Huckleberry Finn Ending Analysis

On Necessary Endings Many of the world's most famous novels have controversial endings. Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea and Willa Carther's Song of the Lark are two of many. There is no ending, though, that is more controversial than Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Huckleberry Finn is set during Pre-Civil War and tells the story of a young, uncivilized, white boy named Huckleberry, or Huck Finn. While trying to escape his abusive father, Huck sets out on the Mississippi River and is joined by Jim, a runaway slave. During his trip down the river, Huck struggles with the choice of turning Jim in or helping Jim escape and his moral stature in general. After a whole novel of Huck developing more modern principles, Huck seems to lose his newfound sense of right and wrong in the last few chapters. With the reappearance of Huck's best friend Tom Sawyer, Huck returns to treating Jim as a slave rather than the friend he has become during their time on the raft. There are many critics who believe Huckleberry Finn's ending is a mistake, but Twain's ending to the novel is not only a spectacular, well-thought out ending, but it was necessary during a time of extreme racism and social injustice. The ending to Huckleberry Finn is extremely controversial …show more content…
The concluding chapters provide an ending to the novel that gives Huck an understandable ending. Although the novel seems to backtrack, Twain purposely regresses Huck's characters not only to be thought provoking but to also reveal Jim as the only remaining morally sound character. Huckleberry Finn ended so cruelly in order to make the reader realize exactly what is right and wrong. Twain wrote the ending that the world needs to hear. Prejudice is always