A Comparison Piece of Mark Twain's the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

The novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, covers the situations and people Huckleberry Finn encounters after he runs away. Huck prevents his alcoholic father from getting his fortune and is able to run away after his father, Pap, kidnaps him and leaves town. It has many colorful characters that exhibit several facets of society at that time in history. It is anti-racist although it uses the word "nigger" frequently. Huck seems to struggle throughout the book with what he has been taught and what is morally right. His main and most consistent interaction is with Jim, a runaway slave. Although he had been taught differently throughout his entire life, he eventually makes the choice to go against what society deems to be right and be Jim's

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn begins with the boy, Huckleberry (Huck for short), telling a story in a very conversational tone. The story is a recap of Twain’s previous novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, in which Huck and Tom find a robber’s treasure of 12 thousand dollars, and invest it in the bank. Tom had apparently reached out to Huck again, asking him to join Tom’s very own band of robbers. Huck, of course, agreed, and moved back in with Widow Douglas, who cares for him, and makes sure he remains clean. Huck, however, is selfish, and dislikes being “civilized.” He accepts religious and social views the widow enforces upon him, yet decides for himself if he wants to follow them, and doesn’t tell her so as to not cause any unnecessary

The first adventure Huck and Jim take part in while searching for freedom is the steamboat situation. Huck shows development of character in tricking the watchman into going back to the boat to save the criminals. Even though they are thieves, and plan to murder another man, Huck still feels that they deserve a chance to live. Some may see Huck's reaction to the event as crooked but, unlike most of society, Huck Finn sees good in people and attempts to help them as much as he can. Getting lost in the fog while floating down the Mississippi River leads to a major turning point in the development of Huck Finn's character. Up to this event, he has seen Jim as a lesser person than himself. After trying to deny the fog event to Jim, he says, "It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a [slave]; but I done it, and I warn't ever sorry for it afterward, neither"(74). He continues by explaining how he could never do such a thing again. Huck has clearly gained respect for Jim here and shows it by feeling so horrible over what he did.

Both Frederick Douglass’ and Mark Twain’s autobiographical stories have similar concepts and some different ones as well. They both had a very different way of growing up. So, there are many differences in their writing. Both authors also had a different tone and message to convey in their writing. However, there are some similarities in their writing too.

Comparing Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Huck comes to the realization that Jim cares about his family as much as a white person would. At this point Huck stops seeing Jim as a slave, but sees him as a companion and as an equal. This is a major step in his moral development in the fact that he no longer follows what is sociably expected but rather takes his own path on what he consciously knows is

The book introduces Huck as the first person narrator which is important because it establishes clearly that this book is written from the point of view of a young, less than civilized character. His character emerges as a very literal and logical thinker who only believes what he can see with his own eyes. In this section Huck’s life with the Widow Douglas and her attempts to raise him as a civilized child sets up the main theme of this book which is the struggle or quest for freedom. Huck’s struggle for freedom from civilized society is paralleled by Jim’s struggle to escape from slavery. Irony as a key literary

The ending of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain has been known to leave the readers unsatisfied and confused. Many have questioned why the protagonist of the novel, Huck, regressed into the character he was before his journey to free Jim, a slave. During this journey, Huck grows into the person he would be without the influence of a racist society. After this journey ends, however, Huck immediately falls back into his old habits as Tom, his friend, returns to help Huck with a dangerous and “adventurous” scheme to finally make Jim a free man. After their adventure, Tom reveals that Jim has already been free the entire time. These frustrating regressions in character development and plot are the reasons why the ending of the novel

In the book The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass the narrator, Frederick Douglass, tells his story of being born into slavery. Douglass uses his narrative as an argument to convince his readers to be against slavery, and the brutality of it. The details of Douglass’ life are examples of his argument to persuade his audience of being for the abolition of slavery. He shows the relationships between religion and slavery and education and freedom, one having an effect on the other to improve his argument against slavery. The relationships Douglass proves between the two strengthens his argument, accomplishing his purpose for writing his narrative.

Slavery can be viewed as one of the greatest examples of immoral treatment towards African Americans in the United States alone. Most Africans that were either captured, born, or sold in America, lived the life of a typical slave, however Frederick Douglass was the exception. Douglass, was an African American writer, abolitionist, and so much more, but before any of this, he was a slave. Fortunately, his master never treated him unkindly, until he was sent to be with a master that was the extreme opposite. By learning to read and write, Douglass eventually came to the conclusion that he was not living the life he wanted and longed to get away. In the Narrative of the Life Of Frederick Douglass, we are exposed to the iniquity of slavery and the dehumanization of the black race, which then led Frederick Douglass to recognize that literacy and education would aid him in his flight to freedom.

Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is a controversial American novel due to its uncensored depiction of racist Southern antebellum society. The novel follows a white protagonist named Huckleberry Finn and his runaway slave friend, Jim, as they adventure down the Mississippi River. Twain characterizes Jim as a typical uneducated, unsophisticated slave who is merely a piece of property, in order to expose the reality of slavery in the antebellum period. However, by also giving Jim a paternal role and humane qualities, Twain uses the character of Jim and his relationship with Huck to convey that slaves were humane people, despite how they were viewed and treated at the time.

Mark Twain also demonstrates how undesirable civilized society really is. Both Huck and Jim desire freedom, which greatly contrasts the existing civilization along the river. They both turn to nature to escape from the unprincipled ways of civilization. Huck wants to escape from both the proper, cultured behavior of Miss Watson and Widow Douglas and the tyranny of his father. Jim, on the other hand, hopes to escape from slavery and start a new life as a free man, hopefully with his own family eventually. Throughout the novel, the raft enables Huck and Jim to escape from the barbarism of their society to a place of serenity and peace, which is always on their raft, away from any other people. Through the duration of the story, Huck learns and does many things that would be contrary to the beliefs of society such as helping Jim

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass perfectly depicts the dreadful experience of living in slavery. From being unsure of the day he was born, to his first beating from a master, to the brutal and exhausting work, and to the joyous day he was freed. Besides describing his experience as a slave, he describes the toll slavery had on the masters and families of slaves. Frederick Douglass also includes his view of education in relation to freedom. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is a good excerpt from The Classic Slave Narratives that can be considered a good historical resource due to the historical content it provides about slavery.

To many readers, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is known as the “Great American Novel”. It tells a story about a young boy and an escaped slave who develop an unlikely friendship while traveling down the Mississippi River. Twain explores many American literature themes in his writing. Three themes that appear frequently throughout the novel are freedom, nature, and individual conscience.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass AND the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Comparison Essay