The River Motif in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The River Motif In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Huckleberry Finn… this is the very name that can sound familiar to almost everybody from pupils in elementary school through students at university to elderly grandparents. But the more astonishing is that the characters, the flow of events and the bunch of themes,symbols and motifs included mean for everybody something absolutely different. Till for an 11- year- old little boy it provides a real boyish story full of flabbergasting, enviable adventures of a peer, for a 21- year- old half grown- up student it already gives opportunity for deeper interpretation of the hidden signs within the novel (eg. about the serious problems society should tackle with) between the lines and so giving also opportunity to understand why has been so popular The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn during times among all generations. And finally the reason why this book is so dear for our grandparents is that it affords a chance them to remember their childhood when the world was totally different from today’s world, when people were far closer to nature, when those kind of adventures Mark Twain pictured were almost day- to- day; altough not on the River Mississippi but on the River Danube, not with a ’Jim’ but with a best friend and not deliberately to escape…

As it is mentioned above, the novel is abound with typical themes, motifs and symbols both of world literature and both specifically of American literature.

First of all, the most characteristic from these are racism and slavery, altough the novel was written more than twenty years(1884) after the American Civil War in which the anti- slavery North won finally, the racial issues were still present and became crucial once again. This is why Mark Twain opted for such an antislavery theme for his new novel.

Secondly, since The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn can be discussed as a ’bildungsroman’, a novel of self- cultivation, education plays an important role, both intellectually and morally.

The reader can witness the development and changes of Huck Finn’s point of view in connection with the teachings on race received from Miss Watson, sister of Widow Douglas who …”took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me…” The more event happen, the more Huck’s views alter thanks to his and Jim’s, the Negro intimate relationship. Time and again Huck gives evidence