The Birth of American Literature - Huckleberry Finn

Ernest Hemingway was not exaggerating when he said that “all modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called ‘Huckleberry Finn’.”

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn picks up in the aftermath of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Huck has finally become a functioning member of society – but not for long, since Huck’s perpetually drunk and abusive father kidnaps him because Huck has been too civilized. Eventually, Huck can’t take it anymore, and fakes his death and runs away. By sheer luck, he comes across Jim, a runaway slave, and they set off down the Mississippi River on a raft. Much of the novel tells of their journey, and their encounters with various characters, including a “duke” and a French “king” – and in addition, a very special Tom Sawyer makes an appearance near the end.

One of the various qualities of this novel that make it unique is the contrast between the characters. Some were really entertaining, and some were extremely infuriating, yet still entertaining. For instance, the “duke” and “king” were my second and third most infuriating characters. Not they were written poorly – Twain is a little better than the average writer – they were (very) aggravating sometimes, which I think was Twain’s purpose. They’re just grown-up versions of Tom and Huck, with considerably worse morals, and therefore considerably better liars.

On the other hand, Huck was my favorite character. His ingenious lying ability rivals Tom Sawyer – many of my favorite parts were seeing how he pulls off the most unholy, vile, absolutely diabolical lie possible to save Jim from the grasp of money-hungry white men. Jim is also a funny guy – he doesn’t believe that French people exist, and he also thinks the Judgement of Solomon was stupid.

Tom Sawyer, on the other hand…

In Tom Sawyer, Tom comes off as almost ‘cute’ and innocent, but in Huck Finn, he has the opposite effect. At first, when Tom and Huck reunited, I was excited when Tom said that they were going to pull off some clever trick to rescue Jim from a small cabin, where Tom Sawyer’s uncle has him held in captivity. But instead, Tom insists on copying all the adventure books he’s read, and in his blindness, he turns an easy, simple plan – digging a hole – into something way too complicated, to the point where it’s almost cruel and thoughtless. It’s just completely ridiculous. Tom takes the cake for being the most infuriating.

The dialects used in the novel (what the author calls the “Missouri negro dialect” in the beginning explanatory section) were not exactly impossible to interpret. Most of the time I was able to decipher what was meant. More importantly, though, it enhanced the ‘realness’ of the story. Besides that, Huck’s narration of the story was easy to read – it sounds like he’s just talking to the reader, whereas other authors like Hawthorne are undeniably writing.

In general, Huck Finn was much heavier than Tom Sawyer. Some may be sensitive to its themes of racism – the n-word is used 219 times throughout the book – but I believe that this classic tale of freedom and moral development is worth your time.

- Anthony