Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (often referred to as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or shortened to Huckleberry Finn or simply Huck Finn) is a novel by Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens , well known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Twain is noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), which has been called "the Great American Novel", and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). He is extensively quoted. Twain was a friend to presidents, artists,, first published in February 1885. Commonly recognized as one of the Great American Novels The "Great American Novel" is the concept of a novel that most perfectly represents the spirit of life in the United States at the time of its writing. It is presumed to be written by an American author who is knowledgeable about the state, culture, and perspective of the common American citizen. It is often considered as the American, the work is among the first in major American literature American literature as a whole is the written or literary work produced in the area of the United States and its preceding colonies. For more specific discussions of poetry and theater, see Poetry of the United States and Theater in the United States. During its early history, America was a series of British colonies on the eastern coast of the to be written in the vernacular A vernacular, mother tongue or mother language, and less frequently one sense of idiom and dialect, is the native language of a population located in a country or in a region defined on some other basis, such as a locality. For example, Navajo is a local language in the southwest of the United States, and English is the state language of a number, characterized by local color regionalism In literature, regionalism or local color fiction refers to fiction or poetry that focuses on specific features – including characters, dialects, customs, history, and topography – of a particular region. Since the region may be a recreation or reflection of the author's own, there is often nostalgia and sentimentality in the writing. It is told in the first person by Huckleberry "Huck" Finn, a friend of Tom Sawyer Tom Sawyer is the title character of the Mark Twain novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer . He appears in three other novels by Twain: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894), and Tom Sawyer, Detective (1896) and narrator of two other Twain novels (Tom Sawyer Abroad Tom Sawyer Abroad is a novel by Mark Twain published in 1894. It features Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn in a parody of Jules Verne-esque adventure stories and Tom Sawyer, Detective Tom Sawyer, Detective is an 1896 novel by Mark Twain. It is a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer , Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), and Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894). Tom Sawyer attempts to solve a mysterious murder in this burlesque of the immensely popular detective novels of the time. Like the two preceding novels, the story is told using).

The book is noted for its colorful description of people and places along the Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. About 2,320 miles long, the river originates at Lake Itasca, Minnesota and flows slowly southwards in sweeping meanders, terminating 95 river miles below New Orleans, Louisiana where it begins to flow to the Gulf of Mexico. Along with its major tributary, the Missouri River, the. Satirizing Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement. Although satire is usually meant to be funny, its greater a Southern The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, Down South, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive region in the southeastern and south-central United States. Because of the region's unique cultural and historic heritage, including Native Americans, early European settlements of English, Ulster Scots, antebellum After the election of George Washington as the first president in 1789, Congress passed the first of many laws organizing the government and adopted a bill of rights as 10 amendments to the new constitution; these amendments are the U.S. Bill of Rights. During much of early U.S. there was no popular vote count in presidential elections society that was already out of date by the time the work was published, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an often scathing look at entrenched attitudes, particularly racism CERD · CEDAW · CDE · ILO C111 · ILO C100 · ILO C169 · Protocol No. 12 ECHR. The drifting journey of Huck and his friend Jim Jim is one of two major fictional characters in the classic novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. The book chronicles the journey of Jim and Huckleberry "Huck" Finn down the Mississippi River in the antebellum Southern United States. Jim is an adult African American who has escaped from slavery and is trying to reach, a runaway slave Slavery is a system in which people are the property of others. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand wages. In some societies it was legal for an owner to kill a slave; in others it was a crime to kill a slave, down the Mississippi River on their raft A raft is any flat structure for support or transportation over water. It is the most basic of boat design, characterized by the absence of a hull. Although there are cross-over boat types that blur this definition, rafts are usually kept afloat by using any combination of buoyant materials such as wood, sealed barrels, or inflated air chambers may be one of the most enduring images of escape and freedom in all of American literature American literature as a whole is the written or literary work produced in the area of the United States and its preceding colonies. For more specific discussions of poetry and theater, see Poetry of the United States and Theater in the United States. During its early history, America was a series of British colonies on the eastern coast of the.

