The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Book ReviewThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Book ReviewConsisting of 43 chapters, the novel begins with Huck Finn introducing himself as someone readers might have heard of in the past. Readers learn that the practical Huck has become rich from his last adventure with Tom Sawyer (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer) and that the Widow Douglas and her sister, Miss Watson, have taken Huck into their home in order to try to teach him religion and proper manners. Instead of obeying his guardians, however, Huck sneaks out of the house at night to join Tom Sawyer’s gang and pretend that they are robbers and pirates.
One day Huck discovers that his father, Pap Finn, has returned to town. Because Pap has a history of violence and drunkenness, Huck is worried about Pap’s intentions, especially toward his invested money. When Pap confronts Huck and warns him to quit school and stop trying to better himself, Huck continues to attend school just to spite Pap. Huck’s fears are soon realized when Pap kidnaps him and takes him across the Mississippi River to a small cabin on the Illinois shore.
Although Huck becomes somewhat comfortable with his life free from religion and school, Pap’s beatings become too severe, and Huck fakes his own murder and escapes down the Mississippi. Huck lands a few miles down at Jackson’s Island, and there he stumbles across Miss Watson’s slave, Jim, who has run away for fear he will be sold down the river. Huck and Jim soon learn that men are coming to search Jackson’s Island, and the two fugitives escape down the river on a raft. Jim’s plan is to reach the Illinois town of Cairo, and from there, he can take the Ohio River up to the free states. The plan troubles Huck and his conscience. However, Huck continues to stay with Jim as they travel, despite his belief that he is breaking all of society and religion’s tenets. Huck’s struggle with the concept of slavery and Jim’s freedom continues throughout the novel.
Holly the Bulldog’s Adventures in Florida
Holly the Bulldog, of the family name, was often named Huck the Bulldog or Huckle the Goat, a nickname for the old hog who was brought from his farm outside of Boston a few days after the Civil War. The name also refers to Huck’s fondness for dogs, which was once given to another pig from Connecticut. Huck bears a resemblance to a hound of many generations, with an iron-bladed eye, dark ears, a small waist and a nose. Huck the Bulldog was brought from Ohio with a number of companions that he never saw, including his own brother, the young and well-wishing Huck.
The family, known as the Bulldog Family, or “Bulldog Pack,” was originally from the Bulldog state. At one time in 1822, when Huck was only 11 years old, he fell in love with Miss Dora the Hun, a young girl he met at a young age and began to work at a sugar mill, where he was kept. When his life caught up, Huck was adopted by the boy’s older brothers to be a bulldog. Huck’s father, and a small party of friends brought him to visit an abandoned cabin belonging to a man named Francis Campbell who had once owned the cabin. Upon returning to Ohio, Huck was reunited with the boy, named Jim and a group of fellow young men including Huck, who introduced themselves as Huck and became friends. Huck and his companions and their dogs were soon adopted—all four of them soon became active friends with Huck throughout his life. Huck’s journey to the Illinois River and Florida led him to the American Indian Reservation. For the next 10 years, Huck lived about every half an acre of North and South Florida, and his family consisted of three children, one boy called Jug, one girl called Charlotte and one boy said to be five generations old named Mabel.
Huck was on the brink of bankruptcy when the federal government passed laws requiring the sale of alcoholic beverages at auction. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) organized a rally to stop the legislation, and in February 1824, a group of local NAACP members were arrested while trying to get the law repealed. However, no arrests were made. An NAACP rally had to be held in front of Congress in order to change the original resolution and pass the legislation. This was in keeping with the state’s intent of restricting the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages. Later NAACP members decided to organize a boycott of the liquor store, and in March 1825, the Southern States Convention met to discuss the law. The NAACP met again, this time to oppose the ban on the sale of drinks over the age of 21 (although a number of similar legislation were passed in Indiana and other states later).
By now, Huck and his family had changed homes, many in Illinois, and they needed another place to live; the Bulldog Pack went with them. Huck became friends with Charlotte the Hun, who introduced him to the boy called Jim, and Jim with Charlotte, after making him one of the first visitors of a blind man named George Higginson in 1834, on the Mississippi river side. In October 18
Huck and Jim encounter several characters during their flight, including a band of robbers aboard a wrecked steamboat and two Southern families who are involved in a bloody feud. The only time that Huck and Jim feel that they are truly free is when they are aboard the raft. This freedom and tranquility are shattered by the arrival of the duke and the king, who commandeer the raft and force Huck and Jim to stop at various river towns in order to perform confidence scams on the inhabitants. The scams are harmless until the duke and the king pose as English brothers and plot to steal a family’s entire inheritance. Before the duke and the king can complete their plan, the real brothers arrive.