Huck Finn

The book is about the story of Huck Finn's life. It shows different things he went through and the different stages in his life, that made him who he was. Huck was not the average character, he was different. He thought about things in different ways and was not always honest with himself. I think he knew the limits but followed others because he "thought" they knew best. Huck learns a lot through out the book and even though he did not always do the right thing, in the end he came out a better person then he started off.

I think some themes of this book would be:
slavery-Jim was a slave but yet a father figure to Huck, who was white.
nature-can be seen in the river and how it is like a path of freedom for Huck
independence-Huck did not want to be "civilized" he wanted to be "street smart" and live true to himself
education-can be seen in how Tom was "educated" and how Huck went along with him just because he was educated. It can also be seen with Jim because he was educated just in a different way.

There were lots of other themes that can be talked about but those were some of the major ones that stuck out to me. The beginning of the book had some humor, that maybe not everyone picked up on. I thought it was funny when Huck was telling the widow that if she was going to be in heaven he would rather not go there. He was expressing how he felt about her kind of "civilization" and how against it he really was.

The character of Jim can be seen in several different ways. I feel like he can be used as a image to show a deeper meaning then just what the surface shows. I feel like it was important that this character be a black man and that Huck be young. If these element would have been different i don't know if the story would have worked out the same way. I also feel like Jim as a slave being a father figure speaks loudly! It shows the reader that this white young boy has no true father figure other then that of a drunk and that of a slave. The funny picture is the slave is more of a father then his white father has ever been. It is funny how Huck thought that black men didn't care for their families and yet white people did...he was white (Huck) without a caring father figure. It just goes to show how great of a influence society played on even its young people.

I also thought that some of the things that Tom did were very wrong. He is a character that very quickly the reader sees is not the best of person. He ensures Huck that they are doing things right when in fact they are treating Jim and others very bad. But Huck does go along with it all because he thinks that because Tom is educated he "knows" best. We see that is clearly not the case here.

I think some things that interest me and that i was not 100% on are some of the things that happened to them on the river. And why was Huck a different person around certain people? I feel like he was a strong character but too often followed even when he knew things were wrong. I also feel like the ending shows a lot about Huck and what kind of person after all this he became. I think he was stronger but still not for sure on some things. I feel like when he picks to go out into the unknown rather then return with Tom shows just how much he was against that lifestyle choice. He would rather risk everything then returning to something that was not him.

I really enjoyed this book, i had read it in high school but when rereading found some new things that i did not see the first time. I think that there are deeper meanings behind the story and that they are very important. But i think that the writer allows the reader to see things in their own light and interrupt in the best way they see. I like the emotion behind the story and what some of it stood for. I think we could learn a lot from it.