1 of 9

Write now Article Tools

"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is a rich and lively portrayal of life on the Mississippi in the early 1880s. It provides us with many insights into the time, most notably the deeply embedded racism which allowed slavery to persist.

Huck is the son of the town drunkard. His mother is dead. When we met him in Twain's earlier book, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer', he was living in a sugar hogshead on the riverbank, his father having disappeared some time before. In that story, he and Tom discover a pile of money hidden by robbers and have become very rich.

At the beginning of our story, Huck is chafing under the "sivilising" influence of the Widow Douglas who has adopted him. It is almost a relief to him when his father turns up, goaded by the money, and takes possession of him.

His father is a brute. He beats Huck regularly. Huck stages his own death, using the blood of a pig, and slides off into the river to Jackson Island, extremely pleased with himself.

He falls in with Jim, a slave who has run away at the same time as Huck. They go downriver together on a raft. They intend to get to Cairo, where the Ohio flows into the Mississippi and from there to the Free States. Unfortunately, (due to bad luck caused by Huck having touched a snake skin they believe) they miss Cairo in the fog and are compelled to continue south with the Mississippi.

The middle part of the book takes them through various adventures while developing the main characters. Huck's racial prejudice is overcome by Jim's humanity, even though he believes he will burn in hell for helping a runaway slave. This humanity is shown against a backdrop of human depravity.

Just after missing the Ohio, the raft is run down by a steam ferry. Huck dives to avoid the wheel and he and Jim lose each other for a while. Huck ends up staying with the Grangerfords, a well to do family.

This doesn't last long though. The Grangerfords have a feud going on with another family, the Shepherdsons. When two young people from opposing families run off together, the feud escalates and they wipe each other out. Meanwhile, Jim has been hiding in the woods and mending the raft so now Jim and Huck go off down the river again.

The next few adventures see them caught up with the "Duke" and the "Dauphin" who are a pair of shysters who "work" the towns along the river. Huck and Jim become increasingly disgusted with their activities, and try to shake them off.

Huck attempts to sabotage a scam they have going to leave a young bereaved

• 1
• 2
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about Plot summary: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain?
We want to hear your view. Write now!