The classical phase of American Naturalism is usually located as occurring after the flowering of the local color movement. Naturalism's full-blown emergence is usually charted as the next century drew near. Scholars have suggested that its strongest voicing arrived in the quartet of Stephen Crane, Theodor Dreiser, Jack London, and Frank Norris (Mitchell viii). Naturalism is perhaps more closely aligned with the local color stylistic traits embedded in the writings of Mark Twain. Here American literature with its glimmerings of the modern emerges. In the Reconstructionist era, generally slotted from 1865 to 1900, Twain's creation of Huck Finn grants him genuine claim to be "the originator of American literature" (Lee 12). In describing the adventures of a runaway boy on a raft afloat on the Mississippi River, Twain articulated the distinctive features not only of one region, but of an entire nation. Huck's plight, in all of its spontaneous joys, carefree pranks, meditated cons, and dark sorrowings is America's. The ambivalent relationship which develops between Huck and Jim, two outcasts adrift on the Mississippi River, is complicated by their struggle to form a valid interracial relationship during America's Reconstructionist period.
Although Twain has most recently been attacked by contemporary critics for writing a racist novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn began innocently enough as a boy's adventure story. Noted Twain scholar, John Gerber, details the long gestation of this remarkable tale (Gerber 94-115). It would appear according to Gerber's scholarship that Huck took hold of Twain's imagination to a compelling degree. It was not easy for Twain to finish the novel or to determine exactly what would happen to Huck and Jim as they drifted down river. Gerber suggests that the uncertain status of Jim as a slave about to be freed plagued Twain. He recognized that he could neither simply put Jim ashore in a Sou...