Huckleberry Finn research essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 1

Huckleberry Finn research - Essay Example The River breaks them apart and drops Huck for a while in the household of the Grangerford; the River that brings them back together, and then forces upon them the undesirable presence of the King and the Duke. The readers are repeatedly reminded of its existence and its influence. The readers make sense of the River by witnessing it through the point of view of the Boy; however the Boy is the River’s soul as well. Huckleberry Finn, similar to other grand creations of the mind, can offer readers whatever s/he is able to get from it. On the surface, Huck is a compelling Boy. On a similar note, the depiction of social life on Mississippi’s shores a century ago is truthful. Mark Twain compels the readers to witness the River in its true form more vividly than the writers of any other narrative of a river known to humanity. However, the readers do not just witness the River; they experience the River as well. In his later years of fame and success, Mark Twain called his childhood as a steamboat pilot as the most fulfilling he had known (Champion 1991). In the everyday struggle of the pilot with the River, in the gratification of the task, in the unbroken focus on the random difficulties, his mind was completely engaged, and he took in wisdom of which, as a novelist, he used soon after. Maybe, there are only two ways where in an author can gain knowledge of the situation which s/he can afterward narrate: one is by spending one’s childhood in that situation, or, in other words, living in it at a time where in one encounters much more than s/he understands; and second, by experiencing the difficulty of making a living in that situation (Champion 1991). Mark Twain’s familiarity with the Mississippi echoes these two ways. When I woke up, I didn’t know where I was for a minute. I set up and looked around, a little scared. Then I