Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

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^Ð"'s.Ð' Ð' It

is the story of Huck’s struggle to win freedom for himself and

Jim, a Negro slave.Ð' Ð' Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was Mark

Twain^Ð"'s greatest book, and a delighted world named it his

masterpiece.Ð' Ð' To nations knowing it well - Huck riding his raft

in every language men could print - it was America’s

masterpiece (Allen 259).Ð' Ð' It is considered one of the greatest

novels because it conceals so well Twain’s opinions within what

is seemingly a child’s book.Ð' Ð' 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.Ð' Ð'

Ð' Ð' The novel resumes Huck’s tale from the Adventures of Tom

Sawyer, which ended with Huck^Ð"'s adoption by Widow Douglas.Ð' Ð' 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).

Ð' Ð' Twain, whose real name is Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was born in

Florida, Missouri, in 1835.Ð' Ð' During his childhood he lived in

Hannibal, Missouri, a Mississippi river port that was to become a

large influence on his future writing.Ð' Ð' It was Twain’s nature to

write about where he lived, and his nature to criticize it if he

felt it necessary.Ð' Ð' As far his structure, Kaplan said,

Ð' Ð' In plottingÐ' Ð' 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.Ð' Ð' His wayward

techniques came close to free association.Ð' Ð' 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).

Ð' Ð' 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.Ð' Ð' 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.Ð' Ð' Huck^Ð"'s feelings

grow through the novel.Ð' Ð' Especially in his feelings toward his

friends, family, blacks, and society.Ð' Ð' Throughout the book, Huck

usually looks into his own heart for guidance.Ð' Ð' Moral intuition

is the basis on which his character rests.

Before the novel begins, Huck Finn has led a life of absolute

freedom.Ð' Ð' 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.Ð' Ð' In the

beginning of the book Huck is living with the Widow Douglas and

her sister, Miss Watson.Ð' Ð' 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.Ð' Ð' 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^Ð"" (Twain 11).Ð' Ð' This process includes making

Huck go to school, teaching him various religious facts, and

making him act in a