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Importance of Mississippi River in Huckleberry Finn

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Importance of Mississippi River in Huckleberry Finn

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Huckleberry Finn’s adventures are widely based on the author Mark Twain’s attempt to relive his past life and journeys on the Mississippi. The story follows Huck and a runaway slave down the Mississippi river as the two try to escape their current life. Twain presents the river in many ways and compares and contrasts it to the current society. Twain seems to tell his readers that even though the river is a disguised route filled with criminals, society is not much different.

http://www.newhistorian.com/the-importance-of-the-mississippi-river-in-mark-twains-huckleberry-finn/155/http://www.newhistorian.com/the-importance-of-the-mississippi-river-in-mark-twains-huckleberry-finn/155/

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Huckleberry Finn's adventures are widely based on the author Mark Twain's attempt to relive his past life and journeys on the Mississippi. The story follows Huck and a runaway slave down the Mississippi river as the two try to escape their current life. Twain presents the river in many ways and compares and contrasts it to the current society. Twain seems to tell his readers that even though the river is a disguised route filled with criminals, society is not much different.

Said to have been based on Mark Twain's Memoir, Life on the Mississippi, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn follows the life of a young adventurous boy (Huck Finn) as he runs away from both his guardian, the Widow Douglas and his father Pap. He accidentally teams up with another runaway, a slave named Jim. As the two set off they hope to find freedom from different things; Huck from both the thought of being "civilized" and his drunken father, and Jim from his current life. Jim is a slave and is running away to become a free man so he can in turn free his family from slavery.

The two unlikely friends journey down the Mississippi in what turns out to be a series of adventures filled with death, disguise and eventually not just the growth and maturity of their friendship but also of Huck. The river, on which their journey is set, is an important motif and acts as both the agent that brings the two closer to their destination as the motion that pushes Twain's story along.

The Mississippi is the fourth largest river in the world and stretches over ten US states. What has made the Mississippi River so famous is not only the importance it plays to those towns surrounding it but the way in which Mark Twain uses the river in many of his literary works as an important motif. Twain retells his experiences on the Mississippi river in a memoir published in 1883, centered on his life as a steamboat pilot. It follows his journeys on the Mississippi from St Louis to New Orleans. His own experiences were what inspired the 1834 novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain's recount of Huck's journey along the river maps the road to the young boy discovering himself.

One of the most obvious features of the river is the way in which it provides a hidden getaway for anyone who wants a quick way out of town. Because the river spans so many states, one could easily hide in one of the many towns that the river passes though. The river acts as a back road and is the first option for making hasty retreat. It begins as a friendly journey as Jim and Huck gains a raft and food that has been washed up. Twain seems to point out how giving the river can be and how much they can hide comfortably on this hidden trail, but it doesn't stay calm for too long. Their subsequent encounters with hoodlums, thieves, liars and murderers shows that just like the river that can be friendly on some days and rough and engulfed in fog on other days, such are their experiences; they might be able to sail smoothly and bask in the sunshine and the quietude on parts of their adventures, but not far downstream they can encounter rough waters.

Another astounding feature worthy of mentioning is the way in which Twain seems to compare the Mississippi river with the aristocracies. Huck ends up meeting a family known as the Grangerfords and realizes they have been locked in a feud for years with their neighbors, the Shepherdsons , a family with whom they attend church. There is no different with life on the Mississippi and life among these people. Their longstanding feud erupts when two members of either family decided to elope. The feud turned deadly and seems to reflect Huck's earlier experiences on the river where a feud between friends ended in death. There is a stark comparison between the two worlds as Huck seems to have been caught in between the two.

Twain's love for the Mississippi river is no doubt evident in the novel. It is portrayed not just a long and winding avenue that leads out of town and away from potential conflicts but a road that enables one to find themselves.

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The Importance of the Mississippi River in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn

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Huckleberry Finn's adventures are widely based on the author Mark Twain's attempt to relive his past life and journeys on the Mississippi. The story follows Huck and a runaway slave down the Mississippi river as the two try to escape their current life. Twain presents the river in many ways and compares and contrasts it ...

