The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) is commonly REPORTED as the first great American novel. It was also one of the first novels ever written in the COLLOQUIAL, or common speech, being told in the first person by the eponymous Huckleberry "Huck" Finn, best friend of Tom Sawyer (hero of three other Mark Twain books). The book was published for the first time on February 18, 1885.

Many agree with what Ernest Hemingway wrote in The Green Hills of Africa: "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. ... all American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since."

The book is noted for its innocent young MAIN CHARACTER, its colorful description of people and places along the Mississippi River, and its sober and often scathing [HARSH, BITTER] look at entrenched [DEEP-ROOTED] attitudes, particularly racism, of the time. The drifting journey of Huck and his friend Jim, a runaway slave, down the Mississippi River on their raft may be one of the most PERSISTING images of escape and freedom in all of American literature.

Although the book has been popular with young readers since its publication, and taken as a CONTINUATION to the comparatively HARMLESS The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (which had no particular social message), it has also been the continued object of study by serious literary critics. It also has been criticized because of the 215 APPEARANCES of the word nigger (see "Controversy" below).

Many white characters in the story are PRESENTED as foolish, cruel or selfish, in contrast to the main black character, Jim, who is mostly depicted as smart and unselfish. The story is set before the American Civil War. Huck, as we know from Tom Sawyer is a loose-living young DRIFTER with no mother and an alcoholic father. He meets Jim, a slave who is about to be sold down the river and separated from his wife and children, and they TRY to go north across the Ohio River to freedom. The book tells of their adventures.

Family is one of the most important themes in the book. The attempt by Huck's father to gain GUARDIANSHIP of him in order to steal the money Huck and Tom had found in the previous book TRIGGERS his flight, staging his own murder to get away. One of the major plot devices in the book is Jim's hiding the death of Huck's father from him. As they two travel the river, Huck is OFTEN involved with families who attempt to adopt him.

Another theme is the life on the Mississippi River, alternately IDEAL and threatening. In true picaresque fashion, Huck and Jim MEET all the varieties of humanity as they travel: murderers, thieves, confidence men, good people and hypocrites.

It is commonly said that the beginning and ending of the book, the parts in which Tom Sawyer appears as a character, TAKE AWAY FROM from its overall impact. Others feel Tom serves to start the story off and to bring it to a conclusion, and that Tom's ABSURD schemes have the paradoxical effect of providing a framework of "reality" around the mythical river voyage.

Another theme is Huck's gradual acceptance of Jim as a man, a man better than any other in the book, strong, brave, generous, and wise (though realistically portrayed as imperfect).

CONTROVERSY
Although the Concord, Massachusetts library the book shortly after its publication because of its VULGAR subject manner and the ROUGH, ignorant language in which it was narrated, the San Francisco Chronicle came quickly to its defense on March 29, 1885:

"Running all through the book is the sharpest satire on the ante- POST WAR estimate of the slave. Huckleberry Finn, the son of a worthless, drunken, poor white, is troubled with many DOUBTS of conscience because of the part he is taking in helping the negro to gain his freedom. This has been called OVEREMPHASIZED by some critics, but there is nothing truer in the book." [1] (http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/sfchron2.html)
In the United States, occasional efforts have been made to LIMIT the reading of the book. At various times, it has been:

- banned FORBIDDEN from the library in Concord, Massachusetts, shortly after publication
- excluded from the FOR YOUNG READERS sections of the Brooklyn Public library and other libraries
- removed from reading lists due to SUPPOSED racism (e.g., in March of 1995 it was removed from the reading list of 10th grade English classes at National Cathedral School in Washington, DC, according to the Washington Post; a New Haven, Connecticut correspondent to Banned Books Online reports it has been removed from a public school program there as well.)
- removed from school programs at the behest of groups maintaining that its frequent use of the word "nigger" implies that the book as a whole is racist, despite what defenders maintain is the IMMENSELY anti-racist plot of the book.

The American Library Association ranked Huckleberry Finn the fifth most frequently challenged (in the sense of attempting to ban) book in the United States during the 1990s.

Url źródłowy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn