Huckleberry Finn: Strength vs. WeaknessSome people consider the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain as a classic, while others perceive it as a weak and trivial novel. The strengths and weaknesses that are seen throughout this novel have brought up a huge controversy on whether it shows greatness or creates confusion for readers in the end. One strength that Mark Twain presents is the realistic actions and feelings of the young boy, Huck, and how he makes him a relatable character. A noticeable flaw in the book is the last 12 chapters, which are irrelevant to the rest of the story because they only act as distractions and take away from the main idea. Even though this flaw causes confusion for the readers, Mark Twain is able to overcome that flaw with his style of making Huck relatable and practical.
Mark Twain’s strength of portraying Huck as realistic is shown by the feelings and relationships he has. Huck was adopted by the two sisters, harsh Miss Watson and the gentler Widow Douglas, who tried to civilize him into a proper boy. Huck said “so when I couldn’t stand it no longer I lit out. I got into my old rags and my sugar-hogshead again, and was free and satisfied” which shows that Huck is miserable under the roof of the two sisters and their rules and commands(Twain 13). Huck unfortunately also has a relationship with his father, who is the town drunk and is only interested in the money Huck has in the bank. These personal relations to Huck are far from a caring family and Mark Twain uses “the repetition of a simple word, such as ‘lonesome’” to describe Huck’s constant feeling(Morrison). Later when Huck escapes, he runs away to Jackson Island and surprisingly finds Miss Watson’s slave, Jim, who also has …
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…isappointing excuse to American literature. As some readers are confused and focused on the bad qualities of the book found in the last 12 chapters, readers should also recognize Twain for his brilliant skill and motive to make Huck a realistic character and to make people more drawn to him and the plot of the story. The feelings and moral growth that Huck experiences over shadows the distracting chapters, making Twain’s novel a positive piece of American literature that will be still discussed for years to come.Works Cited
Morrison, Toni. “Introduction.” International Creative Management, Inc., 1996. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.
Smiley, Jane. “Say It Ain’t So, Huck: Second Thoughts on Mark Twain’s ‘Masterpiece'” Harper’s Magazine, Jan. 1996. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1899. Print.
