The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in The Dusty Bookshelf

Jun 21, 2014 Kristina rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: naturalism-realism, fiction, classics

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. One of the categories in the Back to the Classics book challenge I am participating in this year is "an American Classic." Nothing seems more American to me than a novel by Mark Twain. I read Tom Sawyer last year as part of the same challenge, so it seemed right to read Huckleberry Finn this time around. Beware, there are spoilers in this review.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is technically a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but this is one of those rare cases where the second book i One of the categories in the Back to the Classics book challenge I am participating in this year is "an American Classic." Nothing seems more American to me than a novel by Mark Twain. I read Tom Sawyer last year as part of the same challenge, so it seemed right to read Huckleberry Finn this time around. Beware, there are spoilers in this review.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is technically a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but this is one of those rare cases where the second book in a series completely overshadows the first. Huckleberry Finn deals with more sophisticated themes than Tom Sawyer and is generally considered to be Mark Twain's finest novel. Told from Huck's perspective and set immediately after the events of Tom Sawyer, the plot of the book follows Huck as he tries to escape life with his violent, drunkard father. During his elaborate getaway, in which he stages his own murder, he meets up with a runaway slave named Jim and together they drift down the Mississippi River on a raft, trying to get to a place of freedom. The story is episodic in nature, as Huck and Jim quite literally drift from one little adventure to another on their raft. The main conflict of the novel comes when Jim is betrayed by a pair of con men who sell him back into slavery. In the most memorable scene in the novel, Huck decides that he's going to go rescue his friend, even though it means he will "go to hell" for helping a slave escape.

One of the biggest themes running throughout the work is the idea that slavery and racial inequality are inherently unjust, but the way this theme is presented in the story isn't as obvious as you might expect. Throughout the novel, Huck struggles with his role in Jim's escape. He lives in 1840's Missouri- in a world where slaves are the property of their owners and to assist a runaway slave is against the laws of God and of man. Huck steadfastly believes that what he is doing to help Jim is wrong through the very last pages of the book. At first, I couldn't wrap my mind around how this translated into being an anti-slavery lesson, because the main character of the novel didn't seem to learn anything. Huck never states a belief about Jim being equal to himself or about slavery being wrong. The book didn't seem to be making a strong statement like I thought it would. After reading the introduction to the work and seeking out some other reviews, I understand the message a little bit better. Readers shouldn't dwell on Huck's beliefs about how his actions are wrong, they should dwell on the fact that he believed his actions to be wrong and he helped his friend anyway.

It is in this way that two characters on the very bottom of the Missouri social hierarchy, a runaway slave and a poor country boy, become the most pure and noble characters in the book. Their hearts pull them in the direction of what is right and what is human, despite what the politics of the time were. Even though Huck himself doesn't understand or try to justify his actions, he makes a statement through his friendship and loyalty to a man he is supposed to consider as beneath him. His tacit acceptance that he is doing wrong by helping Jim only serves to shine a light on how horribly wrong the laws and policies of the time were.

The writing of the novel is done in Mark Twain's signature style. Simple language, colloquialisms, and witty anecdotes are plentiful, just as in Tom Sawyer. What I found to be pretty neat here is that so much meaning and thought is conveyed in such lighthearted, humorous writing. What may seem like fairly one-dimensional episodes upon a first reading are actually pretty deep when given a second look. There is more here than meets the eye when you delve into the text and look under the surface. The simplicity of Huck's thoughts convey complicated ideas. Where Tom Sawyer was truly a book for kids, Huckleberry Finn has a lot more going on, and is a better novel for it.

Much has been said about the use of the n-word in this book. This is the reason that Huckleberry Finn is a frequent flyer on banned book lists. The word does appear very frequently throughout the story, and to be honest, I definitely felt uncomfortable reading it. However, the word is used in a manner that is authentic to the setting of the novel. The fact that it might make readers uncomfortable is a good thing; the juxtaposition of such harsh language against the lighthearted innocence of Huck's storytelling makes a statement about the casual cruelty of the time. While the use of the word is disturbing, it shouldn't be a reason to "avoid" the book; it's a great opportunity for thought and learning.

It always seems strange to criticize a novel largely considered to be a timeless masterpiece, but there was an element I didn't enjoy. The beginning and the end of the novel feature Tom Sawyer pretty heavily, and he is not the same lovable scamp that he was in his own novel. The Tom that appears here is bossy and demanding; a perpetual child whose ideas about "helping" Huck rescue Jim are dangerous and bordering on insane. Once Tom comes back into the picture (through a coincidence so amazing that it feels like Twain is cheating), Huck immediately becomes his sidekick and blindly goes along with everything he says. The book goes from being thoughtful to being "fun," and the transition is jarring. It feels like some chapters from Tom Sawyer were randomly tacked onto the end of the story. I felt like the momentum stopped dead when Tom came onto the scene and made the end of the book slow-moving and frustrating. It was a disappointing way to end my reading experience, but the middle section of the novel, featuring Huck and Jim, were good enough to forgive this.

Huckleberry Finn is considered by some to be the Great American Novel. I don't know if I would go that far, but it certainly is a triumph of American realism and one of the most iconic books in the cannon of American literature. This is one classic that everyone should read. The language is simple, but the themes and ideas it contains are complex. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a read that manages to be lighthearted and important at the same time- an impressive feat for a book about the wanderings of a poor kid from the rural south. ...more

Like · see review