Critics of Mark Twains novel, Huckleberry Finn, view the protagonist

Question

Critics of Mark Twain’s novel,  Huckleberry Finn , view the protagonist’s proclamation “All right then I will go to hell” in chapter 31 as the story’s climax. Twain’s novel lent itself to such radical interpretations because it was the frst major American work to depart from traditional European novelistic structures, thus providing critics with an unfamiliar framework. The remaining twelve chapters act as a counterpoint, commenting on, if not reversing, the frst part where a morality play receives greater confrmation. Huck’s journey down the Mississippi represents a rite of passage, in which the character’s personal notions of right and wrong comes into constant conflict with his socially constructed conscience by the various people and situations the protagonist encounters.

The novel’s cyclical structure encourages critics to see the novel’s disparate parts as interlinked; the novel begins and ends with the boys playing games. Granted, this need not argue to an authorial awareness of novelistic construction; however, it does facilitate attempts to view the novel as a unifed whole. Nevertheless, any interpretation that seeks to unite the last few chapters with the remaining book is bound to be somewhat unconvincing. This is not because such an interpretation is unnecessarily rigid, but because Huckleberry Finn encompasses individual scenes of the protagonist’s self-recognition that resist inclusion into an all-encompassing interpretation. In this respect, the protagonist can best be likened to the Greek tragic fgure, Oedipus.     1 
  1. The author most probably mentions the “novel’s cyclical structure” in order to

A. demonstrate that Twain was keenly aware of novelistic construction
B. show that the remaining twelve chapters have little connection to the rest of the novel
C. support the critic’s position that Twain was unaware of novelistic construction
D. provide support for a particular critical interpretation of Twain’s work
E. argue that Twain’s protagonist has much in common with Oedipus 
 
 2 
 2. Which of the following best expresses the main idea of the passage?

A. In order to understand Twain’s novel, critics must compare its protagonist to Oedipus
B. Twain’s novel contains some chapters that resist easy inclusion into a unifed interpretation.
C. The unconventional structure of Huckleberry Finn indicates a lack of authorial awareness.
D. Twain’s novel was the frst major American novel to discard traditional European structures.
E. The protagonist of Huckleberry Finn is considered a modern day Oedipus by critics.

PSKhore · Answer

Sajjad1994

In Question#2, why is the answer not D? Isn't B too specific?

2. Which of the following best expresses the main idea of the passage?

A. In order to understand Twain’s novel, critics must compare its protagonist to Oedipus
B. Twain’s novel contains some chapters that resist easy inclusion into a unifed interpretation.
C. The unconventional structure of Huckleberry Finn indicates a lack of authorial awareness.
D. Twain’s novel was the frst major American novel to discard traditional European structures.
E. The protagonist of Huckleberry Finn is considered a modern day Oedipus by critics.

Ties04 · Answer

The comparison is only mentioned to emphasize how different the structure of this specific novel is and the rest of the text elaborates on that structure. The text is not about how or why this novel was the first major American novel to discard traditional European structures.

dhruva09 · Answer

Hi  PSKhore

In main idea questions, try to check the answers weightage with respect to the passage.
Yes, option D is fairly right in its sense, but the next question is whether it really is the main point ?

No, the author clearly discusses the structure of the novel wherein he is more focused on the last 12 chapters with the unified work of the novel. Option B correctly focusses on that.

In main idea questions, try to keep a filter of re-verifying options for the amount of focus they have.
Hope this helps.

Critics of Mark Twains novel, Huckleberry Finn, view the protagonist

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Critics of Mark Twains novel, Huckleberry Finn, view the protagonist

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