The work has been popular with readers since its publication and is taken as a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is a popular 1876 novel about a young boy growing up in the antebellum South. The story is set in the town of "St Petersburg", inspired by Hannibal, Missouri, where Mark Twain grew up. In the story's introduction, Twain notes:. It has also been the continued object of study by serious literary critics. It was criticized upon release because of its coarse language and became even more controversial in the 20th century because of its perceived use of racial stereotypes and because of its frequent use of the racial slur "nigger." [2][3]

Contents

Publication history

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens , well known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Twain is noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), which has been called "the Great American Novel", and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). He is extensively quoted. Twain was a friend to presidents, artists,

Twain initially conceived of the work as a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is a popular 1876 novel about a young boy growing up in the antebellum South. The story is set in the town of "St Petersburg", inspired by Hannibal, Missouri, where Mark Twain grew up. In the story's introduction, Twain notes: that would follow Huck Finn through adulthood. Beginning with a few pages he had removed from the earlier novel, Twain began work on a manuscript he originally titled Huckleberry Finn's Autobiography. Twain worked on the manuscript off and on for the next several years, ultimately abandoning his original plan of following Huck's development into adulthood. He appeared to have lost interest in the manuscript while it was in progress, and set it aside for several years. After making a trip down the Mississippi, Twain returned to his work on the novel. Upon completion, the novel's title closely paralleled its predecessor's: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawyer's Comrade).[4]

Unlike The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn does not have the definite article "the" as a part of its proper title. Essayist and critic Spencer Neve states that this absence represents the "never fulfilled anticipations" of Huck's adventures—while Tom's adventures were completed (at least at the time) by the end of his novel, Huck's narrative ends with his stated intention to head West.[5]

Mark Twain composed the story in pen on notepaper between 1876 and 1883. Paul Needham, who supervised the authentication of the manuscript for Sotheby's books and manuscripts department in New York in 1991, stated, "What you see is [Clemens'] attempt to move away from pure literary writing to dialect writing". For example, Twain revised the opening line of Huck Finn three times. He initially wrote, "You will not know about me," which he changed to, "You do not know about me," before settling on the final version, "You don't know about me, without you have read a book by the name of 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'; but that ain't no matter."[6] The revisions also show how Twain reworked his material to strengthen the characters of Huck and Jim, as well as his sensitivity to the then-current debate over literacy and voting.[7]

A later version was the first typewritten manuscript delivered to a printer.[7]

Huck Finn was eventually published on December 10, 1884, in Canada and England, and on February 18, 1885, in the United States. The American publication was delayed because someone defaced an illustration on one of the plates, creating an obscene joke. Thirty-thousand copies of the book had been printed before the obscenity was discovered. A new plate was made to correct the illustration and repair the existing copies.[8]

In 1885, the Buffalo Public Library's curator, James Fraser Gluck, approached Twain to donate the manuscript to the Library. Twain sent half of the pages, believing the other half to have been lost by the printer. In 1991, the missing half turned up in a steamer trunk owned by descendants of Gluck. The Library successfully proved possession and, in 1994, opened the Mark Twain Room in its Central Library to showcase the treasure.[9]

Plot summary

Huckleberry Finn, as depicted by E. W. Kemble Edward Winsor Kemble was an American cartoonist and illustrator. Born in Sacramento, California, his family moved to New York when he was young in the original 1884 edition of the book.

