Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (originally published 1885) is a classic novel of a boy “growing up” and coming to terms with the world, faith, and friendship. Written by talented Samuel Clemens, Huckleberry Finn takes the familiar rebel child Huck, who was first introduced in the novel about Tom Sawyer, and gives him space to tell his own first-person account of a very different, more maturing type of adventure.

I recently picked up Huck Finn at least 20 years after my first read, and immediately I was struck by the difficulty at reading the dialectical text. Twain wrote that he purposefully wrote with different dialects:

The Missouri Negro dialect; the extremist form of the back- woods Southwestern dialect; the ordinary “Pike County” dialect; and four modified varieties of this last.

Even after having read the book before, my reading brain (dumbed down with three pregnancies, Pride & Prejudice retellings, and a recent obsession with middle grade novels) struggled with the initial difficulty at “hearing” the voices as I read. I’ll be honest: I listened to an audiobook version of the novel in the midst of doing chores and chauffeuring for my kids.

I was surprised to realize I read it first as a 16-year-old high school Junior, the summer before school began, as an incoming honor’s student. It is not an easy read! I compare this to my son’s high school Honors English class this year and feel annoyed at how low the current standards are for the brightest English students in the school. (For example, his class will not be reading The Great Gatsby but rather a modern-day young adult retelling, since today’s kids just “won’t understand” the ’20s setting. That’s a summary of what his teacher explained to me, not an exact quote. True, I like retellings but this seems insulting to their intellect. You’ve got to start with the real thing!)

Listening to the novel certainly reminded me of the subjects I explored about in my high school paper(s) about the novel: the prevalence of superstition in their lives, Huck’s difficulty in understanding imagination play as he took everything literally, his struggle with understanding Christianity (specifically prayer), and his unique intelligence in storytelling for survival. He’s a smart kid. I certainly saw these themes through a new lens, given what I’ve been through since I was 16 (nearly 30 years ago!!!!!!!!!!)

My favorite sections were those where he struggled with his faith as well as how this conflict between what is “right” was opposed to his developing friendship with Jim, the enslaved man with whom he has his adventures. Huck and Jim are true partners and friends, and Huck’s pro-slavery upbringing has convinced him that he is a wicked child because he doesn’t want Jim to be enslaved. Certainly, this conflict underscores Twain’s own abolitionist sentiments. After all, the novel was written 50 years after the timeframe when it took place: feelings towards Blacks were quite different in 1885 then they were in pre-Civil War 1830s and 1840s.

I don’t know if it should still remain the go-to novel for high school juniors, given the racism (albeit racism obviously not condoned). But the talent with which Twain captures the dialects of antebellum south as well as the commentary on the struggle Christians may have felt with the institution of slavery, make it an invaluable commentary on American history. Yes, Huck Finn is still a classic. More should revisit it today.

Reviewed on October 4, 2024

About the author 

Rebecca Reid

Rebecca Reid is a homeschooling, stay-at-home mother seeking to make the journey of life-long learning fun by reading lots of good books. Rebecca Reads provides reviews of children's literature she has enjoyed with her children; nonfiction that enhances understanding of educational philosophies, history and more; and classical literature that Rebecca enjoys reading.

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