Huckleberry Finn, Emma, and Asher Lev:
An Overview of Literary Elements which Reflect Character Growth and Self-Awareness
Through works of fiction, authors have been able to bring to life characters from their imaginations and introduce readers to lives that would never have been lived if they had never took pen to paper. To accomplish this feat, an author must use the tools at his or her disposal to bring the believability of their characters to life for the reader. These tools include certain literary elements which, when portrayed convincingly, bring the reader into another world and lets the reader experience senses not his or her own. These literary elements formed by the author create a world of believability and reason, if only within the confines of a book’s covers. Like the elements of the earth, literary elements combine to form meaning beyond words and sentences strewn together. While literary elements are numerous, authors may use these elements in combinations and differing degrees in order to present his or her story in however a manner he or she sees fit. Often, recognizing these elements within a story and understanding their importance within the scope of the story will give a reader insight into the story that may be lost by a simple read.
Part of the effort made into making a story believable is how well its main characters are portrayed. These characters are the guide to the reader through the stages of a story, and the story’s believability is dependant upon how well the author portrays their behavior and attitudes throughout the story. While the plot of a story directs the flow of events within a story, it is the behavior and thoughts and attitudes of the main characters which propels the plot along its path.
An effective way to display this relationship between character and plot is by illustrating a growth in the character’s self-awareness through the course of events of the story. A main character is given challenges, or conflicts, at stages of the story and, in addition to overcoming these challenges, the character experiences some type of change to himself or herself. This change in self is generally begun by a realization, either through the character’s thoughts and actions or through the author’s description, that the character is flawed in some way. Whether through drama or comedy, a character’s growth is dependant upon this link to the plot structure and how events proceed from beginning to end to show the growth in the character’s self-awareness and whether his or her character flaws are rectified or merely accepted by the character. Three novels which portray this growth of self awareness with individual style and skill are Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Jane Austen’s Emma, and My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok.
Each of these novels are different on many levels, such as period of time, physical setting, social landscape, and theme. Yet the three novels share the immense similarity in their focus on the growth of their principle main characters: Huckleberry Finn, Emma Woodhouse, and Asher Lev. While the plot of each story are so widely different, it is the growth of these characters from flawed individuals to ones of deeper understanding that is the true focus of each novel. Each author portrays this growth in their own style, but it is identifiable that their individual climaxes could not be reached without the characters undergoing a change in both how they look at themselves and at the world in which they live.
Jane Austen introduces readers to her main character, Emma Woodhouse, with the declaration that Emma is “Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence… The real evils, indeed, of Emma’s situation were the power of having rather too much her own way, and a disposition to think a little too well of herself; these were the disadvantages which threatened alloy to her many enjoyments. The danger, however, was at present so unperceived, that they did not by any means rank as misfortunes with her.” (Austen, 1996. Vol.1, Ch.1). Such a declaration introduces readers to a character that is, at once, thought of as spoiled and the source of what troubles are to come her way. This foreshadowing readies readers for events that will challenge Miss Woodhouse’s sense of superiority and social situation, while at the same time introducing readers to the foundation behind Miss Woodhouse’s character flaws.
In much the same manner, Mark Twain uses his introduction of Huckleberry Finn to readers to show the main conflict for the character and himself; in the opening paragraphs, Huck states: ” The Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn’t stand it no longer I lit out. I got into my old rags and my sugar-hogshead again, and was free and satisfied.” (Twain, 1884. Ch.1). Though that initial rebellion is thwarted by Huck’s friend, Tom Sawyer, the issue of escape from civil society is not left alone and soon Huck is away from his adopted home and off on his adventures.
My Name is Asher Lev (Potok, 2004) is a story of almost pure self-conflict, with outside conflicts arising because of the internal struggle the title character endures. The author, Chaim Potok, begins his novel in present-day narration and then takes the reader back to the beginnings of Asher Lev’s childhood to show how his life had brought him from the naive childhood into the estranged adult painter who had found success in his art at the expense of his place in his religious culture . Though the book spans the time-frame of two decades, the initial introduction to the character of Asher Lev is not swift, and it spans the length of the first five chapters in order to show the conflicting aspects of Asher Lev’s personality. As a child, his selfishness is nearly as immense as his artistic talent, and the love for both his Jewish culture and his family also impact his character. It is through the conflicts these traits create and how young Asher deals with those conflicts that the audience gets to know Asher Lev and watch him grow in his self-awareness. Later, in this paper, I will discuss how the manner in which Chaim Potok narrates his character’s point of view foreshadows Asher’s growth, but the childish selfishness that Potok initially displays Asher Lev is consistent throughout the book and is fundamental in understanding why Asher makes the decisions he does as he grows.
Each of these authors choose a young individual to show the transformation of self-awareness. This is not by accident; as youths, characters and individuals of the real world, have a narrower view of society and the world around them. Therefore, their own personal awareness is much more centralized. It is this selfish self-awareness and how it is overcome that becomes the central theme of each book, drawing on the lives and times of these primary characters and the conflicts that arise from that selfishness to spur the books forward and give incentive to these characters’ development. As an audience, our role as a reader is heightened by each conflict faced and each decision the main character makes so that, by the end of the story, the necessary revelation each character makes about him or herself is as logical and realistic as the story allows. The journey to self-awareness is not simply a literary device employed to move forward the plot of the story, but a means in which to join a reader to the main character and feel that journey for oneself. I intend to show, through discussion on certain and similar literary elements each author employs, how each author reaches that climatic achievement for his or her character while showing it to be an extension of natural growth through the duration of the story.
In each of these three novels, the story’s setting plays an immense part throughout the plot and can be seen to have an influence on the character of each book. From the muddy banks of the Mississippi River to the affluent society of rural England to the Hasidic environment of 1970′s Brooklyn, each author uses time and location to create a world for each character that influences their thoughts and behavior. Setting in each story also transcends the story’s physical setting or time in history; setting is intricate in how each main character interacts with his or her world and is influential in what changes and growth each character must go through in order to reach his or her needed level of self-awareness.
Jane Austen’s Emma takes place in the early 1800′s, in the small town of Highbury in Surrey, England. Highbury is not too far from London, only a few hours, but the town of Highbury is predominantly rural and has a seemingly set social structure. Emma is at the top of this social structure, being the youngest daughter of a well-to-do landowner. Her older sister has married and moved away to London and her former governess and best friend has married just before the beginning of the book and has left the Woodhouse estate to live with her new husband. These circumstances, in addition to Emma’s father being a chronic hypochondriac, leaves Emma to be the mistress of the estate and have things her own way, a condition she has already grown used to. That, coupled with her already affluent position in the town’s social atmosphere, contributes greatly to the character flaws Austen pointedly introduces readers to. Throughout the book, there is very little description of the physical environment of Highbury; even property and rooms are left undescribed unless there is a reason related to the story’s narrative. Instead, Austen’s focus is on the social environment Emma resides in and how it relates to her growth as a character.