Life in St. Petersburg

The story begins in fictional St. Petersburg, Missouri, on the Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. About 2,320 miles long, the river originates at Lake Itasca, Minnesota and flows slowly southwards in sweeping meanders, terminating 95 river miles below New Orleans, Louisiana where it begins to flow to the Gulf of Mexico. Along with its major tributary, the Missouri River, the, sometime between 1835 (when the first steamboat sailed down the Mississippi[10]) and 1845. Two young boys, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, have each come into a considerable sum of money as a result of their earlier adventures (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is a popular 1876 novel about a young boy growing up in the antebellum South. The story is set in the town of "St Petersburg", inspired by Hannibal, Missouri, where Mark Twain grew up. In the story's introduction, Twain notes:). Huck has been placed under the guardianship A legal guardian a person who has the legal authority to care for the personal and property interests of another person, called a ward. Usually, a person has the status of guardian because the ward is incapable of caring for his or her own interests due to infancy, incapacity, or disability. Most countries and states have laws that provide that of the Widow Douglas, who, together with her sister, Miss Watson, are attempting to "sivilize [sic Sic is a Latin word meaning "thus", "so", "as such", or "in such a manner". It is used when writing quoted material to indicate that an incorrect or unusual spelling, phrase, punctuation or meaning in the quote has been reproduced verbatim from the original and is not a transcription error . It is normally]" him. Huck appreciates their efforts, but finds civilized life confining. In the beginning of the story, Tom Sawyer appears briefly, helping Huck escape at night from the house, past Miss Watson's slave, Jim Jim is one of two major fictional characters in the classic novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. The book chronicles the journey of Jim and Huckleberry "Huck" Finn down the Mississippi River in the antebellum Southern United States. Jim is an adult African American who has escaped from slavery and is trying to reach. They meet up with Tom Sawyer's self-proclaimed gang, who plot to carry out adventurous crimes. Life is changed by the sudden appearance of his shiftless father "Pap," an abusive parent and drunkard. Although Huck is successful in preventing his Pap from acquiring his fortune, Pap forcibly gains custody of Huck and the two move to the backwoods where Huck is kept locked inside his father's cabin. Equally dissatisfied with life with his father, Huck escapes from the cabin, elaborately fakes his own death, and sets off down the Mississippi River.

The Floating House & Huck as a Girl

While living quite comfortably in the wilderness along the Mississippi, Huck happily encounters Miss Watson's slave Jim on an island called Jackson's Island, and Huck learns that he has also run away, after Miss Watson threatened to sell him downriver, where conditions for slaves were even harsher.

Jim is trying to make his way to Cairo, Illinois Cairo is a city in Alexander County, Illinois in the United States. The population was 3,632 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Alexander County. The city's name is pronounced "KAY-roh", different from Cairo , the capital city of Egypt, to get to Ohio, a free state, to buy his family's freedom. At first, Huck is conflicted over whether to tell someone about Jim's running away, but they travel together, they talk in depth, and Huck begins to know more about Jim's past and his difficult life. As these talks continue, Huck begins to change his opinion about people, slavery, and life in general. This continues throughout the rest of the novel.

Huck and Jim take up in a cavern on a hill on Jackson's Island to wait out a storm. When they can, they scrounge around the river looking for food, wood, and other items. One night, they find a raft they will eventually use to travel down the Mississippi. Later, they find an entire house floating down the river and enter it to grab what they can. Entering one room, Jim finds a man lying dead on the floor, shot in the back while apparently trying to ransack the house. He refuses to let Huck see the man's face.

To find out the latest news in the area, Huck dresses as a girl, calls himself Sarah Williams, and goes into town. He enters the house of a woman new to the area, thinking she won't recognize him. As they talk, she tells Huck there is a $300 reward for Jim, who is accused of killing Huck. She becomes suspicious of Huck's true gender, however; these suspicions are confirmed when she sees he cannot thread a needle. She cleverly tricks him into revealing he's a boy, and he manages to run off. He returns to the island, tells Jim of the manhunt, and the two load up the raft and leave the island.

The Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons

Huck and Jim's raft is swamped by a passing steamship, separating the two. Huck is given shelter by the Grangerfords, a prosperous local family. He becomes friends with Buck Grangerford, a boy about his age, and learns that the Grangerfords are engaged in a 30-year blood feud against another family, the Shepherdsons. The Grangerfords and Shepherdsons go to church. Both families bring guns to continue the feud despite the preaching at the church being on brotherly love.

The vendetta comes to a head when Buck's sister, Sophia Grangerford, elopes with Harney Shepherdson. In the resulting conflict, all of the remaining Grangerford males are shot and killed, and upon seeing Buck's corpse, Huck is too devastated to write about everything that happened. However, Huck does describe how he narrowly avoids his own death in the gunfight, later reuniting with Jim and the raft and together fleeing farther south on the Mississippi River.

