Huck Finn

Huck Finn, a boy of about 12 years, is the son of the town drunk. Widow Douglas adopts him so that she can civilize him and raise him to be a gentleman. Huck dislikes the regular, staid ways of the widow. Although she is kind and attentive, he is uncomfortable and feels stifled at her house. He does not like going to school, attending church, or wearing neat clothes. Neither does he like being tutored at home by Miss Watson. When he is no longer able to put up with the Widow’s ways, he runs away; but Huck is found by Tom Sawyer, who convinces him to come back.

Huck and Tom have earlier found a hidden treasure, which they are allowed to keep for themselves. Huck’s father comes to know of his son’s prosperity and returns to St. Petersburg. He wants to take away Huck’s money, for he feels that it is rightfully his. He tries to catch Huck a number of times, but the clever boy always eludes him. One day, the father waits for him, catches him, and takes him away after a short brawl. He locks Huck in a cabin in the woods three miles down the river and regularly beats him.

A couple of months pass. When the beatings get unbearable, Huck decides to run away from the cabin. He plans escape and waits for an opportunity. He saws off a piece of the back wall, escapes through the hole, and leaves traces of pig blood to deceive his father into thinking that he is dead. He takes the canoe and goes to Jackson’s Island, where he spends three idyllic days. He meets Jim, the Widow’s slave, on one of his explorations of the island. Jim has run away from the widow when he overhears her intention of selling him down the river for eight hundred dollars.

Huck wants to know the reaction of the people to his disappearance. He dresses up like a girl and goes to the mainland. He learns from Judith Loftus, a newcomer in the village, that the people are convinced that Jim has killed Huck, since he had escaped the same day that Huck disappeared. Upset by the revelation, Huck rushes back to the island and tells Jim. The two of them board a raft and head down the river to New Orleans.

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