The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn - Research Paper Example

Huckleberry Finn Introduction The book the Adventure of Huckleberry Finn starts with familiarizing the reader about occurrences that happened before the author wrote down the novel. The two novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the latter have their setting in St. Petersburg, Missouri that is found on Mississippi river banks. The paper analyzes the Huckleberry Finn story. Summary of the Huckleberry Finn story The end of the novel Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn who comes from a poor family, brought up by a drunken father and his close ally Tom Sawyer from a middle class family finds a stash of gold hidden by robbers. Huck outcome of his adventures is he finally owns a lot of money which he puts in the bank for safety purposes. Huck used to live with a widow called Miss Watson who was a kind but oppressive woman. They were staying together with Miss Watson sister after he was adoption (Twain 109). The start of the book depicts Huck sadness with the new life after his adoption. The level of cleanliness, mannerisms, attendance of both school and the church, does not thrill him. However, he perseveres after his friend challenges him to stay respectable if he wants to join Tom new gang. Huck lives a comfortable life until the reemergence of his drunken father who surfaces in town and claims a share of Huck money. The neighboring judge ,but a new judge who comes to their town believes in Hucks biological fathers’ right and goes to an extent of accommodating him in his home with a view of reforming him. He does all these so as to give custodial rights to Huck father; the judge fails as Pap, Hucks father revert to his past unethical behavior. He stays in town for some months distressing his son as he has already learned reading and tolerance of the widow habit to transform him into a better person. Outraged by Pap’s behavior, the widow orders him to keep away from her residence. This results in Pap kidnapping Huck and puts him across the riverbanks in a small cabin. The father locks Huck in the cabin and goes to drink and thereafter beats him mercilessly when he comes back home drunk. Huck escapes after the confinement and aggressive daily beatings. He accomplishes to escape to freedom after slaughtering a pig and spreading blood in the cabin in the pretext of his death. He hid on a highland found at the heart of Mississippi river as he watches people from the town search for his corpse. He meets Jim, who is a slave of Miss Watson, a few days later on the island. He has chosen to escape listening to the widow conversation on her intention to sell her to another plantation near the river. He is afraid of inhumane treatment in the other plantation and separation from his family. They join forces despite Huck conviction on the moral obligation of offering his help to a fugitive slave (Twain 145). During one of their camping expedition in the island, they come across a dead man with bullet shots. They find him inside a house on a raft as they try capturing it with an aim of looting the house. Jim prohibits Huck from having a glimpse of the face of the dead man. They are forced to move out of the island after Hucks gets information that another man suspects that Jim stays in the highland. The man justifies his statement by stressing the smoke that emanates from the island. They proceed to the states that condone slavery up the river. On their way to St. Loise, they come into contact with robbers on a ruined steamboat. They finally escape with the thieves’ loot. One night, both Huck and Jim, meet a group of young men in search of fugitive slaves. Huck lie to the group by informing them that his father is suffering in the raft infected with small pox. The men offer Huck money and disappear as they are afraid of the infectious disease. Their raft is hit by a steam boat, and the two of them are alienated. He finds himself in Grangerford’s family. The elopement of a Grangerford daughter elopes with Shepherdson son resulting to a gun cross fire that leads to the murder of numerous families. Jim resurfaces and saves Huck and takes him to his hiding place. They later rescue two men who are running away from armed bandits. The men who are con men pretend to be the brother of Peter Wilks so as to inherit a large portion of inheritance that is his brother’s shares. Wilks nieces receive the men, and they immediately start to divide the large estate. Some town people become suspicious as Huck great admiration for the Wilks sisters prevents the scam. He steals the gold from the imposters and puts it in Wilks casket. He exposes the issue to Wilks eldest sister and Hucks plans on revealing the secret about the imposters. The real brothers resurface from England as angry people in the town react by forcefully arresting both sets. The fake duo escapes in the confusion as the sisters finds the stolen gold. The duke duo continues with their criminal activities by selling Jim as a slave to a local farmer in the town. They inform the farmer that a reward is being offered to an individual who comes across Jim. Huck devices a plan to free him after finding out the exact location that he is imprisoned. Tom and Jim team up to help free Jim from Tom’s aunt. Their plan succeeds as Jim is freed and Tom is shot on the leg. Hucks get a doctor to treat Tom as Jim takes his time to look after Tom. Tom realizes that Jim is a liberated man as the widow has stated in his will Jim freedom. Huck decides to move to the west after her Aunt offers to adopt him. Themes in the story Racism and slavery It is fascinating that after two decades when Twain writes Huckleberry Finn since the Emancipation Proclamation and End of the Civil War, racism and the repercussions of slavery were still eminent in America principally in the South. The arrangement of reconstructing and restructuring the USA to put it back together after a disastrous war and integrate