The Duke and the King

Further down the river, Jim and Huck rescue two cunning grifters A confidence trick or confidence game is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. The victim is known as the mark, the trickster is called a confidence man, con man, confidence trickster, or con artist, and any accomplices are known as shills. Confidence men or women exploit human characteristics such as greed and, who join Huck and Jim on the raft. The younger of the two swindlers, a man of about thirty, introduces himself as a son of an English duke A duke is a member of the nobility, historically of highest rank below the monarch, and historically controlling a duchy. The title comes from the Latin Dux Bellorum, a term that ancient Roman chroniclers used to describe tribal Germanic and Celtic war leaders (the Duke of Bridgewater, which the King later mispronounces as "Bilgewater") and his father's rightful successor. The older one, about seventy, then trumps the duke's claim by alleging that he is actually the Lost Dauphin Louis XVII of France, also Louis VI of Navarre , from birth to 1789 known as Louis-Charles, Duke of Normandy; then from 1789 to 1791 as Louis-Charles, Dauphin of Viennois; and from 1791 to 1793 as Louis-Charles, Prince Royal of France, was the son of King Louis XVI of France and Queen Marie Antoinette. As the son of the king, he was a Fils de, the son of Louis XVI Louis XVI of France ruled as King of France and Navarre from 1774 until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792. Suspended and arrested during the Insurrection of 10 August 1792, he was tried by the National Convention, found guilty of treason, and executed by guillotine on 21 January 1793. He was the only king of France to be and rightful King of France. The Duke and the King then force Jim and Huck to allow them to travel on the raft, committing a series of confidence A confidence trick or confidence game is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. The victim is known as the mark, the trickster is called a confidence man, con man, confidence trickster, or con artist, and any accomplices are known as shills. Confidence men or women exploit human characteristics such as greed and schemes on the way south. On one occasion they arrive in a town and rent the courthouse for a night for the purpose of printing bills to advertise a play which they call the 'Royal Nonesuch'. The play turns out to be a crude affair, and this angers the townspeople who were fooled into paying to see it.

Meanwhile on the day of the play, a drunk called Boggs arrives in town and makes a nuisance of himself by going around threatening a southern gentleman by the name of Colonel Sherburn. Sherburn comes out and warns Boggs that he can continue threatening him up until exactly one o'clock. At one o'clock, Boggs continues his behaviour and Colonel Sherburn immediately shoots Boggs and kills him. Somebody in the crowd then cries out that Sherburn should be lynched CERD · CEDAW · CDE · ILO C111 · ILO C100 · ILO C169 · Protocol No. 12 ECHR and they all head up to Colonel Sherburn's gate. This is all witnessed by Huck. Sherburn emerges on the roof of his porch and faces the lynch mob with a loaded rifle. He forces them to back down after making an extended speech regarding what he believes to be the essential cowardice of "Southern justice". He criticises them for the fact that they all followed behind the suggestion of one man, and he tells them that the only lynching that's going to be done here will be in the dark by men wearing masks. (This vignette, is thought to represent Twain's own contradictory and misanthropic impulses — Huck, the outcast, essentially flees from Southern society, while Sherburn, the gentleman, confronts it, albeit in a brutal, destructive fashion.)[11],[12]

When they attempt to perform the 'Royal Nonesuch' play for the third time, the townspeople are ready. The Duke and the King are also ready and they flee the town and escape down the river on the raft with Huck. The Duke and the King's schemes reach their peak when the two grifters impersonate the brothers of Peter Wilkes, a recently deceased man of property. Using an absurd English accent, the King manages to convince most of the townspeople that he and the Duke are Wilkes's brothers recently arrived from England, and proceeds to liquidate Wilkes's estate. One man in town however suspects that they are a fraud and challenges them. This unnerves the Duke somewhat, who suggests to the King that they should now cut and run. The King reassures the Duke with the comment "Hain't we got all the fools in town on our side? And ain't that a big enough majority in any town?"

