Summary (miranda gray)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn begins by discussing the events that lead to this particular novel, which happened in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Both novels are set in the town of St. Petersburg, Missouri roughly between 1835–1845 (before the Civil War.) Huckleberry Finn is described as a low-class child with an alcoholic father. He was adopted by the Widow Douglas and her sister Miss Watson, who tried to shove her religion down his throat and civilize him. Huck was not too thrilled with his new life of cleanliness, manners, church, and education. He accepts his change, however, because his middle-class friend, Tom Sawyer, who tells convinces him that to take part in Tom’s gang of “robbers," he must stay “respectable.”
Life was decent for Huck until his brutal, alcoholic father, Pap, comes back to town and goes after Huck’s money. The local judge, Judge Thatcher, tries to protect Huck, but a new judge in town believes that children should be with their biological fathers. Pap does not believe going to school so he forbids that Huck to go. Huck dislikes his father more than school, so he disobeys him by going to school. Unhappy with this disrespect, Pap kidnaps Huck and holds him captive in a cabin across the river from St. Petersburg. Every night when Pap goes out, he locks Huck in the bedroom. When he returns home, he beats Huck and passes out from being terribly drunk. Tired of his confinement and fear of his beatings, Huck finds a way to escape by faking his own death.
He hid on Jackson’s Island in the middle of the Mississippi River, where he encounters Jim, one of Miss Watson’s slaves who has run away from Miss Watson after hearing her talk about separating him from his family. Despite Huck’s uncertainty about his morality toward African-Americans, they team up together and protect each other.
Although the island was peaceful and perfect, Huck and Jim were forced to leave after Huck finds out that their are people on shore who seen the fire smoke on the island and plan to search for Jim. Jim has a warrant of arrest out for him, a mighty reward for anyone who turns him in. The boys take a raft down the river, intending on traveling to a free state, where slavery is prohibited. It takes several days to travel past St. Louis and they encounter some mishap along the way that has to do with racism or being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
For example, after a violent fog storm, the raft fell apart and Huck ends up in the home Grangerfords, a family of Southern aristocrats. He accidentally contributes to the family feud with the Shepherdsons. Jim shows up with a repaired raft and Huck hurries to Jim’s hiding place until it is safe for them to take off down the river.
A few days later, Huck and Jim rescue a pair of criminals, who are clearly con artists. Their worst crime was selling Jim to a local farmer, convincing him that Jim was a runaway for a large reward. Huck finds out where Jim is being held captive and he rescues him (again). At the house where Jim is a prisoner, Huck discovers that the the slave masters were Tom Sawyer’s aunt and uncle, Silas and Sally Phelps. The Phelpses mistake Huck for Tom and Tom as his own younger brother, Sid. Tom conceives a plan to free Jim by adding unnecessary obstacles, which Huck is sure that the plan will get them all killed. The boys ransack the Phelps’s house and make Aunt Sally miserable and a pursuer shoots Tom in the leg. Huck is gets a doctor and are returned to the Phelps’s house, where Jim ends up back in chains.
When Tom wakes the next morning, he reveals that Jim has actually been a free man for two months because Miss Watson made a provision in her will to free Jim and she died. Tom had planned the entire escape idea all as a game and had intended to pay Jim for his troubles. Jim tells Huck, who fears for his future, that the body they found on the floating house off Jackson’s Island had been Pap’s. Aunt Sally then steps in and offers to adopt Huck, but Huck had enough “sivilizing,” that he announces his plan to set out for the West. That is how the story ends, with some kinda of happiness after the dramatic tragedies these boys have faced at such young childhood.
Life was decent for Huck until his brutal, alcoholic father, Pap, comes back to town and goes after Huck’s money. The local judge, Judge Thatcher, tries to protect Huck, but a new judge in town believes that children should be with their biological fathers. Pap does not believe going to school so he forbids that Huck to go. Huck dislikes his father more than school, so he disobeys him by going to school. Unhappy with this disrespect, Pap kidnaps Huck and holds him captive in a cabin across the river from St. Petersburg. Every night when Pap goes out, he locks Huck in the bedroom. When he returns home, he beats Huck and passes out from being terribly drunk. Tired of his confinement and fear of his beatings, Huck finds a way to escape by faking his own death.
He hid on Jackson’s Island in the middle of the Mississippi River, where he encounters Jim, one of Miss Watson’s slaves who has run away from Miss Watson after hearing her talk about separating him from his family. Despite Huck’s uncertainty about his morality toward African-Americans, they team up together and protect each other.
Although the island was peaceful and perfect, Huck and Jim were forced to leave after Huck finds out that their are people on shore who seen the fire smoke on the island and plan to search for Jim. Jim has a warrant of arrest out for him, a mighty reward for anyone who turns him in. The boys take a raft down the river, intending on traveling to a free state, where slavery is prohibited. It takes several days to travel past St. Louis and they encounter some mishap along the way that has to do with racism or being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
For example, after a violent fog storm, the raft fell apart and Huck ends up in the home Grangerfords, a family of Southern aristocrats. He accidentally contributes to the family feud with the Shepherdsons. Jim shows up with a repaired raft and Huck hurries to Jim’s hiding place until it is safe for them to take off down the river.
A few days later, Huck and Jim rescue a pair of criminals, who are clearly con artists. Their worst crime was selling Jim to a local farmer, convincing him that Jim was a runaway for a large reward. Huck finds out where Jim is being held captive and he rescues him (again). At the house where Jim is a prisoner, Huck discovers that the the slave masters were Tom Sawyer’s aunt and uncle, Silas and Sally Phelps. The Phelpses mistake Huck for Tom and Tom as his own younger brother, Sid. Tom conceives a plan to free Jim by adding unnecessary obstacles, which Huck is sure that the plan will get them all killed. The boys ransack the Phelps’s house and make Aunt Sally miserable and a pursuer shoots Tom in the leg. Huck is gets a doctor and are returned to the Phelps’s house, where Jim ends up back in chains.
When Tom wakes the next morning, he reveals that Jim has actually been a free man for two months because Miss Watson made a provision in her will to free Jim and she died. Tom had planned the entire escape idea all as a game and had intended to pay Jim for his troubles. Jim tells Huck, who fears for his future, that the body they found on the floating house off Jackson’s Island had been Pap’s. Aunt Sally then steps in and offers to adopt Huck, but Huck had enough “sivilizing,” that he announces his plan to set out for the West. That is how the story ends, with some kinda of happiness after the dramatic tragedies these boys have faced at such young childhood.