Huck Finn

Huck Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a well acclaimed book, written by

Mark Twain. It was written from 1876-1883, but the story itself is supposed to

have taken place some forty to fifty years earlier, back in the era of slavery.

The setting for this book is very similar to the place where Twain grew up. He

was raised in Hannibal, Missouri, but changed the name to St. Petersburg for the

story. This town was situated right along the Mississippi river which plays a very

significant role in the tale. Each character in the novel exhibits a certain

personality. Personalities of which Twain encountered while being a river boat

pilot for four years. The narrator is actually Huck Finn himself.

Chapter one introduces Huck Finn and the reader gets to know what he is

like. At fist glance he may appear to be only an out of control teenager, but

there he is in fact a very dynamic character, just wait until things begin to unfold.

Huck yearns to be free from all authority. His guardian, Widow Douglas, is

constantly nagging him to be “sivilized,” but this seems to go one ear and out the

other. He enjoys smoking, cursing, hunting and fishing. But she would rather

that he learn to be polite and go to school. The reader also sees in this chapter

that Huck is superstitious. This occurs when he accidentally kills a spider, which

supposedly brings bad luck. The chapter ends when he hears something in the

tree outside his bedroom.... Chapter two introduces Huck’s best friend, Tom

Sawyer. They both sneak out together, almost getting caught by Jim, the

Widower’s slave. But they weasel their way out of it by pulling a trick on him.

Which provides Jim with another bizarre story to tell, he always stretches the

truth. Both Tom Sawyer and Huck share the same love for adventure and have

great imaginations. For instance, they begin to create a plan to start a band of

robbers.

Tom pulls his knowledge of robbers from books he has read, so the

plan ends up quite extreme. He wants all of the robbers to actually kill the

people they rob, just because he read it in a book. Huck is definitely more

realistic than his friend and backs out of it. During chapter three we find that

Huck has been learning how to read and write. And he also begins to see signs

of his Pap’s return. His pap is the town drunk, who just wanders around looking