Huck is upset at the men's plan to steal the inheritance from Wilkes's daughters and actual brothers, as well as their actions in selling Wilkes's slaves and separating their families. To thwart their plans, Huck steals the money the two have acquired and hides it in Wilkes's coffin. Shortly thereafter, the two con men are exposed when two other men, Wilkes's true brothers, arrive. However, when the money is found in Wilkes's coffin, the Duke and the King are able to escape in the confusion, rejoining Huck and Jim on the raft. Upon seeing the Duke and King, Huck becomes very sad because he thought he had rid himself of the con men.

Jim's escape

After the four fugitives flee farther south on their raft, the King "captures" Jim and sells his interest in any reward while Huck is away in a nearby town. Outraged by this betrayal Huck rejects the advice of his "conscience," which continues to tell him that in helping Jim escape to freedom, he is stealing Miss Watson's property. Telling himself "All right, then, I'll go to hell!", Huck resolves to free Jim.

Huck discovers, upon arriving at the house in which Jim is being held, that the King has sold him in a bar for forty dollars. In a staggering coincidence, Jim's new owners, Mr. and Mrs. Phelps, are the Aunt and Uncle of Tom Sawyer, who is expected for a visit, and Huck is mistaken for Tom himself, and plays along, hoping to find a way to free Jim. Shortly after, Tom himself arrives, and pretending to be his own younger brother Sid, agrees to join Huck's scheme. Jim reveals the Duke and the King's involvement in the Royal Nonesuch before the two rogues are able to set their confidence game into motion. That night the Duke and King are captured by the townspeople, and are tarred and feathered Tarring and feathering is a physical punishment, used to enforce formal justice in feudal Europe and informal justice in Europe and its colonies in the early modern period, as well as the early American frontier, mostly as a type of mob vengeance and ridden out of town on a rail.

Rather than simply sneaking Jim out of the shed where he is being held, Tom develops an elaborate plan to free him, involving secret messages, hidden tunnels, a rope ladder sent in Jim's food, and other elements from popular novels,[13] including a note to the Phelps warning them of an Indian tribe stealing their runaway slave. During the resulting pursuit, Tom is shot in the leg, and rather than complete his escape, Jim attends to him and insists that Huck find a doctor in town to treat the injury. This is the first time that Jim demands something from a white person; Huck explains this by saying "I knowed he was white on the inside...so it was all right now." Jim and Tom are then captured and brought back by the doctor.

Conclusion

After Jim's recapture, events quickly resolve themselves. Tom's Aunt Polly arrives and reveals Huck's and Tom's true identities. Tom announces that Jim has been free for months: Miss Watson died two months earlier and freed Jim in her will, but Tom chose not to reveal Jim's freedom so he could come up with an elaborate plan to rescue Jim. Jim tells Huck that Huck's father has been dead for some time and that Huck may return safely to St. Petersburg. In the final narrative, Huck declares that he is quite glad to be done writing his story, and despite Tom's family's plans to adopt and "sivilize" him, Huck intends to flee west to Indian Territory The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the use of Native Americans. The general borders were set by the Indian Intercourse Act of 1834.

Major themes

Twain wrote a novel that embodies the search for freedom. He wrote during the post-Civil War Union blockade – Eastern – Western – Lower Seaboard – Trans-Mississippi – Pacific Coast period when there was an intense white White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin. Rather than a straightforward description of skin color, the term white also functions as a color term for race, often referring narrowly to people claiming ancestry exclusively from Europe reaction against blacks Predominantly Protestant ; some Roman Catholics. Minorities practice Islam and other religions. According to some critics, Twain took aim squarely against racial prejudice CERD · CEDAW · CDE · ILO C111 · ILO C100 · ILO C169 · Protocol No. 12 ECHR, increasing segregation Crime of apartheid · CERD · CEDAW · CDE · ILO C111 · ILO C100 · ILO C169 · Protocol No. 12 ECHR, lynchings CERD · CEDAW · CDE · ILO C111 · ILO C100 · ILO C169 · Protocol No. 12 ECHR, and the generally accepted belief that blacks were sub-human. He "made it clear that Jim was good, deeply loving, human, and anxious for freedom."[14] However, others have criticized the novel as racist, citing the use of the word "nigger" and Jim's Sambo-like character.[2][3]

