Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain

Details Of The Book

Title: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Author: Mark Twain
Publication: First published in the United Kingdom in December 1884 | in the United States in February 1885

About The Author

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and speaker.

Mark Twain’s early works were mostly light-hearted and humorous poetic prose, which evolved into a portrayed record of human vanity, hypocrisy, and cruelty. It is difficult to write a complete biography of Mark Twain because of the sheer volume of his work (much of it was published in obscure newspapers) and his often changing pseudonyms. In addition, a large portion of his speeches and lectures could not be found in written record. Thus, the collection of Twain’s works is a still ongoing process. Most recently, researchers again discovered Twain’s works in 1995.

About The Story

Main Characters

• Tom Sawyer is Huck’s best friend and peer, the main character of other Twain novels and the leader of the town boys in adventures. He is mischievous, good hearted, and “the best fighter and the smartest kid in town”.
• Huckleberry Finn, “Huck” to his friends, is a boy about “thirteen or fourteen or along there” years old. He has been brought up by his father, the town drunk, and has a difficult time fitting into society. In the novel, Huck’s good nature offers a contrast to the inadequacies and inequalities in society.
• Widow Douglas is the kind woman who takes Huck in after he helped save her from a violent home invasion. She tries her best to civilize Huck, believing it is her Christian duty to do so.
• Miss Watson is the widow’s sister, a tough old spinster who also lives with them. She is fairly hard on Huck, causing him to resent her a good deal.
• Jim is Miss Watson’s physically large but mild-mannered slave. Huck becomes very close to Jim when they reunite after Jim flees Miss Watson’s household to seek refuge from slavery, and Huck and Jim become fellow travelers on the Mississippi River.
• “Pap” Finn is Huck’s father, a brutal alcoholic drifter. He resents Huck getting any kind of education. His only genuine interest in his son involves begging or extorting money to feed his alcohol addiction.

Plot Summary

In the 1830s and 1840s, on the banks of the Mississippi River in St. Petersburg, Missouri, Huckleberry (Huck) Finn earned a substantial income after The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and was placed under the strict tutelage of Widow Douglas and her sister, Miss Watson. These two women tried to indoctrinate him, but Huck preferred the adventures with his friend Tom Sawyer. His father, “Papp”, an alcoholic, returns to town and tries to take possession of Huck’s property. When he fails, Papp kidnaps Huck and locks him up in a cabin in the woods.

To escape his father, Huck elaborately faked his own murder and sailed downriver. He settles on Jackson Island, where he is reunited with Miss Watson’s slave, Jim, who escapes after hearing that she intends to sell him. Huck decides to go downriver with Jim to Cairo, Illinois, a free state. After the water passes, the two find a raft and an entire house floating down the river. Inside, Jim finds a body that has been shot, but he stops Huck from looking at it. Huck sneaks into town and finds a reward being offered for Jim, suspected of killing Huck; the two escape on the raft.

Huck and Jim come across a stranded steamer where two thieves are discussing the murder of a third thief. Finding that their own raft has drifted away, Huck and Jim escape on the thieves’ boat before they are discovered. They find their raft again and sink the thieves’ boat, keeping their loot. Huck tricks a janitor into rescuing the trapped thief to appease his conscience. Huck and Jim are separated in the fog, and when they reunite, Huck tricks Jim into thinking that the whole thing was his dream. Jim is disappointed when Huck admits the truth. Huck is surprised by Jim’s strong feelings and apologizes to him.

Huck feels conflicted about supporting a runaway slave, which he was taught was a sin. He decides to turn Jim in, but when two white men looking for a runaway slave arrive on the raft, he lies to them and they leave. Jim and Huck realize that they have crossed Cairo. With no way to get back upriver, they decide to continue downriver. The raft is hit by a passing steamer and the two men are separated again.

n the riverbank, Huck meets the Grangerford family, who are engaged in a 30-year blood feud with the Shepherdson family, although no one remembers why the feud originally started. After a Grangerford daughter elopes with a Shepherdson boy, the feud boils over and all the Grangerford males are shot and killed in a Shepherdson ambush. Huck escapes and is reunited with Jim, who has recovered and repaired the raft.

At the river, Jim and Huck are joined by two men claiming to be a king and a duke. These two con men use Huck and Jim’s relationship to run a series of scams. In one town, the con men trick the townspeople with a brief but high-priced performance. On the third night, the con artists fled before the townspeople could take their revenge. In the next town, the con artists pose as the brother of the recently deceased Peter Wilkes and steal his inheritance. Huck tries to get the money back for Wilkes’ orphans. Two men claiming to be Wilkes’ real brothers arrive and cause a riot. Huck tries to escape in the chaos, but is caught by the crooks. He eventually escapes, but finds that the crooks have sold Jim to the Phelps family plantation. Huck vows to free Jim, even though he thinks he will go to hell for it.

The Phelps family mistakes Huck for their nephew, Tom, who is coming to visit Huck, and Huck goes along with it. It turns out that their nephew is Tom Sawyer. When he arrives, he matches Huck’s story with a dramatic plan to free Jim. In the process of escaping, Tom is injured. Instead of running away, Jim takes care of him and is arrested and returned to the plantation. Tom’s Aunt Polly arrives and reveals the true identity of the boys. She explains that Miss Watson has died and released Jim in her will. Tom admits that he knows this, but he wants to “save” Jim with style. Jim says that Huck’s father is the dead man they found in the floating house, so Huck can safely return to St. Petersburg. Huck declares that he plans to flee west to Indian Territory to escape adoption by the Phelps family.