For Emma, her social standing has contributed greatly to the flaws in her character. She is well enough educated but the constance of her doing what she wants has led to her not seriously pursuing any endeavor as more than a passing fancy. Apart from caring for her father, which generally amounts to humoring him in his concerns for his health, Emma’s life is predominantly a social life with those in town who are worth being noticed. The working-class residents and servants are beyond Emma’s notice, seemingly non-existant until it is realized that she doesn’t bother to notice those that are so far beneath her in social status: “A young farmer, whether on horseback or on foot, is the very last sort of person to raise my curiosity. The yeomanry are precisely the order of people with whom I feel I can have nothing to do. A degree or two lower, and a creditable appearance might interest me; I might hope to be useful to their families in some way or other. But a farmer can need none of my help, and is, therefore, in one sense, as much above my notice as in every other he is below it” (Austen, Vol.1, Ch.4). This limits the already enclosed society of Highbury to an even smaller sphere of friends. Her opinion of this closest circle of people ranges from adoration of her former governess to affection of Mr. Knightly, her brother-in-law, to a quiet contempt for Mrs. and Miss Bates. Even later in the novel, she shows more of this quiet contempt for another family in Highbury which has come into the higher society more recently after hearing of a dinner party the family is hosting. Her own invitation is late in coming, after she expresses haughtily that she could never attend such a party of those beneath her, and it is out of a concern to be left out from her friends and potential suitor that she reasons with herself to accept the invitation (Austen, Vol.2, Ch.7); while not an deliberate change in her character, this example shows the willingness of Emma to change and widen her view of her society, though conducted out of selfish interests.
The image Emma has of her social setting is so skewed that she gives credit and honor to those whom have not earned such, as with Mr. Elton and Frank Churchill. For characters such as Jain Fairfax and Robert Martin, judgment on their worth is based on their lower social standing, though Emma’s aversion to Jane also stems from jealousy. The character of Harriet Smith, readily identifiable as a lower-standing member of the Highbury society, on account of no known parentage or wealth, is accepted by Emma into Emma’s social circle only because of an interest to replace her former governness and friend, Miss Taylor, now Mrs. Weston. That interest comes from Emma’s selfishness and desire to have someone she can influence and shape, which allows her to overlook the dubious nature of Harriet’s social standing.
Mr. Elton’s social standing in Emma’s eyes is highly regarded until he offends her with his admission of intentions to her and rightly identifies Harriet as below him in the social world Emma accepts: “…Miss Smith is a very good sort of girl; and I should be happy to see her respectably settled. I wish her extremely well: and, no doubt, there are men who might not object to–Every body has their level: but as for myself, I am not, I think, quite so much at a loss. I need not so totally despair of an equal alliance, as to be addressing myself to Miss Smith!” (Austen, Vol.1, Ch.15)”. While blind to the indications of attraction from Mr. Elton through the first third of the novel, and even trumpeting his social worth to Harriet in her attempt to match the two together, Emma condemns that he is below her standing once he makes his attraction known to her – “She remembered what Mr. Knightley had once said to her about Mr. Elton, the caution he had given, the conviction he had professed that Mr. Elton would never marry indiscreetly; and blushed to think how much truer a knowledge of his character had been there shewn than any she had reached herself. It was dreadfully mortifying; but Mr. Elton was proving himself, in many respects, the very reverse of what she had meant and believed him;
proud, assuming, conceited; very full of his own claims, and little concerned about the feelings of others” (Austen, Vol.1, Ch.16) – and for the remainder of the novel, only negative comments are made about the man, save for a moment of sympathy when Mr. Elton is present at a dinner party with Emma, Harriet, and his new bride.
In contrast, her opinion of Frank Churchill is based on his family connections and the praise of others, though she has yet to meet the young man. This highly regarded image is maintained once Frank finally comes to Highbury, despite his trivial attributes, which are readily pointed out by Mr. Knightly. Emma pursues a romance with Frank not because she is particularly interested in him, but because of his social standing and the near-equality she sees in their standing. Even when Frank’s true interest is exposed, with the public announcement of his engagement to Jane Fairfax, and the pursuit of a romance with Emma exposed as a ruse to hide his relationship with Jane, Emma does not slighten his social worth as she had with Mr. Elton.
Emma’s personification of the ideal she holds of her social setting is thoroughly displayed with her treatment of both Jane Fairfax and Robert Martin, Harriet’s original suitor. Robert is of a farming background and, as such, is immediately thought of as below her own level of society. Her interest in Harriet as a friend means, to Emma, that Harriet is also of the more affluent standing, though she ignores the most likely scenario that Harriet is not of an influential family and has elevated Harriet to the same social sphere as she resides merely out of self-indulgence and the sense of social control it gives her. Because Harriet is, by Emma’s own deciding, of her own social class, Emma declares that Robert is completely unfit for her, him being only a farmer. While, from the beginning of the novel, Harriet does not personify this image of high society Emma has made for her, it does proceed that Harriet begins to think of herself in such society and that Robert is below her. When Mr. Knightly, the only character throughout the novel who holds sway over Emma’s thinking, admonishes her for convincing Harriet to reject Robert’s marriage proposal, Emma is not yet at the point in her development where she looks beyond her own opinion of society and does not see what it is that Mr. Knightly considers she has done wrong: “Emma made no answer, and tried to look cheerfully unconcerned, but was really feeling uncomfortable and wanting him very much to be gone. She did not repent what she had done; she still thought herself a better judge of such a point of female right and refinement than he could be; but yet she had a sort of habitual respect for his judgment in general, which made her dislike having it so loudly against her; and to have him sitting just opposite to her in angry state, was very disagreeable. Some minutes passed in this unpleasant silence, with only one attempt on Emma’s side to talk of the weather, but he made no answer” (Austen, Vol.1, Ch.7).
Emma’s behavior towards Jane Fairfax, especially early in the novel before Jane even appears in Highbury, is a mixture of her jealousy of Jane’s talents and disposition and another indication of the influence of the social setting over Emma’s opinions.While Jane is in residence with a well-off family, she does not herself come from money. This heightens Emma’s jealousy over the praises Jane receives from her aunts, Mrs. and Miss Bates, who are themselves below Emma in the social structure and receive a type of contemptuous pity for their position. To Emma, Jane is much better at impressive activities, such as singing and playing the piano, than Emma will ever be, which contradicts Jane’s social standing – “The plan was that she should be brought up for educating others; the very few hundred pounds which she inherited from her father making independence impossible. To provide for her otherwise was out of Colonel Campbell’s power; for though his income, by pay and appointments, was handsome, his fortune was moderate and must be all his daughter’s; but, by giving her an education, he hoped to be supplying the means of respectable subsistence hereafter… [w]ith the fortitude of a devoted novitiate, she had resolved at one-and-twenty to complete the sacrifice, and retire from all the pleasures of life, of rational intercourse, equal society, peace and hope, to penance and mortification for ever.” (Austen, Vol.2, Ch.2) – and incites even further contempt and jealousy for the young lady. In Emma’s mind, Jane has no right to be so well thought of and so talented because she is of a lower class, and it is not until the twelfth chapter of Volume 3 of the book that Emma realizes that her contempt for Jane’s popularity stems more from her jealousy of Jane than Jane’s social background.
