Hello readers!
We’ve reached the end of Huck Finn, which again took a couple of interesting twists and turns this week. Overall, I very much enjoyed the novel and it will definitely stick with me much more than when I read it in high school.
As I mentioned over on Read More Books, I’m in the middle of a cross-country move this week, so I’m going to keep things short and sweet to wrap up this book. Most of all, I’d love to hear from YOU in the comments! What did you think of Twain’s best-known story?
Final Thoughts
Tom Sawyer was a fascinating addition to this book. His spirit was very much a mix of Don Quixote and the Count of Monte Cristo — an adventurous romantic who generally believed everything would work out. Even though Sawyer was an orphan, he was still generally cared for by his extended family, siblings, and even the townspeople. Huck, on the other hand, had nobody looking after him. So the stakes in their lives were much different; Huck couldn’t afford to have that adventurous attitude because his life was on the line at almost all times. While Tom’s entrance and subsequent attitude was indeed a little jarring, it made for a great study in contrasts between two seemingly alike boys.
I think Twain also did a good job showing that Jim’s experience in these final chapters was wholly different than what Tom felt. Jim’s very existence was on the line and Tom basically turned the whole thing into a fairytale. The dichotomy of life for Black folks and white folks was well on display here — in a novel from 1884.
Overall I was satisfied with the ending. Tom getting shot (and realizing some real-world consequences for his rose-colored naivete), Jim staying back to help him and getting arrested again, the truth coming out about Miss Watson, and ultimately Jim being legally freed . . . it all worked out. Despite Twain’s natural cynicism, he did also have a hopefulness about the world and wanted to imagine a reality in which the things that were right could actually happen. The same novel wouldn’t end so tidily in today’s literary landscape, but I appreciated it.
I loved Huck Finn as a character. Over the course of the story he became one of my favorite people in all of literature. I love his pluck, his agency, his resourcefulness, his compassion, his sense of right and wrong, and his growth.
That’s all from me, for now. I hope you enjoyed this reading journey as much as I did.
I’ll send more information about our next book, Moby-Dick, very soon — we’ll start reading in two weeks.
This one grew on me a lot on the back half. The addition of Tom Sawyer and seeing Huck struggle with making decisions against what he had been taught to think was right was great. I think Twain did an amazing job of tapping into the naïveté of youth and that struggle.
I thought it was an interesting look to have Tom help Huck “steal” Jim and making it such an ordeal when he already knew Jim was free. Poor Huck struggling with the decision and thinking his friend was noble, only to find out he was only helping cause he knew he was already free.
I really enjoyed reading (re-reading) the novel, and it was interesting to see how differently it resonated when reading it as a child, a college student and now in middle age. Thanks for all your analyses and background info, Jeremy! I hope you move has gone well, and I’m looking forward to (re-) reading Moby Dick!