I. Setting
a. b. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn begins in Huck’s hometown of St. Petersburg, Missouri. Originally, Huck lives in a clean estate with prim and proper Widow Douglas and Miss Watson who attempt to “sivilize” him. His drunken money-seeking father then abducts him and takes him to a dirty, isolated cabin across the Mississippi River. Huck escapes and floats down the river in an abandoned canoe to Jackson’s Island, lying in the middle of the Mississippi. Here, Huck finds runaway Jim. The peaceful, providing island tempts Huck and Jim to stay, but fearing that someone saw smoke from their fire, they float down the river on a raft. They intended to stop at Cairo and continue in a steamboat to the free states, but the
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On the peaceful Jackson Island, he learns to relax and let time stand still. And while floating the river with Jim he becomes as untroubled as the steady Mississippi. The setting also affects both Huck and Jim’s feelings about slavery. When he first agrees to help Jim, he has only a few concerns about the legality and morality of his decision, but as they float further and further south, Huck has more and more concerns about getting caught, plausibly caused by the escalating racial tension in the south. Jim is originally very concerned about being sold south because he knows he will be treated poorly and separated from his family. As they near what they think is Cairo, Jim becomes confident and tells Huck about what he would do once he is free (248). This worries Huck so much that he decides to turn Jim in, but eventually changes his mind. Floating further down the river causes Jim more and more anxiety as they are heading deeper and deeper into the south he so dreaded.
II. Point of View
a.
b. The point of view of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is first person. Huck narrates the book, so his perspective on two main issues, race and civility, help to enrich the story with his perspective. Like many in America in the early 19th century, the south specifically, Huck was raised in the midst of people who didn’t give the morality of slavery a second thought, as it was deeply installed in American society. So
Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn shows the development of a young boy named Huck Finn. We see Huck develop in character, attitude and maturity as he goes on his adventure down the Mississippi River. This is displayed through his search for freedom from civilization and it's beliefs and through his personal observations of a corrupt and immoral society. Most importantly, we are in Huck's head as he goes through his confusion over his supposedly immoral behavior and his acceptance that he will “go to hell” as he conquers his social beliefs.
Tim Lively Critical Analysis: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Setting: Late 1800’s along the Mississippi River Plot: When the book begins, the main character, Huck Finn possesses a large sum of money. This causes his delinquent lifestyle to change drastically. Huck gets an education, and a home to live in with a caring elderly woman (the widow). One would think that Huck would be satisfied. Well, he wasn’t. He wanted his own lifestyle back. Huck’s drunkard father (pap), who had previously left him, was also not pleased with Huck’s lifestyle. He didn’t feel that his son should have it better than he. Pap tries to get a hold of the money for his own uses, but he fails. He proceeds to lock Huck up in his cabin on the outskirts of town.
Life on the river was also good at first, but it also became tiresome for Huck. He liked the sense of freedom that he had while he was on the river with Jim, he didn't have to go to school nor did he have any rules that he had to live by. He didn't have to worry about what his father was going to do to him. However the river still set limits on their freedom, Jim and Huck were only able to travel at night because they were afraid of Jim being found and whenever they would stop for the day, they would have to cover up the raft with leaves and foliage. Huck did not like having to be the one that would have to go look for food and water for them, he never had to be responsible until this time and, he didn't like having to use such precautions so that Jim would not be found. Huck could have made life easier for himself and turned Jim in, but he looked at him as a friend not as a fugitive slave.
The first book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, features Huck, who narrates his adventures along the Mississippi with Jim, a runaway slave. Huck escapes from his alcoholic, abusive father early in the book, and, immediately thereafter, is primarily concerned with his own survival and contentment. However, even these basic amenities are threatened as he continues his voyage south. First and foremost, Huck must survive in the wild, a task he undertakes with remarkable skill and resourcefulness. Early on in the novel, Huck's skill at living in the wilderness is plainly established, and the reader never doubts his ability to provide for himself.
Transcendentalism can be observed throughout the text of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and through the text textbook examples of Transcendentalism can be seen from the cast of characters and Huck himself and the situations/adventures that he gets himself into throughout his journey, a journey which enables him to develop his Transcendental ideals.. Transcendentalism is a vital part of The novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. By reading and studying the content of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn it is perceived that Transcendentalism is a prevalent influence that can be attributed to plot and the motivations of the Protagonist.
Throughout the book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the main character, Huck goes through major changes. The story is set before the Civil War in the South. Huck is a child with an abusive father who kidnaps him from, Widow Douglas and Miss Watson, the people he was living with. He eventually escapes from his father and finds Jim, Miss Watson’s runaway slave. As Huck travels with Jim, Huck begins to realize that Jim is more than a piece of property. During the travel down the river, Huck makes many decisions that reflect his belief that Jim deserves the same rights he has. Because of these realizations, Huck chooses to do the right thing in many instances. Some of these instances where Huck does the right thing instead of society’s
The first adventure Huck and Jim take part in while searching for freedom is the steamboat situation. Huck shows development of character in tricking the watchman into going back to the boat to save the criminals. Even though they are thieves, and plan to murder another man, Huck still feels that they deserve a chance to live. Some may see Huck's reaction to the event as crooked but, unlike most of society, Huck Finn sees good in people and attempts to help them as much as he can. Getting lost in the fog while floating down the Mississippi River leads to a major turning point in the development of Huck Finn's character. Up to this event, he has seen Jim as a lesser person than himself. After trying to deny the fog event to Jim, he says, "It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a [slave]; but I done it, and I warn't ever sorry for it afterward, neither"(74). He continues by explaining how he could never do such a thing again. Huck has clearly gained respect for Jim here and shows it by feeling so horrible over what he did.