Another aspect of the social setting in the novel and how that setting affects Emma is the portrayal of women in England in the early 1800′s. Even in the higher social circles in England, women were still the lesser of the two sexes and generally were thought to be beneath men in matters of social importance and rank. However, due to her mother’s early death and her sister having married and left the home estate, Emma finds that she is in a position of higher standing than she would be in different circumstances. With her bold personality and clever disposition, and perhaps due to her unhealthy father’s willingness to allow her what she wants, Emma transcends the role of young women in early 19th century England. This is evident in Emma’s thoughts on marriage – “I have none of the usual inducements of women to marry. Were I to fall in love, indeed, it would be a different thing! but I never have been in love; it is not my way, or my nature; and I do not think I ever shall. And, without love, I am sure I should be a fool to change such a situation as mine. Fortune I do not want; employment I do not want; consequence I do not want: I believe few married women are half as much mistress of their husband’s house as I am of Hartfield; and never, never could I expect to be so truly beloved and important; so always first and always right in any man’s eyes as I am in my father’s” (Austen, Vol.1, Ch.10) – even though marriage is what is expected of women Emma’s age. The possession of family money and, perhaps, life in a small town allows Emma to conduct herself in manners which would be unthought-of for women in different circumstances, and this is perhaps why Emma has formed such a hierarchical viewpoint of her society, with her at the top. This may account for Emma’s self-centered opinions and snobbish behavior towards the beginning of the novel and why, as the end of the novel grows close and increased concentration is given to the various women in the novel finding their mate, Emma is able to look beyond her personal view of what her place in society is and accept that falling in love and finding marriage does not make her any less of an independent woman.
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain also uses the sociological environment to provide Huck Finn with catalysts inn his adventure, though that social environment is at the other end of the spectrum from Emma’s world. Hucklebery Finn is a poor and ignorant child who, at the beginning of the book has been adopted by the Widow Douglas so that he may receive an education and grow up in a home. This arrangement is difficult for Huck to adhere to because of the rules of polite society, rules he has not grown up with and does not feel comfortable with. While Huck does try to conform to the polite society, he is soon back into the uncouth and drunken home of his father. Even though Huck does not wish to stay with his father, who spends every penny they have on alcohol most times and regularly beats, he does feel relief at being away from the pressures of better society. All in all, had Huck’s father been a better man and treated Huck better, he would have been content to stay in the run-down cabin for as long as he could, doing nothing more than catch fish in the morning and nap in the hot afternoons.
In his decision to run away from his abusive father, it might be symbolic that Huck decides to stage his own death. While staying with the Widow Douglas, Huck longed for the easy and unconfined way of uncivilized life but once he’s returned to that life, he needs to get away from that as well. His faked death may be Huck’s attempt to completely separate himself from these two aspects of his society in order to start a new life, one more to his liking and on his own terms. This conflict with different levels of social environments continues throughout the book and it is against the constraints of the various social settings Huck and his fellow runaway, Jim, find themselves in that present the numerous conflicts that lead Huck towards a wider self-awareness.
The overall social setting of Southern United States a few decades before the Civil War also lends itself to Huck’s character and is growth throughout the novel. Slavery is, at the time, still widespread in America and, even by Huck and the slave Jim, is not thought of as totally evil or oppressive and cruel. Huck himself chides himself for assisting Jim run away because it is thought of as theft, even though Huck does not turn in Jim when he has the opportunity to do so: “They went off and I got aboard the raft, feeling bad and low, because I knowed very well I had done wrong, and I see it warn’t no use for me to try to learn to do right; a body that don’t get STARTED right when he’s little ain’t got no show–when the pinch comes there ain’t nothing to back him up and keep him to his work, and so he gets beat. Then I thought a minute, and says to myself, hold on; s’pose you’d a done right and give Jim up, would you felt better than what you do now? No, says I, I’d feel bad–I’d feel just the same way I do now. Well, then, says I, what’s the use you learning to do right when it’s troublesome to do right and ain’t no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same? I was stuck. I couldn’t answer that. So I reckoned I wouldn’t bother no more about it, but after this always do whichever come handiest at the time.” (Twain, Ch.16). As it was at those times, there is little discussion over whether slavery is wrong or right, it is just the way life has been and what any of the characters have ever known. Even as Huck strives to deliver Jim to freedom, he has no idealistic notion of freeing slaves; he aids Jim because Jim is his friend and shows that he really cares for Huck. As good a friend Huck considers Jim, he is still horrified when, in chapter 34, Tom Sawyer is more than willing to help free Jim from the shed he is being held captive in; as much as Huck wants to see Jim free, he is less willing to see Tom soil his reputation as a good and respectable boy in order to free a slave. This contradiction in feelings is hard to understand without considering that Jim is, in those times, a piece of property and it is an adherence to society at large when Huck feels the horror of Tom assisting him in freeing Jim, though he fully intends to free Jim without consideration to that social norm and how it may reflect on him. Even while Huck rebels against the society around him, he accepts that it is the society that is in place and he does not yearn to change that society, no matter how flawed he sees it to be. He is content enough to learn that he is able to do what he feels is right even when he recognizes that contemporary society declares it to be wrong.
Unlike Jane Austen, Mark Twain does make use of the geographical environment to depict Huck’s interaction with his setting. The attention given to the Mississippi River and its apparent symbolism to both the novel and the author is impossible to overlook. The laxidasial manner in which Huck and Jim navigate the river seems at odds with the reality that the both of them are runaways who face serious consequences if caught: “Sometimes we’d have that whole river all to ourselves for the longest time. Yonder was the banks and the islands, across the water; and maybe a spark–which was a candle in a cabin window; and sometimes on the water you could see a spark or two–on a raft or a scow, you know; and maybe you could hear a fiddle or a song coming over from one of them crafts. It’s lovely to live on a raft. We had the sky up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made or only just happened” (Twain, Ch.19). Even as Huck narrates the novel’s tale through his own words, the dialect changes throughout the story to reflect how the different settings Huck and Jim wander through contribute to the growth Huck must make his way through in order to reach his concluding realization of self; those pieces of society that Huck wishes to reject are portrayed as ignorant while the higher society Huck encounters gives Huck pause for thought. While Mark Twain explains the choice for his inclusion of various dialects, the satire he wishes to chow on the various types of society Huck travels through is found in Huck’s own impression of each encounter.
