Mississippi River In Huckleberry Finn

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In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, author Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) writes about a young, mischievous, but clever boy from St. Petersburg, Missouri named Huckleberry Finn. Huckleberry runs away from his life of beatings from his drunken father and from his well meaning but strict and religious guardians, Miss Watson and Widow Douglas. He hopes to find peace and freedom. Jim, a runaway slave, hopes to achieve the same thing as these two characters meet on Jackson Island. They soon set sail on a journey down the Mississippi River. As the story begins, we see the Mississippi River merely as a means of transportation, but as the story progresses and we learn more about Huck and Jim, we see that it is clearly more than that. For Huck, he is on the river because he feels that he needs to leave his frustrating life in St. Petersburg. Before he starts his journey, he feels confined by both a restrictive society and by his abusive father, Pap. After all, Pap did literally lock up Huck in a cabin. “We said there warn't no home like a raft, after all. Other …show more content…

Jim’s plan is to float down the Ohio River to Cairo, Illinois so he can get to the free states, become a free man, and buy his family back when he earns enough money. However, this plan doesn’t go exactly as planned. The two come across many obstacles on their trip. One obstacle is the Duke and the Dauphin. After being halted by these two, Huck and Jim are forced spend more time ashore, which is a nightmare for Jim, as he is a runaway slave. Huck and Jim find themselves playing along with these two con men, although they recognize the lingering trouble, and in the end the river is there to help them escape. In this case and in other obstacles within Twain’s tale, a recurring theme is how the Mississippi River is an anonymous savior from a cruel

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