Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) is commonly accounted as one of the first Great American Novels. It was also one of the first novels ever written in the vernacular, or common speech, being told in the first person by the eponymous Huckleberry "Huck" Finn, best friend of Tom Sawyer (hero of three other Mark Twain books). The book was published for the first time on February 18, 1885. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is also a great example of a bildungsroman.

Related Topics:
1885 - Mark Twain - Great American Novel - Huckleberry "Huck" Finn - Tom Sawyer - February 18 - 1885 - Bildungsroman

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In The Green Hills of Africa, Ernest Hemingway placed the novel in historical context : "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. ... all American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since."

Related Topics:
The Green Hills of Africa - Ernest Hemingway

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The book is noted for its innocent young protagonist, its colorful description of people and places along the Mississippi River, and its sober and often scathing look at entrenched attitudes, particularly racism, of the time. The drifting journey of Huck and his friend Jim, a runaway slave, down the Mississippi River on their raft may be one of the most enduring images of escape and freedom in all of American literature.

Related Topics:
Mississippi River - Racism - Slave

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Although the book has been popular with young readers since its publication, and taken as a sequel to the comparatively innocuous The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (which had no particular social message), it has also been the continued object of study by serious literary critics. Although the Southern society it satirized was already 40 years in the past by the time of the book's publication, it immediately became controversial, and has remained so until the present (see "Controversy" below).

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Many white characters in the story are depicted as foolish, cruel or selfish, in contrast to the main black character, Jim, who is depicted as wise and unselfish, albeit uneducated and superstitious. The story is set before the American Civil War, probably in the 1830s or '40s. Huck, as we know from Tom Sawyer, is a loose-living young vagabond with no mother and an alcoholic father. He meets Jim, a slave who is about to be sold down the river and separated from his wife and children, and they attempt to go down the Mississippi River and then up the Ohio to freedom. The book tells of their adventures.

Related Topics:
Jim - American Civil War - Alcoholic - Mississippi River - Ohio

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Family is one of the most important themes in the book. The attempt by Huck's father to gain custody of him in order to steal the money Huck and Tom had found in the previous book precipitates his flight, staging his own murder to get away. One of the major plot devices in the book is Jim's hiding the death of Huck's father from him. As they travel the river, Huck is frequently involved with families who attempt to adopt him.

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Another theme is the life on the Mississippi River, alternately idyllic and threatening. In true picaresque fashion, Huck and Jim encounter all the varieties of humanity as they travel: murderers, thieves, confidence men, good people and hypocrites.

Related Topics:
Mississippi River - Picaresque

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In the middle of the story, Mark Twain comments on the irrationality of pride and honor, as Huck sees brutal, cold-blooded murders committed by two feuding families. Later on, a southern aristocrat coldly kills a drunk man yelling empty threats at him, and the village turns the incident into a sort of circus, ignoring the dead man's daughter while trying to start a lynch mob, which quickly disintegrates after being mocked by the murderer himself. The King and Duke, two infamous characters of the novel, attempt to con four orphaned girls out of their late father's life savings. Towards the end of the book they are tarred and feathered, and carried out of town on a rail, symbolizing how equally evil a village of people can be. In fact, it is repeatedly shown that Jim, the fugitive slave, is one of the only characters in the novel with a conscience.

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It is commonly said that the beginning and ending of the book, the parts in which Tom Sawyer appears as a character, detract from its overall impact. Others feel Tom serves to start the story off and to bring it to a conclusion, and that Tom's ridiculous schemes have the paradoxical effect of providing a framework of "reality" around the mythical river voyage. Much of the boyhood innocence and romantic depictions of nature occur in the first sixteen chapters and the last five, while the middle of the story shows the harsh realities of antebellum society.

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Another theme is Huck's gradual acceptance of Jim as a man, a man better than any other in the book, strong, brave, generous, and wise (though realistically portrayed as imperfect).

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Its themes on religion are almost as strong as its race theme. Huck himself comes across as religious but has trouble believing in God, finding that although he tries to pray, he finds it to be a waste of time. In fact, Huck comes across as one of the most unbiased, open-minded characters of popular literature as he continually questions his own motivation and life in general throughout the book.

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