During a severe fog, the two are separated which causes anxiety for both boy and slave and further cements the bond between the two: “It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I warn’t ever sorry for it afterwards, neither. I didn’t do him no more mean tricks, and I wouldn’t done that one if I’d a knowed it would make him feel that way” (Twain, Ch.15). As Huck rejects the known societies to him and makes his way into his adventure, the Mississippi River becomes a type of society that he can relate to, that gives him a sense of home and freedom. The importance of the river to Huck’s character can be indicated at the amount of detail he supplies when he is on his raft versus the lack of details in his surroundings when he is on land, especially when he is in a house, and how the details he does give of the time he spends on land are not as favorable or as revealing as those he fleshes out while he is describing the river. The river is a contrast to the societies on land for Huck, offering him freedom, peace, and a natural calmness, instead of the hypocrisy and hostility Huck witnesses when he tries to assimilate into the various types of societies he finds away from the river.
Chain Potok brings Asher Lev through childhood in Brooklyn of the 1950′s and 1960′s. Aside from this being the era of Potok’s own childhood, the time is also significant because of the social turmoil being experienced by Hasidic Jews, especially in Eastern Europe. The persecution by Joseph Stalin of Russian Jews is an impactive force in Asher’s young life because his father works for the Rebbe in assisting Hasidic Jews in Eastern Europe and Russia escape from persecution and finding relief either here in the United States or elsewhere in Europe. The Jewish culture is a setting to itself in My Name is Asher Lev, creating the social norms its people must adhere to and expectations that must be met. Asher does not really consider his immediate cultural setting to be extremely influential until he wanders out of its sphere, first on museum visits with his mother in Chapter 6, then in the beachside town he summers in with his mentor, Jacob Kahn, the first influential factor from outside the Hasidic Jewish community.
It should be noted, though, that Asher’s foremost influential setting his his home and his family. As much of the first half of the book takes place while Asher is still a young child, his world is limited to that of his home. Without his parents, he is unable to wander along as he does in later chapters of the book and the turmoils his parents endure are of far greater importance than anything in the Jewish community to this child Asher. His whole world is hinged on what life occurrances happen for his parents; we see this in his reaction towards delays on the trips his father takes and it is compounded when Asher’s mother becomes ill after the death of her brother “She seemed to hate the kitchen and would flee from it as soon as she was done eating. She never came into my room… [t]hat evening, my mother refused to join us for dinner. I heard my father through the closed door of their bedroom, pleading with her” (Potok, Ch.2).
As a child, Asher’s interaction with his environment is a very selfish relationship, as can be expected from a child of his age. A personal flaw of Asher’s is that he maintains this immature selfishness throughout much of the novel, only desisting in his selfishness when he is getting what he wants. The occasion of his visit to Venice to spend time with his parents in Chapter 10 is a perfect example of this: “I became ill on the plane. I was ill during the stopover in London. I was ill on the flight from London to Vienna. In Vienna, I lay in a strange bed in a strange room and saw my mother’s face through dark fog… [f]ood poisoning, someone said. Virus, someone said. I heard my father shouting.” There is no indication of illness before this trip to Venice and, in contrast, the summer trips with Kahn solicit no similar response from Asher because he is getting his way, without consideration for those in his life; after a few weeks’ period of rest after the trip to Vienna, Asher returns with Kahn to Provincetown.
The introduction of Yudel Krinsky, a Russian refugee who works at a local stationary shop begins the opening of Asher’s physical setting to more than just his home life or afternoons in his father’s office, and it also begins the expansion of a life outside of his home for Asher. This expansion of setting increases with his tutorage under Kahn and culminates, as an influential factor, with his stay in Paris. These changes in settings are to Asher’s liking and help him grow as an individual, but even the thought of a change that is disliked by Asher is met with unfounded childish resistance, which leads to his family being torn apart. This refusal, even at its earlier stages in the novel, foreshadow Asher’s ultimate direction to choose art over his religion despite how it affects his parents.
The Hasidic Jewish religion also provides a setting of sorts, as it dictates the behavior and actions that are found acceptable and are a source of conflict for Asher. While he chooses a life as an artist over being an adhering Jew, the decision is not made lightly and its frustration can be observed i little actions Asher conduct as he begins to move from the Hasidic community: “Nor did we talk about how we spent Shabbos. I would not paint on Shabbos. I spent Shabbos mornings praying and reviewing the Torah reading… [o]n Tisha b’Av, I read the Book of Lamentations aloud to myself in my room. I fasted and would not paint” (Potok, Ch.10). This is slightly contradicting to the selfish ease Asher lets his parents leave for Vienna in that Asher feels more turmoil in violating doctrines of his religion than he displays in keeping his family together, a contradiction which is earlier reflected in Chapter 6 when, despite his father’s wishes, he continues to visit the museum and study the paintings of nudes and crucifixions but feels an emotional friction when Kahn instructs him to read from the New Testament in chapter 8.
Towards the end of the novel, when Asher lives in Europe, there is not so much descriptions given of his time there, but it is portrayed as a lonely time for Asher because he is away from the people he cares about. Even though there is so much friction between his artistic nature and his family and community, his absence from that atmosphere allows Asher the time and distance to work through his internal conflict concerning his artistic nature and what his religious upbringing perceives as wrong. It can be supposed that, without the trip to Europe and his removal from the direct influences of his family and community members, Asher would not reach the decision to pursue his art despite the protests of his religion as quickly, if at all; the social and emotional barrenness of his stay in Europe allows Asher to focus more on his inner self.
Overall, the general setting throughout My Name is Asher Lev is maintained very close to Asher’s person.There is not an exploration of Brooklyn or the rest of New York that does not pertain to the inner conflict that faces Asher as he grows. Aside the visits to notable museums, the wider world around Asher is not very much noted. This is significant in that, beyond the religious setting and his family life, there is not much else of importance to Asher outside of what pertains to his passion for his art. This could be, perhaps, a deliberate more by the author to focus readers on the growth of Asher’s character, but it is also indicative of Asher’s selfish view of the world around him.
With Jane Austen’s Emma, the little conflicts, such as trying to matchmake Harriet with an allowable suitor and the potential for romance between Emma and Frank Churchill, are smaller pieces of a much more encompassing conflict that takes place within Emma herself. This internal conflict is based on Emma’s own ideas of what polite society expects a lady of her social stature and times should be versus her own strong-willed individuality. English society in the early 1800′s greatly limited the activities and roles of women in their world and, while these limitations are not fleshed out as constraints on the women in the novel, most of the activities Emma’s female characters pursue fall in the acceptable behavioral setting for women of that time. Emma, for the most part, remains within these constraints as well, though her independent nature and the influence she exudes within her household and amongst her friends suggests that the norms of English society at that time can be bent. Throughout the novel, Emma declares that she has no use for marriage, though it is the expected outcome for a young woman. It is not until Emma overcomes her selfishness and arrogance and begins to see others around her for their worth as humans rather than as objects weighted by their social standing that Emma truly entertains serious thoughts of marriage. Whether she would want to accept the reality or not, marriage is part of womenhood in early Nineteenth Century England and, without marriage, Emma’s cannot be the gentlewoman she thinks herself to be.
