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he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all elseremained, and he were annihilated, the universe wouldturn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem a part of it”(ch. 9, 77). Heathcliff and Catherine define themselvesin terms of each other; they may not know what the restof the world holds, but they know with certainty that theylove each other. This is a manifestation of the existentialidea of the other, the observer from whose perspectivean individual finds definition. Heathcliff knows himself,knows what is right, only insomuch as Catherine perceiveshim. This is, for a brief moment, a rock anchoring them,but soon this too crumbles and the two are left where theybegan: uncertain, and unhappy. The setting of WutheringHeights does not afford its characters the luxury ofcertainty; the novel begins with and is based on a searchfor absolutes that will give sense and direction to the livesof its characters.The crisis that precipitates the abrupt breakdownof this tenuous tranquility is a crisis of identity andauthenticity; Catherine’s choice of Edgar over Heathcliffis a choice of the identity defined for her by others overthe identity she feels to be right, the identity she imaginesherself to have. She attempts to rationalize her decisionto Nelly; she enumerates the advantages of a marriageto Edgar, and declares that it would “degrade [her] tomarry Heathcliff” (ch. 9, 75). She has placed herself inchains, limited her own freedom in conforming to arbitraryexternal values. This is the sin of inauthenticity, whatSartre called mauvaise foi Catherine is doomed to sufferbecause she chooses as if she were not free to choose,and denies her own responsibility in creating her future.Heathcliff recognizes this, and refuses to forgive; hedeclares bitterly as she lies dying, “You deserved this. Youhave killed yourself” (ch. 15, 152). Catherine’s fall, thetragedy of her life and death, is the inevitable result ofher denial of her freedom and of herself. Heathcliff’s ownunhappiness stems in turn from the way he has definedhimself; he claims he is Catherine, as she is him, butAll Kinds of Signs:his understanding of her is flawed. When she crumblesthen, when the woman she is fails to correspond tothe woman he wants her to be, he falls as well, like Jilltumbling after Jack. These problems of identity arethe misshapen products of Catherine and Heathcliff sfailure to understand their freedom, and their ability tocreate themselves. Each acts as if there exists someideal Heathcliff and some ideal Catherine buried withinthe other; Catherine exclaims on observing Heathcliff’scruelty, “That is not my Heathcliff. I shall love mine yet... he’s in my soul” (ch. 15, 151). Heathcliff, meanwhile,derides Catherine as “cruel and false” (ch. 15, 152) andaccuses of her of self-deception. He demands, “Whydid you betray your own heart?” (ch. 15, 152). Yet anexistentialist would argue and Brontë seems to suggestthat there is no betrayal of identity, there is simply thechoice. If there is a betrayal, it is a betrayal of freedom, adenial of responsibility. Catherine and Heathcliff are whothey have chosen to be, not who they imagine themselvesto be. Catherine is her choice to marry Edgar; Heathcliffis his deliberate cruelty. The tragic events of WutheringHeights are driven by the inability of its characters torecognize their freedom, their responsibility, and theirhand in creating the reality that tortures them.Hell is Catherine, Hell is Heathcliff; as the events ofWuthering Heights unfold, the characters find themselvessubmerged deeper and deeper in a seemingly inescapablesea of suffering, a riptide of existential angst. Emily Brontëhas created in this novel a visceral and painfully engagingworld empty of absolutes, and a despairingly true depictionof how individuals struggle to find their way in such gloom.Heathcliff and Catherine attempt to find something toanchor themselves in this uncertain storm; they fail. Theydeny their freedom, they reject their responsibility, and asa result, they suffer. Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights isa testimony to the struggles of human beings to find theirway, and their happiness, in a world without signposts. aSuperstition in The Adventures of Huckleberry FinnBy David Gore, Newton North High School (Newton, MA)Like the mighty Mississippi, the theme of superstitionruns strongly through Mark Twain’s Adventures ofHuckleberry Finn. From the perspective of the wide-eyedyoung narrator, the reader is presented with a worldviewin which a kind of concrete, unquestioned magic holdssway. To look over your left shoulder at the new moon, topick up a snake’s shed skin, or to kill a spider is sure tobring bad luck, although what exactly that misfortune willentail is never explicitly defined. On the most basic level,characters’ fervent reliance on superstition is mined byTwain as a source of satirical humor. However, the authoralso uses the theme of superstition to address moreprofound topics, such as race, religion, and the naturalworld. Throughout the novel, Twain draws attention to andpokes fun at the superstitions both of white characters,such as Huck and Pap, and of black characters, suchLITERARY MATTERS | VOLUME 3.4 | YEAR-END 2010 20