Throughout the story, Huck is in moral conflict with the received values of the society in which he lives, and while he is unable to consciously refute those values even in his thoughts, he makes a moral choice based on his own valuation of Jim's friendship and human worth, a decision in direct opposition to the things he has been taught. Mark Twain in his lecture notes proposes that "a sound heart is a surer guide than an ill-trained conscience," and goes on to describe the novel as "...a book of mine where a sound heart and a deformed conscience come into collision and conscience suffers defeat."[15]

Reception

The publication of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn resulted in generally friendly reviews, but the novel was controversial from the outset.[16] Upon issue of the American edition in 1885 a number of libraries banned it from their stacks.[17] The early criticism focused on what was perceived as the book's crudeness. One incident was recounted in the newspaper, the Boston Transcript:

The Concord (Mass.) Public Library committee has decided to exclude Mark Twain's latest book from the library. One member of the committee says that, while he does not wish to call it immoral, he thinks it contains but little humor, and that of a very coarse type. He regards it as the veriest trash. The library and the other members of the committee entertain similar views, characterizing it as rough, coarse, and inelegant, dealing with a series of experiences not elevating, the whole book being more suited to the slums than to intelligent, respectable people.[17]

Twain later remarked to his editor, "Apparently, the Concord library has condemned Huck as 'trash and only suitable for the slums.' This will sell us another five thousand copies for sure!"

In this scene illustrated by E. W. Kemble Edward Winsor Kemble was an American cartoonist and illustrator. Born in Sacramento, California, his family moved to New York when he was young, Jim thinks Huck is a ghost

Many subsequent critics, Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American writer and journalist. His distinctive writing style, characterized by economy and understatement, influenced 20th-century fiction, as did his life of adventure and public image. He produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. Hemingway's among them, have deprecated the final chapters, claiming the book "devolves into little more than minstrel-show satire and broad comedy" after Jim is detained.[18] Hemingway declared, "All modern American literature comes from" Huck Finn, and hailed it as "the best book we've had." He cautioned, however, "If you must read it you must stop where the Nigger Jim is stolen from the boys. That is the real end. The rest is just cheating."[19] (The term "Nigger Jim" never appears in the novel but after appearing in Albert Bigelow Paine's Albert Bigelow Paine was an American author and biographer best known for his work with Mark Twain. Paine was a member of the Pulitzer Prize Committee and wrote in several genres, including fiction, humour, and verse 1912 Clemens biography, continued to be used by twentieth century critics, including Leslie Fiedler, Norman Mailer, and Russell Baker.) Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by Hungarian-American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City. According to the administrators of the Pulitzer Prize the correct pronunciation of the name winner Ron Powers Ron Powers is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, novelist, and non-fiction writer. His works include White Town Drowsing: Journeys to Hannibal, Dangerous Water: A Biography of the Boy Who Became Mark Twain, and Mark Twain: A Life. With James Bradley, he co-wrote the 2000 #1 New York Times Bestseller Flags of Our Fathers states in his Twain biography (Mark Twain: A Life) that "Huckleberry Finn endures as a consensus masterpiece despite these final chapters," in which Tom Sawyer leads Huck through elaborate machinations to rescue Jim.[20]

Much modern scholarship of Huckleberry Finn has focused on its treatment of race. Many Twain scholars have argued that the book, by humanizing Jim and exposing the fallacies of the racist assumptions of slavery, is an attack on racism.[21] Others have argued that the book falls short on this score, especially in its depiction of Jim.[17] According to Professor Stephen Railton of the University of Virginia The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson. Conceived by 1800 and established in 1819, it is the only university in the United States to be designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, an honor it shares with nearby Monticello. The University of Virginia is one of the, Twain was unable to fully rise above the stereotypes of black people that white readers of his era expected and enjoyed, and therefore resorted to minstrel show The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the Civil War, black people in blackface. Blackface branched off from the minstrel show-style comedy to provide humor at Jim's expense, and ended up confirming rather than challenging late-19th century racist stereotypes.[22]

