When Huckleberry Finn runs away with a former slave named Jim from 'civilized' life, they end up in some wild adventures. Some as dark and as deep as the Mississippi River they travel on.
Names change, truth becomes lies, and people are not who they claim to be. Huck has to face the greatest challenge to choose between following the rules or his heart.
Huckleberry Finn starts off with Twain changing the way he writes his novels. Where we first meet Huck, in Tom Sawyer, the novel is written in third person, Huck Finn is written in first person. And Twain, being the cunning man he is, intended that to mean something. Third person intended to portray civilization and being a high class Englishman. First person with all the slang mixed in intends to demonstrate the American way, being free and wild. Yay, English problems.
The way Twain writes this also is very insulting to the average white man at the time this was written. Instead of the usual stupid black of this time, twain made fun of the men in charge the white guys. He portrays them as dumb and hateful. This book was written soon after the civil war and blacks were ‘free’. So this is a very sensitive subject to most of the readers.
Most importantly we see the growth in Huck. In the beginning of the novel he is racist and ignorant just like the rest of the white people. He plays tricks on Jim and is mean. In the end though, he follows his heart and even does the taboo thing of apologizing to a black man. This was still unheard of at the time.
People find this book controversial and even have banned it from schools. In my personal belief this is wrong. Just because a word that is offensive now is used, does not mean that in the time of the writing it was not normal. We learn from our past and strive not to repeat ourselves, seeing this truth can make people realize what we are trying not to return to.
Anyway, away from the literature lesson. My personal opinion of this book is not great. I enjoyed the meaning and story. The characters were wonderful and you could see how they grew throughout the series. The major thing I didn’t like is the dialect. We obviously don’t talk like we did back then. This makes it very difficult to read and you literally have to read out loud to understand what some characters are saying. I honestly appreciate this book, but reading it was torturous.
I would recommend this to mature audiences. The topics breached are not for the faint of heart. I believe everyone should at least try to read it at least once in their lifetime. What I did to get through it was read the chapter and tried to understand it the best of my ability and then went on sites like sparknote.com and read what it was trying to convey. This honestly helps and it is not cheating. Understanding is a big part of reading and this method will get you through.
Thank you for reading, and if you have any requests for anything, post it below.