Hack Fin Essay, Research Paper

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^?s. 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^?s 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^?s 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^?s 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^? (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: ^?After 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^?t care no more about him,

because I don?t take no stock in dead people^? (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^?s 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^?s 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^?t 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^?s 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^?s

Island.

It is after he leaves his father^?s cabin that Huck joins yet

another important influence in his life, Miss Watson^?s 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^?s 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^?s 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^?s drawing of the character

of Nigger Jim. Mark Twain shows Jim^?s slow, purposeful

reasoning. But in other moods Jim^?s spirit opens out to a wider

horizon. Like Huck, he senses the beauty of the river. In

his interpretation of a dream, Jim lets ^?the big, clear river^?

symbolize ^?the free States^?-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. ^?they went

off and I got aboard the raft, feeling bad and low, because I

knowed very well I had done wrong^? (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^?s 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^?s 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^?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^?s owner has died, bequeathing

him his freedom. They also learn that Huck^?s father, too, has

died. Tom^?s 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^?s jokes and hear his skepticism. The

Grangerford^?s 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: ^?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^? (Branch 216).

The emotional tie-in with the past found expression in Mark

Twain^?s self-identification with Huck, the dominant strategy he

employed. This identification breathed life into Huck^?s

character and into his experience, which encompasses the dramatic

role of sharply individualized characters.

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: 98Bibliography

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