The Adventures of Huck Finn

What would you do if you knew one of your friends was in trouble? Would you save them or would you try to avoid the situation and let someone else deal with it? That is the exact problem that Huck Finn is faced with in the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. It is a novel about the friendship between a young boy, named Huck and a black slave, named Jim. Throughout the plot Huck and Jim form a bond which proves that color should not stand as a barrier between the friendship of two people by completing endless adventures and always sticking together. The author, Mark Twain, grew up in one of the fifteen slave states and this clearly influenced his writing in the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Growing up of the banks of the Mississippi River he experienced much racism and witnessed how cruel society could truly be (Merriman) and this affected him deeply. The novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, supports the theme that friendship in found in unexpected places.

Mark Twain was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida . At age four, his family of nine moved to the banks of the Mississippi River in Hannibal , Missouri . His family was happy there but not all of his memories of the river were particularly pleasant. Because Missouri was one of the fifteen slave states it was subject to racism and Twain grew up witnessing lynchings, mobs, racism and general inhumane treatment of African Americans. One of Twain’s most horrible memories was “the murder of a defenseless slave by a ruthless slave master and of course, the grim sight of shackled slaves was itself a near-constant along the docks of the river” (Howard). The sightings at the river were not Twain’s only experience around African American slaves though as his own father and uncle both owned slaves. “When Twain visited his uncle’s farm, he enjoyed playing in the slave quarters and listening to their tall tales and spirituals, which he kept with him throughout his life” (http://www.marktwainhouse.org/theman/bio.shtml) When Twain left the South forever, he felt that it was his duty to pay back the debt he felt ever white man owed to every black man because of all the cruelness he had seen done to them. Even though the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a sequel to the light hearted novel Tom Sawyer, it shows the darker aspects of growing up next to the Mississippi river in a slave state (Howard).

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written in the year 1885 (Merriman) when slavery was still acceptable in many states. The novel takes place on the Mississippi River where Mark Twain grew up, so the novel contains many influences from his childhood and the late 1800�s. The people and landmarks in Hannibal , Missouri served as the setting and characters in many of his stories, particularly The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The river was one good thing about Twains early years that never failed to uplift him and he based his most of his novels on his experiences in the South. The Civil War was in full force during the late 1800�s when the novel was written. Many Southern states were strong supporters of slavery and it was not looked down upon in the South. Many white families lived on plantations and owned African American slaves who helped them with their crops and housework. The slaves were often treated very cruelly. They were beaten by their owners and often tried to escape to the North, which often ended in death or a severe punishment. It was very uncommon though for a white person to be friendly with a black person. Blacks were looked at as workers and nothing more. They were not allowed to be educated in many places and they had little to no rights. In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck befriends a black man named Jim who lives with him at Widow Douglas’s house. At first Huck is hesitant to help Jim in any way because he knows he can get in trouble for it but in the end their friendship proves to go much deeper than the color of their skin.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a story about an adventurous young boy named Huckleberry Finn. He lives on the Mississippi with a kind woman named Widow Douglas who decides to take care of him after he is abandoned by his alcoholic father. The Widow is convinced that she can civilize Huck but he is very resistant and often sneaks out during the night to have adventures with his friend Tom Sawyer. One night, while escaping the Widows house he sees her black slave, named Jim, sleeping under a large tree. Huck, being the crazy prankster he is, decides to play a joke on Jim by hiding his hat up in a tree. Little does he know that this will be the beginning of a great friendship between the two. Huck’s father suddenly returns to town and kidnaps Huck to have him come live with him in his desolate cabin on the other side of the river. Huck soon becomes tired of his