Huckleberry Finn Setting Analysis

The historical novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain in 1884, has many literary elements to generate a good plot and compose a good story. Twain introduces the characters, the major ones being Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, as well as Jim. Finn was a white, poor child, who unlike Sawyer was not very dramatic in his way of life. Tom Sawyer read a lot and knew how to make any situation thrilling. Jim, a very mature black child, tags along with Finn (as well as the King and the Duke) to run away, and ultimately needs to get rescued in the end as he is forced into slavery by Ms. Watson. Twain provides a narrative hook by familiarizing the readers with how vivid Tom’s life is when he and Huck sneak through Widow

They can mark changes and developments in the story and can be symbolic, and it is no different in this novel. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn take place in 1835 in locations such as Missouri and along the Mississippi River in Arkansas. In Chapter 9, Jim foresees that it will rain, which it does, so Huck and Jim decide to camp out into a cave in Jackson’s Island. Twain includes rain as a part of the setting to prove the sense of loneliness the characters have, yet they do not, they have each other. However, they left their families and friends behind, and are lonely – paradoxical. The rain signifies the mood at hand and provides a checkpoint in the story. Huck goes into town and fakes being a girl in order to get any information he can, but ends up being caught. Later, in Chapter 32, Huck discovers the Phelps’s house and farm. The environment here is portrayed as friendly, but is actually very dangerous. Huck (and Tom, soon after), are pursuing an illegal act – breaking a slave free, which is very deceitful once compared to the friendly

In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain gives us an implied theme to ponder about. Three themes stand out farther than the rest – racism, money, and freedom. In the South, racism was extremely prominent as well as enslaving blacks. With the view of the setting and how it is portrayed, Twain makes this clear. The fact that Jim was enslaved and Huck and Tom had to rescue him proves this. In the beginning of the story, readers are told that Huck has obtained $6,000 for himself (which was a great amount during the 1800s), yet Jim has very little, if any. The divide between rich and poor hear are coherent and is a theme all throughout the story. Finally, obtaining liberation is the ultimate goal in the novel. It took Huck and Tom a very long time to try to break Jim free, but it was all worth it. We also see freedom when we look at the Mississippi River – it promotes freedom in the story. Twain put all of these elements together to illustrate how life actually is. Racism will occur (although it is terrible), nearly everyone wants money and the divide of the rich and the poor is common, and some people are still trying to achieve freedom from an individual or material in their