come from different race.

In this study, the researcher uses structuralism approach to analyze this novel. Structuralism approach focuses on the elements within works of literature, without focusing on historical and biographical influences. Structuralism is actually developed by The Russian Formalists and New Criticism ideology of America. Structuralism also focuses on the text only, and rejects anything else except the text. The primary data is taken from the novel entitled The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. The secondary data is taken from some books, articles, and the text data dealing with the theory of social values.

After analyzing the data, the researcher starts to classify and analyze the social values namely: (1) slavery; (2) the differences of social class; (3) the love between the two friends who come from different race, which are presented in the novel of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Finally, hopefully this study can give suggestion for the further researcher, to analyze the other values such as psychology, economic, and politic aspect. This study is also expected in order the further researcher can analyze other values in this novel accurately, so that the result of the analysis can be more perfect. The lastly, this study is expected to be a reference for further researcher who focus on the social values.