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3.5 AVERAGE
3.5 AVERAGE
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Many many meta levels of analysis can be done on this book which is why it's one of the monster great novels. For me, when I first read it in elementary school, I experienced the welcome shock that a kid could be an independent actor working against the mores of church and society. Between this book and Sherlock Holmes I discovered books can free your mind from the chains of what people say you should think and how you should act vs. what you see and hear and experience in the real world.
The first time I read 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' I was in the fifth grade, and it gave me a lot more insight into my own family even though we were as far from the South as is New York City in time and place.
I personally gained much valuable insight into frauds, scams, situational piety, and what can only be defined as the pure social stupidity and greedy foolishness of people as seen from a viewpoint as clear-sighted as one like the author's, Mark Twain. I suppose having been a Mississippi riverboat pilot and a journalist, among other jobs, gave Twain much eye-opening fodder for the adventures of his fictional protagonists. People have not changed since the time of 1885 when Twain published this book. Is there any other author with such insight into the Art of the Con when done by a real criminal or thought of by such a child as Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn's best friend and mentor?
I learned a lot how emotions can be played and lies done by reading the two interlinked books (this book is the sequel to the previous book featuring Tom Sawyer - [b:The Adventures of Tom Sawyer|24583|The Adventures of Tom Sawyer|Mark Twain|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1404811979l/24583._SY75_.jpg|41326609]) although I couldn't articulate my newfound knowledge as a kid. To me, they are survival manuals for kids on how to deal with parents and other authority figures who tend to obfuscate Reality and insist on mysterious customary rituals of behavior. Now I can see how even more apt and essential a manual of "how to play and prey on human nature for fun and profit" Twain's books are for adults as well, especially appropriate in the 21st century! Hello, cable news and celebrity gossip! Hello, Twitter and talk radio! Hello, internet marketing and ad targeting strategies! Hello television, YouTube and movies! However, just because society is full of manipulated emotions doesn't mean emotions are ALL based on falsified sources! 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' would not be a great book if it didn't also include the simple everyday expressions of heartfelt sentiment, support and the honest morality of family and friends, beneficial and worthy to living. Plus, plenty of humorous fun!
The main narrator, Huckleberry Finn, is a homeless 'street' kid with an unorthodox childhood. He runs away at around age 13 or 14 years of age from St. Petersburg, Missouri, on a raft with another runaway, Jim, an adult slave. While floating up and down the Mississippi and various near tributaries, they stop only out of necessity in little and large towns, trying to avoid authorities who would put both Jim and Huckleberry into slots of legal civilization neither would be happy in. Huckleberry is escaping his dangerous alcoholic father while Jim is hiding out because he was threatened with being sold by his owner, Miss Watson, to owners reputed to murder slaves through torturous field work.
Huckleberry was completely stressed out when his alcoholic sh*t of a father kept him prisoner in a cabin after kidnapping him from a more stable adoptive home. Pap is having alcohol-induced psychotic breaks, and he has nearly killed Huckleberry several times with beatings and trying to shoot Huckleberry. So Huck fakes his death with pig's blood and an axe before Pap comes back from a drunk and escapes his father's shack through a hole Huck cut in the wall. He has a canoe which he loaded up with supplies, and he hides out on an uninhabited island. With a few days, he discovered Jim is also hiding out on the island!
A search party lands on the island looking for Jim. The two runaways hide in a cave temporarily, but they realize they have to leave. Jim or Huckleberry have little faith in how civilization and its laws works for people like them, so they join up in escaping Law, Civilization and Order, and the people who legally owned both of them.
There are 21st-century real-life analogs of all the 19th-century characters Huck and Jim meet on their trip down the Mississippi River walking about today - bankers, real estate brokers, family relatives, talk-radio DJs, politicians, religious and wellness gurus, criminals, feuding neighbors, and lowlifes, to name a few. I also recognized some of the scams (many successful) that a couple of criminals attempt on towns along the shores of the Mississippi River. Huck and Jim are forced to accommodate the bad guys for awhile on their raft, as the two cons intimidate and blackmail Huck and Jim with exposure as runaways. Despite the dangers the bad guys cause for the heroes, there is plenty of humor and an education in scams in store for Huck, Jim and us readers!
Will our heroes find freedom from Civilization? Will Huck overcome his qualms at the "immorality" of helping his friend Jim escape, since he has been taught he will go to hell for stealing "property"? Will Tom Sawyer rescue his friend in the manner all of us have come to love?
I'm not telling, gentle reader.
Readers should be aware the book has real Southern dialects and racial language typical of Southerners in the 19th century, some of which is particularly offensive today. Nonetheless, I recommend this book. Twain may or may not have had racist beliefs, but he definitely did not like slavery. Whenever he writes of it, there is a satirical tone towards White attitudes of slavery, and he always includes scenes showing the contradictions of what society believed about Black people and the actual humanity and heroism of Black people. Perhaps today we more sophisticated types would call the inclusion of 'magic negro characters' sadly misdirected liberalism, but for the times this book was written, I can only see it as a positive.
The first time I read 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' I was in the fifth grade, and it gave me a lot more insight into my own family even though we were as far from the South as is New York City in time and place.
