by Marilyn Knowles Wilke

Created on: August 27, 2008   Last Updated: February 27, 2012

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is like a continuance of Tom Sawyer. Huck Finn was Tom Sawyer's friend in the first book and their adventures continue in this second book. Where the focus was on Tom Sawyer in the first book, now the focus is on Huckleberry Finn. Tom lived with his Aunt Polly and Huckleberry originally lived with his drunken, abusive pappy. Huckleberry was never civilized and lived a hard life without schooling. It was not until a man believed to be his pappy was found floating in the water, drowned, that he began school. This began when he was taken in by the widow Douglas and Miss Watson. They sent him to school and taught him about the Bible at home.

The story is set back in the 1830s an 40s. Huckleberry Finn, nicknamed "Huck" for short, continued to sneak out and meet his best friend, Tom. They had joined together to be robbers and murderers, but ended up doing no more than petty theft. They all finally broke up and went their own ways other than Huck and Tom, who continued to be pals.

Huck's pappy stole him away one day and kept him locked in his hut in the woods. He continued to abuse him until he finally decided he could not take anymore and faked being killed by robbers by killing a pig and using his blood mixed with some of his hair scattered inside the hut. He hid anything of value and dragged a sack of meal toward the river and dumped it into the river. He wanted everyone to think his body was in the river. He went off in the boat to an island to hide from everyone so they would not discover that he was really alive.

He comes across Jim, a black man who was a slave owned by Miss Watson. Jim had run away because he overheard that she was going to sell him. They end up hanging around together on an island. Then, they travel together down the river and have many adventures. They have to hide from some people who think Jim killed Huckleberry, but they managed to evade them for a long time. Their adventures continue and Huckleberry and Tom meet up again. Jim is captured, but later released and freed from slavery per Miss Watson's request in her will.

This story is back in the slave times and their slang for the slaves is clearly used by everyone. As you read the story, you have to put yourself in another world, a world of simple people and some so poor, they resort to stealing and selling to provide for each other. These people believe black people are to be treated lower than dogs, so it is difficult to imagine a time

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