Because of this controversy over whether Huckleberry Finn is racist or anti-racist, and because the word "nigger" is frequently used in the novel, many have questioned the appropriateness of teaching the book in the U.S. public school system. According to the American Library Association The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 65,000 members, Huckleberry Finn was the fifth most frequently challenged book in the United States during the 1990s.[23]

Adaptations

Film

Stage

Literature

Music

References

  1. ^ Facsimile of the 1st US edition.
  2. ^ a b Lester, Julius. Morality and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
  3. ^ a b Woodard, Fredrick and MacCann, Donnarae. Minstrel Shackles and Nineteenth Century "Liberality" in Huckleberry Finn.
  4. ^ Twain, Mark (2001-10-01). "Introduction". The Annotated Huckleberry Finn. introduction and annotations by Michael Patrick Hearn. W. W. Norton & Company. xiv–xvii, xxix. ISBN 0-393-02039-8.
  5. ^ Young, Philip (1966-12-01). Ernest Hemingway: A Reconsideration. Penn State Press. p. 212. ISBN 0-271-02092-X.
  6. ^ Reif, Rita (1991-02-14). "First Half of 'Huck Finn,' in Twain's Hand, Is Found". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE6D9103FF937A25751C0A967958260. Retrieved 2008-02-10.
  7. ^ a b Baker, William (1996-06-01). "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (book reviews)". Antioch Review (Antioch University) 54 (3): 363–4.
  8. ^ Blair, Walter (1960). Mark Twain & Huck Finn. University of California Press.
  9. ^ Reif, Rita. Antiques: How Huck Finn was rescued. New York Times, March 17, 1991 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE7D81E3DF934A25750C0A967958260
  10. ^ http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/PAO/history/MISSRNAV/steamboat.asp
  11. ^ Jehlen, Myra (1995-05-26). "Banned in Concord: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Classic American Literature". in Forrest G. Robinson (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Mark Twain. Cambridge University Press. pp. 107–109. ISBN 0-521-44593-0.
  12. ^ The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, "Colonel Sherburn and Boggs"
  13. ^ Victor A. Doyno (1991). Writing Huck Finn: Mark Twain's creative process. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 191. ISBN tk. [1]
  14. ^ Leonard, James S.; Thomas A. Tenney and Thadious M. Davis (December 1992). Satire or Evasion?: Black Perspectives on Huckleberry Finn. Duke University Press. pp. 224. http://books.google.com/books?id=fdrBtpSSCisC&pg=RA1-PA116&lpg=RA1-PA116&dq=hemingway+%22huckleberry+finn%22+%22green+hills%22&source=web&ots=BIzUvlS8O2&sig=tFc7B8esmZs6DT0gLwx-0uxRgxY#PRA1-PA119-IA5,M1.
  15. ^ Mark Twain: Critical Assessments, Stuart Hutchinson, Ed, Routledge 1993, p. 193
  16. ^ Mailer, Norman (1984-12-09). "Huckleberry Finn, Alive at 100". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/09/books/mailer-huck.html. Retrieved 2008-02-10.
  17. ^ a b c Leonard, James S.; Thomas A. Tenney and Thadious M. Davis (December 1992). Satire or Evasion?: Black Perspectives on Huckleberry Finn. Duke University Press. pp. 2. http://books.google.com/books?id=fdrBtpSSCisC&pg=RA1-PA116&lpg=RA1-PA116&dq=hemingway+%22huckleberry+finn%22+%22green+hills%22&source=web&ots=BIzUvlS8O2&sig=tFc7B8esmZs6DT0gLwx-0uxRgxY#PRA1-PA119-IA5,M1.
  18. ^ Nick, Gillespie (February 2006). "Mark Twain vs. Tom Sawyer: The bold deconstruction of a national icon". http://www.reason.com/news/show/36203.html. Retrieved 2008-02-07.
  19. ^ Hemingway, Ernest (1935). Green Hills of Africa. New York: Scribners. pp. 22.
  20. ^ Powers, Ron (2005-09-13). Mark Twain: A Life. Free Press. pp. 476–7.
  21. ^ For example, Shelley Fisher Fishin, Lighting out for the Territory: Reflections on Mark Twain and American Culture (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997).
  22. ^ Stephen Railton, "Jim and Mark Twain: What Do Dey Stan' For?" Virginia Quarterly Review 63 (1987).
  23. ^ ALA | 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-1999
  24. ^ IMDB, Huckleberry Finn (1920)
  25. ^ IMDB, Huckleberry Finn (1931)

