huckleberry finn book report essay

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Mark Twain's Novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Book Report

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Works Cited

• Egerton, Katherine. ''When You Were a Man': Pinckney Benedict's Fathers and Sons.' Appalachian Heritage, vol. 38, no. 1, 2010, p. 44. Gale Literature Resource Center, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A222678800/LitRC?u=tel_a_etsul&sid=LitRC&xid=d606f054. Accessed 23 Apr. 2020.
• Elmore, Jenifer, and C. Dale Girardi. 'Reversing the curse: slavery, child abuse, and Huckleberry Finn.' American Literary Realism, vol. 49, no. 1, 2016, p. 1+. Gale Literature Resource Center, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A472370438/LitRC?u=tel_a_etsul&sid=LitRC&xid=a1f76acb. Accessed 23 Apr. 2020.
• Godden, Richard, and Mary A. Mccay. 'Say it again, Sam[bo]: race and speech in Huckleberry Finn and Casablanca.' The Mississippi Quarterly, vol. 49, no. 4, 1996, p. 657+. Gale Literature Resource Center, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A168292073/LitRC?u=tel_a_etsul&sid=LitRC&xid=dfb7e3d5. Accessed 23 Apr. 2020.
• Smith, Cassander L. ''Nigger' or 'slave': why labels matter for Jim (and Twain) in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.' Papers on Language & Literature, vol. 50, no. 2, 2014, p. 182. Gale Literature Resource Center, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A373887360/LitRC?u=tel_a_etsul&sid=LitRC&xid=fc761b62. Accessed 23 Apr. 2020.
• Twain, Mark. “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” The Norton Anthology American Literature, edited by Robert S. Levine, Ninth Edition, Volume C, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 2017, pp. 120-302.

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• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Literature Notes
• Book Summary
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn at a Glance
• About The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Character List
• Summary and Analysis
• Notice; Explanatory
• Chapters 5-6
• Chapters 9-10
• Chapters 12-13
• Chapters 15-16
• Chapters 17-18
• Chapters 19-20
• Chapters 21-23
• Chapters 25-26
• Chapters 27-28
• Chapters 29-30
• Chapters 32-33
• Chapters 34-35
• Chapters 36-38
• Chapters 39-40
• Chapters 41-42
• Chapter the Last
• Character Analysis
• Huckleberry Finn
• Character Map
• Mark Twain Biography
• Critical Essays
• Freedom versus Civilization
• Characterization — Pap versus Jim
• Famous Quotes
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• Full Glossary
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• Cite this Literature Note

Consisting of 43 chapters, the novel begins with  Huck Finn  introducing himself as someone readers might have heard of in the past. Readers learn that the practical Huck has become rich from his last adventure with Tom Sawyer   ( The Adventures of Tom Sawyer )  and that the Widow Douglas and her sister, Miss Watson, have taken Huck into their home in order to try and teach him religion and proper manners. Instead of obeying his guardians, however, Huck sneaks out of the house at night to join Tom Sawyer's gang and pretend that they are robbers and pirates.

One day Huck discovers that his father, Pap Finn, has returned to town. Because Pap has a history of violence and drunkenness, Huck is worried about Pap's intentions, especially toward his invested money. When Pap confronts Huck and warns him to quit school and stop trying to better himself, Huck continues to attend school just to spite Pap. Huck's fears are soon realized when Pap kidnaps him and takes him across the Mississippi River to a small cabin on the Illinois shore.

Although Huck becomes somewhat comfortable with his life free from religion and school, Pap's beatings become too severe, and Huck fakes his own murder and escapes down the Mississippi. Huck lands a few miles down at Jackson's Island, and there he stumbles across Miss Watson's slave, Jim , who has run away for fear he will be sold down the river.

Huck and Jim soon learn that men are coming to search Jackson's Island, and the two fugitives escape down the river on a raft. Jim's plan is to reach the Illinois town of Cairo, and from there, he can take the Ohio River up to the free states. The plan troubles Huck and his conscience. However, Huck continues to stay with Jim as they travel, despite his belief that he is breaking all of society and religion's tenets. Huck's struggle with the concept of slavery and Jim's freedom continues throughout the novel.

Huck and Jim encounter several characters during their flight, including a band of robbers aboard a wrecked steamboat and two Southern "genteel" families who are involved in a bloody feud. The only time that Huck and Jim feel that they are truly free is when they are aboard the raft. This freedom and tranquility are shattered by the arrival of the duke and the king, who commandeer the raft and force Huck and Jim to stop at various river towns in order to perform confidence scams on the inhabitants. The scams are harmless until the duke and the king pose as English brothers and plot to steal a family's entire inheritance. Before the duke and the king can complete their plan, the real brothers arrive. In the subsequent confusion, Huck and Jim escape and are soon joined by the duke and the king.

Disappointed at their lack of income, the duke and the king betray Huck and Jim, and sell Jim back into slavery. When Huck goes to find Jim, he discovers that Jim is being held captive on Silas and Sally Phelps' farm. The Phelps think Huck is their visiting nephew, Tom Sawyer, and Huck easily falls into the role of Tom. Tom Sawyer soon arrives and, after Huck explains Jim's captivity, Tom takes on the guise of his own brother, Sid. After dismissing Huck's practical method of escape, Tom suggests they concoct an elaborate plan to free Jim. Tom's plan is haphazardly based on several of the prison and adventure novels he has read, and the simple act of freeing Jim becomes a complicated farce with rope ladders, snakes, and mysterious messages.

