ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN

Mark Twain created one of America’s best-loved fictional characters when he wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Using realistic language, Twain tells the story of two runaways — Huck Finn and the slave Jim — and their adventures down the Mississippi River on a raft. Though the story focuses on the humorous exploits of an imaginative adolescent, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), told from the point of view of Huck, ultimately is concerned with deeper themes — man’s inhumanity to man and the hypocrisy of conventional values.

In Huck, readers witness a moving growth of character as he journeys downriver and comes into contact with people from almost every social class, and develops a friendship with Jim. Almost in spite of himself and his attempts to “light out for the territory” and escape the efforts of people who want to “sivilize” him, Huck grows ever more connected, ever more responsible and sympathetic toward others, even a couple of rapscallions. Huck may have his faults — he is uneducated, superstitious, and literal-minded — but in the end it is his virtues we remember — his cheerfulness, tolerance, unconscious humor, and common sense — and Twain’s ingenious attack on society.