Despair is a poison, and though understandable, it's always a shame when a great writer succumbs and leaves behind a grimoire of wounds for later generations. Still, if one is sound in mind and spirit, one can weep with the dead, there's degrees of these works and some are still worth reading, but such works are by nature dangerous.
As said, despair is poison.
Many stare into the abyss, never piercing it's lies. The trick is to stare through the abyss, for all the world's evils exist for little more than to get you to despair, surrender.
Why would there be a need for your despair if there was not something it hides?
Twain's writing did become progressively darker. Tom Sawyer is fairly early, Huck Finn a bit later and less light-hearted. Another tidbit from Twain's unpublished papers is a very late period, draft short story in which T and H meet up on the Mississippi one last time when they are in their 80s. They conclude that their entire lives have been a complete waste of time. Needless to say, that fragment never gets anthologized.
With regard to Huck Finn not fitting your literary tastes, the last part, in which Twain totally went off the rails, could actually be very easily repurposed as a horror story. In the original, Tom (who is supposed to be the smart one), insists that his and Huck's efforts to save Jim have to be set up like the medieval adventure stories Tom has been reading. So even though security is low on the Phelps farm, and Jim could almost literally walk away at any time, Tom makes him jump through all kinds of hoops to liberate himself. Jim, who loves Huck and Tom despite their shortcomings, plays along even though he knows, uneducated though he is, that the whole thing is nonsense. This sorry mess is followed by one of the best moments in the novel, in which Tom is shot during the rescue attempt. Jim stays with him until the doctor arrives (in the process risking his own life, since an escaped slave could conceivably be executed). But after Tom is saved, Aunt Polly arrives and reveals that the Miss Watson has died--and has freed Jim in her will. Tom admits knowing that but withholding the information so that he could rescue Jim in style. WTAF! In what universe is this even funny? Tom basically risks Jim's life to have a better game. Much as Ernest Hemingway valued the novel, he believed that the ending was a mess. Other critics argued for the merit of Jim's sacrifice, with which I concur, but the surrounding material is still a mess.
Think about the horror possibilities, though. Tom could easily be rewritten as a sadistic master manipulator who dupes the simple Huck and the overly-affectionate Jim. neither one of them knows who he really is inside. He puts Jim through all kinds of psychological torture, culminating in getting himself shot. He then sets up Jim to take the blame for the shooting. Jim is condemned to hang. Huck decides to save him, but Tom lures him to a meeting by the river, during which Huck "accidentally" drowns. The next day, Tom, with an evil smile on his face, leaves town to the sounds of Jim being hanged. Cue credits!
I think it's in "Ghost Story" that Peter Straub has the line, "Scarlet Letter is a ghost story in which the ghost never appears." I wonder how many classic tales have little hints of horror we never notice.
Details like this are why I'm eager to revisit Twain's work. We were made to read Huck Finn in elementary or middle school, either 5th or 6th grade, I don't remember exactly when. Too young to really catch onto something like that when you're just trying to finish the book so you can pass the test.
That detail about Tom's manipulative nature does seem to be something that "The Adventures of Mark Twain" also hits on. In the Mysterious Stranger scene, when Twain opens the door on his magic balloon that leads to Satan and his little island in the void, both Becky and Huck are leery about going in. It's Tom that's first to go in, and they only follow because he beckons them along. Likewise, after that scene is ended, Twain opens up another portal that reveals Injun Joe, who immediately tries to stab Huck in the back with a knife. The knife is only stopped at the last second when Twain closes the door again and the blade is shown protruding from it.
While that part is mostly meant to show the bitter coldness birthed from Twain's late life depression, which is then reinforced when he opens the door to "The Damned Human Race" and listens to a dirge being played on a self-playing pipe organ, it also shows how Tom's the one pulling the strings when it comes to what the kids are doing. After Twain forces this close encounter with Injun Joe, which is made worse by what they just witnessed with the Mysterious Stranger, Tom's fed up. Once Twain leaves, he brings Huck and Becky in close to conspire with them and, knowing that Becky is the smarter of the two, forces her and her alone to swear on her "grandmother's bones" that she won't blab his plan.
Now, a reasonable kid might have them all go to Twain and ask him to land the balloon so they can just leave. A bit risky, since the man's clearly a touch off, but probably the safest bet. Tom doesn't suggest this, though. He wants to hijack the balloon, and when Becky and Huck call him out on how crazy the idea is he doesn't appeal to the desperation of the situation, but to vanity, saying something along the lines of: "Think about it! The papers saying, 'Tom Sawyer saves friends from madman's death wish!'" His concern isn't the safety of his friends, one of whom was nearly killed. His concern is the adventure and making himself look good. Sawyer comes off as a little sociopath in this part of the movie, and based on what you describe above, that seems to fit his character pretty damn well.
