The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Summary: Plot, Characters and Themes
What it is about
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a picaresque novel by Mark Twain. It was first published in the United Kingdom in December 1884 and in the United States in February 1885. It is the direct sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Huck tells the story himself, in the first person and in the everyday speech of the region.
The book opens in St. Petersburg, Missouri, in the 1840s. Huck has come into a considerable sum of money from the treasure found in the earlier book. The Widow Douglas and her sister Miss Watson become his guardians. He would rather live as a wandering boy. He stays mainly so he can be part of Tom Sawyer's gang.
Then his father arrives. Pap is an abusive alcoholic who wants Huck's fortune. When that plan fails, he locks the boy in a remote cabin. Huck escapes by faking his own murder and hides on Jackson's Island. There he meets Jim, Miss Watson's slave. Jim has run away after overhearing that she planned to sell him.
The two set off down the Mississippi on a raft. They are aiming for Cairo, in the free state of Illinois. The trip becomes a string of episodes along the river. There is a wrecked steamboat with thieves on board. There is a bloody feud between two families. There is a pair of con men who call themselves the King and the Duke. Each stop gives Twain a new set of people to describe, and often to mock.
The main characters
Huckleberry Finn is the narrator. He is a boy who distrusts the rules of respectable life, and he lies easily when he needs to. He also narrates two later Twain novels, Tom Sawyer Abroad and Tom Sawyer, Detective.
Jim is the runaway who shares the raft with Huck. He is protective of the boy. Early on he finds a dead man in a house floating downriver and stops Huck from seeing the body.
Pap is Huck's violent, drunken father. His cruelty is what drives Huck onto the river.
Tom Sawyer is Huck's friend from the first book. He loves adventure stories and likes to do things in the most dramatic way possible.
The King and the Duke are confidence men. They drag Huck and Jim into their scams, including a short, overpriced stage show and an attempt to steal a dead man's estate from his orphaned nieces.
The Grangerfords are a family Huck stays with after he and Jim are separated. They have been feuding with the Shepherdsons for 30 years.
The themes
Freedom runs through the whole book. Huck is escaping a violent father and a society that wants to tame him. Jim is escaping slavery. The raft is where both can be themselves for a while.
Friendship grows slowly. In one scene, after they are separated in fog, Huck tricks Jim into believing he dreamed the whole thing. Jim is hurt when he learns the truth. Huck is surprised by how strongly Jim feels, and he apologises. It is a small moment that changes how Huck sees him.
Conscience is the hardest theme. Huck has grown up being taught that helping a runaway slave is wrong. He keeps arguing with himself about it. When two men hunting for runaways come upon the raft, he lies to send them away.
Underneath the adventure, the novel is an often scathing satire on entrenched attitudes, particularly racism. It is set in a Southern antebellum society that had ceased to exist more than 20 years before the book came out. It is also a coming-of-age story, and it is noted for its deeply felt portrayal of boyhood.
Who it suits
Readers who enjoyed The Adventures of Tom Sawyer will meet familiar faces, though this book is darker. It suits anyone interested in American history, satire, or stories built around a journey. Be aware that the language is coarse in places and includes frequent use of a racial slur. That was criticised when the book appeared and is still debated today.
Why it still matters
The book is commonly named among the Great American Novels. It was among the first works in major American literature to be written throughout in vernacular English. It is credited with changing the course of children's literature in the United States. It has stayed perennially popular with readers and has been studied by literary critics ever since it was published.
The arguments around it are part of why it lasts. Some readers see Huck and the tone of the book as anti-racist. Others object to its racial stereotypes and its language. Both views have been pressed throughout the 20th century, and the novel remains at the centre of that conversation.
How it ends (spoilers)
Stop here if you want to avoid the ending.
The King and the Duke sell Jim to a family called the Phelpses. Huck vows to free him, even though he believes he will go to hell for it. The Phelpses mistake Huck for their nephew Tom, who is due to visit. When Tom Sawyer himself arrives, he poses as his half-brother Sid and builds an elaborate, theatrical escape plan. Meanwhile the King and the Duke are tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail.
Tom is wounded during the escape. Jim stays to care for him and is caught. Tom's Aunt Polly then arrives and reveals who the boys really are. She explains that Miss Watson has died and freed Jim in her will. Tom admits he knew this all along and wanted to rescue Jim in style. Jim tells Huck that the dead man in the floating house was Pap. Huck decides to head for Indian Territory rather than be adopted by the Phelpses.
