Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” published in 1884, is a picaresque novel, said by Ernest Hemingway to have changed American literature completely. The plot and characters of “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” are heartfelt and sweet, and equally as frustrating. Twain tackles aspects of morals and adventure, while proving a point against slavery as well, although often interpreted to be discriminatory itself, and even becoming one of the most frequently banned books in American literature due to it’s shocking, yet historically accurate vernacular.

The story, a sequel to Twain’s “Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” focuses on a young boy from Missouri, Huckleberry Finn, who goes on an unforeseen adventure across the country. Huckleberry, or Huck, is adopted by a woman named Widow Douglas, and her sister Miss Watson, as he does not have a mother and comes from a drunk,
Twain focuses on the character development and learning experiences of Huckleberry throughout the novel. Although taught that slaves were property and lesser people, Huck decides to follow through with helping free Jim regardless, even going as far as claiming he was willing to face consequences in the afterlife for doing so, because he thought Jim was just as human as he and other white men were and felt it was necessary to do so, despite what he learned from the White-dominated society he was raised in. This aspect was very important to me personally, as it represents the empathy and selflessness most humans are given by nature before being corrupted by societal hatred amongst other people. Empathy and compassion are two very important elements in my life, as I value them deeply both in social and political circumstances, and I think Twain did a great job of representing both of those things honorably through Huck’s