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Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn
Research paper on Mark Twain’s Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel about a young boy’
s coming of age in the Missouri of the mid-1800^Òs. It is the story of
Huck’s struggle to win freedom for himself and Jim, a Negro slave.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was Mark Twain^Òs greatest book, and a
delighted world named it his masterpiece. To nations knowing it well -
Huck riding his raft in every language men could print - it was America’s
masterpiece (Allen 259). It is considered one of the greatest novels
because it conceals so well Twain’s opinions within what is seemingly a
child’s book. Though initially condemned as inappropriate material for
young readers, it soon became prized for its recreation of the Antebellum
South, its insights into slavery, and its depiction of adolescent life.
The novel resumes Huck’s tale from the Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which
ended with Huck^Òs adoption by Widow Douglas. But it is so much more.
Into this book the world called his masterpiece, Mark Twain put his prime
purpose, one that branched in all his writing: a plea for humanity, for
the end of caste, and of its cruelties (Allen 260).
Twain, whose real name is Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was born in Florida,
Missouri, in 1835. During his childhood he lived in Hannibal, Missouri, a
Mississippi river port that was to become a large influence on his future
writing. It was Twain’s nature to write about where he lived, and his
nature to criticize it if he felt it necessary. As far his structure,
Kaplan said,
In plotting a book his structural sense was weak; intoxicated by a
hunch, he seldom saw far ahead, and too many of his stories peter out from
the author’s fatigue or surfeit. His wayward techniques came close to
free association. This method served him best after he had conjured up
characters from long ago, who on coming to life wrote the narrative for
him, passing from incident to incident with a grace their creator could
never achieve in manipulating an artificial plot (Kaplan 16).
His best friend of forty years William D. Howells, has this to say about
Twain’s writing. So far as I know, Mr. Clemens is the first writer to use
in extended writing the fashion we all use in thinking, and to set down
the thing that comes into his mind without fear or favor of the thing that
went before or the thing that may be about to follow (Howells 186).
The main character, Huckleberry Finn, spends much time in the novel
floating down the Mississippi River on a raft with a runaway slave named
Jim. Before he does so, however, Huck spends some time in the fictional
town of St. Petersburg where a number of people attempt to influence him.
Huck^Òs feelings grow through the novel. Especially in his feelings
toward his friends, family, blacks, and society. Throughout the book,
Huck usually looks into his own heart for guidance. Moral intuition is
the basis on which his character rests.
Before the novel begins, Huck Finn has led a life of absolute freedom.
His drunken and often missing father has never paid much attention to him;
his mother is dead and so, when the novel begins, Huck is not used to
following any rules. In the beginning of the book Huck is living with the
Widow Douglas and her sister, Miss Watson. Both women are fairly old and
are incapable of raising a rebellious boy like Huck Finn. However, they
attempt to make Huck into what the y believe will be a better boy. The
Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me;
but it rough living in the house all the time considering how dismal
regular and decent the widow was in all her ways^Ô (Twain 11). This
process includes making Huck go to school, teaching him various religious
facts, and making him act in a way that the women find socially acceptable.
In this first chapter, Twain gives us the first direct example of
communicating his feelings through Huck Finn: ^ÓAfter supper, the Widow
Douglas got out her book and learned me about Moses...By and bye she let
it out that Moses had been dead a
considerable long time; so then I didn^Òt care no more about him, because
I don’t take no stock in dead people^Ô (Twain 12). In a letter written by
Twain, he had this to say: As to the past, there is but one good thing
about it, and that is, that it is the past -- we don’t have to see it
again...I have no tears for my pile, no respect, no reverence, no pleasure
in taking a rag-picker’s hood and exploring it (Bellamy 156). Twain
expresses his feelings in the above paragraph by using the I don’t take no
stock in dead people(Twain 12) line in the novel. In this way he can
fashion a child^Òs narrative to convey his views of the past. This is one
example of the process Twain will continue to use in this novel to conceal
satirical meanings within humorous lines.
Huck, who has never had to follow many rules in his life, finds the
demands the women place upon him constraining and the life with them
lonely. As a result, soon after he first moves in with them, he runs away.
He soon comes back, but, even though he becomes somewhat comfortable with
his new life as the months go by, Huck never really enjoys the life of
manners, religion, and education that the Widow and her sister impose upon
him.
Huck believes he will find some freedom with Tom Sawyer. Tom is a boy of
Huck^Òs age who promises Huck and other boys of the town a life of
adventure. Huck is eager to join Tom Sawyer’s Gang because he feels that
doing so will allow him to escape the boring life he leads with the Widow
Douglas. Unfortunately, such an escape does not occur. Tom Sawyer
promises the gang they will be robbing stages, murdering and ransoming
people, kidnapping beautiful women, but none of this comes to pass.
