The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain’s continuation of Tom Sawyer follows the misadventures of Tom’s friend Huckleberry Finn and a runaway slave, Jim.
The story opens with Huck who is living with Widow Douglas and her sister Miss Watson. The sisters are trying to civilize and educate the unwilling Huck who is not happy with his new life of church, school, and manners. Right as Huck is coming to terms with this new lifestyle his drunken, abusive father returns and demands the boy’s money so that he can buy alcohol. Widow Douglas tries to keep Huck away from his father for several months but when she warns his father to stay away from her house he becomes enraged and kidnaps his son. Pap takes Huck to live in a shack on the Mississippi river and leaves him locked in during the day while he goes out to drink. Huck fakes his own death to get away from his father and goes to hide out on Jackson Island. While Huck is hiding on the island he discovers that one of Widow Douglas’ slaves, Jim, is also hiding on the island. The two runaways team up and Jim explains to Huck that he ran away because he overheard Widow Douglas telling her sister that she was going to sell Jim to a plantation in New Orleans. Huck promises to not tell anyone that he ran away but is nervous about helping an escaped slave. After a big storm the river floods and Jim and Huck find a floating house and raft and decide to loot the house and take the raft. Inside the house Jim finds a dead man but decides to keep the identity of the man a secret from Huck. Huck disguises himself as a girl and goes to the mainland for information and learns that the townspeople think that Jim is hiding on Jackson Island. Jim and Huck are forced to leave Ja...

... middle of paper ...

...hat he will have to go back to living with his Pa but Jim sets his mind at ease when he tells him that his father is dead. Tom’s Aunt Polly offers to adopt Huck and take him home but Huck thinks he has had enough ‘sivilizing’ and decides to set off for the West.
Twain uses the Mississippi River to symbolize freedom and fresh starts for characters in the story. The Mississippi River is a temporary feeling of freedom for Huck and Jim. Each man is his own master on the river and they do not need to answer to anyone but themselves. The river turns out to be only a temporary savior when Huck and Jim run into a steamship, bandits, pirates, and other misfortunes on the river that force them back onto land. At the end of the story the land ironically gives Huck and Jim more freedom than the river ever did.
Twain uses the river to emphasize man’s limited view of freedom.

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