The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

This is a fiction book and the sequel to Tom Sawyer. It takes place in the 1840s in Missouri. I enjoyed this book a great deal and loved the characters of Huck Finn and Jim and their adventures.

Synopsis: Huck Finn is around thirteen to fourteen years old. His mother is dead, and his father is physically abusive and a drunkard. Widow Douglas takes Huck in after he helps save her from a violent home invasion. She wants to civilize Huck because she believes it is her Christian duty to do so, and she is very kind.

Tom Sawyer is his best friend and is mischievous but also kind-hearted. Miss Watson is the sister of the Widow Douglas and lives with them and can be tough on Huck. Huck’s father returns and tries to take his fortune, and when he is unable to do so, he imprisons Huck in a remote cabin. After Huck’s father tries to kill him while being delirious, Huck fakes his own death and goes to Jackson’s Island where he meets up with Jim, the slave of Miss Watson who ran away after hearing she was planning on selling him.

Huck and Jim decide to sail to the Mississippi River to Cairo in Illinois where Jim where will be free. After Jim is sold to the Phelps, Huck vows to set Jim free, and Tom Sawyer helps Huck create a plan to set Jim free. Tom’s Aunt Polly arrives at the Phelps and reveals Huck and Tom’s true identities and that Miss Watson is dead and that she freed Jim in her will, and Jim tells Huck his Pap was dead also. Huck decides he will go to the Indian territory to escape being adopted and civilized by Sally and Silas Phelps.

Review:
Some of the themes I noticed in this book were race and identity and what it means to be free and civilized. It is also Huck’s coming of age story, and he forms a friendship and bond with Jim.

Huck is in moral conflict with the society in which he lives, and he decides to set Jim free based upon his friendship with Jim and Jim’s worth as a human being. When Huck hears Jim crying about missing his wife and children, he realizes Jim has the same feelings that he does.

“Jim was thinking about his wife and children, away up yonder, and he was low and homesick; because he hadn’t even been away from home before in his life; and I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks do for theirs.”

This is the fifth most frequently challenged book according to the American Library Association due to its racial language and stereotyping. In my opinion, I do not agree with banning books and believe it is the responsibility of the parent not the educator to decide what their child reads. Also, reading diverse types of literature exposes children to different ways of life and grows them as individuals.

“We had the sky up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made or only just happened.”

This shows the bond and friendship between Huck and Jim and I loved seeing their relationship grow.