She was all smiles till she read Huck Finn

     What up AP Lit gangstas?(contradiction,I know).I do agree with Smiley on certain points such as how Huck was considered to be good just because he acknowledged that Jim was human and how all of his good characteristics left as soon as Tom reentered the picture.How Jim went along with Huck and was happy to be the sidekick.Also with the fact that why didn't they just go to Illinois that was a free state?I agree with the fact that if it's such a masterpiece then why has there been such a commotion over it? Masterpieces are supposed to universally praised right?Interesting,innovating,new take would have been better words to describe Huck Finn.
      I do not agree with her in that Huck Finn is a pretty good book-not perfect,but good.It raises issues,makes people discuss,and is still important to this day.What more can an author want?Besides money...
       The reason I agree most with Smiley is not really related to her argument.She doesn't blame Twain, but more so society and how they have elevated the book to "The Great american Novel".I dislike like that not because the novel is bad,but because I don't think there is a The Novel.The U.S,like many countries,is so diverse in minds,beliefs,practices, that to say one book represent it all is an atrocity. It must be so nice to cluster countless people, things and ideas into one group. Name the best movie of 2010. Describe the 60's in one word. Cant do any of those things? Good, because you shouldn't. To do so is to think small, simple, and frankly not enough. Whenever anyone makes these generalizations it changes what the author,director,musician set out to do,which is to make something good.Naming it the best of anything that big is to belittle other entries,for it is saying that all of them are competing for the same thing.Uncle Tom's cabin did things that Huck Finn didn't and vice versa. Also, naming something to be the best casues people to have grandiose expectations which may make them dislike the book because of it,even though the book itself isn't all that bad(kinda what happened to me with Black Swan).There is no The American Novel because there is no The American Thought or The American Belief. After all, isn't that what we pride ourselves on?