The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

I. So What?
A. Important Characters
1. Huck Finn: Huck Finn is a young boy lacking formal education and the presumed social graces of white Southern society. Although untamed and disobedient, Huck proves to possess natural wit and intellect as he floats down the Mississippi with the runaway slave Jim. Through Jim, Huck begins to create his own set of moral guidelines, many of which deviate from the expected norms within his time period.
2. Jim: Jim, Miss Watsons’s runaway slave, is perhaps the only true figure Huck can rely upon within the novel. Jim proves that race does not determine intelligence or humanity.
3. Tom Sawyer: Huck’s foil. While Huck is realistic and sensible, Tom is romantic and childish. He has received a “proper” upbringing, yet Tom repeatedly illustrates his immaturity by relying on the great romantic novels, nearly leading to Jim’s ruin.
B. Essential Plot Elements
1. Introduction- Huck Finn introduces the novel by summarizing the end of Tom Sawyer. The reader learns he now lives with the widow, who is attempting to civilize him through education and religion. Pap, Huck’s drunken father, returns to town, demanding Huck to relinquish his fortune. Pap kidnaps Huck.
2. Rising Action- Huck fakes his death and escapes from Pap by floating down a raft on the Mississippi River. Upon arrival at Jackson Island, Huck encounters Jim, and the two travel down the river. The deceitful Duke and Dauphin sell Jim and he ends up at the Phelps farm.
3. Climax- Rather than write Miss Watson explaining where Jim is, Huck decides to free Jim in collaboration with Tom. Huck pretends that he is Tom Sawyer.
4. Falling Action- Aunt Polly arrives. Tom reveals to Huck that Miss Watson died two months ago and freed Jim in her will.
5. Denouncement- Aunt Sally wants to civilize Huck, but he will have none of this. Instead, he chooses to head West.
C. Setting
· Set before the Civil War; 1830’s-1840’s
· The Mississippi River
· Town of St. Petersburg in Missouri
· Other various river towns along the Mississippi River
D. Central Conflicts
The central conflict within the novel is man vs. society. Apart from Jim, Huck has no one to truly trust; the Widow Douglas, Miss Watson, the Duke and Dauphin, the Phelps’, Pap, and Tom Sawyer all possess “bad” characteristics, for they all uphold the biased belief’s taught by their white society. Huck also faces an internal conflict, as he must choose for himself whether to do what he personally deems “right” and protect Jim or adhere to what societal standards and turns him in.
E. Major Themes
· Racism and slavery
· Intellectual and moral education
· The hypocrisy of civilized white society
F. Emotional Response
I am moved by the story because it challenged the norms of the South antebellum period. Arguably, this book is THE quintessential American novel, defending the values of life, freedom, and equality so that all people in the U.S. may enjoy their rights. The entirety of Huck Finn is along the Mississippi River, the heart of America, as Huck journeys from South to North.
II. How?
A. Figurative Language
1. Symbols
· In Huck Finn, the river represents freedom: the river is free-flowing and carries Huck and Jim upward, toward the North where freedom is truly possible. Land represents the rigidness of society, and all of the problems Huck and Jim face occur primarily on land. They can use the raft and the river as a means of escaping from their troubles and secluding themselves from the social order that they find restraining.
2. Irony
· The story includes all types of irony, but especially prominent throughout is verbal irony. “But Tom Sawyer he hunted me up and said he was going to start a band of robbers, and I might join if I would go back to the widow and be respectable.” Ironically, Huck can only join the gang (and in turn commit mischievous acts) only if he virtuously returns to the widow so that he may be civilized.

B. Diction
· The diction within the novel models the way a boy from the South would actually speak his words. Huck is, after all, recounting his adventures, so the diction is written as if he were speaking the words and telling a story. Many of the words are misspelled and written the way a Southerner would pronounce them. Because Huck comes from a poor family and lacks education, he at times speaks incorrectly grammatically and contains a limited vocabulary. The diction reflects Huck as a character, and lends authenticity to Huck’s characterization. Mark Twain was one of the first to break with the traditional standard of well-written literature by adopting a more realistic, less poetic approach to diction in prose.