The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

MARK TWAIN AND

“THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN”

Mark Twain was born on the Missouri frontier and spent his childhood there. His real name is actually Samuel Langhorne Clemens. At the age of 12 he quit school in order to earn his living. At the age of 15 he already wrote his first article and by the time he was 16 he had his first short novel published. In 1857 he was an apprentice steamboat pilot on a boat that left Mississippi and was leading towards New Orleans. His characters were created because of the people and the situations he encountered on this trip.

“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is a sequel to “Tom Sawyer”. “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is one of the masterpieces of American literature. It was first published in America in January 1885. From all of Mark Twain’s novels this one was the only that sold best at its initial appearance. Although it was criticized a lot too. In 1885 it was even banished from the Concord Public Library.

The novel presents the things a thirteen year old child goes through when trying to save a black slave from the woman that wanted to adopt him and educate him to meet the standards of the society she lives in. The two characters, in their journey, meet some dangerous people, like the three thieves they meet on a crashed steamboat, but also some good characters, such as Grangerford family who treated Huck very nice. The Duke and the King are also two characters Huck and Jim meet on their journey down the Mississippi river. This two make money by cheating people in the towns near the river. After a while the Duke and the King sell Jim saying he is a runaway slave from New Orleans. Huck decides to rescue Jim so he follows him to the house where he was sold, only to find out it was the house of Tom Sawyer’s aunt Sally. The two boys try to get Jim out. They convince the town that a group of thieves are trying to steal Jim. That same night they get Jim and run away.

The farmers of the town start shooting them and gets Tom in the leg. They catch them, and Jim is treated bad until the doctor explains that he help him to take care of the boy. When Tom awakens he demands that they let Jim go. Jim is free. Huck find out his father is dead. Aunt Sally wants to adopt Huck but he refuses. Huck concludes the novel stating he would never have undertaken the task of writing out his story in a book, had he known it would take so long to complete.

By using a child as his main character, Twain is able to compare the power and also the vulnerability of a child with the ones of a black slave. The reader can see that they are both in similar positions. Such as: they are both abused, each of them is in the position of losing their freedom and both are at the mercy of white adult men.

HUCKLEBERRY FINN

Being just a boy, Huck does not take his principles and values for granted. Twain shows that conclusions about right and wrong based on experience can mostly