Almost all conflicts throughout the novel arise from Emma’s arrogance in believing that she is above people and above the natural order of her society. Even as she considers others around her as inferior because of their social standing, she insists on living outside the restraints of that social order. Examples of this can be seen in her command of the Woodhouse estate, the insistence of her re-shaping Harriet to be different than she is and more to Emma’s liking, her refusal to consider marriage for most of the novel, and her stubborn and headstrong conceitness. However, she behaves as if only she has the right to think and behave outside of this social norm, and she never does wander too far out from that norm. Her thoughts and pursuits show that, however misguided she may be in her personal endeavors, she does agree with the social rules of the times. While she does try to do good for others in her matchmaking attempts and the visits to the Bates women and, her sense of superiority defeats her well-meant acts as merely doing her duty as a higher-up and it is never a personal interaction in her charities. Her image of herself does not let her look beyond the social standings of others and her arrogance does not let her see that society’s rungs do not dictate who is a better person than another.
The climatic moment to this inner conflict comes after her insult to Miss Bates at a picnic at Box Hill. Throughout the novel, Emma has suggested through the narration that Miss Bates’ habitual babbling was wearisome and annoying. At the picnic, Emma takes advantage to belittle Miss Bates for her constant talking in front of the rest of the party in another attempt of showing her superiority over others in her social circle. Miss Bates’ shame is very evident but Emma tries to ignore what she has done, even when Mr. Knightly criticizes her for it. As being the only character within the novel who has any influence over Emma, Mr. Knightly presses the issue to ensure that Emma knows how terrible she’s been to Miss Bates. This leads to a revelation about herself that she is not able to ignore: that she has been habitually rude and arrogant to those she calls her friends without thinking of how her words and actions may hurt them. That Mr. Knightly has observed this and condemns her for such an attitude makes her feel all the worse because of her strong respect for him and she begins to work towards being a better person: “She was vexed beyond what could have been expressed–almost beyond what she could conceal. Never had she felt so agitated, mortified, grieved, at any circumstance in her life. She was most forcibly struck. The truth of this representation there was no denying. She felt it at her heart. How could she have been so brutal, so cruel to Miss Bates! How could she have exposed herself to such ill opinion in any one she valued! And how suffer him to leave her without saying one word of gratitude, of concurrence, of common kindness!” (Austen, Vol.3, Ch.7).
This climax of Emma’s inner conflict opens onto an outside conflict as Harriet confides her attraction to Mr. Knightly to Emma. The thought of Mr. Knightly marrying Harriet leads to the revelation that Emma is in love with Mr. Knightly and cannot risk losing him. Fortunately, Mr. Knightly has been in love with Emma the entire time and the two are soon engaged. While Emma’s initial reaction to the thought of marriage was a rejection of marriage so that she does not have to concede to a man, the conclusion of her inner conflict over her selfishness and arrogance allows her to see that a marriage can be a union of two different people whose natures complement one another, instead of the loss of her independent will under the thumb of a husband. Had Emma remained as stubborn about her definition of social position defining an individual’s personal character and unwilling to respect people beyond that social position, it is unlikely she would have made the stretch to see that marriage is not the loss of self to a domineering husband, considering her mind’s adherence to the social structure of her time.
The exterior conflict in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is man versus society, as both Jim and Huck run away from the societal norms of their time to find their own freedom, a pursuit that is time and again halted when the duo interacts with the social environments they come across in the journey along the Mississippi River. This conflict closely ties in with the internal conflict Huck feels through most of the novel with both running away from the Widow Douglas and her higher society and with helping a runaway slave seek freedom. This conflict of Huck’s natural good nature and its clash with proper society’s expectations on his actions is paraphrased in the following quote: “And I about made up my mind to pray, and see if I couldn’t try to quit being the kind of a boy I was and be better. So I kneeled down. But the words wouldn’t come. Why wouldn’t they? It warn’t no use to try and hide it from Him. Nor from ME, neither. I knowed very well why they wouldn’t come. It was because my heart warn’t right; it was because I warn’t square; it was because I was playing double. I was letting ON to give up sin, but away inside of me I was holding on to the biggest one of all. I was trying to make my mouth SAY I would do the right thing and the clean thing, and go and write to that nigger’s owner and tell where he was; but deep down in me I knowed it was a lie, and He knowed it. You can’t pray a lie–I found that out… I’d see him standing my watch on top of his’n, ‘stead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how glad he was when I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him again in the swamp, up there where the feud was; and such-like times; and would always call me honey, and pet me and do everything he could think of for me, and how good he always was; and at last I struck the time I saved him by telling the men we had small-pox aboard, and he was so grateful, and said I was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the ONLY one he’s got now; and then I happened to look around and see that paper. It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a-trembling, because I’d got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: “All right, then, I’ll GO to hell”–and tore it up. It was awful thoughts and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming. I shoved the whole thing out of my head, and said I would take up wickedness again, which was in my line, being brung up to it, and the other warn’t” (Twain, Ch.31). This passage reveals quite a lot of what characteristic ending Huck will find at the end of his story. While Huck is not a morally bad person, he knows that there is something bad in his rejection of the social norms and he is convinced that it is some flaw of his own that prevents him from meshing with the higher society the Widow Douglas brings him into, he acknowledges this flaw even as he tells readers how he prefers the lifestyle his father drags him back to. His initial attempt to run away from the Widow Douglas in the first chapter finds Tom Sawyer easily convincing him to stay, but to escape his father, Huck becomes very inventive, creating a murder scene in his father’s cabin with a dead hog and misleading tracks. This shows that, while he is just as eager to escape the confines of either society, he sees the inherent goodness in Widow Douglas’s way of life and the pointlessness in how his father lives; however, once he does escape from his father’s cabin, he does not try to go back to the Widow Douglas and instead proceeds with the ruse of his death. This shows that, while he does see the more mainstream society in a more favorable light, he still distrusts that society and doubts the possibility of any place for him within it.
