Huck And Jim On The Mississippi: Going With The Flow?

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Setting in a novel plays a critical role in developing the plot line. Particularly, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the Mississippi River is the key setting for much of the novel. Jim and Huck both end up traveling down the river for different reasons, and throughout their travels they experience many events. An article that discusses the important role of the Mississippi River in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is by Carl Wieck called "Huck and Jim on the Mississippi: Going with the Flow?". In this article Wieck goes through many different viewpoints of the Mississippi River's role in the story, such as how it represents going with the flow, or against the flow, and how in the end the river truly relates to Huck and Jim's travels by saving their lives in some instances but also causing a few problematic events. …show more content…

Beginning with the decomposed body mistakenly identified as pap." (Wieck 72). Throughout the novel, Twain often appears to make the river represent death, because many different people die while being on the river or around the river. Wieck argues that this is how Twain is shown to be against "going with the flow" of things because in the end by going against the flow a person will only be hurt. By Huck and Jim going with the flow of the Mississippi, Huck's character is defined, and Jim's character is revealed as they go through different situations, according to Wieck. The Mississippi is important in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn because it allows for many different other events to happen, and it also helps develop the main characters of the

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