The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn brought back memories from freshman year high school. However, I feel that now I can appreciate the work of Mark Twain rather than just trying to make my way through it. Honestly I'm not sure how much I ended up reading and how much was spark notes. This time I did read the full book and I'm glad I did. I was able to pick up on some of the more subtle jests that Mr. Twain mixed into the text.

Huck has some great adventures along the mighty Mississippi River. There are times when Huck plays the coming of age character very well, but then he seems to slip right back into his old self. One of my favorite aspects about the book is the way Mark Twain pokes fun at all the characters along the way. The reader runs across some pretty backwards people that makes you question how these people managed to get through a day in their lives without killing themselves or each other. It seems that everyone in the book is dumb enough to get fooled by the twelve-year-old Huck Finn. But after all, how entertaining would it be if Huck wasn’t able to fool all of them. One of my favorite parts in the book is the when they venture to the town of Bricksville and old Boggs is drunk again riding up and down town yelling for Colonel Sherburn to come out and get what’s coming to him. Then when Sherburn finally shoots Boggs and the mob comes for Sherburn he is able to scare them off by convincing them that they are nothing but cowards and they won’t do anything about the death of Boggs. And, once again the characters are so dumb that they just walk away and leave him alone.

One of the most frustrating parts of the novel for me is the very end. Tom Sawyer decides that they need to come up with an elaborate plan to break Jim out of captivity and to make him look like true prisoner. I can understand the comedic value Twain has taken in this approach, but I personally feel that he took it to far. Once you get past the fact that they’re going to dig him out everything else is pointless and Twain is just beating a dead horse, and then keeps on beating, then beats a little more just for good measure. Finally Tom decides to tell everyone exactly what he and Huck are planning to do and he ends up getting shot for it. Poetic justice at its finest. But that’s my only major criticism of an otherwise enjoyable classic American tale.

Huck is put into many situations that force him to act more like an adult than most twelve year old boys would, however at times they young vulnerable boy comes out and we see a more realistic side of Huckleberry Finn. Throughout most of the novel we can see, for the most part, that Huck is maturing in his worldviews, especially pertaining to Jim. However, as Huck is saying his farewells he explains to the reader that the and Tom must be off to the “Injun Territory” otherwise Aunt Sally was going to try and civilize him, and he can’t stand that. Which leaves the reader with the question, how much growing up did Huckleberry Finn actually do?