Despair is a poison, and though understandable, it's always a shame when a great writer succumbs and leaves behind a grimoire of wounds for later generations. Still, if one is sound in mind and spirit, one can weep with the dead, there's degrees of these works and some are still worth reading, but such works are by nature dangerous.
As said, despair is poison.
Many stare into the abyss, never piercing it's lies. The trick is to stare through the abyss, for all the world's evils exist for little more than to get you to despair, surrender.
Why would there be a need for your despair if there was not something it hides?
Interesting and detailed analysis!
Twain's writing did become progressively darker. Tom Sawyer is fairly early, Huck Finn a bit later and less light-hearted. Another tidbit from Twain's unpublished papers is a very late period, draft short story in which T and H meet up on the Mississippi one last time when they are in their 80s. They conclude that their entire lives have been a complete waste of time. Needless to say, that fragment never gets anthologized.
With regard to Huck Finn not fitting your literary tastes, the last part, in which Twain totally went off the rails, could actually be very easily repurposed as a horror story. In the original, Tom (who is supposed to be the smart one), insists that his and Huck's efforts to save Jim have to be set up like the medieval adventure stories Tom has been reading. So even though security is low on the Phelps farm, and Jim could almost literally walk away at any time, Tom makes him jump through all kinds of hoops to liberate himself. Jim, who loves Huck and Tom despite their shortcomings, plays along even though he knows, uneducated though he is, that the whole thing is nonsense. This sorry mess is followed by one of the best moments in the novel, in which Tom is shot during the rescue attempt. Jim stays with him until the doctor arrives (in the process risking his own life, since an escaped slave could conceivably be executed). But after Tom is saved, Aunt Polly arrives and reveals that the Miss Watson has died--and has freed Jim in her will. Tom admits knowing that but withholding the information so that he could rescue Jim in style. WTAF! In what universe is this even funny? Tom basically risks Jim's life to have a better game. Much as Ernest Hemingway valued the novel, he believed that the ending was a mess. Other critics argued for the merit of Jim's sacrifice, with which I concur, but the surrounding material is still a mess.
Think about the horror possibilities, though. Tom could easily be rewritten as a sadistic master manipulator who dupes the simple Huck and the overly-affectionate Jim. neither one of them knows who he really is inside. He puts Jim through all kinds of psychological torture, culminating in getting himself shot. He then sets up Jim to take the blame for the shooting. Jim is condemned to hang. Huck decides to save him, but Tom lures him to a meeting by the river, during which Huck "accidentally" drowns. The next day, Tom, with an evil smile on his face, leaves town to the sounds of Jim being hanged. Cue credits!
I think it's in "Ghost Story" that Peter Straub has the line, "Scarlet Letter is a ghost story in which the ghost never appears." I wonder how many classic tales have little hints of horror we never notice.
Details like this are why I'm eager to revisit Twain's work. We were made to read Huck Finn in elementary or middle school, either 5th or 6th grade, I don't remember exactly when. Too young to really catch onto something like that when you're just trying to finish the book so you can pass the test.
That detail about Tom's manipulative nature does seem to be something that "The Adventures of Mark Twain" also hits on. In the Mysterious Stranger scene, when Twain opens the door on his magic balloon that leads to Satan and his little island in the void, both Becky and Huck are leery about going in. It's Tom that's first to go in, and they only follow because he beckons them along. Likewise, after that scene is ended, Twain opens up another portal that reveals Injun Joe, who immediately tries to stab Huck in the back with a knife. The knife is only stopped at the last second when Twain closes the door again and the blade is shown protruding from it.
While that part is mostly meant to show the bitter coldness birthed from Twain's late life depression, which is then reinforced when he opens the door to "The Damned Human Race" and listens to a dirge being played on a self-playing pipe organ, it also shows how Tom's the one pulling the strings when it comes to what the kids are doing. After Twain forces this close encounter with Injun Joe, which is made worse by what they just witnessed with the Mysterious Stranger, Tom's fed up. Once Twain leaves, he brings Huck and Becky in close to conspire with them and, knowing that Becky is the smarter of the two, forces her and her alone to swear on her "grandmother's bones" that she won't blab his plan.
Now, a reasonable kid might have them all go to Twain and ask him to land the balloon so they can just leave. A bit risky, since the man's clearly a touch off, but probably the safest bet. Tom doesn't suggest this, though. He wants to hijack the balloon, and when Becky and Huck call him out on how crazy the idea is he doesn't appeal to the desperation of the situation, but to vanity, saying something along the lines of: "Think about it! The papers saying, 'Tom Sawyer saves friends from madman's death wish!'" His concern isn't the safety of his friends, one of whom was nearly killed. His concern is the adventure and making himself look good. Sawyer comes off as a little sociopath in this part of the movie, and based on what you describe above, that seems to fit his character pretty damn well.