Introduction
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, born in Florida Missouri on November 30, 1835, is commonly known by his pen name or author’s alias as Mark Twain. Mark Twain is the author of the book “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. This novel accomplished the esteemed title of “The Great American Novel”. This Great American Novel was published in the year 1884.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn begins from where Twain’s earlier novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer leaves off. It begins with the lead character Huckleberry Finn affectionately called Huck, throughout the novel. In this novel Tom sawyer plays a very minor role as compared to Huck, he guest appears in the beginning chapters and then disappears till his reappearance in the later chapters. Huck and Tom have come into money by discovering a healthy treasure. At this point Huck has been adopted by a lady called Widow Douglas she appears alarmed at Huck’s ill manners and seeks to accomplish the task of civilizing and disciplining him. However, Huck is a very wayward and free spirit and finds her brand of civilizing distasteful and confining. Thus with the partnership of the ever imaginative albeit surly at times Tom Sawyer runs away.
Personality Analysis
Here the evolution of Husk’s personality is clear, he is now a young adult who needs an occasion to spread his wings and fly the coop. He wants to be independent and put his talents and potential to use. Chances are that his drunken father has pushed him to the edge of what he is going to consider next. He needs to be rid of his fetters chaining him to his past with his drunken father and present with the confining chain that is his adoption by the Widow Douglas.
Huck, in his youthful spirit, decides to join Tom and a few of his buddies in a gang of robbers, who will call themselves “The Tom Sawyer’s Gang”. However, before becoming a gang member an oath must be taken in blood. That if any member seeks to violate the secrets of the gang, his family will meet an untimely end. But seeing as Huck had no proper family, just a drunken father who he did not care about nor did he see much. We see Huck so drenched in his zest at this point in the evolution of his character that as a replacement he offers up Miss Watson, who is the sister of Widow Douglas. Once the oaths of initiation had taken place, the ground rules were decided upon. Ransom, kidnapping, robbery, and if the situation called for the grim event of murder, so be it.
However, after one month of unsuccessful operation, the gang dissolved and each member goes his way. Further down the line, he meets up with Jim the slave who is heading to freedom and the state of Illinois, and an accident with a steamer and their raft separates Huck and Jim.
From all the above, Huck comes forth as a very independent adolescent who even when met with sadness and grief can pick himself up and move forward, betrayed by those who he thought were friends, but who turned out to be common frauds. Huck despite all this moves forward to free his friend Jim. That is his newfound objective. Sowing a streak of loyalty and bravery to rescue his friend and keep him safe. However, a turn of events brings about the facts that Jim’s employer Miss Watson had died and left Jim a free man in her will and testament. Furthermore, Huck is freed of the fetters chaining him to the burden of his Father whose dead body was found floating in the Mississippi River. Huck then although saddened by this news, decides that he cannot face further civilization by Tom’s family announces that he will escape to the Indian Territory. We see Huck here saddened one of the few times he feels sadness in the book. And once more, his sadness causes him to change his way and to head out in a new direction towards life (Twain, 1981).
Works Cited
Twain, M. (1981). The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Bantam Classics.