Assisting Jim and not turning the slave in when the chance presents itself with the men on the skiff in Chapter 16 brings Huck face to face with his inner conflict for the first time that has major consequence. He’s decided that turning Jim in would be for the best, in adhering to the social norms that he himself is seeking to escape. Even as he runs away from the confines of a society he does not believe in, he wants to adhere to the rules of that society concerning the runaway slave: “I couldn’t get that out of my conscience, no how nor no way. It got to troubling me so I couldn’t rest; I couldn’t stay still in one place. It hadn’t ever come home to me before, what this thing was that I was doing. But now it did; and it stayed with me, and scorched me more and more. I tried to make out to myself that I warn’t to blame, because I didn’t run Jim off from his rightful owner; but it warn’t no use, conscience up and says, every time, “But you knowed he was running for his freedom, and you could a paddled ashore and told somebody.” That was so–I couldn’t get around that noway. That was where it pinched. Conscience says to me, “What had poor Miss Watson done to you that you could see her nigger go off right under your eyes and never say one single word? What did that poor old woman do to you that you could treat her so mean? Why, she tried to learn you your book, she tried to learn you your manners, she tried to be good to you every way she knowed how. THAT’S what she done” (Twain, Ch.16). Unwittingly, Jim brings Huck to face this conflict within himself with his show of gratitude for Huck’s friendship and Huck allows himself to follow his own moral compass, concealing Jim on the raft and lying to the men on the skiff. He reasons with himself afterwards and sees that a lie made out of goodness can be justified, as opposed to a lie made out of maliciousness or self-gain.
This inner conflict surfaces several times throughout the book. The episode with the robbers on the collapsing steamboat shows that he does not wish to see anyone hurt if he can prevent it, even though he witnesses the men’s intentions of murdering their partner. He is unable to stand idle while the King and the Duke plan to rob the three sisters of their inheritance, though up unto that point he has gone along with the swindlers’ foolery on several occasions, and he risks his own safety to return the stolen money to the sisters even though he does not pursue the option of revealing the King and the Duke for the frauds they are when the sisters’ real uncle arrives in the town. Huck wants to believe that he can exist outside of the hypocrisies of society but he still does not want to do what society deems wrong.
This conflict comes to a head when Huck finds out that Jim has been betrayed by the King and is being held captive awaiting notice from his former owners (though the former owners that have been notified are completely ficticious and the whole ploy is another of the King’s frauds). Huck tries to pray and adhere to what society would have him do, but his heart cannot allow it because it means sacrificing Jim to the mercy of that society. He considers he will go to hell for doing what he thinks is right and what he knows popular society would think to be wrong, but even this is not enough of a deterrent for Huck to abandon his friend. While Huck has tried to maintain a balance between doing what he thinks is right and staying on the fringe of society, he finds he cannot straddle that fence when it comes to his friend’s safety, no matter what personal consequence may come of it.
This inner conflict is concluded with a few chapter left in the novel as Mark Twain re-introduces Tom Sawyer into Huck’s life. Even though Tom assists Huck in freeing Jim, and even though Jim is already freed as a condition of the Widow Douglas’s will, the inner conflict within Huck has already been concluded. His notion of right and goodness has already been re-established as he realizes that doing what is right does not always adhere to the hypocrisy that popular society deems it to be. He knows that he does not feel he has a place in the society around him and even his closing words, ” But I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can’t stand it. I been there before.” (Twain, Ch.42), show that he feels he is better off living by what he feels in his heart to be right instead of trying to adhere to a society which has consistently let him down.
The conflict within My Name is Asher Lev that is most readily visible is the conflict of art versus religion or, more specifically, man versus society. The Hasidic Jewish community that is an integral part of Asher’s life cannot condone Asher’s artistic nature and, particularly, the paintings of crucifixions Asher displays at the end of the novel. Throughout the novel, Asher is time and again reminded that his relion does not look favorable on art, though the main reason stated for this is because each Jewish individual has a responsibility to further the ideals of Judism and assist his or her fellow Jews, and art does not accomplish this endeavor in a practical manner: “Asher, you have a gift. I do not know if it is a gift from Ribbono Shel Olom or from the Other Side. If it is from the Other Side, then it is foolishness, dangerous foolishness, for it will take you away from the Torah and from your people and lead you to think only of yourself” (Potok, Ch.4). The friction between Asher and his father is a product of this conflict; Asher’s father has dedicated his life to servitude in the name of assisting persecuted Jews around the world and he cannot see why Asher would pursue an interest which does not lay along the same path. The decision that Asher must leave the Jewish community in Brooklyn after his final show comes from the Rebbe, the head of the Jewish community, not from Asher’s own father, and, as such, is decreed as being from the Jewish community as a whole.
This climax would not be reached if not for the inner conflict Asher struggles with through most of his life. As an observant Jew, it is never Asher’s intent to offend his community, or his family, or his religion. He is strictly observant of the edicts of his religion, even when away from the presence of his religion, as when he fasts for Tisha b’Av while summering with Kahn. He does not rebel in any way against the demands of his religion, save for his pursuit of his art. In this, he is more focused than on anything. His intensity is evident even at a young age, when he draws the face of the Rebbe in his Chumash, or when he attempts to help his mother recover with his drawings. When Asher matures and is, fundamentally, on his own, the book’s focus zeroes in on his intensity and lets many other details of Asher’s life pale in importance to the art, even such things as an apparent romance with a young Jewess in Paris. As Asher becomes more aware of the gravity of his artistic nature and what repercussions it may have, the final chapters of the book strives to show the selfishness of Asher’s decisions by glossing over any other details that do not pertain to his artistic struggles in a way to mirror the immature selfishness Asher maintains in much of the book that is readily evident with other characters there to reflect the impact of that selfishness. Even as the time for his final showing comes closer, Asher refuses to commit to removing the crucifixion paintings from his showing, even though he knows how the painting will affect his family and community, because of his selfishness, though he only makes the most token attempt at pulling those paintings from the showing at the end of the book.
While it is the outer conflict between Asher’s artistic nature and his religious world that moves the plot forward, it is this inner conflict that leads Asher to the self-awareness that his art matters more, to him, than the confines of his religious beliefs and what impact it may have on his family and community. While such an understanding may be considered selfish in many ways, it is to Asher’s benefit that he does make this decision. He does not leave behind his religion, despite the several loose transgressions he commits, such as the cutting of his earlocks and his painting without a shirt in Chapter 9, but he comes to understand the importance of what he does as a painter and what importance that is to his own character. Rarely does Asher try to achieve greatness through his painting because of the desire for fame or money, but to express what he feels inside. His selfishness through the majority of the book is a product of this focus and it is what leads to Asher’s growth as a character. The smaller conflicts that Asher experiences throughout the story build until Asher must make a decision to risk forsaking what life he has known for his artistic integrity. The pain and shame this conviction brings to those who love Asher hurts him as well, but it is the only decision he can make that is true to himself. Up unto the point where he accepts that, not only must he paint the crucifixions, he must allow those paintings to be displayed, Asher strives to maintain a balance between his religious self and his artistic self; in having the paintings displayed, Asher is displaying his conviction that his inner self cannot be held down by the weight of his religion’s constraints and to do anything else would be a sin unto himself.
