Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (From the Banned Books List)

Plot Summary:

             Huck Finn, a backwoods boy who has fended for himself most of his life and been raised mostly by the southern town that he lives in gets kidnapped by his father, who only wants his money. Huck escapes the brutal clutches of his father and pretends to be dead, at the same time, a slave, Jim runs away and meets up with Huck in the woods. They build a raft and float down the Mississippi. Huck and Jim set off for grand adventures and many trials. These include dressing up as girls and lepers, living with a nice family involved in a feud that suffer considerable losses to the other side, and meeting up with a “duke” and a “king.” The Duke and The King end up being con artists who regularly get into lots of trouble and end up selling Jim back into slavery. Huck poses as his friend, Tom Sawyer, in order to rescue him, but the real Tom shows up and poses as his cousin, Sid. Together they plot to free Jim in the most impractical ways because Tom wants it done “like it says in the books.” They end up making the situation much worse than it really is and the action comes to a peak with Tom getting shot by someone chasing Jim. He lives but their identities and intentions are revealed. In addition, we find out that Jim’s master died and already freed him. Tom pays him forty dollars for his trouble and we find out that Huck’s father is dead, so he returns to his home town.

Personal Reaction:

            This book makes me laugh out loud. Twain is such a satirist! I know that people challenge this book because of the “n” word, but I feel that it sometimes borders on the blasphemous. I love the inner struggle that Huck goes through, feeling that turning Jim over to the authorities is the right thing to do. Feeling like he is stealing from Jim’s master, but it is hard to read the part where he decides that he will just go to hell because he isn’t going to do the right thing by turning Jim in. I love the ignorance portrayed by all of the characters and the allusions even though I don’t get many of them (it doesn’t detract from the book), but I do get more than I did when my mom read this to me in the seventh grade! Wonderful, timeless book, of course it should never be banned.

Ratliff, T., Gelev, P., & Twain, M. (2008). Adventures of Huckleberry Finn  . Happauge, N.Y.: Barron's.