The Greatest Story Ever Told pt. 1

Hemingway once said "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn."

This will be a two part series because I can write for a year and not finish what I have to say about this book

Difficulty: 3/5 While Tom Sawyer was a children's book, this sequel was meant for adults. It covers adult themes and ideas and the language is very difficult. I recommend reading it out loud for the first few chapters until you get the hang of the various accents. Especially when it comes to Jim's accent which is thick and difficult to read even for experienced accent readers. The book is also very long, but worth the trouble.

Enjoyment: 5/5 It isn't my favorite book of all time (that will come later, I think I will reread it over summer) but it ranks right up there. First things first, don't watch the movie. There are quite a few books that have had awesome movie adaptations. Huck Finn, possibly because of its large scale, has never been done correctly. I really can't recommend any of the Huck Finn movies (and I think I have seen them all.)

For the first part, I think I will discuss the plot a little and some of the major ideas in the book. Huck Finn is about life in the Pre-civil War South. Huck was raised on the river and is frankly ignorant about just about everything. This is a sequel, but you really don't have to read the first book to understand the second. The characters are there, but they don't take real substance until Huck Finn.

Twain's first goal in the book is seemingly to paint as accurate a portrayal as he can of what it was like to live back then. He even tells us in the beginning that there are four seperate accents in the book and he spent time getting them just right. His major goal however is to take an innocent boy and use him to hold up a mirror to his society and the hypocrisy within.

In the book, Huck is being raised by two women in town who are trying to "sivilise" him. They teach him about religion, manners, and help to make him literate. Huck's deadbeat father who takes no interest in his son's life, hears that Huck (from Tom Sawyer) has stumbled on to quite a bit of money. Huck's father decides to use Huck to get ahold of the money and use it for himself. He takes Huck back to the river and abuses him both mentally and physically. Fearing for his life, Huck fakes his death and heads down the river with an escaped slave, Jim.

From then on, Jim and Huck have a series of adventures including hooking up with a couple of con-men, taking part in a Redneck Romeo and Juliet, and ultimately Jim gets sold into slavery.

As the book starts the first thing that stands out is Huck's ability to reason. As an innocent child he neither accepts nor denies anything at face value. Instead, we see him weigh all moral decisions, facts, and myths on a scale. When he learns that through prayer you can get anything you want, he prays for weeks for some hooks to fish with. When he doesn't recieve them, he decides prayer doesn't work. When he learns about hell, he asks if Tom Sawyer was going there. Upon hearing an affirmative answer, he decides if Tom is going to be there, then that's where I want to be.

It is this sense of innocence that allows him to understand the hypocrisy within the world he lives. He sees a judge that allows Huck's father (a man who is terrible in every way) to reclaim Huck because it is better for sons to be with their fathers. He sees people scam each other one day and backstab each other the next. He sees a world in which all of the so-called civilized people mistreat and enslave others, kill each other, and come by night with hoods on to serve the "common good"

Next time: Lynching, Jim and Huck, Chapter 31!

Currently reading: A Thousand Splendid Suns, Prince Caspian
Currently listening to: Mother Hips Chico 2005 show
New Activity: supervising water polo strength conditioning after school in the weight room.