How conflict and self-awareness arises greatly depends on where the author narrates the story from. For readers to feel an emotional impact from the character’s growth, many authors will choose a narrative style that sets close to that character, if not let the character narrate the entire story in his or her own words. The magic of representing growth and self-awareness in a character depends on bringing that character as close as possible to the reader, so the choice of narrative style is very important in the decision to write a story and what effects it may have on the reader.
Each of these authors select the best point of view to present the growth of their characters based on what it is the characters need to achieve in order to find their maturity. In doing so, they bring the reader as close as they can to the character so that the growth towards their self-awareness is more realistic in contrast to the conflicts that must be endured for the character to arrive at that point where their self-awareness matches the growth of the character in relation to the plot. Mark Twain holds an immediate first-person point of view throughout his story because the incidents and the scope of the conflicts within the story are over such a short period of time for Huck to come to terms with what he needs to learn about himself.
In contrast, Chaim Potok maintains a duel identity of a first-person narrative in his novel, presenting both the voice of Asher Lev as a grown adult, as introduced in the first paragraphs of the book, and as the child Asher who is living through the events which shaped him as a man, because the events through the book encompass such a greater period of time.
Jane Austen takes on an arduous task in delivering the narrative split between points or view throughout Emma. Generally, she maintains a limited third person point of view, apart and separate from the events throughout the novel, letting her the opportunity to present the heroine as flawed and needing the catalyst of change to achieve self-awareness; however, to solicit sympathy for her character and maintain the possibility of personal growth, much of the novel’s suspense and tension is delivered through the dialogue, which almost adapts itself to a first person point of view from Emma’s perspective and often delivered in manner similar to soliloquies. Perhaps this is deliberate, perhaps this is not; almost all of the conflict that arises through the novel is of Emma’s doing, and the lapse towards Emma’s point of view seems necessary to justify the reasoning behind her actions without giving away too much of what is to come.
The two points of view act as counter-balances to project the reader further into Emma’s potential. The limited third-person narrative gives a view of those flaws of Emma that need to be concentrated on in order for Emma to grow, while a concentration on Emma’s point of view through dialog and the voicing of her thoughts aloud counters the narrative in presenting Emma as misguided though well-intentioned. Using these conflicting points of view allows Austen to present her character’s growth in relation to the pace of the novel without contradicting the reality of the outcome or negating the reality of Emma arriving at the revelation she finds at the end of the novel.
Huckleberry Finn narrates his story entirely from his point of view; even his inner thinking is not so much glimpses into his mind as they are a private dialog with the reader. This approach to the novel allows readers to understand Huck from the perspective of a young boy who is taking on an unknown world where even adults often falter. It also captures the innocence and magic of the world around Huck in a way that any other style of narrative could not.
This point of view from such a young and inexperience narrator who is also ineptly educated does have its limitations. Huck does have an understanding of the King and the Duke’s game, but does not grasp quick enough what potential lays ahead when he sees the flyers describing Jim in Chapter 20; he, in his child innocence, thinks there is enough decency in the two swindlers that they would not forsake their party for an easy gain so he is caught unaware when Jim is sold to Silas Phelps for a quick buck. The limitations, however, are really to be considered favorable to the tale Mark Twain wants to tell of an innocent boy who is forming his own morality in a world where hypocrisy and ignorance are common.
The point of view also works well to convey the social attitudes of the time. While Huck is eager to run away from the constraints of popular society, he is also very much a product of that society and it is evident in the language he uses. The novel is meant to be a satirical attack on such things as slavery and superstition and, with Huck’s wide-eyed manner, the humor and absurdity of these subjects is made all the more apparent. His point of view also underlines the importance of such topics as friendship, equality, and honesty as only the unstained eyes of a child can perceive these topics. Without experiencing the story through Huck’s own words, it would be impossible to see how he is able to come to terms with his growing self-awareness. His moral growth is rooted in his refusal to accept the limitations others place on him and in his experience of staying true to his heart over the accepted norms of society. To read the story from any other point of view would lose the impact Huck’s adventures have on him and how true to himself he reacts to the world around him.
Chaim Potok narrates his novel from the point of view of his principle character, Asher Lev. From the very first page, the book becomes Asher’s book, a look back at his life from his own eyes. This first person point of view is important because it introduces Asher’s flaws to the reader from a point of view that does not, initially, see these flaws. We read of Asher’s drive towards art and the frustration it brings him in dealing with the world around him, but his actions’ impact on those around him is dulled by Asher’s perceptions, which only focus on Asher’s view of other characters’ struggle in relation to himself. For Asher, there is only the conflict of how his religious culture is set against his artistic nature and how he may overcome this conflict. His parents are aligned with the conflict against him and he does not try to see things from their point of view.
This first-person point of view throughout the book also gives a view of Asher’s growth, both as an adolescent and as a character. The adult Asher which begins the story – “I am a traitor, an apostate, a self-hater, an inflicter of shame upon my family, my friends, my people; also I am a mocker of ideas sacred to Christians, a blasphemous manipulator of modes and forms revered by Gentiles for two thousand years” – never leaves the narrative, even as the story focuses on the child Asher. The distinct difference can be observed in dialogue between Asher and the people in his life and the thoughts Asher recount for the reader. Within the narrative, Asher uses phrases and words beyond the knowledge and understanding of the child Asher. The dialogue is kept simple throughout most of the book; it isn’t until Asher is in his teenage years and his parents return from Europe that dialogue matures and Asher is less reserved in speaking his thoughts. At this point, the dialogue and the narrative merge in maturity, ceasing to have the line drawn between the two points of view of child Asher and adult Asher. This reflects a growth in Asher progressing through the limits of his childhood selfishness and into the heavier conflict Asher must face regarding his heritage versus his artistic nature. While a separation between the dialogue and the narrative continues, the tone is much closer in degree of maturity, something that prevents much sympathy for the child Asher and his childish selfishness.
There is another important fact about Potok’s choice of narration. As mentioned, there is a division between the child Asher’s dialogue and the intrusion of the adult Asher’s narration. Had any other type of narrative been employed, the understanding that Asher must grow in his awareness of self would be muddled with the thoughts of others or the intrusive opinionation of an omniscient narrator. The position of Potok’s narrator concentrates solely on what impacts Asher Lev, even while it may be construed as self-centered and dismissive, and the self-centered narrative focuses on what Asher needs to in order to progress to his necessary self-awareness in order to overcome the exterior conflicts he experiences. The division of narration also serves the same purpose: the earlier portions of the narrative are lacking in the maturity Asher grows into, while the narration in later chapters shows that Asher is accepting the challenge presented by his conflicts and his convictions. Had the earlier presentation of the book been portrayed in any other manner, the impact and understand found in Asher’s education, and in himself, would not impact readers in quite the same way. As Asher’s self-awareness grows, unlike other characters discussed in this paper, that awareness echoes the childish and immature selfishness of Asher’s earlier self as he progresses towards the selfish nature of an artist who chooses the nature of himself over the pressures of his religious upbringing. That conflict is also reflective of the conflict between Asher and his father, which progresses from Asher’s childhood and inability to truly accentuate his inner conflicts towards those interactions with those around him towards Asher’s acceptance that he cannot be true to himself without risking pain to those he loves.
