Theme

Underneath all of the camaraderie, humor, and excitement, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn conveys important themes about human nature. One of these themes is one that Twain explores extensively in many of his other works: A person’s social class is often determined not by the content of their character, but by their position at birth.

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a number of characters try to either reform themselves and become better people, or pretend to be someone they are not. However, in the end, they wind up having the same social standing they started with. This shows that it is difficult to be born in one social class and elevate one’s position based solely on one’s merits. Huck’s dad is a great example of this. He is poor white trash, and is an alcoholic. He is abusive towards Huck, and even imprisons him in a cabin in the woods (19, 26). Upon being found in the gutter one morning after a night of heavy drinking, he goes to the judge and begs for forgiveness for a life lived wastefully, and beseeches him for the opportunity to reform. The very day he signs a pledge promising to reform, however, he rolls off of his porch and breaks his arm in a drunken stupor (22). This reveals that it is incredibly difficult to change oneself to the point of gaining social status.

The two men that seek refuge on Jim and Hick’s raft, the king and duke, convey another theme about social classes: the rich often take advantage of the poor, and are rich not

because of their morality, but because of luck. The king and the duke are not, of course, not actual royalty. They pretend to be descended from royal families so that Huck and Jim will treat them as such. During their time on the raft, they focus on one thing: how to swindle and trick people in various towns to give them money. They mainly put on plays and other theatrical productions, charging exorbitant amounts for poor quality theater. Before the townspeople can exact their revenge, however, they make a break for it on the raft. This swindling is indicative of the upper class as a whole, and how they take advantage of the poorer people below them. Luckily, the king and the duke come to the same ending as Huck’s dad. Their ponzi scheme is eventually discovered, and they are tarred and feathered in a town deep in the south. This harkens back to people being largely unable to change their social class, despite their greatest efforts.

Throughout Huck Finn, there are also instances of characters undeservedly having a certain standing. Huck’s dad comes into possession of Huck’s hard earned $6000, despite being completely devoid of morals (20). The best example of this is Jim. As Huck comes to learn, Jim is a highly intelligent, amicable person. He is one of the nicest people Huck has ever met. Jim is so selfless that he is willing to voluntarily give up his freedom in order to assist the doctor cut the bullet out of Tom Sawyer’s leg when he lies dying on the island (286). Jim is the noblest person in the entire novel. However, Jim also has the lowest social standing of any character. One of the central conflicts is that of Jim fleeing from slavery down the river, unable to come into contact with any white people because he will be put right back into captivity. Jim is most certainly a better person in terms of character than any of these prospective captors; why is he the one in risk of being enslaved? If social standing were based purely on character

content, Jim would be near the top. Instead, because he was born an African American, Jim has to live his life under the sole of white people. Twain makes his position on the institution of slavery and on class distinctions clear in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
I came to the conclusion I did regarding the theme of Huckleberry Finn largely because of what Perrine says about interpretations of literature and how we should look for the path of least resistance that relies on the fewest assumptions possible. This theme is supported throughout the novel, and relies on no assumptions, especially given that it is present in other works by Twain. I would definitely recommend Huckleberry Finn because it appeals on multiple levels. It supplies the informed reader with the deep and intricate devices employed by the best authors, but it also gives the lay reader a gripping and satisfying plot.

What is Wrong with Tom Sawyer?

Throughout The Adventures of HuckleBerry Finn, Huck Finn idolizes his best friend, Tom Sawyer. Huck thinks highly of Tom’s imagination, creativity, and passion for adventure. However, it is these exact characteristics that almost get them both killed and Jim captured in the end. While Tom is symbolic of an idealistic imaginative school of thought, Huck is much more down to earth and symbolic of a realistic worldview.

Throughout the novel, Tom is portrayed as someone who likes taking risks and who has a more liberal mindset. Early on, Tom sees Jim sleeping under a tree, and advocates for tying him up for fun (5). Tom is also shown to have a wild imagination, when he gathers together his “band of robbers” to ambush the “Arabs” and when he explains how magic lamps work to Huck (10, 14). Most importantly, Tom is the engineer behind the elaborate plan to break Jim out of his imprisonment. He is the one who decides that a tunnel needs to be dug, animals need to be smuggled in to keep Jim company, “nonymous letters” need to be written to warn the Phelps’s, and all sorts of things need to be taken in to help Jim be a proper prisoner. This, or course, is all overkill and ironic, because the tunnel that Tom and Huck use to smuggle in the items also could be Jim’s ticket to freedom, weeks sooner than it actually was. Tom is wildly imaginative, and usually does whatever he cooks up in his head.

