ears. On the other hand he is his father and deep down Huck wants for them to have a normal life together. At his reappearance, Huck’s father takes Huck away to a cabin by the river where they can live together. He does this, as Huck is the only person that he can bully around in the way that he feels society bullies him around. In the fact that he survives also this encounter with his father and that he is even capable of excusing the deeds of this evil man to some degree, Huck emerges as an epitome of self-reliance. Without his innate ability to deal with the trials posed against him, Huck would have succumbed to the harshness of the world. This embodiment of self-reliance is perhaps even more evident in Huck’s relationship with Tom. Tom Sawyer is a dreamer. Always scheming, always on the lookout for adventure, Tom’s only link to the real world is the ironic observations of Huck, who – because of his self-reliance – simply knows what can and cannot be done in reality. Having said this it should also be mentioned that Huck personifies a much more humane view of self-reliance than is presented to us in the essays of R.W. Emerson. Emerson states that: “…do not tell me…of my obligation to put all poor men in good situations. Are they my poor? … I grudge the dollar, the dime, the cent I give to such men…I shall have the manhood to withhold.” This is invariably in conflict with the way Huck behaves throughout the book, notably towards old Jim. But I nevertheless feel confident in claiming that Huck to some extent is self-reliance incarnate. In comparison I feel that these 2 texts read with the overall theme of self-reliance in mind goes to show that this philosophy did not arise from one day to the other. It slowly formed itself at the base of the American culture and literature in particular played a key part in this manifestation. Self-reliance defined the thought of ...