Overall, Potok works his choice of point-of-view to concentrate on those flaws of his main character and the development towards a greater self-awareness for the novel’s principle character in a way that solicits both contempt and sympathy for the growing Asher Lev. The combination of two first-person points of view throughout the novel brings readers through the journey Asher goes through these events himself and through the hindsight of Asher as an adult looking back over his life. Perhaps the captivation of Asher’s selfishness is unintentional, it does bear great weight throughout the novel as Asher establishes himself, first, as his own person, and second, as an artist beyond the confines of the Hasidic Jewish community.
All three of these stories are concerned with the growth of their main character and how they overcome their character flaws in order to reach the self-awareness needed to overcome the obstacles laid out in front of them. While each novel differs greatly in setting and time, the exterior conflicts each character must face drive the character towards the self-awareness necessary in order to overcome their internal conflicts and grow towards their maturity.
How each author uses the reviewed literary elements differs in both style and intent. Obviously, just as each novel is set in a different place and time than the other, each author is of a different time and place than the others. This difference is not just apparent in the writing style each author adopts but in the story they are trying to tell and what message they mean to convey. As each story is a contemporary setting of the author’s world, it is from this world that each author draws on to imbibe his or her literary elements in order to drive the main character towards the resolution that character needs. While novelists, in most instances, do not set out to deliver a sociological message, the path a character takes and how he or she grows morally is often a reflection of the author’s opinion of the world around him or her. Literary elements used throughout the novels are not only props used to support a plot, but the author’s tool to give his or her story the impact necessary to show their own concerns through the characters’ actions.
Jane Austen lived in a time when women did not have the equal consideration in society as men enjoyed, and class distinction was also a major importance of the time. These two aspects of Austen’s period contributes greatly in her choice of how literary elements shape the story Emma and what perception readers have throughout the novel. The title character is a strong and independent woman, with no need of money or the pursuit of marriage. This is in direct contrast to the actual role of women in Austen’s society and it contributes greatly to why Emma comes face-to-face with the conflicts she does. Austen makes use of the sociological setting of her time, through the use of the literary elements discussed, to show why such prejudices may inhibit the growth of one’s self-awareness. Emma is not flawed because she has money and has no need for the dependence on a husband to know her role in life; on the contrary, these factors allow Emma to grow, as a character, and force her to realize her flaws on a level that defies the contemporary thinking of the times. That Emma chooses to wed Mr. Knightly is not to assume the role of what women are supposed to do in nineteenth century England, but as a personal choice of happiness after revoking the strength of the prejudices of class and sex of that time, as Emma discovers that social class does not necessary mean an individual is a better person or that women must marry in a need for completion. The literary elements used – the point of view and how it seems to change from a third person point of view to Emma’s own voice, the setting of this class and sex-structured society, and the exterior conflicts that arise because of Emma’s own internal conflict – are used to highlight these ideals of the author in such a way that the actions of the main character can be seen to be natural for her composed character.
In much the same way, Mark Twain uses his own views of the society he lives in to fuel the literary elements that propel Huck Finn through his adventures. Though the story is told through the point of view of a young boy, the satire and contempt the author holds for the issue of slavery is very apparent. The point of view is very much a strength here, allowing the reader to see the setting of pre-Civil War America through the eyes of a child and with the moral innocence of that child. Because of the nature of Huck’s inner conflict, the setting is most important as it allows Huck access to the wide range of opinion held on slavery that was prevalent at the time of the author. Through Huck’s point of view, the subject becomes not a matter of slavery, but an issue of equality. The eyes of a child sees the world differently than those of an adult, and Twain uses this fact to separate himself from the issue of slavery and concentrate on the issue that plagues Huck, that of friendship and personal worth. It is through this focus on Huck’s own conflict that Mark Twain expresses his own opinion on the issue of slavery, and it is through Huck’s adventures that the reader experiences the importance of equality among men of all color because of Huck’s self-sacrificing focus on staying true to the friends who are important to him, rather than to what society expresses as being right.
Chaim Potok has a more difficult task to accomplish, though he uses these same literary elements in the same way. Perhaps, because religion has always had such an immense impact on what society dictates to be right and what is wrong, Potok’s story seems very much centered in selfishness, but his title character, Asher Lev, struggles more against what he feels in himself than he does against the confines his society puts upon him. The setting and point of view proclaim this and show a young man that does not wish to break from his religious upbringing and who does not wish to inflict pain on those who love him but is torn between that religious self and the necessity to be his own individual. While Asher is a selfish character throughout the book and that selfishness does not dissipate, Asher’s growth is in the understanding that he will endure sacrifice and suffering because of his art and his acceptance of this. As Kahn informs Asher early in their relationship as teacher and student, artists are selfish, and much of Asher’s struggle deals with trying to balance the lives he lives as a paint and as a Jew. Potok strives to bring his character to awareness of his own individuality within the restraints of religion but finds failure in that and must, in accepting that individuality, break from the society that he knows. Throughout the novel, each small conflict grows in importance to show this break while displaying the emotional turmoil Asher endures with each step.
All three of these novels focus on a character out of step with the society that surrounds them. The conflicts within each character, though underwritten as a conflict between what the character feels to be right and the character’s personal flaws, are significant in their reflection of the authors’ views of their societies. Each novel, while engineered to portray the story of an individual, are commentaries on each author’s contemporary society. The struggle towards greater self awareness and character growth is, through the use of the literary elements of point of view and setting, a manner in which readers of that time can relate the characters’ stories to their own world. It is also found to be a foundation which future readers can perceive the changes in society that have occurred by looking through the eyes of characters which endured the struggles of times past. Whether or not each author meant to represent social progress in any way, each author portrayed this progress in a way that reflects an individual’s growth beyond the confines or his or her social setting. The path depicted, through the use of these literary elements outlined, for each character signifies the importance of overcoming flaws inherent to social influence in order to stand behind higher social convictions.
Reference List
Austen, J. (1996). Emma (8th ed.). New York, New York: Penguin Putnam, Inc.
Potok, C. (2004). My name is Asher Lev (electronic ed.). New York, New York: RosettaBooks LLC
Twain, M. (1885). The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York, New York: Charles L. Webster & Company.
