The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn Essays : Themes

This young boy’s name is Huckleberry Finn, and he is brave and yearning for adventure. He begins the story with a newly acquired fortune, but goes back to living in rags and in a barrel. Huckleberry is convinced by his best friend, Tom Sawyer, to go back to living with “The Widow” so that he can join Tom’s newly created band of robbers. The Widow Douglas is a woman who takes Huckleberry as her son and does her best to “sivilize” him: teaching him how to behave and forcing him to go to school. Huckleberry slips off and joins “The Tom Sawyer Gang” and pretends to rob people for about a month before he resigns. All this time, Huckleberry is getting used to living with the widow, even admitting that he likes it a little bit. Then, one day, his father shows up, demanding his fortune and eventually taking him to his log cabin, hidden in the woods. There Huck hunts and fishes, but is not permitted to leave. Eventually, “pap got too handy with his hick’ry” so Huck escapes down the river when his father is drunk. Huck hides on Jackson’s Island and meets Jim, The Widow’s slave. Huck learns that Jim had run away from The Widow and so they decide to help each other out. But when Huck learns of a plan to search the island, they leave down the river. Several days later, they almost run into some robbers on a wrecked steamboat and manage to escape with their loot. When Huck and Jim land on the bank

Many novels have used symbolism to express certain feelings and emotions in discreet ways. What is symbolism? "The practice of representing things by means of symbols or of attributing symbolic meanings or significance to objects, events, or relationships" (Dictionary.com). Numerous authors use the same denotations to illustrate different thoughts or ideas. Mark Twain uses various symbols, such as the river and the land to expose freedom and trouble in his novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

The primary relationships of Huck with the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson as well as Huck with Pap and Huck with Jim are established. Throughout the novel, Huck takes on different identities to further his attempts at freedom. In this section three of these identities are seen. One is Huck, the dead boy when he “kills” himself in order to cover his escape from Pap at his cabin and the other is Sarah Mary Williams whom he disguised himself as when he attempted to get information and later George Peters emerges when Sarah is discovered to be a boy.

the young protagonist Huckleberry Finn does not have a good father, and as a result he finds a father in someone else. Huck Finn deals with an alcoholic abusive irresponsible father, Pap, who kidnaps and physically abuses him. In order to escape, Huck fakes his own death and runs away to Jackson Island where he encounters Jim, a runaway slave he knows from the house of his previous caretaker before he was kidnapped. Huck and Jim embark on an adventure on a raft and throughout the novel Jim evolves into the good father figure that Huck never had. Although, Huck’s biological father is Pap, Jim becomes Huck’s true father in the novel because he cares for Huck as his own by protecting him, scolding him, and passively teaching him what he can.

The relationship between Huckleberry Finn and Jim are central to Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". Huck's relationships with individual characters are unique in their own way; however, his relationship with Jim is one that is ever changing and sincere. As a poor, uneducated boy, Huck distrusts the morals and intentions of the society that treats him as an outcast and fails to protect him from abuse. The uneasiness about society, and his growing relationship with Jim, leads Huck to question many of the teachings that he has received, especially concerning race and slavery. Twain makes it evident that Huck is a young boy who comes from the lowest levels of white society. Huck's father, Pap, is a drunk who disappears for

People often hesitate to accept what they do not understand. In the absence of love and compassion, it is no question that fear, ignorance, and hatred, all contribute to a melting pot of negativity in the world. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, is about the love and friendship cultivated by a young boy and a black slave on the Mississippi River. Despite the pair’s differences, they are able to endure the struggles and difficulties that the toilsome journey brings. Mark Twain, in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, emphasizes the shift in Huck’s view towards slavery by contrasting Huck’s initial tone of reflectiveness to his assertive tone, both collectively addressing the issue of racism in society.

Since its first publication in 1884, Mark Twain’s masterpiece The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has proven to be one of history’s most controversial novels; especially recently, the novel has often been banned by schools and censored by libraries. Characters in the book are constantly using disparaging language toward slaves, and the repeated use of the word “nigger” makes many sensitive and offended. Critics denounce the novel and Mark Twain as racist for this word being insulting and politically incorrect and for its depiction of black people and how they are treated. However, Twain was not attempting to perpetuate racism; on the contrary, he used satire to expose the ignorance and paradoxical views held by many in America at that time.