the freed slaves into the community seamlessly had reached a blind alley in the early 1880s though there was still a chance to for the plan to succeed. After the civil war race, relationships seemed to be on the positive notch but once again became nervy as Twain was working on his novel. When Jim Crow laws were imposed, they were intended to limit the powers and rights of blacks in the south in several meandering habits that gave rise to new, sinister attempt to oppress. This novel type of racism in the south was more complex to fight, as it was less institutionalized and colossal. Although slavery was outlawed, when white southerners invented racist rules or policies under a confessed purpose of self-defense against the recently freed black slaves fewer on no people from either the south or north were against it, stopped it as an immoral act (Twain et al 178). Twain’s novel though written a little while after slavery was abolished is written in such a way that it covers several more decades earlier when slavery was still ripe and considered as part of the people’s culture. However, even during Twain’s time, things had not gotten any better for the blacks mostly those on the south. Furthermore, Twain’s illustration of slavery as a figurative representation of the state of blacks in the United States shows how blacks were treated even after slavery was abolished. In Huckleberry Finn, Twain, exposes the two-facedness of slavery. There is total confusion morally in which white people were perceived to be good covering for the mistreatment of the black race. Logical and ethical Education The book Huckleberry focuses on Huck education by fitting into the customs of roman buildings. The novel outlines a person maturity level and development. Huck grows up as uneducated poor, young man who suffers during his childhood as a result of being an orphan. Huck hates the negative moral behavior and pretence in the society disbelieves the morals and guideline within the human race that treats and equates him to an orphan. The society secludes him and views him as an outcast and is unable to defend him from abuse. The apprehension he has about people and his budding association with Jim, results to him questioning the society teachings on racial discrimination and slavery. In many situations depicted in the book, Huck opts, to burn in hell as opposed to the ideologies and principles outlined by the society (Twain et al 206). He is against the teachings and laws and decides to follow the teachings he has received. Huck forms the foundation of his decisions on personal experiences, logical sense and the feelings of his rising conscience. Faced with limited civilization on the raft, he is liberated to make independent decisions without limitations as he is free from societal demands and rules. Experiencing deep introspection encourages him to start making his personal decisions regardless of other opinions about his ideologies. He is ignorant of the hypocritical Southern culture full of deceitful rules and customs. At the end of the book, Huck learns to understand the people around him, differentiate good ethical values, from unethical habits, disturbances, danger, ally, and everything that goes on in his surroundings. Huck moral development contradicts the personality of the author influenced by strange variety of escapade novels and teachings from his Sunday school class. He combines all these elements to substantiate his disgraceful and potentially detrimental escapades. The pretense of “Civilized” culture Huck decides to make plans on his trip to the West, to flee from further evolution. It happens at the end of the book as Huck avoids taking bath daily and attending school that is compulsory. Throughout the book, Twain portrays the society around him as a novel; Twain depicts the society around him as a compilation of tainted rules and precepts that challenge logical r This flawed logic reflects at the start of the book when Pap gets permission from the newly appointed judge in the town to have custody of Huck. The judge gives privileges to Pap, offering him custodial rights over Huck (Twain et al 234). Pap becomes the natural fatherly figure and assumes responsibilities over Huck welfare. Conversely, the judge decision stresses a system that gives white man civil liberties to his slaves. The white man views them as property and extends his limitations on the freedom and welfare of the black man. It implicitly equates the slave’s plight to Huck experiences under the watchful eye of Pap. Twain states that it is difficult for a community that advocate for slavery to practice fairness regardless of their civilization level. Just society ideologies are founded on equality and impartiality. Huck interacts with individuals who have a nice personality for example, Sally Phelps. Twain takes his time to highlight the behavioral aspect of the biased slave owners. This unstable sense of impartiality that Huck frequently encounters forms the basis and center of societal setbacks. This is because unethical acts are ignored and given space to thrive yet trivial criminal offences that include drunkenly insulting other people results to executions. Sherburn’s speech when he addresses the people who are ready to lynch him precisely summarizes society ideologies that Twain expresses in the book Huckleberry Finn. The society exhibits cowardice, irrational reasoning, and deep selfishness instead of upholding collective welfare that enhances general protection of all persons in the society. Works Cited Twain, Mark, Sculley Bradley, Richmond Croom Beatty, E. Hudson Long, and Thomas Cooley. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: an authoritative text, backgrounds and sources, criticism. New York: Norton, 1977. Print. The Boy and the River; without beginning or end" by T.S Eliot "Mr. Eliot, Mr. Trilling, and Huckleberry Finn" by Leo Marx "Say it Aint so, Huck" Second thoughts on Mark Twain’s "Masterpiece" by Jane Smiley Read More