When the escape finally takes place, a pursuing farmer shoots Tom in the calf. Because Jim will not leave the injured Tom, Jim is again recaptured and taken back to the Phelps farm. At the farm, Tom reveals the entire scheme to Aunt Sally and Uncle Silas. Readers learn that Miss Watson has passed away and freed Jim in her will, and Tom has been aware of Jim's freedom the entire time. At the end of the novel, Jim is finally set free and Huck ponders his next adventure away from civilization.

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Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

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Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Adventures of Huck Finn: Introduction

Adventures of huck finn: plot summary, adventures of huck finn: detailed summary & analysis, adventures of huck finn: themes, adventures of huck finn: quotes, adventures of huck finn: characters, adventures of huck finn: symbols, adventures of huck finn: literary devices, adventures of huck finn: quizzes, adventures of huck finn: theme wheel, brief biography of mark twain.

Historical Context of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Other books related to adventures of huckleberry finn.

• Full Title: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Where Written: Hartford, Connecticut, and Quarry Farm, located in Elmira, New York
• When Published: 1884 in England; 1885 in the United States of America
• Literary Period: Social realism (Reconstruction Era in United States)
• Genre: Children’s novel / satirical novel
• Setting: On and around the Mississippi River in the American South
• Climax: Jim is sold back into bondage by the duke and king
• Antagonist: Pap, the duke and king, society in general
• Point of View: First person limited, from Huck Finn’s perspective

Extra Credit for Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Dialect. Mark Twain composed Huckleberry using not a high literary style but local dialects that he took great pains to reproduce with his idiosyncratic spelling and grammar.

Reception. A very important 20th-century novelist, Ernest Hemingway, considered Huckleberry Finn to be the best and most influential American novel ever written.

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Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

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Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , novel by Mark Twain , published in the United Kingdom in 1884 and in the United States in 1885. The book’s narrator is Huckleberry Finn , a youngster whose artless vernacular speech is admirably adapted to detailed and poetic descriptions of scenes, vivid representations of characters, and narrative renditions that are both broadly comic and subtly ironic .

Huck runs away from his abusive father and, with his companion, the runaway slave Jim , makes a long and frequently interrupted voyage down the Mississippi River on a raft. During the journey Huck encounters a variety of characters and types in whom the book memorably portrays almost every class living on or along the river. As a result of these experiences, Huck overcomes conventional racial prejudices and learns to respect and love Jim. The book’s pages are dotted with idyllic descriptions of the great river and the surrounding forests, and Huck’s good nature and unconscious humour permeate the whole. But a thread that runs through adventure after adventure is that of human cruelty, which shows itself both in the acts of individuals and in their unthinking acceptance of such institutions as slavery . The natural goodness of Huck is continually contrasted with the effects of a corrupt society.

Together with Twain’s novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn changed the course of children’s literature in the United States as well as of American literature generally, presenting the first deeply felt portrayal of boyhood. It is a classic of American realism both for this portrayal and for Twain’s depiction of the pre- Civil War South, especially through his use of dialect . This realism was the source of controversy that developed concerning the book in the late 20th century. Despite Huck’s friendship with Jim, the book was felt to be racist by some who considered the language offensive. Nevertheless, the publication in 2011 of a bowdlerized version of the novel generated debate and was considered by many to be every bit as unacceptable as the original.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

By mark twain, the adventures of huckleberry finn study guide.

Throughout the twentieth century, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has become famous not only as one of Twain's greatest achievements, but also as a highly controversial piece of literature. In certain Southern states, the novel was banned due to its extensive criticism of the hypocrisy of slavery. Others have argued that the novel is racist due to the many appearances of the word "nigger." Unfortunately, the connotations of this word tend to override the novel's deeper antislavery themes, and prevent readers from understanding Twain's true perspective. In Twain's time, this word was used often and did not carry as powerful a racist connotation as it does currently. Therefore, in using the word, Twain was simply projecting a realistic portrayal of Southern society. Undoubtedly, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is highly significant due to its deep exploration of issues surrounding racism and morality, and continues to provide controversy and debate to this day, evidencing the continued relevance of these concepts.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Huck says this because he has come to realize that Jim is far more than Miss Watson's slave.... he is Huck's friend, and he is a member of humanity. Huck doesn't care because he knows that his friendship with Jim is more important than the...

I think it is supposed to mean poison.

What did Judge Thatcher want to do with the interest on Huck’s money?

He wanted to invest it.

Study Guide for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn study guide contains a biography of Mark Twain, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis of Huck Finn.

• About The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Summary
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Video
• Character List

Essays for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Huck Finn by Mark Twain.

• Twain's Pre-Civil War America
• Censorship and Classics
• An Examination of Religion in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Examination of Freedom as an Overall Theme in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Twain's Women

Lesson Plan for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Introduction to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Relationship to Other Books
• Notes to the Teacher

E-Text of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn e-text contains the full text of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.

• CHAPTER II.
• CHAPTER III.
• CHAPTER IV.

Wikipedia Entries for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

• Introduction