Like a true father, Jim provides Huck with love and compassion. In the absence of his father, Jim makes it his rightful duty to give Huck the love he deserves. Jim and Huck overcome obstacles and trials to become closer than friends, they become family. Their time together strengthens the commitment they have put into their friendship. In the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Jim demonstrates his compassion towards Huck when they encounter the dead man in the frame house on the island. By Jim covering the body with rags he is being compassionate of Huck, shielding him from the tragedy that is death. Jim protects Hucks childish innocence and is compassionate of his emotions. Jim also proves to be loving as he is tender towards Huck as he reappears in his life after leaving to the Grangerfords and after falling off the raft. Jim gives Huck the things Pap is unable to give him. Through this Twain proves Jim is Hucks true

     There is a major argument among literary critics whether the adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, is or is not a racist novel. The question focus on the depiction of Jim, the black slave, and the way he is treat by Huck and other characters. The use of the word “nigger” is also a point raised by some critic, who feel that Twain uses the word too often and too loosely. Mark Twain never presents Jim in a negative light. He does not show Jim as a drunkard, as a mean person or as a cheat.

Jim struggles with major racial difficulties during this time period and Huck learns from his father that blacks are inferior to whites. He makes many comments and attempts to compare his son Huck to Jim who is seen to be “stupid” because of the lesser knowledge that Jim has than that of Pap. Although when Pap pretends to die and Huck seizes his chance to plot and escape, Jim accompanies Huck on his journey down the Mississippi river to find a new home. So far in the novel Jim has shown his loyalty to Huck and Huck begins to question both of their positions in society. Huck sees that it racial inequality because there is nothing wrong with Jim. He is a forced laborer barricaded by whites chaining him to the land but when Huck comes along what little does he know it is wrong to be with a black man. Huck varies from his father Pap because not only does Pap treat his son as an aggressive drunk but Pap doesn’t see the goodness that comes from Jim or even the mere similarity between these to humans let alone there skin. Well Huck sees that in Jim and that’s all that matters is that even though Huck isn’t getting an education he sees morality in this novel and discovers

1. How does Huck solve the problem of forgetting his name? Bets Buck that he can't spell his name, and does, so then he knows his name - George Jackson

Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain's classic novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, tells the story of a teenaged misfit who finds himself floating on a raft down the Mississippi River with an escaping slave, Jim. In the course of their perilous journey, Huck and Jim meet adventure, danger, and a cast of characters who are sometimes menacing and often hilarious.

Huck's father is absent until he finds out that Huck has found some money.  Pap is an outcast full of hate for blacks and pretty much for all of society.  Huck, as a product of his society, speaks the language of his society.  By choosing as his point-of-view a young boy from the slave south, Twain is able to present and challenge the values and assumptions of this time.  Among the assumptions and values of the time that the reader encounters in the book are the strict definitions pertaining to Huck's world and the people who inhabit it:

“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.” (Twain, ix) Mark Twain opens his book with a personal notice, abstract from the storyline, to discourage the reader from looking for depth in his words. This severe yet humorous personal caution is written as such almost to dissuade his readers from having any high expectations. The language in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is completely “American” beyond the need for perfect grammar. “Mark Twain’s novel, of course, is widely considered to be a definitively American literary text.” (Robert Jackson,

“When I lit my candle and went up to my room that night there sat pap—his own self!” states Huck. Pap is outraged with the education and the financial situation the Huck has found himself in. Pap is an alcohol-driven psychopath. The judge of the town then declares that Pap has custody over Huck, even when the widow is fighting to keep Huck in her custody. Pap begins to threaten Huck about multiple aspects of his life with the widow, especially the education he has been receiving. Huck decides that he doesn’t want to be with Pap anymore and generates thoughts and ideas of escaping into his head. Huck says “I judged I would saw out and leave that night if pap got drunk enough, and I reckoned he would.” After drinking, Pap’s threatening becomes violent when he threatens to kill Huck with a knife, but is then stopped by passing out. Huck is then proposed a moral question while pointing the shotgun at his father’s head: does he end his father’s life right here or does he leave this town for good? Huck chooses to make his great escape. Later, Huck finds a canoe stranded on the river, and develops a plan. He escapes from the house, steals anything of great value to Pap, and figures out a way to fake his own death. He slits the throat of a pig and stages the blood to make it seem like he has been kidnapped and killed, then makes his way to Jackson Island, where his adventures