Huck Finn,Tom Sawyer and Homosexuality

[Givas]

I have a question. I am now in the process of rereading books that meant one
thing at one time and now might mean another thing. Recently I read the
Adventures of Huck Finn and discovered it is much more than a bildungsroman.
As Huck moves down the river, the book becomes more and more engrossing. His
encouter with Tom Sawyer was puzzling.. Tom turns up where it was most
unlikely that he would turn up. Huck's references to him and Tom's responses
are somewhat different than what I thought I remembered. There are hints
that Huck's feelings for Tom exceed what is thought of as boyhood
affection(s).
Has there been research on this topic or am I seeing or feeling something
that isn't there? ed eisen

[b***@cix.compulink.co.uk]

Post by Givas
There are hints
that Huck's feelings for Tom exceed what is thought of as boyhood
affection(s).
Has there been research on this topic or am I seeing or feeling something
that isn't there?

Can you give us some examples?

It's years since I read HF or TS, but I'd caution generally against
reading modern sexual implications into what one might call Victorian
sentimental affection. For example it's very easy to read a gay love
affair into David Copperfield (David and Steerforth) but I'm not sure it's
there (and I'm certainly sure that even if it is, Dickens didn't intend
the mass of his readers to pick up on it).

[English1413]

I agree with Givas that it's very unlikely, but you never know. Queer
theorists would go for it. Huck does put on a dress at one point.

Some critics have claimed there's a hidden gay relationship between Jim and
Huck. The most famous one is Leslie Fiedler, in his classic essay "Come Back
to the Raft Again, Huck Honey." It's in his book "Love and Death in the
American Novel." Very entertaining stuff, if not fully convincing.

Gray

[Joanne Marinelli]

Post by English1413
I agree with Givas that it's very unlikely, but you never know. Queer
theorists would go for it. Huck does put on a dress at one point.
Some critics have claimed there's a hidden gay relationship between Jim and
Huck. The most famous one is Leslie Fiedler, in his classic essay "Come Back
to the Raft Again, Huck Honey." It's in his book "Love and Death in the
American Novel." Very entertaining stuff, if not fully convincing.
Gray

It has been years since I read Huck, and it isn't one of my favorite
American classics even though I understand why it is considered one and why
Twain will forever remain a notorious icon in American history, but I do not
buy into any same sex orientation strain between Tom and Huck, one reason
being the characters serve as foils against each other, Tom Sawyer being a
romantic idealist to Huck's pragmatic and in some cases tragic hard bitten
trickster.

You want to compare Henry James and EM Forester and Oscar Wilde as reveling
in the perversion of sensuality, that's one thing, but Twain has other
objectives in his work, and these boys are friends who sharply contrast each
other. I sincerely think intimations of sodomy defeats the purpose of
Twain's actual morality to be derived.

Joanne

[b***@cix.compulink.co.uk]

Post by Joanne Marinelli
Twain will forever remain a notorious icon in American history, but I do not
buy into any same sex orientation strain between Tom and Huck, one reason
being the characters serve as foils against each other, Tom Sawyer being a
romantic idealist to Huck's pragmatic and in some cases tragic hard bitten
trickster.

OTOH literature and life are full of "odd couples" - Huck and Tom's
differences don't seem to me a persuasive argument against (or of course
for) the gay reading.

I must look out the Fiedler essay another poster mentioned...

[teflon]

bs"d

Now that I think of this aspect, I remember that the negro did shout for Huck or Tom " come back sweet massah."
Though I don't think there are intentional hints at homosexuality. The book reads too innocently. Besides, it was written in the age when the authors, if they wanted, would not have to resort to overly-veiled hints, and go for somehtong more straighforward, like the man sharing a bed with a black sailor in Moby Dick.

Teflon

Post by Givas
I have a question. I am now in the process of rereading books that meant one
thing at one time and now might mean another thing. Recently I read the
Adventures of Huck Finn and discovered it is much more than a bildungsroman.
As Huck moves down the river, the book becomes more and more engrossing. His
encouter with Tom Sawyer was puzzling.. Tom turns up where it was most
unlikely that he would turn up. Huck's references to him and Tom's responses
are somewhat different than what I thought I remembered. There are hints
that Huck's feelings for Tom exceed what is thought of as boyhood
affection(s).
Has there been research on this topic or am I seeing or feeling something
that isn't there? ed eisen