On the other hand, Huck is portrayed almost as the opposite of Tom, with a much more conservative mindset. When Tom wants to tie Jim up, Huck does not want to for fear of making a disturbance (5). He is skeptical of the validity of both the Arab ambush and of genies being contained in lamps (10,14). In addition, Huck thinks of Tom a number of times on his

voyage, pertaining to new opportunities for exploration. When passing the run-aground steamboat, his thoughts turn to how much Tom would have liked the opportunity to explore it (67). Finally, Huck goes along with Tom’s plan for Jim, but only grudgingly. He does not understand (and rightfully so) why they have to go to so much trouble to make Jim into the proper prisoner before his escape instead of simply leading him out through the tunnel in the first place. Compared to Tom, Huck is a much more conservative person.

So, why does Twain make these two best friends so different? Perhaps Twain is commenting on the duality of human nature. He is saying that it is possible for two of the same creature to have completely opposite viewpoints of the world. Maybe he is making a statement about the conflict between innovative and conservative angles of his time. Or maybe he is simply saying that opposites attract, and can often make the closest couples.

According to Thomas Foster, the author of How to Read Literature Like a Professor, every trip is a quest (except when it’s not). Basically, Foster is saying that whenever a literary character goes a journey, they are doing more than just going from point A to point B. They are also undergoing an experience that will cause them to grow and develop. Huckleberry Finn’s decision to escape from his father’s cabin in the woods and head down the Mississippi River in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn definitely marks the beginning of a quest for Huck.

In chapter one of his book, Foster lays out the requirements for a quest; Huck’s adventure meets all of them. Huck, of course, is the quester, or the person going on the quest. He is setting out for Jackson Island, a big island in the middle of the river just south of his hometown (35). Huck wants to go there to escape from his father and to start a new life. Huck is sick and tired of being told what to do and how to live his life. He hates living with the widow and with Miss Watson because they constantly try to make him into what in their eyes would be a proper boy. For instance, the widow forced Huck to wear new clothes and prevents him from smoking (2). Miss Watson forces Huck to go to school, and even though he eventually takes a liking to it, he is still resentful about being forced to go (3). Huck wants to have the freedom to live his life the way he wants to live it.

Huck also faces a number of challenges on the way to the island. Before leaving, he has to take a number of elaborate measures to avoid being discovered. He covers the wear and tear he had made by crawling in and out of the house, lays a false trail with the blood from a wild hog, and covers his tracks (32). He is nearly discovered immediately after escaping the cabin by his dad, who had returned earlier than expected (34). He has to lie flat in his canoe to

avoid being seen by the townspeople (35). Despite all of his efforts, Huck is still nearly discovered by the fairy boat (37).

So, what does Huck actually gain from embarking on this quest? Foster, of course, tells us that it is self-growth and exploration that Huck will find on his journey. Specifically, after the first third of the book, it seems that Huck is going to learn a lot about racism and false stereotypes. From the very beginning, Jim appears to Huck as an intelligent, sentient being. This causes Huck to struggle with the issue of race in his society, and why one group of people would consider it their God-given duty to enslave and torment another group of the same flesh and blood as themselves. Huck has also literally escaped from his father, Miss Watson, and the widow. This indicates that he will learn to think for himself and begin to make his own decisions about what is civilized and what is not on his journey down the river, unhindered by any overbearing presences.

What does the River Mean?

The mighty Mississippi river is the mode of conveyance for Huck and Jim in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. However, the river is much more than just a way to travel for the pair. Additionally, it symbolizes safety and danger and the both literal and figurative platform that Huck and Jim use to come to understand each other.

Paradoxically, the river symbolizes both a safe haven and a dangerous place for Huck and Jim during their journey. The river gives the pair an easy way to travel safely without having to walk through towns or come into contact with a great number of people. They simply have to constrain themselves to traveling at night, and shove out to the middle of the river to avoid detection (65). However, the river is also a place full of danger. A number of storms almost destroy the raft and kill Huck and Jim. Steamboats are a constant threat to their well-being, and indeed one eventually collides with the raft and smashes it to bits, nearly killing Huck and Jim (94). Worst of all, while the river is bearing Jim away from captivity and towards his freedom, it is also carrying him further and further south, deep into the heart of slave country. The close Jim gets to freedom, ironically, the higher the risk of his capture.

The raft is also the platform on which Huck and Jim come to understand and respect each other. While they are on the raft, they are perfectly equal. Both are fugitives in their own way, running from their respective pasts. On the raft, Huck and Jim do everything together. They swim together off the side of the raft in the night as they drift lazily downstream. When the weather permits, they lie on the deck and stargaze. They both become accustomed to not wearing clothes; they simply present themselves openly. They have numerous discussions about

religion, race, and other issues as they pass the long hours of the night. Huck and Jim’s connection goes beyond a mere friendship. These are two men that are working together with the common goals of survival and escape. The raft is symbolic of the commonalities of their situations, and is the base from which the two men grow to respect and value each other.