Huck finds out too late that Tom’s adventures are imaginary: that raiding
a caravan of A-rabs really means terrorizing young children on a Sunday
School picnic, that stolen joolry is nothing more than turnips or rocks
(Twain 22). Huck is disappointed that the adventures Tom promises are not
real and so, along with the other members, he resigns from the gang.
Another person who tries to get Huckleberry Finn to change is Pap, Hucks
father. Some of Huck’s most memorable lines were in reference to Pap.
Twain uses humor and innocence to depict a generalization of society: Pap
always said, take a chicken when you get a chance, because if you don^Òt
want him yourself you can easy find somebody that does, and a good deed
ain’t never forgot. I never see Pap when he didn’t want the chicken
himself, but that is what he used to say, anyway (Twain 16). These types
of paragraphs are used for three things simultaneously: to add a note of
satire, to add to the storyline, and to continue to emphasize the child^Òs
point of view (Branch 214). Pap is one of the most interesting figures in
the novel. He is completely antisocial and wishes to undo all of the
civilizing effects that the Widow and Miss Watson have attempted to
instill in Huck. Pap is unshaven and dirty. Huck is afraid of his father
because he is an abusive drunk who only wants Huck for his money. I used
to be scared of him all the time, he taned me so much, I reckoned I was
scared now too (Twain 18). Pap demands that Huck quit school, stop
reading, and avoid church. Huck is able to stay away from Pap for a while,
but Pap kidnaps Huck three or four months after Huck starts to live with
the Widow and takes him to a lonely cabin deep in the woods. Here, Huck
enjoys, once again, the freedom that he had prior to the beginning of the
book. He can smoke, laze around, swear, and, in general, do what he wants
to do. However, as he did with the Widow and with Tom, Huck begins to
become dissatisfied with this life. Pap beats Huck often and he soon
realizes that he will have to escape from the cabin if he wishes to remain
alive. Huck makes it appear as if he is killed in the cabin while Pap is
away, and leaves to go to a remote island in the Mississippi River,
Jackson^Òs Island.
It is after he leaves his father^Òs cabin that Huck joins yet another
important influence in his life, Miss Watson^Òs slave, Jim. Prior to Huck’
s leaving, Jim has been a minor character in the novel -- he has been
shown being fooled by Tom Sawyer and telling Huck’s fortune. Huck finds
Jim on Jackson^Òs Island because the slave has run away when he overheard
a conversation that he will soon be sold to someone in New Orleans. When
he first finds Jim on the island, he is glad simply because he wants
companionship; but as the two share the peace of the place, Huck comes to
regard Jim as a human being rather than a faithful dog. Huck begins to
realize that Jim has more talents and intelligence than Huck has been
aware of. Jim knows all kinds of things about the future, people’s
personalities, and weather forecasting. Huck finds this kind of
information necessary as he and Jim drift down the Mississippi on a raft.
Mark Twain’s imagination lends vigor and freshness to many passages, and
especially in the sections involving conversations between Jim and Huck.
As Huck and Jim lie on their backs at night looking up at the stars, while
the raft slips silently down the river, they argue about whether the stars
was made or only just happened: Jim said the moon could laid them; well,
that looked kind of reasonable...because I’ve seen a frog lay most as
many (Twain 120). Huck feels more comfortable with Jim than he feels with
the other major characters in the novel. With Jim, Huck can enjoy the
best aspects of his earlier influences. Jim allows Huck security, but Jim
is not as confining as the Widow. Like Tom Sawyer, Jim is intelligent but
his intelligence is not as intimidating or as imaginary as is Tom’s.
Unlike Pap, Jim allows Huck freedom, but he does it in a loving, rather
than an uncaring, fashion. Thus, early, in their relationship on
Jackson’s Island, Huck says to Jim, This is nice. I wouldn’t want to be
nowhere else but here (Twain 55). Although their friendship took plenty
of time to develop and had many bumps in the road, it is a strong one
that will last a long time. Through it all, Huck triumphed over society
and followed his heart, and Jim helped Huck to mature and became free.
Their journey to friendship is one to remember.
Huck is a developing character throughout the novel. Much of his
development is due to his association with Jim and his increasing respect
for the black man.
