The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain

Huckleberry Finn Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn has always been widely acclaimed as the first great American novel. Quite often Huckleberry Finn has been seen as somewhat of a children's book by people who have not read it in the past, however, this is most defiantly a misconception. True, the adventures in the book are appealing to a younger audience as they are exiting and fun, but the book deals with many serious issues from the 19th century. The book has been banned numerous times from schools and public libraries in the past in the States for various different reasons. More recently it was banned for it's continual use of the word 'nigger' and was said to ...  Read the complete review

The Author Mark Twain is definitely a brilliant satirist and this shines through in Huckleberry Finn. Despite the fact that it has been classified as children's literature, observing the novel deeper shall reveal a deeper more complex meaning. Mark Twain has managed to incorporate lighthearted humour with potential political bombshells. Historical Context When Huckleberry Finn was initially written it was believed that it was pro-black because of the society that existed back them, the images portrayed by Mark Twain in Huckleberry Finn were considered positive and complementary of black culture. However, politics and culture have both made ...  Read the complete review

When Mark Twain wrote Huckleberry Finn, it was considered a revolutionary text because it was so clearly pro black. In the eyars since then, culture has changed no end, as has the status of black Americans. The book is now considered racist. When first published this book was considered a piece of children's literature, following in the wake of the more tame Tom Sawyer. I would suggest that it isn't perhaps as suitable for the modern child, as the unpolitically correct elements would take a lot of explaining. twain is a great satirist, and much of his criticism of society would be lost on younger readers. His comedy is not jsut comic, it does also have ...  Read the complete review

Quite simply, a work of real beauty. Stepping away from the jolly but trivial boys' own adventures of Tom Sawyer, this novel enters the head of the considerably more complicated Huckleberry Finn, an instinctively decent, instinctively anarchic kid, constantly being lured into normal conventional life, and constantly rebelling against it. In this novel, he ditches society and with his friend Jim, a former slave, makes a long and complex journey down the Mississippi, dodging slavers, con men, and Huck's own father. It's a superbly written evocation of the South, with elements of satire and social comment. Despite controversy over the racial ...  Read the complete review

If you're interested in censorship and how it's developed in the last few centuries, it's worth reading Huckleberry Finn and trying to fathom the extreme reactions to the book in various times and places. There's no doubt that many of those who denounced it were afraid of its power to suggest (as with Salinger's 'Catcher in the Rye'). This fear is so great because of the book's many and shifting identities - is it a children's book? a travel log? a crime story? a buddy tale? If a book and its author can't be pinned down, they're threatening. As far as I'm concerned, these kinds of tension are what make ...  Read the complete review