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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Works by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
Novels:

The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer • The Prince and the Pauper • Adventures of Huckleberry Finn • A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court • The American Claimant • Tom Sawyer Abroad • Pudd'nhead Wilson • Tom Sawyer, Detective • Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc • A Double Barrelled Detective Story • A Dog's Tale • A Horse's Tale • The Mysterious Stranger
Short stories:

"General Washington's Negro Body-Servant" • "My Late Senatorial Secretaryship" • "Advice to Little Girls" • "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" • "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg" • "The War Prayer" • "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven" • "A Literary Nightmare" • "Luck" • "The Stolen White Elephant" • "1601: Conversation, as it was by the Social Fireside, in the Time of the Tudors" • "A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage"
Short story collections:

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County • Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance • Sketches New and Old • A True Story and the Recent Carnival of Crime • Punch, Brothers, Punch! and Other Sketches • Merry Tales • The £1,000,000 Bank Note and Other New Stories • The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories • Letters from the Earth
Plays:

Is He Dead?
Essays:

Edmund Burke on Croker and Tammany • How to Tell a Story and Other Essays • Christian Science • Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses • The Awful German Language
Non fiction:

The Innocents Abroad • Memoranda (monthly column) • Roughing It • Old Times on the Mississippi • A Tramp Abroad • Life on the Mississippi • Following the Equator • What Is Man? • Is Shakespeare Dead? • Queen Victoria's Jubilee • Mark Twain's Autobiography • Mark Twain's Notebook • King Leopold's Soliloquy • The Private History of a Campaign That Failed • Mark Twain's Weapons of Satire: Anti-Imperialist Writings on the Philippine-American War • The Bible According to Mark Twain: Writings on Heaven, Eden, and the Flood

Categories: 1884 novels | Children's novels | Novels by Mark Twain | Adventure novels | Rafts | Novels dealing with slavery

 

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'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' News
Off The Shelf: Mark Twain comes out to play - Los Angeles Times
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Off The Shelf: Mark Twain comes out to play

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When I was young, " Adventures of Huckleberry Finn " made me want to build a raft. But then, I was lucky to read this book outside of school, when I was stuck ...

Hal Holbrook, Who Has Played Mark Twain For 56 Years, Returns To Hartford For ... Hartford Courant

Hal Holbrook Recalls Meeting Mark Twain's Daughter Hartford Courant (blog)

Hal Holbrook goes Southern Gothic, and Faulknerian, for That Evening Sun Orlando Sentinel (blog)

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Huckleberry Finn as depicted by E W Kemble in the original 1884 edition of the book

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'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' Answers
the adventures of huckleberry finn why does huck say there is no home like a raft?
Q. Why does huck say there is no home like a raft? in chapter 18 what does huck learn about jim and how does hucks undertanding of jim change? why does huck say there is no home like a raft? who are the only members of the feuding families specifically mentioned as saved from the massacre?
Asked by girleefacer - Tue May 18 18:58:49 2010 - - 1 Answers - 0 Comments

A. Why does Huck say there is no home like a 'raft'? ANSWER: At this point in Chapter 18, Huck has just escaped from the Grangerford-Shepherdson feud and is thoroughly sickened by society. Compared to the outrageous incidents onshore, the raft represents a retreat from the outside world, the site of simple pleasures and good companionship. Even the simple food Jim offers Huck is delicious in this atmosphere of freedom and comfort. Huck and Jim do not have to answer to anyone on the raft, and it represents a kind of utopian life for them. They try to maintain this idyllic separation from society and its problems, but as the raft makes its way southward, unsavory influences from onshore repeatedly invade the world of the raft. In a sense,… [cont.]
Answered by Kitt - Tue May 18 19:11:53 2010

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