The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

By Mark Twain

Grosset & Dunlap, 1948. 431 pages. Satire.

ISBN: 9780448060002

Reading/Interest Level: Ages 13+

Curriculum ties: Racism, slavery, civil war, morality

Booktalk Ideas: Running away: Act out a scene that illustrates Huck and Jim’s desire to run away. Use fitting dialect.

Challenge Issues: Abuse, language, racism

Challenge Response: First Defense File

Reader’s Annotation:

When Huck Finn decides to run away, he and a runaway slave travel via raft down the Mississippi river and meet all sorts of characters on the way. Meanwhile, Huck struggles to decide whether he should turn the slave in, or not.

Plot Summary:

Taking place just after the events of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn has inherited some money and two women have taken him in and are trying to raise him as a gentleman. Huck has a hard time getting used to regular baths, proper manners, going to church and school. Still, things are going well until Huck’s drunken father appears in town and essentially kidnaps Huck.

Huck’s father keeps him locked in a cabin in the woods where he’ll either beat Huck or abandon him for stretches of time. Huck decides to escape and he ends up coming across Miss Watson’s slave, Jim, who has also run away and is in hiding. The hide on an island on the Mississippi River until they hear that someone in town has spotted smoke and they will be searching the island soon for slaves. So, Huck and Jim take off down the river with the thought of getting Jim to the free states in the north, but they run into all kinds of characters along the way, and the threat of Jim getting caught and sent back into slavery is a real possibility.

Critical Evaluation:

This book is a great example of morality. Huck wonders on multiple occasions whether or not he should turn Jim in, but he resists every time. Even as Huck plays pranks on Jim it’s never meant to hurt him, just to have a bit of fun on Huck’s part. Though Huck may be unaware of the effects these pranks have on Jim, he fully realizes that Jim will be happier as a free man than a slave.

Though this book addresses the issue of slavery on various levels, it is clear that Mark Twain opposed the practice and though he portrays Jim as somewhat ignorant and superstitious, Jim’s pure concern for Huck and Tom’s wellbeing shows that he’s just like any other man. Twain painted Jim as complex character deserving of sympathy which was a somewhat radical view at the time this book was originally published.

Even now, over a hundred years later, the lessons of morality and how to treat others still applies, even if only in a different context. There are still many prejudices in the world, even if racial prejudice has lessened considerably since Mark Twain wrote this book.

About the Author:

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. He is noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), called "the Great American Novel", and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876).

Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, which would later provide the setting for Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. He apprenticed with a printer. He also worked as a typesetter and contributed articles to his older brother Orion's newspaper. After toiling as a printer in various cities, he became a master riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River, before heading west to join Orion. He was a failure at gold mining, so he next turned to journalism. While a reporter, he wrote a humorous story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," which proved to be very popular and brought him nationwide attention. His travelogues were also well-received. Twain had found his calling.

He achieved great success as a writer and public speaker. His wit and satire earned praise from critics and peers, and he was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty.

However, he lacked financial acumen. Though he made a great deal of money from his writings and lectures, he squandered it on various ventures, in particular the Paige Compositor, and was forced to declare bankruptcy. With the help of Henry Huttleston Rogers, however, he eventually overcame his financial troubles. Twain worked hard to ensure that all of his creditors were paid in full, even though his bankruptcy had relieved him of the legal responsibility.

Born during a visit by Halley's Comet, he died on its return. He was lauded as the "greatest American humorist of his age", and William Faulkner called Twain "the father of American literature".

-from GoodReads.com author page-

Justification of Selection:

This is a great book about loyalty and making decisions for yourself, rather than conforming to society. It can be used to help illustrate feelings toward blacks in the pre-Civil War South, but at the same time the book is not racist, and is actually anti-slavery, which teens may need guidance to see.