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American Literature books summary

desk. Despite the economic crisis that plagued the United States then, the

book became a huge popular and financial success. It would become a classic

of American literature and receive acclaim around the world{today it has

been published in at least twenty-seven languages.

Still, at the time of publication, the author was bothered by the many

bad reviews it received in the national press. The book was principally

attacked for its alleged indecency. After the 1950s, the chief attacks on

the book would be against its alleged racism or racial bigotry. For various

reasons, the book frequently has been banned from US schools and children's

libraries, though it was never really intended as a children's book.

Nonetheless, the book has been widely read ever since its first publication

well over a century ago, an exception to Twain's definition of a classic as

"a book which people praise and don't read."

Characters

Huckleberry Finn { The protagonist and narrator of the novel. Huck is

the thirteen or fourteen year-old son of the local drunk in the town of St.

Petersburg, Missouri, at the start of the novel. He is kidnapped by his

father, Pap, from the "sivilizing" in uence of the Widow Douglas and Miss

Watson, and then fakes his own death to escape. He meets Jim on Jackson's

Island. The rest of the novel is largely motivated by two conflicts: the

external con ict to achieve Jim's freedom, and the internal con ict within

Huck between his own sense of right and wrong and society's. Huck has a

series of "adventures," making many observations on human nature and the

South as he does. He progressively rejects the values of the dominant

society and matures morally as he does. Jim { A slave who escaped from Miss

Watson after she considered selling him down river. He encounters Huck on

Jackson's Island, and the two become friends and spend most of the rest of

the novel together. Jim deeply grieves his separation from his wife and two

children and dreams of getting them back. He is an intensely human

character, perhaps the novel's most complex. Through his example, Huck

learns to appreciate the humanity of black people, overcoming his society's

bigotry and making a break with its moral code. Twain also uses him to

demonstrate racial equality. But Jim himself remains somewhat enigmatic; he

seems both comrade and father figure to Huck, though Huck, the youthful

narrator, may not be able to thoroughly evaluate his friend, and so the

reader has to suppose some of his qualities.

The Duke and Dauphin { These two criminals appear for much of the

novel. Their real names are never given, but the younger man, about thirty

years old, claims to be the Duke of Bridgewater, and is called both "the

Duke" and "Bridgewater" in the novel, though for the sake of clarity, he is

only called "the Duke" here. The much older man claims to be the son of

Louis XVI, the executed French king. "Dauphin" was the title given to heirs

to the French throne. He is mostly called "the king" in the novel (since

his father is dead, he would be the rightful king), though he is called

"the Dauphin" in this study guide since the name is more distinctive. The

two show themselves to be truly bad when they separate a slave family at

the Wilks household, and later sell Jim.

Tom Sawyer { Huck's friend, and the protagonist of Tom Sawyer, the

novel for which Huckleberry Finn is ostensibly the sequel. He is in many

ways Huck's foil, given to exotic plans and romantic adventure literature,

while Huck is more down-to-earth. He also turns out to be profoundly

selfish.

On the whole, Tom is identified with the "civilzation" from which Huck

is alienated. Other characters, in order of appearance Widow Douglas and

Miss Watson { Two wealthy sisters who live together in a large house in St.

Petersburg. Miss Watson is the older sister, gaunt and severe-looking. She

also adheres the strongest to the hypocritical religious and ethical values

of the dominant society. Widow Douglas, meanwhile, is somewhat gentler in

her beliefs and has more patience with the mischievous Huckleberry. She

adopted Huck at the end of the last novel, Tom Sawyer, and he is in her

care at the start of Huckleberry Finn. When Miss Watson considers selling

Jim down to New Orleans, away from his wife and children and deep into the

plantation system, Jim escapes. She eventually repents, making provision in

her will for Jim to be freed, and dies two months before the novel ends.

Pap { Huckleberry's father and the town drunk and ne'er- do-well. When

he appears at the beginning of the novel, he is a human wreck, his skin a

disgusting ghost-like white, and his clothes hopelessly tattered. Like

Huck, he is a member of the least privileged class of whites, and is

illiterate. He is angry that his son is getting an education. He wants to

get hold of Huck's money, presumably to spend it on alcohol. He kidnaps

Huck and holds him deep in the woods. When Huck fakes his own murder, Pap

is nearly lynched when suspicions turn his way. But he escapes, and Jim

eventually finds his dead body on an abandoned houseboat.

Judge Thatcher { Judge Thatcher is in charge of safeguarding the money

Huck and Tom won at the end of Tom Sawyer. When Huck discovers his father

has come to town, he wisely signs his fortune over to the Judge. Judge

Thatcher has a daughter, Becky, whom Huck calls "Bessie."

Aunt Polly { Tom Sawyer's aunt and guardian. She appears at the end of

Huckleberry Finn and properly identifies Huck, who has pretended to be Tom;

and Tom, who has pretended to be his brother, Sid (who never appears in

this novel).

The Grangerfords { The master of the Grangerford clan is

"Colonel"Grangerford, who has a wife. The children are Bob, the oldest,

then Tom, then Charlotte, aged twenty- five, Sophia, twenty, and Buck, the

youngest, about thirteen or fourteen. They also had a deceased daughter,

Emme- line, who made unintentionally humorous, maudlin pictures and poems

for the dead. Huckleberry thinks the Grangerfords are all physically

beautiful. They live on a large estate worked by many slaves. Their house

is decked out in humorously tacky finery that Huckleberry innocently

admires. The Grangerfords are in a feud with the Shepardsons, though no one

can remember the cause of the feud or see any real reason to continue it.

When Sophia runs off with a Shepardson, the feud reignites, and Buck and

another boy are shot. With the Grangerfords and the Shepardsons, Twain

illustrates the bouts of irrational brutality to which the South was prone.

The Wilks Family { The deceased Peter Wilks has three daughters, Mary

Jane, Susan, and Joanne (whom Huck calls "the Harelip"). Mary Jane, the

oldest, takes charge of the sisters' afiairs. She is beautiful and kind-

hearted, but easily swindled by the Duke and Dauphin. Susan is the next

youngest. Joanna possess a cleft palate (a birth defect) and so Huck

somewhat tastelessly refers to her as "the Hare Lip" (another name for

cleft palate). She initially suspects Huck and the Duke and Dauphin, but

eventually falls for the scheme like the others.

The Phelps family { The Phelps family includes Aunt Sally, Uncle Silas

and their children. They also own several slaves. Sally and Silas are

generally kind-hearted, and Silas in particular is a complete innocent. Tom

and Huck are able to continue playing pranks on them for quite some time

before they suspect anything is wrong. Sally, however, displays a chilling

level of bigotry toward blacks, which many of her fellow Southerners likely

share. The town

in which they live also cruelly kills the Duke and Dauphin. With the

Phelps, Twain contrasts the good side of Southern civilization with its bad

side.

Summary

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was finally published in 1885. Twain had

begun the book years earlier, but the writing was done in spurts of

inspiration interrupted by long periods during which the manuscript sat in

the author's desk. Despite the economic crisis that plagued the United

States then, the book became a huge popular and financial success. It would

become a classic of American literature and receive acclaim around the

world{today it has been published in at least twenty-seven languages.