Book-report of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

一、  Plot Summary

Huckleberry is an uneducated outcast boy. His father is a local drunk and ruffian. The widow Douglas who lives with her sister Miss Watson adopts Huck，and the attempts to make him to be a gentleman. But Huck doesn’t like it. Huck’s father kidnaps him, and locks him in a cabin in the woods. Tired of the drunken man’s beating, Huck implements a careful plan to escape. Then he does it, and he meets Miss Watson’s slave Jim in the island. Jim has run away from Miss Watson because he heard he would be sold. Then, Huck and Jim drift on a raft down the Mississippi, on both sides of which there was unpopulated wildness and a dense forest, to escape to freedom. On the way, they get in to troubles, but the smart boy overcomes again and again .Later, they meet the King and the Duck, two swindlers. They sell Jim to a local farmer for forty dollars. Huck finds Jim and manages to rescue him with the help of his friend Tom. Finally, they succeed and Miss Watson makes a provision to free Jim. Then there comes to a happy ending.

二、  Analysis of the Main Characters

Huck is the main character of this story, and the whole story is told by his view. He is a 13 year’s old boy, treacherous, shrewd, kind-hearted and brave. Adopted by the widow Douglas, but he can’t stand the rules and etiquette of the monde. He doesn’t like praying, or behaving, even he hates school. He feels very lonely. Later, tired of being beaten by his father, he runs away from his father and the widow, pursues freedom. To be successful, he even makes a very careful plan which looks like he was killed by robbers. After encountering the nigger, Jim, they begin the adventures along the Mississippi river. Growing up in the slave-holding society, Huck is unavoidably influenced by racial discrimination. Therefore, he struggles and conflicts in his mind. At first, he regards Jim as a nigger and often tricks him. Later, after being with Jim for some time, he finds Jim is a “mighty good nigger”, and Jim also “thinks about his wife and his children”. But at that time, helping a nigger escape is a crime. So the nearer the freedom is, the more anxious Huck feels. He even writes a letter to inform Jim’s master of his trial.  But when he thinks of Jim’s kindness, he hesitates. He thinks of their talking, singing and laughing; he thinks of Jim standing his watch, instead of calling him; he thinks of Jim said he was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world. All of these arose his feelings, he makes a decision that he will try best to save and help Jim. This is not only the struggle of a child, but the combat between the slavery and the democracy. It is the awakening of the sense of equality.

Jim is also a typical character in this novel. There is no doubt that Jim plays as a spiritual guidance of Huck. Jim is not a nigger who is resigned; he has his own thought and pursues freedom. He has not only dignity, but also loyalty and decency, kindness and courage. He cherishes friendship, he takes good care of Huck, and he take Huck’s turn for guarding instead of waking him when Huck id sleeping. After being saved by Huck, he says he will never forget Huck for that. This kind of help is not the humble service for his master, but the help between friends on the basis of equal dignity. He misses his family, and he can’t forgive himself that he had hurt his daughter. Jim is a person of flesh and blood; he has his own feelings, like any ordinary people do.

The two swindlers, the King and the Duck, are representatives of the ugly society, crafty, deceptive, hypocritical, and avaricious. They never tell the truth. They take every chance to get money by fraud, pretending as an astray pirate, acting, and passing for the brother of a dead rich man to get the property. Shamelessly, they sell Jim for forty-dollars when they can’t deceive any money. The two adults contrast with the little boy, Huck. During their adventures, Huck joins some of their tricks, but most time he plays as a spectator, even sometimes he warns the deceived people. And the kind boy still wants to give the two swindlers a hint to save them. The end of them can also be predicted. Maybe it’s because the little Huck or we can say the author still believe truth that sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.

三、  Comment

  Almost all the comments about Huck are that he is clever, kind or something like that. To some degree, I agree with that. But after I reading the novel, I feel puzzle. Huck is so clever that he saves Jim and himself again and again. However, every time he lies. The plan which he used to rid of his father is so careful, hiding the canoe, shooting the wild pig, making some traces, that all of these make anyone who sees believes that he was killed. When I read it, I confused how a child can make such a plan, which is far trickier than clever as I thought. Later, he lies too much. He lies that Jim is his father with small-pox; he passes as Tom and makes so many troubles in Aunt Sally’s house. He may be with good intentions that he want to save Jim. But as a child, is it right to lie so much? We are always taught to be honest. Everyone praises his kindness and brightness, but why no one criticizes his dishonesty? If a child learns from Huck after reading this novel, should we say he is clever or bad? Or we can only say Huck is too early to contact with the dark society, which makes him devoid of simpleness.

四、  Conclusion

  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the masterpiece of Mark Twain. It is a great novel appreciated by both children and adults. The whole story told in the first-person narration of Huck. Huck is an uneducated child, so his words are simple, childlike and innocent. The story is viewed from his eyes, full of children’s thoughts.

Anyway, it is a very good book deserving of reading. Every reader will get something from it and have his own understanding.