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Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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Doug Aldridge <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 8 Mar 2018 14:56:58 -0500
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AHF is a cornucopia of borrowings from many sources, esp. the Bible (cf.
Mark Twain and the Brazen Serpent [McFarland, 2017]). I have not searched
DQ for narrative planks MT may have borrowed from Cervantes, but I wouldn't
be surprised to find the curds to be an instance of further borrowing. The
test for distinguishing intentional from coincidental similarities of plot,
character and theme is whether or not a parallel is consistent with the
pattern in the carpet created by all the others--in other words, (a)
whether it is part of a recurring pattern of references to particular
works; and (b) how it fits into the implied author's overarching
development of the story.

Of course, one must establish the probability of MT's familiarity with any
work to which one proposes he alludes. As Franklin Rogers writes, in 1875
Clemens confessed to Howells that he was the worst literary thief in the
world without knowing it. But, adds Rogers, that borrowing which is rooted
in his burlesques was of necessity conscious (in Mark Twain's Burlesque
Patterns ... , Dallas: Southern Methodist UP, 1960, 155). Once a work
achieves unity and coherence, as AHF does largely through MT's reliance on
literary burlesque, the question of conscious artistic choices becomes
secondary, though still important.

Since Tom Sawyer refers to DQ by title in Ch. 3, it is clear that Clemens
was aware of Quixote's plot and likely considered it relevant to his
thematic treatment of what is real vs what is socially imprinted (heart vs
conscience). There are certainly broad structural similarities as well as
thematic ones between DQ and AHF. Jim often plays the role of Sancho Panza
to Huck, whose perception-- esp. regarding slavery and racism--is deformed
by what Clemens calls the strange miracles ... [of] association and training
(in Jane Lampton Clemens, in HF and TS Among the Indians ... Berkeley etc.,
U of CA P, 1980, 82-92)--what we call socialization. Then too, Huck plays
Sancho to Tom in the evasion, which befits the closing burlesque of the
plot of AHF and MT's burlesque of the many sources of Tom's fantasy that
Victor Doyno explores (in Writing Huck Finn, Philadelphia: U of PA P,
1991). It also further develops the conflict of reality vs illusion and
sharpens MT's satire on the collapse of Reconstruction that both Doyno and
Andrew Levy investigate (cf. Writing Huck Finn and Huck Finn's America, New
York: Simon & Schuster, 2015). These themes are particularly fitting to the
novel's satiric drift. And they make the allusion you suggest esp. relevant
to this episode.

The incident of the curds would appear to identify Huck with Quixote, not
Sancho (and thus as the deluded one) but since it is Huck who has risen to
noble stature through fealty to Jim, it would be the nobility of Quixote
that Clemens attributes to Huck at the end, not his weak grasp of reality,
which is closing in fast in this episode.  Huck is well aware, when the
incident of the curds occurs, that real danger is at hand. And the allusion
would emphasize that, far from suffering from "brain fever," Huck is the
least deluded character in circumstances where illusions rule all the
characters, Huck included, because he doesn't know Tom's and Jim's secrets.
So yes, I think you're on to something.



On Wed, Feb 14, 2018 at 5:30 AM, Clay Shannon <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Did Twain borrow the curds episode (when Sancho stored curds in
> Quixote=E2=80=
> =99s/Mambrino=E2=80=99s helmet) and turn it into butter in Huck=E2=80=99s
> ha=
> t in =E2=80=9CHuck Finn=E2=80=9D?
>
> -- B. Clay Shannon
> [log in to unmask]
>



-- 
Doug Aldridge

Author of *Mark Twain and the Brazen Serpent:*
*               How Biblical Burlesque and Religious Satire Unify
Huckleberry Finn*

*MarkTwainandtheBrazenSerpent.com *

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