A society without knowledge!
A society without knowledge!A Society Without Knowledge Far too often in society people's
lack of knowledge of a subject causes their opinions and
actions to rely strictly on stereotypes created by the masses.
This affliction is commonly known as ignorance. This is
curable but people have to become open-minded and leave
their reliance on society's viewpoints behind them. In the
novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain,
the ignorance of society becomes extremely evident at many
parts of the book. Society forms ideals for all walks of life and
then lets them become like stone in their minds. Thus, once a
person has been put into a group they will remain there
forever. The ignorance of society is clearly seen when one
looks at Huck Finn, Jim the Slave, Pap, and the senseless
violence of the Grangerfords and the Shepardsons. Many
people saw Huckleberry Finn as a mischievous boy who was
a bad influence to others. Society refused to accept Huck as
he was and wasn't going to change its opinions about him
until he was reformed and civilized. The Widow Douglas and
Miss Watson try to "sivilize" Huck by making stop all of his
habits such as smoking, etc. They try to reverse all of his
teaching from the first twelve years of his life and force him to
become their stereotypical good boy. The rest of the town
also refused to view him as good until they received visual
proof of this. Until then he would be viewed as someone
undesirable. The only time that the town's people were able to
put away their views of Huck was when there was excitement
to be found, like when they all crowded on the steamboat to
see if the cannons can bring Huck's body to the surface.
Everyone got interested in him and tried to show that they
cared about him, but this is only after he is presumed dead.
They take on these views to follow society in its ignorance.
Few of them would have cared about Huck before because
they didn't know him and didn't want to know him, but since
taking interest in mysteries was the popular thing to do
society did it. Society once again set the stereotypes in
another section of the book by their feelings toward Jim and
Pap. Society automatically sees a black person, and even
further slaves, as inferior. They never thought of slaves a
human beings, only as property. A slave, such as Jim, could
be the nicest, most caring person you have ever met, but
since he is a slave he would be presumed incapable of such
things. While society is doing this it will let a person whom is
as evil as Pap go on without question. Society's ignorance
shines radiantly once again. They have the knowledge that
Jim is a slave but make no judgments on his personality. This
is shown when they assume that Jim killed Huck just because
he ran away near the time of Huck's death. They don't
consider the motives of such an action, but just look at the
surface facts that he might do this because he is savage,
missing, and possibly in the area at the time. Pap is also
suspected, but not as much as Jim even though he has a
motive, and could have easily committed such an evil deed in
one of his drunken stupors. Society, because of their lack of
knowledge of the personality of Jim, automatically assumes
that he is the one that committed the murder. Society makes
superficial accusations because it doesn't know what has
really happened or of the true feelings of the two suspects. In
another part of the novel the Twain illustrates the ignorance
of society very well with the feud between the Grangerfords
and the Shepardsons. When Buck Grangerford was
questioned about why he shot at Harvey Shepardson he first
exclaims in disbelief that Huck doesn't know what a feud was.
Then, however, he doesn't know why the two families are
feuding in the first place and hasn't made any effort to find
out. It is remarkable that people will continue on an old grudge
without knowing how it originated. On top of that, they won't
make any attempts to gain knowledge about the subject.
Buck, in this fragment of the novel, represents how society
often bases its actions on what it has been told by others
without questioning the motives. Without true knowledge of
why the feud is occurring one might wonder how people could
continue on with the killing. It may seem bizarre but so are
many of the other actions of society. When a large group of
people takes one viewpoint others are often forced into this
mentality even if they are more enlightened. People can
oppress others into conditions by forcing their incorrect views
on them. They often will not allow people to rise through the
ranks without blatant proof of improvement. People can be
falsely accused by the oblivious members of society who only
consider the surface instead of looking deep for true
knowledge. Society constantly judges people based on
stereotypes of a certain group and it often fails to consider the
personality of an individual. Society takes action without being
properly informed or will take up arms against opposing
groups just because someone who it respect has blindly told
them to. The ignorance of Society constantly cause people,
issues, and views to be regarded in adverse ways.