The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Hey everyone! Well, it is the first time that I have written a blog in months but I have been so busy with school that I just couldn't find the time. But my goal *fingers crossed* is to try and blog actively over the winter break. To start it off, I am going to review a book that I just finished reading for AP English - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.

Characters: Huckleberry Finn: part of Tom Sawyer's "kidnappers" and "murderers" group/ escapee from his father's clutches/friend to Jim
Jim: Huck's guardian's slave/escapes slavery after he hears he will be sold/is very superstitious.
The Duke and the King: two con-artists that Huck and Jim rescue/are truly evil/come up with various schemes to get money and harm people
Tom Sawyer: Huck's friend/is the most "well-read" of anyone Huck knows/thinks that everything can be turned into some sort of epic adventure.

The Plot: Huckleberry Finn has barely recovered from his adventures with Tom Sawyer when more danger arrives in the form of his father. His father, hearing of the money Huck got after he found Injun Joe's treasure, comes to find Huck in order to take his money. Huck is currently living with the Widow and he hates it. But when his father takes him from the Widow, Huck finds his life going from bad to worse. Huck fakes his death in order to escape his father and "sivilization" and decides to live on an island for the rest of his life. Imagine his surprise when one of the Widow's slaves, Jim, appears on the same island. Having heard that the Widow was going to sell him "down the river" Jim escapes and hopes to run away to freedom. When Huck and Jim are close to being discovered on their island, they build a raft and head down river towards the dangerous Deep South. The farther they go, Huck's rebellious spirit makes him question slavery and whether or not turning Jim in is something that he should do.

What I liked: I honestly loved this story. I think part of the reason that I loved this book so much is because I loved Huck Finn. Huck Finn was the type of narrator that any good book should have. Brutally honest, clever but with an affinity for breaking the law, and a good heart, you instantly love him. Huck has this habit of telling people what they want to hear in order to better his situation by playing off what they tell him, and twisting it so they instantly believe them. For example, at one point Huck has locked a bunch of murderers and robbers in a steamboat but feels bad because he thinks they will drown as the boat sinks. He then proceeds to tell the boatman about the boat, but the boatman says his boss won't let him leave his post. So Huck simply tells him that its his boss's family on the boat. Simple cleverness like that makes him a lovable character. The fact is though, Mark Twain chose a good narrator when he picked a young boy. If you have read "To Kill a Mockingbird", its kind of the same situation with the narrator as Scout (a young girl). By having a young child as the narrator, they are able to question society differently because they are so young and haven't accepted the social prejudices of their society. My favorite part of the book is when Huck decides early on that he doesn't want to go to heaven because the Widow's sister Miss Watson says that she is going there. Just this point blank honesty makes Huck a powerful narrator. At one point, Huck can see these men coming down the river and he swims to them to ask for directions. Huck has to decide if he will turn Jim in, even though he has been taught that God approves of slavery. He is sitting there and decides that "well, I'm going to hell then," and decides to not turn in Jim. This young boy has already accepted his fate and is not ready to change what he believes in order to compromise himself. What I thought was really interesting is that a lot of people think that Mark Twain was a racist and that this is a racist book. Personally, I just really couldn't understand that. It seemed so obvious to me that this book was about a struggle between what Huck knew was right and what society was telling him that I just couldn't understand why people think the book was racist. If I had to guess it was probably because the book had the n-word in it. I don't know that just seems ridiculous. Twain wrote a book that was true to the times and preserved the historical accuracies of the time. For me, this made the book more real: I love books that take a historical time period and put fictional characters in it in order to criticize or comment about that society. It makes the book come alive. If you didn't have the n-word, it would be like hiding a part of that society. Twain wasn't a racist, just a man commenting on society. If you want to see more of Mark Twain's satire in "Huckleberry Finn" check out this link: http://www.goatview.com/may21juliamoore.htm.

What I didn't like: Tom Sawyer is a jerk! Sorry but there really isn't a nice word for how he acts. *MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK* Jim ends up being captured and being held as a fugitive slave in Tom's Aunt's house. Tom and Huck decide to free him, but Tom thinks that Huck's plan is too sensible. He comes up with this elaborate scheme that delays Jim's rescue for several months and almost gets all three of them killed, and Jim doesn't even get rescued. Tom even withholds the information that Jim was free all along just so he can play his little game with Jim. While I understand that Twain did this in order to show how Tom hasn't changed while Huck has, I still hated this part.

Overall: 10 out of 10. An American classic that doesn't deserve the bad rap it gets.