In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck struggles to conform to society’s views and expectations. Society pressures Huck Finn into earning a standard education, but through his worldly knowledge and common sense, he can view the world differently than the people around him. Through his perspective on Southern society, Huck struggles to accept the moral beliefs that have been instilled upon him at birth because he befriends an African American slave. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain effectively uses the motif of dead bodies to suggest that truth finally reveals the inconsistencies in society through Huck’s common sense.
Year after year The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is placed in the top ten banned books in America. People find the novel to be oppressing and racially insensitive due to its frequent use of the n-word and the portrayal of blacks as a Sambo caricature. However, this goes against Mark Twain’s intent of bringing awareness to the racism in America. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is classified under the genre of satire and is narrated by a fictional character named Huckleberry Finn. The novel takes place in the south during the year 1845. With his abusive father, and no mother, Huck is left feeling lonely, and as if he has place to call his home. So he decides to leave town, and on in his journey where he encounters a slave he’s familiar with, Jim, who is also running away. This story captures their relationship and growth as they face many obstacles on their way to freedom. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn satirizes people’s greed and violent behavior by mocking the stereotype of southern hospitality.
Huckleberry Finn was written somewhere between 1835 to 1845. During this time, the abolitionist movement really began to get moving. There were abolitionists before this, but people got sick of tolerating slavery and started to be against it at the beginning of the 1830’s. In response, Mark Twain wrote Huckleberry Finn with Huck Finn being the main character. Huck’s thoughts went against the traditional person with the “normal” views on topics such as slavery. Huck was raised without any moral background. He had a drunken dad and no mom. Huck did things like ditch school or break a law here and there. His dad never brought him to places of worship his whole life. Huck raised himself, basically, because his dad was so drunk all the time.
He begins to despise the stipulation set towards human nature and mindsets toward abolition. Huck derives such perseverance towards their condition as Jim continuously describes his life after gaining freedom. There is an instantaneous gleam of happiness that is achieved once they become near Cairo, that has led Huck to be astounded by his change in hope. To illustrate, “Well, I can tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish, too, to hear him, because I began to get it through my head that he was most free-and who was to blame for it? Why, me.” (Ch. 16). Significantly, this defines the moment where Huck indicates what “coming of age” is. He has grown to assess himself and resonate that the judgement of others has no relevance towards how he should fulfill his sensibilities. As expressed, “...and I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks does for their’n.” (Ch. 23). Huck distinguishes the idea that Jim shouldn’t be judged either. Just as anybody else, his actions had to define him. Not by the color of his skin or what society had labeled him. Even more, Jim had emotions. There wasn’t an instance where he didn’t care about his family just as any other man, it had been vital to him. With that in mind, Huck acknowledged the desperate need to be set free, because there is no division in the intent of
Thirdly, Huck and Douglass are protagonists, each in their own regard. The opening of Huckleberry Finn describes a game of robbers that Huck and Tom took part in. Over the course of the novel, Huck that what mainstream society has engrained in him is not always correct. He must make decisions based on his morals, not on what has been driven into him during his upbringing. When he encounters the group of slave-hunters, he realizes telling a lie is sometimes the right course of action. Huck is given the power to return Jim but instead decides to go against social norms and free Jim. This point marks the finality to his departure from society's expectations. The river helped build his taste for independence and free will. Huck wants to move out to the freedom of the West, thus departing from the civilized world. Huck grows accustomed to Aunt Sally and Silas by the end of the novel. However, he realizes that they are a part of the social order that wishes to impose their will upon others. It is not a part of Huck's nature to be influenced by others, as is displayed by his
On the other hand, Jim was not given the same amount of freedom as Huck. To Jim, freedom is the thing he strives for the most in his life. "Jim was fidgeting up and down past me. We neither of us could keep still. Every time he danced around and says, “Dah’s Cairo!”’ (Page 88). This exemplifies Jim’s joy of the voyage to Cairo and just the thought of freedom. Though they are not that close to Cairo when he says this, just floating around on the raft and knowing that he will be there soon is enough excitement for him. “Dah, now, Huck, what I tell you? What I tell you up dah on Jackson Islan’?... en it’s come true; en heah she is!” (Page 293). This demonstrates Jim’s journey coming to an end and him finally reaching pure freedom and having true happiness.
In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain presents the problem of slavery in America in the 19th Century. Twain poses this problem in the form of a character named Huckleberry Finn, a white boy raised in the antebellum South. Huck starts to question his view regarding slavery when he acquaints himself more intimately with a runaway slave while he himself tries to run away. Huck’s development as a character is affected by society’s influence on his experiences while growing up in the South, running away with Jim, and trying to save Jim. Although Huck decides to free Jim, Huck’s deformed conscience convinces him that he is doing the wrong thing.
It is in first person because it is narrated by the main character Huckleberry Finn. The narrator's perspective is that he likes to be on his own and not civilized. This is Huck’s perspective because in the book it says “ here weren’t no home like a raft. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft.” This develops throughout the text by that in the beginning they are trying to get civilized but it was annoying to them. Then they run away and experience tragic things such as friends dying. Then they meet back at the raft and have a good