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created by John and Hank Green

Gives a thorough explanation of the Mississippi River and its relevance to Huckleberry Finn throughout the novel

https://youtu.be/ak8gydUl9gM
#possibility

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The Raft, the River, and The Weird Ending of Huckleberry Finn: Crash Course Literature 303

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This week, we're continuing our discussion of Mark Twain's 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.' This is part two of our talk about Huck Finn, and this time we're looking at the metaphors in the book, a little bit about what the metaphors like the Island and the River and the Raft might mean, and why you should pay attention to said metaphors.

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Freedom
- Away from civilized society
- Route to Freedom for Jim

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“So in two seconds away we went a-sliding down the river, and it did seem so good to be free again and all by ourselves on the big river, and nobody to bother us” (29).
#freedom

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“We... let her float wherever the current wanted her to; then we lit the pipes, and dangled our legs in the water, and talked about all kinds of things—we was always naked, day and night, whenever the mosquitoes would let us" (19.4).
#adventure

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"We catched fish and talked, and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness. It was kind of solemn, drifting down the big, still river, laying on our backs looking up at the stars, and we didn't ever feel like talking loud, and it warn't often that we laughed — only a little kind of a low chuckle. We had mighty good weather as a general thing, and nothing ever happened to us at all — that night, nor the next, nor the next." (Chapter 12)
#NoWorries

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St. Petersburg
Huck lives With Widow Douglas

#oppertunity

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Pap's Cabin
Home of Huck's father who comes to take Huck's money.

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Jackson Island
Where Huck and Jim hide from the storm. Huck plays the rattlesnake "trick" on Jim here.

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Illinois - Free State
Jim is trying to escape slavery by making it to Illinois, a free state.

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Independence
- Away from civilized society
- Non-Conformity

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Struggles
- Helping an escaped slave
- Fighting Huck's conscience

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Racism
-Societal normalities
-Huck’s perception

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Slavery
-All lives are worth something
-Societal normalities cont.

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Hero’s Journey
-Huck’s transformation
-Jim’s transformation

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While floating down Mississippi River Huck and Jim were able to take items from an abandoned house. Also point in the book when Huck begins to have feeling and wants to help the robber who was planned on being killed.

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Two or three days and nights went by; I reckon I might say they swum by, they slid along so quiet and smooth and lovely. Here is the way we put in the time. It was a monstrous big river down there - sometimes a mile and a half wide; we run nights, and laid up and hid daytimes; soon as night was most gone we stopped navigating and tied up - nearly always in the dead water under a tow-head; and then cut cottonwoods and willows and hid the raft with them. Then we set out the lines. Next we slid into the river and had a swim, so as to freshed up and cool off; then we set down on the sandy bottom where the water was about knee deep, and watched the daylight come. Not a sound anywhere - perfectly still - just like the whole world was asleep, only sometimes the bullfrogs-a-cluttering, maybe (Chapter 19).
#Peaceful

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This is where Huck and Jim were going to stop to take a steamboat to Ohio, however through the fog and the nighttime it was too difficult for them to see the Ohio River causing them to miss it.

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When there raft is run over by a steamboat Huck and Jim had to separate and Huck was taken in by the Grangerfords.

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Huck finds Jim here. Meets Tom and also breaks Jim out from the Phelp's House.

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Tom is shot while running away from the local farmers firing at Tom and Jim while they try to run.

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"Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don't. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft" (88).
#Comforting

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by Jenny Sawyer

The Mississippi River stands as the setting over the course but also the most important symbol throughout

https://youtu.be/I_8g5Wi85XM
#freedom

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Huckleberry Finn | Symbols | 60second Recap®

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http://www.60secondrecap.com/study-guide/mark-twain-the-adventures-of-huckleberry-finn-symbols/ ] by Jenny Sawyer There's one thing in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" that's almost as much of a presence as Huck Finn himself. It's the Mississippi River, of course! In just 60 seconds, Jenny offers up the full scoop on this symbol's double meaning.