Huck and Jim start their long journey down the Mississippi to Cairo where
Jim will find his freedom. It is on this journey where Huck slowly
develops a respectful friendship with Jim. However, this is slow to
develop because Huck plays some very nasty tricks on Jim. The tricks
would not have been so mean if Huck did not mean so much to Jim. Jim
really needs Huck^Òs help if he is going to make it safely. It is also
later revealed that Huck is the only friend that Jim ever had. After Huck
plays the trick where they got separated on the river he realizes what he
has done and feels bad; however, Huck is slow to apologize. It was
fifteen minutes before I could go and humble myself to a nigger; but I
done it and I warn’t ever sorry for it afterward, neither. I didnt do him
no more mean tricks, and I wouldn’t have done that one if I’d a knowed it
would make him feel that way’ (Twain 86). That incident probably changed
the whole way Huck looks at Jim and other Negroes. He realizes that they
are people with feelings not just a household item. Part of the power of
the book lies in Mark Twain^Òs drawing of the character of Nigger Jim.
Mark Twain shows Jim^Òs slow, purposeful reasoning. But in other moods
Jim^Òs spirit opens out to a wider horizon. Like Huck, he senses the
beauty of the river. In his interpretation of a dream, Jim lets ^Óthe big,
clear river^Ô symbolize ^Óthe free States^Ô-in other words freedom. If
The Enchanted Village might serve as a subtitle for Tom Sawyer, so The
Road to Freedom might serve the same purpose for Huckleberry Finn (Bellamy
342).
A while later fate decides to test Huck and they come across some slave
hunters. Huck is still a little confused between right and wrong and
decides to turn Jim in, but at the last second Huck starts lying and saves
Jim from being discovered. ^Óthey went off and I got aboard the raft,
feeling bad and low, because I knowed very well I had done wrong^Ô (Twain
91).
At one of the towns that Huck and Jim stop at they pick up two men who
claim to be royalty but are really con-artists. Huck quickly realizes
this but does not say anything just to keep the peace on the raft. Huck
does not really like these two, King and Duke, because they do mean things
to innocent people to make their living. They go too far when they find
three sisters who just lost their father and they pretend to be their
British uncles. They plan to rob the sisters for all their worth but
Huck foils their plan. This passage illustrates Huck^Òs kindness to total
strangers. Huck especially did not care for King and Duke after King
sells Jim for forty dollars. Huck is determined to free Jim and finds out
that Jim is being kept at the farm of Tom Sawyer^Òs aunt and uncle. Huck
presents himself as Tom Sawyer. When Tom actually arrives, he cooperates
with Huck and presents himself as another fellow, Sid. Huck enlists Tom^Ò
s aid in the scheme to rescue Jim. Tom, however, develops an
unnecessarily complicated plot. When they help Jim escape, a chase ensues.
Tom is shot in the leg and Jim is recaptured.
But then the boys learn that Jim^Òs owner has died, bequeathing him his
freedom. They also learn that Huck^Òs father, too, has died. Tom^Òs Aunt
Sally then offers to adopt Huck, but he realizes that the process of
becoming civilized is not an enjoyable one.
Throughout the course of the novel Huck changed from a boy who shared the
narrow-minded opinion which looked down on Negroes to one where he viewed
them as equals. I would say that would be his biggest emotional growth in
the novel. Huck is a very personable narrator. He tells his story in
plain language.
It is through his precise trusting eyes that the reader sees the world of
the novel. Because Huck is so literal, the reader gains an understanding
of the work Mark Twain created, the reader is able to catch Twain^Òs jokes
and hear his skepticism. The Grangerford^Òs furniture, much admired by
Huck, is actually comically tacky. You can almost hear Mark Twain
laughing over the parrot-flanked clock and the curtains with cows and
castles painted on them even as Huck oohs and ahhs. Through the character
of Huck, that disreputable, illiterate little boy, Mark Twain was licensed
to let himself go...That Mark Twain was almost, if not quite conscious of
his opportunity we can see from his introductory note to the book: ^Ó
persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted;
persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons
attempting to find a plot in it will be shot^Ô (Branch 216). The
emotional tie-in with the past found expression in Mark Twain^Òs self-
identification with Huck, the dominant strategy he employed. This
identification breathed life into Huck^Òs character and into his
experience, which encompasses the dramatic role of sharply individualized
characters.
Works Cited
Allen, Jerry. The Adventures of Mark Twain. Boston: Little, 1954.
Bellamy, Gladys Carmen. Mark Twain: As A Literary Artist. Norman: UP of
Oklahoma, 1950.
Branch, Edgar Marquess. The Literary Apprenticeship Of Mark Twain. New
York: Russell, 1966.
Howells, W. D. My Mark Twain: Reminiscences and Criticisms. New York:
Harper, 1910.
Kaplan, Justin, ed. Mark Twain: A Profile. New York: Hill, 1967.
Twain, Mark. Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Penguin, 1959.
grade: 98
Word Count: 2653
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