John Yowan Hour 1
Ms. Keeley Type 3
Freshman English
1 February 2003
The
Adventures of Huckleberry Fin
By
Mark Twain.
Samuel
Longhorn Clemons also known as Mark Twain was born in Florida, Missouri on
November 30, 1835 and died at Redding, Connecticut in 1910. He wrote many books
during his career, which included: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures
of Huckleberry Finn, Pudd'nhead Wilson, A Connecticut Yankee in
King Arthur's Court, and The Gilded Age. He also wrote several
Travel Books and others not mentioned here.
Mark
Twain led an interesting life and had an adventurous boyhood. In 1847 he left
school after his father died and became a printer's apprentice. In 1857 he
became a Riverboat pilot until 1861 when he briefly fought for the South in the
Civil War. On February 2nd, 1870 he married Olivia Langdon. They had
one son and 3 daughters. The son Langdon died in infancy and two of the
daughters died as young women. Clara was the only one that survived and
married.
Some
important characters in The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin are Tom
Sawyer, Huck Finn, Jim, The Duke, and The King.
The
book The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin starts shortly after Miss. Watson
adopts Huck. Miss. Watson tries to teach Huck about manners, Christianity, and
how to pray. She told him that if he prayed for something that he would get it.
Huck tried praying for a fishing rod and he got it but it didn't have a hook.
He asked her to pray for a hook and she told him that he was supposed to pray
for spiritual things not material things. Then she told him about "the bad
place" and Huck said that he wished that he were there. Huck also wanted
to smoke, but Miss Watson would not let him and she told him "it was a
mean practice and wasn't clean".
Huck
Fin got mad at Miss Watson and decided to escape and live on his own. He wanted
nothing to do with being civilized and had lived on his own most of his life
anyway. When Huck ran away he went with Tom Sawyer. They went to the woods and
Tom started a gang with Huck, Joe Harper, Ben Rogers and several other friends.
The other friends would only play with the gang at night and on weekends. They
hid in the woods near the river and in the old tan yard.
Huck's
father returned from wherever he was and Huck talked to him and learned that
his dad did not want him to go to school. Huck still wanted to go to school and
went anyway. His father tried to stop him and one day captured Huck and locked
him in a little cabin where he lived for a few weeks. The cabin was old and
made out of wood and was near a river in the woods. They both lived in the
cabin for a while and Huck's dad would lock the cabin door so that Huck would
not be able to leave and would keep the key under his pillow when he was
asleep.
Huck
escaped from the cabin one day when his father sent him to get fish for
breakfast, instead of getting the fish Huck went to an island on the river.
Everyone thought that Huck had died because he disappeared. While on the island
he saw smoke and he went to investigate and he met Jim. Jim was a runaway slave
and he had known Huck and Tom for a long time. Together Jim and Huck decided to
build a raft and leave the island. They floated down the river together for a
long time. They moved during the night and rested during the day as to not get caught.
They looked for a town called Cairo because once their Jim would be free, but
if they passed it they would end up in another slave state where Jim would be
in danger again.
One
night when they were traveling on the raft they were hit by a paddleboat and
the raft broke. They both had to jump off and ended up separated. Huck went to
a farm and got food from the owner and the farm family also helped him fix the
raft.
When
Huck was back on the river traveling on his raft he found Jim. Huck and Jim
saved two people that were being chassed by a man and his dogs. There was an
old man and a middle-aged man, the middle-aged man was called The Duke, and the
old man was called The King. A few days later The Duke had an idea on how to
travel during the day without it being dangerous to Jim. The idea was to perform
plays in towns along the river. They pretended that Jim was their slave. In
order to make people think that Jim was not a runaway slave The Duke and The
King had to tie him up and make it look like he was their slave.
Eventually
Jim ran away from Huck, The Duke, and The King and got captured. He ended up
being a slave at the same place he had escaped from in the first place. Huck
went back to live with Miss. Watson because he missed being with all of his
friends and was tired of running.
The
Adventures of Huckleberry Fin is a fictional book. I
chose this book because it sounded very interesting to read and other people
that had read it said it was good. I also wanted to read another book written
by Mark Twain. I liked this book because it had adventure, mystery, and a good
storyline. The things that I didn't like about that book were the way the
author described things. I thought that he used too much detail sometimes on unimportant
things. One time he took a whole page to describe the sound of a barking dog. I
would recommend this book to others, because it is fun and adventurous and you
can learn about how people lived during the mid 1800's.
Huck,
the main character changed from the beginning of the book because he learned
that it was better to live with a family than on his own. I thought that the
ending was appropriate and believable because it would be hard for a child to
live on his own, and most kids would go back home after running away.
The
settings suite the plot of the book because it takes place in the mid 1800's
and the language was appropriate for that time and place. Slavery was also a
big factor in that time period. This story occurs when and where it does
because that is the time period that the author live in and he based the book
on his own adventures as a child.