I personally gained much valuable insight into frauds, scams, situational piety, and what can only be defined as the pure social stupidity and greedy foolishness of people as seen from a viewpoint as clear-sighted as one like the author's, Mark Twain. I suppose having been a Mississippi riverboat pilot and a journalist, among other jobs, gave Twain much eye-opening fodder for the adventures of his fictional protagonists. People have not changed since the time of 1885 when Twain published this book. Is there any other author with such insight into the Art of the Con when done by a real criminal or thought of by such a child as Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn's best friend and mentor?
I learned a lot how emotions can be played and lies done by reading the two interlinked books (this book is the sequel to the previous book featuring Tom Sawyer - [b:The Adventures of Tom Sawyer|24583|The Adventures of Tom Sawyer|Mark Twain|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1404811979l/24583._SY75_.jpg|41326609]) although I couldn't articulate my newfound knowledge as a kid. To me, they are survival manuals for kids on how to deal with parents and other authority figures who tend to obfuscate Reality and insist on mysterious customary rituals of behavior. Now I can see how even more apt and essential a manual of "how to play and prey on human nature for fun and profit" Twain's books are for adults as well, especially appropriate in the 21st century! Hello, cable news and celebrity gossip! Hello, Twitter and talk radio! Hello, internet marketing and ad targeting strategies! Hello television, YouTube and movies! However, just because society is full of manipulated emotions doesn't mean emotions are ALL based on falsified sources! 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' would not be a great book if it didn't also include the simple everyday expressions of heartfelt sentiment, support and the honest morality of family and friends, beneficial and worthy to living. Plus, plenty of humorous fun!
The main narrator, Huckleberry Finn, is a homeless 'street' kid with an unorthodox childhood. He runs away at around age 13 or 14 years of age from St. Petersburg, Missouri, on a raft with another runaway, Jim, an adult slave. While floating up and down the Mississippi and various near tributaries, they stop only out of necessity in little and large towns, trying to avoid authorities who would put both Jim and Huckleberry into slots of legal civilization neither would be happy in. Huckleberry is escaping his dangerous alcoholic father while Jim is hiding out because he was threatened with being sold by his owner, Miss Watson, to owners reputed to murder slaves through torturous field work.
Huckleberry was completely stressed out when his alcoholic sh*t of a father kept him prisoner in a cabin after kidnapping him from a more stable adoptive home. Pap is having alcohol-induced psychotic breaks, and he has nearly killed Huckleberry several times with beatings and trying to shoot Huckleberry. So Huck fakes his death with pig's blood and an axe before Pap comes back from a drunk and escapes his father's shack through a hole Huck cut in the wall. He has a canoe which he loaded up with supplies, and he hides out on an uninhabited island. With a few days, he discovered Jim is also hiding out on the island!
A search party lands on the island looking for Jim. The two runaways hide in a cave temporarily, but they realize they have to leave. Jim or Huckleberry have little faith in how civilization and its laws works for people like them, so they join up in escaping Law, Civilization and Order, and the people who legally owned both of them.
There are 21st-century real-life analogs of all the 19th-century characters Huck and Jim meet on their trip down the Mississippi River walking about today - bankers, real estate brokers, family relatives, talk-radio DJs, politicians, religious and wellness gurus, criminals, feuding neighbors, and lowlifes, to name a few. I also recognized some of the scams (many successful) that a couple of criminals attempt on towns along the shores of the Mississippi River. Huck and Jim are forced to accommodate the bad guys for awhile on their raft, as the two cons intimidate and blackmail Huck and Jim with exposure as runaways. Despite the dangers the bad guys cause for the heroes, there is plenty of humor and an education in scams in store for Huck, Jim and us readers!
Will our heroes find freedom from Civilization? Will Huck overcome his qualms at the "immorality" of helping his friend Jim escape, since he has been taught he will go to hell for stealing "property"? Will Tom Sawyer rescue his friend in the manner all of us have come to love?
I'm not telling, gentle reader.
Readers should be aware the book has real Southern dialects and racial language typical of Southerners in the 19th century, some of which is particularly offensive today. Nonetheless, I recommend this book. Twain may or may not have had racist beliefs, but he definitely did not like slavery. Whenever he writes of it, there is a satirical tone towards White attitudes of slavery, and he always includes scenes showing the contradictions of what society believed about Black people and the actual humanity and heroism of Black people. Perhaps today we more sophisticated types would call the inclusion of 'magic negro characters' sadly misdirected liberalism, but for the times this book was written, I can only see it as a positive.
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Notes:
- Takes a little bit to get used to the dialects but it clicked pretty smoothly after a few chapters and then was quite easy to read.
- A fun adventurous classic with some very important (and varied!) themes simmering in the background that are explored with just the right amount of salience.
- The story itself doesn't necessarily attract me as other classics do, however the reading experience of this novel is worth its five stars. Plus the point above is just so true that even if my memory of the book isn't going to be five stars, I just can't rate it any lower than that.
- Takes a little bit to get used to the dialects but it clicked pretty smoothly after a few chapters and then was quite easy to read.
- A fun adventurous classic with some very important (and varied!) themes simmering in the background that are explored with just the right amount of salience.
- The story itself doesn't necessarily attract me as other classics do, however the reading experience of this novel is worth its five stars. Plus the point above is just so true that even if my memory of the book isn't going to be five stars, I just can't rate it any lower than that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs
Minor: Child abuse
adventurous
challenging
reflective
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
funny
dnf halfway through, read for american literature course
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated