" The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"Mark Twain

Analysis of the major characters

Quiz1. Which of the following symbolizes bad luck to Huck and Jim?

(A) A shed snakeskin(B) Jim’s hairy chest

(C) Rain(D) The wrecked steamboat

2. What is Jim’s initial destination when he and Huck start downriver?(A) New Orleans

(B) An Arkansas plantation(C) St. Louis

(D) The Ohio River3. What is the name of the town where Huck, Jim, and Tom live at the novel’s opening?

(A) Cairo(B) St. Louis(C) Pikesville

(D) St. Petersburg

4. Why does Jim run away from Miss Watson’s?(A) She treats him poorly.

(B) She is planning to sell him, which would separate him from his family.(C) He wants to see relatives in New Orleans.(D) He wants to help Huck escape his father.

5. What charm does Jim wear around his neck that he says cures sickness?(A) A silver key

(B) A five-cent piece(C) A snake tooth(D) A rabbit’s foot

6. Which of the following is the primary influence on Tom Sawyer?(A) His Aunt Polly(B) Sunday school

(C) Adventure novels(D) Abolitionist speeches

7. “Temperance” refers to the movement designed to abolish which of the following?(A) Drinking alcohol

(B) Slavery(C) School segregation

(D) Income taxes

8. Where does Huck intend to go at the novel’s end?(A) St. Petersburg

(B) The West(C) New York City

(D) The Phelps farm

Huck Finn is a boy who comes from the lowest levels of white society. His father is a drunkard and a ruffian who sometimes disappears for months. Huck himself is dirty and frequently homeless. Although the

Widow Douglas attempts to “reform” Huck, he resists her attempts and maintains his independent ways.

Huck does more than just apply the rules that he has been taught—he creates his own rules. Yet Huck is not some kind of independent moral

genius. Huck possesses the ability to adapt to almost any situation through trickery. He is playful but practical, inventive but logical,

compassionate but realistic, and these traits allow him to survive the abuse of Pap, the violence of a feud, and the dangers of the river.

While Huck accepts that the laws and stipulations that society has devised are just, he concludes that he cannot follow them.He condemns himself as a traitor and a villain for acting against them and aiding Jim. More important, Huck believes that he will lose his chance at Providence by helping a slave. When Huck declares, "All right, then, I'll go to hell," he refuses his place in society and heaven, and the magnitude of his decision is what solidifies his

role as a heroic figure.

"It was a close place. I took...up [the letter I’d written to Miss Watson], and held it in my hand. I was a-trembling,

because I’d got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath,

and then says to myself: “All right then, I’ll go to hell”—and tore it up. It was awful thoughts and awful words, but they

was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming."

Jim is the slave of Miss Watson who runs away when he finds out that he is being sold

away from his family. He joins Huck on a raft to seek freedom by way of the Mississippi.

JimA slave's mentality

A noble person at heart ≠Pap

A father figure

When Huck and Jim become separated in the fog, Jim tells Huck that his "heart wuz mos' broke bekase you wuz los', en I didn' k'yer no mo' what bcome er me en de raf'."

Jim's most important quality, however, is his "gullible" nature. As the novel progresses, this nature reveals itself as complete faith and trust in his friends, especially Huck. The one trait that does not fluctuate throughout the novel is

Jim's belief in Huck.

Widow Douglas, the prime mother figure in Adventures in Huckleberry Finn, is the old, pious guardian of Huck Finn. Huck describes the basic nature

of their relationship -"The Widow Douglas, she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me.."

She is 100% committed to following the rules of society, from table manners to church-going to slave-owning.

The widow embodies civilization and everything respectable but Huck's ideal is to escape the traps of civilization.

Miss Watson is the sister of Huck's main guardian, the Widow. Joining in the mission to civilize Huck, she uses a much more severe approach.

Where the Widow tries to portray a benevolent view of religion to get Huck to accept it, Miss Watson, in last resort attempt to regain her

credibility, uses scare tactics ; she tries to scare Huck into believing by telling him about how he was going to Hell, or the "bad place," unless he

changed his ways.Miss Watson is the most prominent representative of the hypocritical

religious and ethical values Twain criticizes in the novel.

Pap is the father of Huckleberry Finn. He is a middle-aged man who although briefly appears in the novel, greatly affects Huck.

Sure, Huck's father Pap may be an ignorant, abusive, alcoholic racist who beats his son and extorts whiskey money from him, but he's not all bad.

He's got some really redeeming qualities—like…

Like..

Okay, I lied. He has no redeeming qualities.

He'll do anything to get more whiskey, including lying, stealing, and abusing his son.

The worst is that Pap is a willfully ignorant racist. He doesn't want Huck to learn anything, saying "You've put on considerable many frills since I been away… You're educated, too, they say—can read and write. You think you're

better'n your father, now, don't you, because he can't?" He can't handle the idea of black people knowing more than he does, either.

Pap represents both the general debasement of white society and the failure of family structures in the novel.

Bibliografie:• http://www.sparknotes.com• http://www.litcharts.com/• http://www.cambridge.org• http://www.gutenberg.org• pictures- E.W.Kemble, 1884