Published 1884 / Length 369 pages
Often thought of as the quintessential American novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the tale of a thirteen-year-old boy named Huckleberry Finn and his escapades on the Mississippi River. The story is told through Huck’s eyes, and words in the text are often spelt as Huck would spell them, lending this adventure story a lighthearted tone. However, beneath this carefree veneer are deeper themes, including racism. When Jim, Widow Douglas’s slave, finds out that he is going to be sold and separated from his family, he runs away to try to find a way to the Free States. He and Huck team up on a raft and Huck vows to help Jim escape. Along the way, the pair encounter con men, thieves and feuding aristocrats, who all try to unbalance the equal terms by which Huck and Jim live peacefully on the raft. Ultimately, Huck’s journey downriver is symbolic of his personal development, as he realizes that society’s way is not necessarily the only way; and this is Twain’s message to America.
‘It’s the kind of book you can enjoy on whatever level you feel like. It deals with heavy themes, but they never become overpowering, so you can just enjoy the adventure.’ – MARK, 23
• The Notice at the beginning of the book pokes fun at those who will try to find a moral – but by including this, does Twain insist that the book is more than just an adventure?
• Is the book racist or anti-racist? Are Huck’s comments and actions knowingly prejudiced, behaving as society expects in order to trick it, or does he really believe these things?
• The contrast between Huck and Jim’s small society on the raft and that on the banks of the Mississippi is striking. What is Twain trying to say about Southern values?
• Does the ending of the novel undermine any moral messages?
• The novel was banned for being subversive when first published; it was thought to present ideological perspectives that would go against traditional Southern values.
• The American Civil War was fought between 1861 and 1865. One of the aims of the Northern States was the emancipation of slaves in the South. Huckleberry Finn was published in 1884, two decades after the war had been won by the North and the Reconstruction – the integration of freed slaves back into society – had begun. Though the book is set before the Civil War, it is often thought to be a comment on conditions for blacks even after the abolition of slavery.
• Twain was once a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi. His real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens; Mark Twain was a pseudonym. The name comes from the cry of the leadsman measuring depth from the bows of a riverboat: ‘By the mark, twain!’
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by MARK TWAIN – the companion book that precedes Huckleberry Finn.
• Swallows and Amazons by ARTHUR RANSOME – similar themes of children’s adventures from an English perspective.
• A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by JAMES JOYCE – focuses on similar issues of growing up through shirking the traditions and conventions of society.