In Mark Twain's, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", we follow Huck on his journey through life; a great adventure of fun, with humorous and sometimes frightening events. In the beginning of the story, Huckleberry is living with a lady named Widow Douglas who attempts to 'sivilize' him, but Huck hates the 'sivilized' way of life. For a while, he lives with his father, a horrible drunk who even attempts to kill him. Anywhere Huck is taken, he is miserable and feels trapped. So, he fakes his own death, and escapes in a canoe down the Mississippi river.
Along his way he comes across Miss Watson's runaway slave, Jim. The two build a raft and live on it together for most of the story. It is on this raft that the two travel into all sorts of trouble, entering in and out of towns, making up outrageous stories and fake identities.
The cover of the first edition of Adventures of Hu...
Illustration of Jim and Huckleberry Finn, by EW Ke...
1885 illustration from Mark Twain's Adventures of ...They become involved with thieves, gullible country people, and even two families that live to kill each other off.
Jim is running away to escape and to gain his freedom, and in many ways, so is Huck. They both seek to flee the demands of law and society. Somewhere along the way, however, they realize they are already free, and perfectly happy drifting down the river. At that period in time, all blacks were referred to as "niggers." Most were treated poorly, and even felt themselves to be inferior to whites. "If I was to catch a nigger that was ungrateful enough to runaway, I wouldn't give him up, I'd hang him." p. 302. Regardless of racism, the relationship between Huck and Jim grows and they become inseparable friends, depending on each other completely, and always watching each others' back.
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Drawing of Huckleberry finn with a rabbit and a gu...
Traditional raft, from 1884 edition of Adventures ...