ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain

Date: Aug 10, 2011

Title: Adventures of Huckleberry

Author: Mark Twain

Year work Published: 1885

Principal Characters: Huck Finn, Jim and Tom Sawyer

Summary of Work:

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn continue to make their way to the pantheon of international literary masterpieces. For millions of readers and scholars, this work remains one of the greatest novels ever written by an American author. On the thirty works by Mark Twain (which observes the centenary of the death this spring 2010), Huckleberry Finn remains as a student author once considered a rustic comedy to the level of literary genius (Calvert, 1992). However, the adventures of Huckleberry Finn, as the Mississippi itself, are much more complex than it seems at first. If a child can be endlessly charmed by the simple exuberance of the escapades of Huck with his friend Jim, the runaway slave, adult readers usually draw at will in the depth of the novel, discovering each when new layers of allusions and allegory and social criticism.

Symbols: The main symbols of this novel are river and black people.

Essay Questions:

What role do race relations play in these plots?

In this plot, race relations play an important role. There are approximately 200 uses of the derogatory term “Nigger”. This offensive term is hurtful towards African Americans because it stirs dormant memories of the injustice and suffering they received from the ruthless whites. Therefore, instead of stirring these painful memories everyone wants to forget, the book could have those words censored. Huck Finn should be banned for reading, because it stirs painful memories of the cruelty and persecution they faced in the past (Wieck, 2000)." Huck Finn grew up in a society that had a lot of slavery and racism. All his life, Huck had been taught that black people didn't deserve to be treated the same. But when Huck meets a runaway slave named Jim, he learns for himself that people are people, no matter what.

Huck and Jim help each other survive throughout their travels down the Mississippi River. Jim cares about Huck, and Huck realizes that everyone has feelings. When Jim gets captured, Huck has a very strong inner battle. He had been taught that doing something such as helping a slave escape would earn him a lifetime in hell. But once Huck begins thinking of all the things Jim has done for him, he soon decides that he would rather go to hell than let his friend endure a lifetime of slavery. Huck does everything he can to make sure Jim gets free. Besides helping a friend, Huck also shows what happens when you help a stranger. When Huck sees two frauds scamming the Wilkes family out of all the money they had got from their uncles will, Huck decides to tell them the truth, and hope that he doesn't get into trouble too. Although his plan didn't work out the way he had wanted, you could still see that his intentions ...