Pulling up stakes and traveling to find a better life is central to the American experience. Foreign immigrants came to our shores in search of religious freedom and an escape from tyranny. Pioneers traveled the trails west to Oregon and California seeking prosperity and wide, open spaces. As history shows, these migrations built our nation.
It is not surprising therefore, that moving to improve one’s lot has also been a central theme in the Great American Novel. Two novels that incorporate this deeply American tradition are “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck and Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” It is one reason why scholars consider these books to be Great American Novels.
In both stories, the main characters have similar reasons for leaving behind everything they know: they want to escape abuse and privation. Huck Finn travels down the Mississippi River to flee his tyrant of a father and the two women who want to “civilize” him against his will. “All I wanted was to go somewheres; all I wanted was a change, I warn’t particular,” he says. It seems that Huck Finn is a character always on the prowl for a new experience. This sentiment leads to his trip down the river with the runaway slave named Jim.
Even after his adventures with Jim, Huck is still restless and longing for a new life. He muses: “I reckon I got to light out for the territory ahead of the rest.” His fantasy about heading west—a uniquely American dream--further illustrates that Huck Finn’s actions represent the American willingness to move on to find better prospects. Huck does all of this traveling and dreaming in the hopes of escaping a discontented life and to start a new and better existence.
In “The Grapes of Wrath,” the Joad family goes to California because they can no longer make a living in the dust bowl of Oklahoma in the 1930s. Unlike Huck Finn whose dysfunctional family drove him away, the Joads were forced to leave their home because of political and environmental factors they could not control.
The dream of a prosperous life in the lush California valley exerted a powerful lure. When the Joads finally arrive, “Pa sighed, ‘I never knowed they was anything like her.’ The peach trees and the walnut groves, and the dark green patches of oranges. And red roofs among the trees, and the barns-rich barns.” During this sequence, all of the characters speak in awestruck tones, as if they have died and gone to heaven. They consider this moment to be the final transition to the better life they have sought. “Jesus, are we gonna start clean!” Tom Joad says. “We sure ain’t bringing nothing with us.” Tom is fantasizing about starting afresh in California, especially since he and his family came from Oklahoma where they literally had nothing.
The characters in both of these books leave their homes to get away from something pernicious. Huckleberry Finn volunteered to leave his home whereas the Joad family was forced to go away, like all the other “Okies.” Even though the circumstances differ greatly in the novels, both involve a bad force that drives the protagonists to find an avenue out.
The Mississippi River and Route 66, therefore, both symbolize the same thing: a path to freedom and prosperity. For Huck Finn, the river carries him away from his hateful father; for Jim, it helps him escape slavery. The Joads use Route 66 as a way to find success in California. These travels are quintessentially American and mirror those taken by not only by explorers but also by thousands of immigrants.
Another idea common to both novels is the wickedness and immorality of man. Huck Finn strives to help Jim escape the evil and depraved institution of slavery while the Joads must battle against being treated as slaves by the landowners and employers in California. In fact, Steinbeck writes: “They imported slaves, although they did not call them slaves…They live on Rice and beans, the business men said. They don’t need much. They wouldn’t know what to do with good wages.” These sentiments encapsulate the attitudes and rationales of the California farmers: Okies are not people. They are chattel and should be treated as such. It is indicative of Steinbeck’s belief that this type of work is slavery by another name.
Huck Finn recognizes the immorality of slavery even though he was raised in a society that condones and practices it. At the end of the novel, when Huck has to choose between sending Jim back into slavery or keep the secret and have it on his conscience, he declares, “All right, then, I’ll go to hell.” This sums up Huck’s view on slavery and southern society; he thinks it is evil and would rather burn in hell for eternity than help the institution flourish. Some of the lessons that Miss Watson taught Huck manifest themselves in this declaration and show his rebellion against the rules of that society, which Huck thinks are quite hypocritical.
Huck’s relationship with Jim is in itself proof of his aversion to slavery. Over the course of their adventure, Huck and Jim form a bond that borders on brotherly love, something that would have been unlikely between the two under other circumstances. It ultimately comes to the point where Huck would gladly risk his life to save Jim, even though he is a slave. Ultimately, both “Huckleberry Finn” and “The Grapes of Wrath” argue against exploited labor and profiting at the expense of others. They both advocate for the fair and ethical treatment of all people, regardless of wealth or race; a dream that is characteristically American.
Sunny appearances that mask a darker and sinister reality can also be called an American theme and both of these novels reveal how misleading the appearance of an enlightened and civilized society can be. Steinbeck describes California as a wondrous land of milk and honey where anyone, at any time, can reach up and pick an orange from a tree. But in reality, this apparent haven is rife with indecency, corruption and evil people who call themselves human beings.
When the family hears about the millionaires who own infinite acres of land in California, Casy Joad observes: "If he needs a million acres to make him feel rich, seems to me he needs it 'cause he feels awful poor inside hisself, and if he's poor in hisself, there ain't no million acres gonna make him feel rich." Casy’s comment suggests that the prettier something is, the more likely it is trying to hide something ugly. A man who needs to own so much land must be concealing some damning fact or characteristic. When Casy uses the word “poor,” he means poor in spirit, which comes from one of the beatitudes in the Gospel of Matthew. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). This is ironic given how evil and corrupt the California landowners turn out to be.
Mark Twain also has his protagonist recognize the difference between truth and appearances. Huck Finn thinks that the society and rules that the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson make him follow are hypocritical, He notices that among those who call themselves moral and God-fearing people lies the wretched and depraved institution of slavery. Huck fights that hypocrisy by running away from it and by rescuing Jim from slavery.
When both novels come to a close, all of the main protagonists find themselves to be spiritually pure. Huckleberry Finn feels like a moral person because he has ultimately saved Jim from being sold into slavery once more. The Joads have retained their humanity and goodness in the face of adversity and evil, embodied in the act of helping the dying man in the barn at the end. Steinbeck declares: “To build a wall, to build a house, a dam, and in the all and house and dam to put something of Manself, and to Manself take back something of the wall, the house the dam; to take hard muscles from the lifting, to take the clear lines and form from conceiving. For man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work.”
Expressed here is the idea that if someone does hard and honest work with his hands, it will make him or her a better person. It recalls the biblical concept that working hard builds character and strong values. With the Joads, that has clearly happened by the novel’s end. They have been kicked off their original homeland, abused and exploited at the hands of the California businessmen, and lost many friends and family members along the way. But Steinbeck asserts that these dire events brought them closer together. The Joads stuck to their values and worked tirelessly in the face of adversity. As a result, they come out feeling pure and rich in spirit.
Indications of Huck Finn’s feeling of spiritual purity are a bit harder to find. But it appears in the tone of Huck’s narrative. For most of the novel, Huck’s narration sounds unsure and confused, as if he does not really know the morality of his actions. After Jim is freed and everything returns to normal, Huck talks in a more humble and inspired tone, almost as if to say: “I am ready for anything and everything that life has to throw at me.” He also seems to be more at peace with himself because he did what he thought was right. Now, he really does not care as much about what others think of him. This form of individualism fits very much into the American psyche and the idea that in America, you have the freedom to do what you think is right.
One big theme that both novels share is the idea of salvation and the persistence of hope through dire circumstances. The hope never seems to go away. That is the essence of the American spirit: a hope that never fades. I guess that is why both of these novels are called Great American ones. In them, there is a hope and promise of salvation in some way, shape or form.
