The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain’s wit somehow manages to transcend time as he infuses this iconic character with the freshness of an innocent who is anything but.

The “road” in this story is the Mississippi River, and the method of transportation is a raft. The journey takes Huck on a transformational journey as he unlearns everything his society has taught him about good and bad and right and wrong. This uneducated boy begins to think for himself.

Once the plot resolves, Huck wants to escape being “sivilized” because he has learned it is anything but. He wants to “light out for the territory”,… show more.

I saw Twain as a standup, audience driven, storyteller with a knack for stretching more than I did as a writer.

Slave Jim, to keep it topical, joining Huck who cleverly faked his death on a raft seeded a row of corn. The Mississippi River becomes the stalk. The exaggeratedly imagined Duke and rightful king of France began narratives that grew arms like an octopus seeding chain letters of nonsense.

I tire from the lengths to which Twain will stretch a situation. That being said, there are reasons I put the novel on my list of favorites. Finn was a… show more.

Huckleberry Finn is perhaps the best satire ever written about the cruel hypocrisy of American racism.

A white boy, Huck, narrates his voyage on a raft down the Mississippi River with his friend Jim, an escaped slave. Twain’s satire exposes the absurdities of slave society – and through Huck’s character development the novel shows how common sense and compassion can liberate us from the lies society tells.

Huck, at first tormented by what he perceives as his own moral failing (because his love and respect for Jim violate antebellum norms), learns to think for himself and to see the corruption… show more.

I’ve enjoyed Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as much as any adult-focused novel. Considered the first truly American novel because of its narrator and use of language, the adventures entertain with humor and drama, while offering insights into humanity. The novel is narrated by an uneducated 19th Century rascal who flees "sivilization" on a raft down the Mississippi River with a runaway slave. Like our narrator, we see his Black companion as a human being, not as a stereotypical slave of the period. Also, Huck's language, and the many characters' vernacular, while "improper," is creative and effective. For example,… show more.

In case you missed it (I was a child actor, missed a lot of school) Huck Finn used to be taught in nearly every U.S. high school. This classic American novel, full of adventure and wanderlust, follows Huck and escaped slave Jim down the Mississippi River, in search of freedom. Huck just needed to bolt—anywhere would do. “All I wanted was to go somewheres; all I wanted was a change, I warn’t particular.” 

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is controversial because Twain often uses the N-word and some think the character of Jim is minstrel-like and racist. But Twain puts a… show more.

I first read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in a literature class. I did not expect to be entertained and to laugh so much. It was one of the few classics I’d gone through that did not feel like homework and I was glad to add it to my personal library. The young Huckleberry Finn tells his own tale of fleeing from his alcoholic father and joining the runaway slave Jim on his journey to the free states on the Mississippi River. His raw, childish voice comes to expose the evil of slavery and question the absurdities of his time… show more.

Although written before YA literature was even a thing, Huck Finn is still the Big Daddy of them all! So many writers, including me, honed their craft by studying the simple but elegant vernacular of this first-person narration. Mark Twain gives careful consideration to each word he uses, which is why this novel was so admired by writers such as Ernest Hemingway, who wrote, "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn." And it has a beautiful message of acceptance and rising above conventional beliefs to become a more decent human being to… show more.

This is the story of the character in the title, Huckleberry Finn. He is escaping home, his cruel father, and his old friendships. Part way along his journey he is joined by the Black character Jim, who is escaping his enslavement. They travel along the Mississippi. While the book has as its protagonist Huckleberry, it seems that Jim is equally if not more important. He occupies the boundary Twain crosses as the book ultimately comes to revolve around Jim. In the end, it turns out that the woman thought to be his former owner has freed him of slavery.  

I had to include this classic adventure. Part of the reason is I was born in Missouri and spent many vacations exploring the region Mark Twain (Samuel Clemmons) called home. But the main reason I have included this story is Twain’s character, Huck Finn, discovers some important things about himself in this adventure. Huck lives in a racist, slave-owning culture, and at first, he accepts that without question. That is the reason why some see this as a racist book, and I can see the argument. But as he rafts down the Mississippi with Jim, the escaped slave, the two… show more.

For that matter, why is life a game for Tom Sawyer and a grimly serious struggle for Huck? Accompanied by the runaway slave Jim, the runaway Huck must live by his wits, sometimes by concocting frauds of the type that others employ for fun or profit. Huck’s quest is for freedom, as he and Jim float down the Mississippi River, into the heart of slavery. In addition to the smarts he needs, Huck possesses his own practical value system (“I couldn’t see no profit in it”) and a courageous morality (“All right, then, I’ll go to hell”), which explain better… show more.