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Huckleberry Finn - Book Analysis And Summary

    Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel about a
young boy's coming of age in the Missouri of the mid-1800's. The main
character, Huckleberry Finn, spends much time in the novel floating
down the Mississippi River on a raft with a runaway slave named Jim.
Before he does so, however, Huck spends some time in the fictional
town of St. Petersburg where a number of people attempt to influence
him.

    Before the novel begins, Huck Finn has led a life of absolute
freedom. His drunken and often missing father has never paid much
attention to him; his mother is dead and so, when the novel begins,
Huck is not used to following any rules. The book's opening finds Huck
living with the Widow Douglas and her sister, Miss Watson. Both women
are fairly old and are really somewhat incapable of raising a
rebellious boy like Huck Finn. Nevertheless, they attempt to make Huck
into what they believe will be a better boy. Specifically, they
attempt, as Huck says, to "sivilize" him. This process includes making
Huck go to school, teaching him various religious facts, and making
him act in a way that the women find socially acceptable. Huck, who
has never had to follow many rules in his life, finds the demands the
women place upon him constraining and the life with them lonely. As
a result, soon after he first moves in with them, he runs away. He
soon comes back, but, even though he becomes somewhat comfortable with
his new life as the months go by, Huck never really enjoys the life of
manners, religion, and education that the Widow and her sister impose
upon him.

    Huck believes he will find some freedom with Tom Sawyer. Tom is a
boy of Huck's age who promises Huck and other boys of the town a life
of adventure. Huck is eager to join Tom Sawyer's Gang because he feels
that doing so will allow him to escape the somewhat boring life he
leads with the Widow Douglas. Unfortunately, such an escape does not...