Research Essay on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Essay by Dark97506High School, 11th gradeA, March 2003

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Research Essay on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

In American history, only one piece of literature has been revisited time and time again, still retaining the controversy that has followed it through the years. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, is one such book. Over the years, many authors and well-known well-educated members of society have analyzed this book, writing paper after analytical paper on the moral fiber of the book. Some argue that the book is the basis for all literature that has ever come out of modern day America. Others claim that the entire novel is a piece of racist trash, and that Mark Twain himself is a racist and ignorant man. Others still claim that the book is just plain bad, and not the great classic that is supposedly is. Using some of these well-written essays, I stand to prove that the book is entirely not racist.

Rather, it is a satirical exploration of the final days of slavery, poking fun at everything equally. If Twain were to be anti-anything, he would have to be anti-everything, because nothing is sacred in his lampooning style.

First published in 1884, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as a novel represents many years of anguish for Mark Twain. In fact, Twain himself was not happy with how his book was moving near the end of the novel, and put it aside for a period of three years (Smiley 62). He came back to the novel, and wrote what many critics describe as, well, a bad ending. He wrote the final twelve chapters, in which Huck and Tom plan and fail at Jim's elaborate escape, and Jim gives up his freedom to save Tom's life. It is here, as Jane Smiley says, that the novel fails, and goes...