preview

The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn By Mark Twain Essay

Better Essays

During Mark Twain’s lifetime, he observed the horrifying realities of slavery in the United States and the effects it held on the country after the Civil War. This experience overshadows the entirely of his novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, with Huck’s adventures with Jim, an escaped slave. Often, Huck finds himself unsure of the morality in either turning Jim in so he can return home as a slave, or if he should continue assisting Jim in escaping, just as Huck was forced to do. The novel introduces a myriad of characters that portray characteristics of antebellum South, such as the legal system during this time; Pap; the self-professed Duke and Dauphin; and Tom Sawyer. Each of these characters function according to their own flawed perceptions of the external world that have become enormously biased by their imaginations. On the other hand, Huck Finn himself is firmly enmeshed in reality and this frequently contradicts the beliefs of those around him. In Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the author depicts the dichotomy between reality, as viewed by Huck, and the imagined reality inhabited by the other characters to illuminate the failings of the antebellum South to recognize the immorality of slavery and violence. Early in the novel, Twain introduces the failing of the legal system itself to protect Huck from his abusive, alcoholic father. In the first chapters of the text, Twain depicts the inability of the new judge presiding over the case

Get Access