Journey by the River in "Huckleberry Finn"

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses how, in "Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain, the river in the story serves as a narrative thread, a recurrent setting, and a link between the beginning and end. The paper notes the fact that the river referred to is the Mississippi and demonstrates how the river becomes a singular experience for Huck. The paper describes this experience as one that takes the innocent Huck on a journey of growing awareness about the corruption of man and the contrast between the good and evil of life.

From the Paper:

"Huck from the beginning is a character who follows his own mind and who values the ability to do things rather than to know the book-learning prized by society. Huck does not learn the sort of thing found in books even when the Widow Douglas sends him to school. Twain in fact uses this novel as a way of making fun of a certain genre of books, the sort of high adventures that fascinate Tom Sawyer and that are very different from the real world in which Tom and Huck live. For Twain, American experiential learning is more valuable than European formal education, and this contrast is a key element in the novel."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Chadwick-Joshua, Jocelyn. The Jim Dilemma: Reading Race in Huckleberry Finn. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 1998.
• Conroy, Pat. "A Muddied Mississippi Misadventure." The American Enterprise, Volume 10, Issue 6 (November 1999), 70.
• Cozy, David. "Huck's Heresy." Free Inquiry, Volume 24, Number 2 (February-March 2004), 51-52.
• Jones, Betty H. "Huck and Jim: A Reconsideration." In Satire or Evasion?, James S. Leonard, Thomas A. Tenney, and Thadious M. Davis (eds.). Durham: Duke University Press, 1992. 154-172.
• Marx, Leo. "The Pilot and the Passenger: Landscape Conventions and the Style of Huckleberry Finn." In Mark Twain: A Collection of Critical Essays, Henry Nash Smith (ed.), 47-63. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1963.

More papers on Journey by the River in "Huckleberry Finn":

• Book Review # 132195 : "The Journey in "Hucklebery Finn"
• Essay # 138030 : "The Motivations of Huckleberry Finn when Dealing with Others"
• Analytical Essay # 124851 : "Social Satire in "Huckleberry Finn"

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