as Jim and Nat. In so doing, he highlights superstitionas an important, if not altogether admirable, aspectof the human commonality that transcends race. InTwain’s hands, superstition becomes a tool in theoverarching argument against the myth of the superiorityof reasonable, intelligent whites over backwards andirrational blacks. For example, Huck’s description of Natas a “good natured, chuckle-headed ... nigger” with “hishair ... all tied up in little bunches with thread .... to keepwitches off” would appear to most modern readers as aracist caricature of an ignorant slave (178). However, atthe story’s start, Huck himself employs the very samesuperstitious precaution. After accidentally killing aspider, Huck says he “tied up a little lock of [his] hair witha thread to keep witches away” (3). Through such focuson both black and white superstitions, Twain underminesthe notion that an unsophisticated belief in magic is solelyor even primarily a black attribute.In fact, within Huck and Jim’s relationship, superstitionenables a shift in the standard racial paradigm. Oftenin the story—during the “King Sollermun” and “talkingFrench” debates, for example—Huck condescends toJim, affecting the stereotypical white traits of superiorintellect and education. His exasperated exclamation atthe end of these debates—that “it warn’t no use wastingwords—you can’t learn a nigger to argue”—is indicative ofthis patronizing attitude (60). Huck is seldom so blatantlycondescending, but he often attempts to take on the roleof teacher. For example, he launches into a didactic, iffactually inaccurate, lecture on the nature of royalty, duringwhich he treats Jim, a grown man who must be nearly twicehis age, like a young child, talking down to his friend withsuch remarks as: “All kings is mostly rapscallions .... Youread about them once—you’ll see” (116). Strikingly, therealm of the supernatural is one of the few areas in whichHuck respects the judgment and experience of Jim, who,in Huck’s own words, “knowed all kinds of signs” (34).At the very start of the book, Huck respectfully consultsJim and his clairvoyant hairball for advice, even offeringthe slave a perfectly good counterfeit quarter to ensurethat the ritual functions properly! After the encounterwith the House of Death, even though Huck is bursting todiscuss what he’s just witnessed, he “didn’t say no more... about the dead man,” accepting Jim’s warnings that“it would fetch bad luck ... and ... [the dead man] mightcome and ha’nt [them]” as “pretty reasonable” (39). Incontrast to his superior attitude at other times during thebook, Huck’s reverence towards Jim’s opinions in mattersof superstition stands out as a truly noteworthy step in hisdeveloping attitude towards race.In Huck’s worldview, religion is no more than justanother superstition, and in fact, it is one in which hedoes not place much stock. This allows Twain to subtlydisparage religion, one of the major subjects of the novel’srich satire. From the very first pages, it is clear that Huckhas little to no regard for religion, seeing it as unrealisticand irrelevant. Upon learning that Moses, whom he waspreviously “in a sweat to find out all about,” is dead,Huck dismissively reflects, “I didn’t care no more abouthim; because I don’t take no stock in dead people” (2).Similarly, he disregards the ideal of religious living thatMiss Watson is trying to foist upon him. As Miss Watsonrhapsodizes about how “she was going to live so as to goto the good place,” Huck acknowledges that he “couldn’tsee no advantage in going where she was going, so [he]made up [his] mind [he] wouldn’t try for it” (2). His outrightdisdain for worship is further exposed when he labels aday spent with the Grangerfords discussing “faith, andgood works, and free grace, and preforeordestination,and ... what all” as “one of the roughest Sundays [he] hadrun across yet” (83). In a humorous but telling illustrationof the parallel between religion and superstition in Huck’smind, his reaction to Miss Watson’s prayer is almostidentical to his reaction to Tom Sawyer’s genies: heabandons the idea of both when they do not produce thedesired results. When Huck’s attempts at prayer yield afish-line but no hooks, he gives up on faith after “threeor four times” (8). He “set down, one time, back in thewoods,” and decided of prayer: “there ain’t nothing init”(8). Likewise, after absorbing Tom’s fantastical tales ofgenies “as tall as a tree and as big around as a church,”Huck attempts to conjure a spirit for himself (11). In anepisode almost identical to the prayer scene, Huck “wentout in the woods,” but when “none of the genies come,”he declares that “all that stuff was only just one of TomSawyer’s lies”(11). Twain uses these correspondingvignettes and Huck’s frequent derision of faith tocharacterize religion as just as arbitrary and fanciful asany superstition.In a literary tradition that dates back to ancientmyths, the characters in The Adventures of Huck Finn usesuperstition in an attempt to comprehend a natural worldthat baffles them. From the first, nature is portrayed asmysterious, enigmatic, and even magical. In the novel’svery first passage concerned with nature, Huck describeshearing “an owl, away off, who-whooing about somebodythat was dead, and a whippowill and a dog crying aboutsomebody that was going to die; and the wind was tryingto whisper something to me” (3). The passage in whichHuck and Jim gaze up at the stars, transfixed—perhapsthe most visually arresting episode in the book—sharesthe same feeling of awe and disquiet: “We had the sky,up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay onour backs and look up at them, and discuss whether theywas made, or only just happened” (90). When characterscannot comprehend a phenomenon in this inscrutablenatural world, they invent a superstition to justify it. In thestargazing scene, for example, Huck and Jim “watch thestars that fell, too” and “Jim allowed they’d got spoiledand was hove out of the nest” (90). This instinct forsuperstitious rationalization is used to comic effect whenthe Phelpses’ hounds burrow into Jim’s cabin throughthe tunnel Huck and Tom have dug and Nat, terrified,blames the incomprehensible event on witches. Thisurge to account for natural occurrence is so strong that,LITERARY MATTERS | VOLUME 3.4 | YEAR-END 2010 21
Page 1 and 2: Literary MattersaTHE NEWSLETTER OF
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Page 8 and 9: Local Meeting Boston: BasileOctober
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Page 18 and 19: Poems by Brent Joseph WellsRead at
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