The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Analysis
Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel that follows the story of Huckleberry Finn and his adventure down the Mississippi River. Huck is an uncivilized thirteen year old whom idols his best friend Tom Sawyer. Huck gets kidnapped by his alcoholic father near the beginning of the novel and is forced to live with him in a cramped cabin enclosed by a dense forest. Fearing an attack from his deranged father, Huck steals Pap’s canoe and paddles to the seemingly abandoned Jackson’s Island. Upon his arrival, he stumbles across a runaway slave owned coincidentally by Huck’s guardian Miss Watson. Huck befriends this runaway named Jim. They are forced to leave Jackson’s Island to escape Jim’s …show more content…
When Jim gets sold to farmer whom is related to Tom Sawyer, Huck and Tom hatch a plan to free Jim from slavery. This plan, created by Tom, is very cruel to Jim and unnecessarily complicated just for the sake of style. This plan includes infesting Jim’s shack with rats and mice to the point where “there warn’t no room in bed for him” (Twain 267). This shows the poor conditions that Jim was exposed to throughout Tom’s plan. The fact the even Huck supports this sadistic plan contradicts Huck’s previous character development where he felt bad for even playing a joke on Jim. Another reversal of character progress happens when Huck says “I knowed he was white on the inside” (Twain 276). Instead of accepting that Jim was good despite his skin color he decides that the only reason Jim is good is because he acts like a white person. Huck takes some major steps forward in developing into an accepting character but takes those back in some of his final actions in the …show more content…
Mark Twain’s writings often include traces of humor and often satire. One such example occurs in his novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: “Jim said bees wouldn’t sting idiots; but I didn't believe that, because I had tried them lots of times myself, and they wouldn’t sting me.” (Twain 45). This is a very humorous passage placed in the middle of a serious setting of both Huck and Jim running away from their guardians. This shows that Mark Twain likes to use humorous moments to lighten up more serious circumstances and the ending is no different. In the afterword, Keith Neilson proposes “the progressive seriousness of the book provoked [Twain] to a broadly comic finish” (Neilson 295). The whole book is focused on ethical issues, race discrimination, and even corrupt con-men. The ending serves as a comic relief for the harsh seriousness of the rest of the novel. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain displays the progression of the main character, Huckleberry Finn, then the reversal of progress for a comical effect. Huck shows great improvement near the opening of the novel by befriending a black slave. He goes against what society believes to help out someone in need but later treats this same person cruelly just for a sense of adventure. Mark Twain does this intentionally to provide a need comic relief for an otherwise serious
Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel that follows the story of Huckleberry Finn and his adventure down the Mississippi River. Huck is an uncivilized thirteen year old whom idols his best friend Tom Sawyer. Huck gets kidnapped by his alcoholic father near the beginning of the novel and is forced to live with him in a cramped cabin enclosed by a dense forest. Fearing an attack from his deranged father, Huck steals Pap’s canoe and paddles to the seemingly abandoned Jackson’s Island. Upon his arrival, he stumbles across a runaway slave owned coincidentally by Huck’s guardian Miss Watson. Huck befriends this runaway named Jim. They are forced to leave Jackson’s Island to escape Jim’s …show more content…
When Jim gets sold to farmer whom is related to Tom Sawyer, Huck and Tom hatch a plan to free Jim from slavery. This plan, created by Tom, is very cruel to Jim and unnecessarily complicated just for the sake of style. This plan includes infesting Jim’s shack with rats and mice to the point where “there warn’t no room in bed for him” (Twain 267). This shows the poor conditions that Jim was exposed to throughout Tom’s plan. The fact the even Huck supports this sadistic plan contradicts Huck’s previous character development where he felt bad for even playing a joke on Jim. Another reversal of character progress happens when Huck says “I knowed he was white on the inside” (Twain 276). Instead of accepting that Jim was good despite his skin color he decides that the only reason Jim is good is because he acts like a white person. Huck takes some major steps forward in developing into an accepting character but takes those back in some of his final actions in the …show more content…
Mark Twain’s writings often include traces of humor and often satire. One such example occurs in his novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: “Jim said bees wouldn’t sting idiots; but I didn't believe that, because I had tried them lots of times myself, and they wouldn’t sting me.” (Twain 45). This is a very humorous passage placed in the middle of a serious setting of both Huck and Jim running away from their guardians. This shows that Mark Twain likes to use humorous moments to lighten up more serious circumstances and the ending is no different. In the afterword, Keith Neilson proposes “the progressive seriousness of the book provoked [Twain] to a broadly comic finish” (Neilson 295). The whole book is focused on ethical issues, race discrimination, and even corrupt con-men. The ending serves as a comic relief for the harsh seriousness of the rest of the novel. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain displays the progression of the main character, Huckleberry Finn, then the reversal of progress for a comical effect. Huck shows great improvement near the opening of the novel by befriending a black slave. He goes against what society believes to help out someone in need but later treats this same person cruelly just for a sense of adventure. Mark Twain does this intentionally to provide a need comic relief for an otherwise serious