For those who have read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

[nome1486]

I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I read it about a year and a half ago, and at the time it seemed to me that it was not really a novel but more a social commentary (for example, the part where Huck gets involved in a family feud in Arkansas). However, I think Mark Twain sacrificed the storyline too much in order to make his points; in other words, he didn't do a very good job of tying things together into a plausible story. It is, like the title suggests, a series of adventures that Huck and Jim have on their way down the Mississippi, but when the end came I expected more of a climax/resolution on the main plot: that of Jim trying to escape slavery, and Huck trying to escape his father. It's almost as if Twain was tired of writing the book and cleared up all the conflicts as fast as possible. He didn't even bother to make Aunt Polly surprised to find Huck Finn alive! Does anyone have any ideas or comments on this?

[alatar]

i think Twain was more interested in writing many short stories that would entertain his audience while poking fun at them at the same time than actually writing a novel. he just figured that setting them all as a trip down the mississippi by a small boy would make the stories interesting and tie them loosely together into one book. he really didn't care whether or not he was writing a good novel...that's what Tom Sawyer was for

[chrissy]

About Huckleberry Fin, Mark Twain wrote

Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.
By order of the Author

[nome1486]

ahaa...thanks for the input

[Nomansland90]

Well I believe the book had something that could have become a plot, had the story been a bit more closely written. I admit for the majority of the what was read true it was about Huck FInn trying to escape his dad and be free picking up Jim who has run away from his master Miss Watson in the process. As their journey continues the little adventures that unfold as the float down the Missippi River were many yet could have had a bit more relativity to the story. Maybe say someone would have been hunting Huck and Jim more then those who gave up the hunt for Huck and thought he was dead. The dectective if you want to say could have been in the towns that Huck and Jim arrived in and could have asked questions leading all the way to Phelps farm. Sayb Huck's Father would have made it all that long way. Would that not have given the suspense and climax more life? The fact that while Huck and Jim floated on that raft someone was gaining on them? The very raft which to Huck and Jim was their freedom according to the statement Huck made: " We said there warn’t no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don’t. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft". And the river caring them and their " freedom on to a better place the Phelps in this case. So overall Mark Twain did make a plot after all though not the most tightly written books that have been written

[Jean-Baptiste]

Thanks for your thoughts, Nomansland. I don't feel that it's necessary to attempt a revision of Huckleberry Finn. The suggestions that you make may be entirely feesible for a modern novel with a properly plotted framework, but this was evidently not Mark Twain's intention. As for one all-encompassing antagonist, each episode in the journey down the river possesses its own drive; each chapter has its own problems and dilemmas, something is always chasing Huck and Jim, not always the same something. It's just this variety that lends the book its feeling of reality--very few real people seem to be running from a single entity that seeks their demise.
As for wrapping up the ending in a nice pat way, I have to admit that I was shocked by the happiness, especially after the rather dark sections in the body of the book. However, looking at Twain's former methods of storytelling, "the framestory," The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was indeed a revolutionary book, in that the narrator is not genteel. Therefore, it seems that Twain made a concession to the reading public's preparedness for such a story by wrapping things up happily.

[penelopea]

I got the impression of the continuing story of the American Dream.Just escaping over the next horizon,to infinity and beyond.

[mateo]

this book does have a plot, if a bad one though. ill admit iyt could use some more suspence, but how is it possible that they seem to run into every wrongdoer in the country? they are headed down the missisppi, not the river by alcatraz. and they get outta everything. and why are they goin south? its not hard to tell n from s. that was just dumb.