The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is a unique novel. The titular character, Huck, a thirteen-year old boy, whose alcoholic, abusive father has forced him to run away. Huck befriends a fellow runaway, the enslaved Jim, and they form an extremely close bond. Most of the book’s action takes place in and around the great Mississippi River. The River in Huck Finn functions to provide the main characters Huck and Jim shelter and freedom from the civilization of its banks, and provides a structure for the reader to take in the many encounters facing Huck and Jim. The River provides Huck and Jim the ultimate escape from the outside world, where Huck has a drunken, abusive father, and Jim is a runaway slave. Not only are Huck and Jim
…show more content…
At the novel’s conclusion, Huck says “I reckon I got to light out for the territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can’t stand it.” (Twain 294). Huck refuses to be “sivilized”, which because most of his dangerous adventures happened due to the dangers of civilized society. Meanwhile, in “The Boy and the River: Without Beginning or End”, T.S. Eliot argues that “the River cannot tolerate any design”. Eliot does not venture to say that Huck is the River, but he connects Huck and the River, noting that “Like Huckleberry Finn, the River itself has no beginning or end”. However, these similarities between Huck and the river run so deeply that Twain may have intended Huck to have been the human embodiment of the …show more content…
When faced with trauma and danger, the river provides safety. The format of the river is such that it provides the novel with a consistent structure. Also, the free-flowing, independent characteristics of the River resemble Huck’s personality. However, Toni Morrison argues that it is Jim, not the River that provides warmth and comfort to Huck. One can interpret the text as one would like but the evidence points to Twain intending that the River provided Huck with comfort. Nonetheless, the river provides great security to Huck, and one cannot deny it shares many qualities with
At the novel’s conclusion, Huck says “I reckon I got to light out for the territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can’t stand it.” (Twain 294). Huck refuses to be “sivilized”, which because most of his dangerous adventures happened due to the dangers of civilized society. Meanwhile, in “The Boy and the River: Without Beginning or End”, T.S. Eliot argues that “the River cannot tolerate any design”. Eliot does not venture to say that Huck is the River, but he connects Huck and the River, noting that “Like Huckleberry Finn, the River itself has no beginning or end”. However, these similarities between Huck and the river run so deeply that Twain may have intended Huck to have been the human embodiment of the …show more content…
When faced with trauma and danger, the river provides safety. The format of the river is such that it provides the novel with a consistent structure. Also, the free-flowing, independent characteristics of the River resemble Huck’s personality. However, Toni Morrison argues that it is Jim, not the River that provides warmth and comfort to Huck. One can interpret the text as one would like but the evidence points to Twain intending that the River provided Huck with comfort. Nonetheless, the river provides great security to Huck, and one cannot deny it shares many qualities with