Review: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is widely recognized as one of the great American novels, and it is certainly a good read. However, I personally don’t think it aged well, and the humor and adventure is sometimes lacking. Still, it paints an interesting and complex picture of the period. It tries to be funny and enjoyable at times, like the dialogue with Jim, and the parts with the “Duke" and the “King”; and it also depicts some dark moments, like Hucks imprisonment and beatings by his father, and the lot of runaway slaves. However, even these dark moments are described in such a matter of fact way, and surrounded by so much irony and little morsels of humor, that completely remove the drama from the story. The best example of this is the ending, which has already been heavily criticized by other readers: after Jim is captured, Huck and Tom Sawyer come up with the most ridiculous plans to rescue him, delaying the escape for weeks and putting Jim through a lot of trouble, which he innocently puts up with. It makes light of Jim’s situation, but I think this is done to symbolize the almost total blindness of the white people to the plight of the slaves; Tom Sawyer is the symbol of how entitled and detached the people with money are, even when they are the nice guys.

Regarding the story as a whole, I will only say that it is a series of coincidences and weird situations that Huck gets into, sometimes humorous, sometimes hinting at some lesson, sometimes verging on the ridiculous. Instead of a deeper analysis, I will just quote the author:

"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."

As for the language, I think it’s wonderful that Mark Twain tries to capture the way people thought and talked at the time, and makes reading this book even more interesting. After all, I think this book is worthwhile for its historical significance and depictions, rather than for its story.

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