The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

By Mark Twain

Season 1, Episode 1, “Pilot”

Mrs. Traister: For those of you who have not finished the final chapters of Huckleberry Finnyou may use this time to do so. For those of you who have, you can start on your essay now. Whichever task you choose, do it silently.

(The girls around Rory pass a bottle of nail polish back and forth as Rory concentrates on writing in her notebook.)

Girl 1: Maybe it’s a love letter.

Girl 2: Or her diary.

Girl 3: Could be a slam book.

(Girl 4 peers over Rory’s shoulder.)

Girl 4: It’s the assignment.

(The girls turn away, Rory smiles to herself.)

 

Season 2, Episode 5, “Nick and Nora/Sid and Nancy”

Taylor: That’s right. She’s breaking the rules, and people who break the rules end up very lonely with no friends because they have become society’s outcasts.

Lorelai: Planning on burning a little Huck Finn after lunch, Taylor?

 

Season 2, Episode 18, “Back in the Saddle Again”

Rory: No, stuff like margin stuff. People like Mark Twain wrote in margins.

Lorelai: Pilot a steamboat, write Huckleberry Finn?

 

Season 3, Episode 22, “Those Are Strings Pinocchio”

Rory’s Valedictorian Speech:

Headmaster Charleston, faculty members, fellow students, family and friends, welcome. We never thought this day would come. We prayed for its quick delivery, crossed days off our calendars, counted hours, minutes and seconds and now that it’s here, I’m sorry it is, because it means leaving friends who inspire me and teachers who’ve been my mentors, so many people who’ve shaped my life, and my fellow students lives impermeably and forever.

I live in two worlds. One is a world of books. I’ve been a resident of Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County, hunted the white whale aboard the Pequod, fought alongside Napoleon, sailed a raft with Huck and Jim, committed absurdities with Ignatius J. Reilly, rode a sad train with Anna Karenina and strolled down Swann’s Way. It’s a rewarding world, but my second one is by far superior. My second one is populated with characters slightly less eccentric, but supremely real, made of flesh and bone, full of love, who are my ultimate inspiration for everything. Richard and Emily Gilmore are kind, decent, unfailingly generous people. They are my twin pillars, without whom I could not stand. I am proud to be their grandchild.

But my ultimate inspiration comes from my best friend, the dazzling woman from whom I received my name and my life’s blood, Lorelai Gilmore. My mother never gave me any idea that I couldn’t do whatever I wanted to do or be whomever I wanted to be. She filled our house with love and fun and books and music unflagging in her efforts to give me role models from Jane Austen to Eudora Welty to Patti Smith. As she guided me through these incredible eighteen years, I don’t know if she ever realized that the person I most wanted to be was her. Thank you, Mom. You are my guidepost for everything.

 

 

I was first introduced to Huck Finn in 1995 with Disney’s Tom and Huck staring the adorable Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Brad Renfro. Which centers around Tom more than Huck and is quite “Disneyesque”. So, I did have some pre-conceived notions about the overall tone of the book. But I was pleasantly surprised to discover how much humor is sprinkled throughout a book whose biggest themes are questions about racism, religion, violence, right versus wrong, and the nature of freedom. Very dark stuff.

As an adult who has now read the stories of both Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, I LOVE the contrast between the two characters. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was written in 1876 and if you’re planning on reading both Twain classics, I believe it should be read first. One, because The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (written in 1885) is a better book in a lot of ways. And two, if you do it the other way around, you’re likely to see Tom for what he really is: a child who has no idea how privileged he is. 

We first fall in love with Tom Sawyer because of his carefree nature and silly antics. We come to see him as someone who pushes back against authority and questions the status quo. We want to be cool like him, the leader of the gang, someone who can survive on his own without anyone telling him what to do or how to dress or how to act. He’s our childhood hero. Until we meet Huck... 

Huck is a person with real adversity in his life. He’s knocked down again and again and keeps getting back up to fight another day. He has morals. And even though Tom sees him as a super cool rebel who lives life his own way and doesn’t answer to anyone, Huck is a much more complex and fully formed human than this. He has experienced real abuse and real strife. He lost both his parents and has no one to confide in. Except Jim. The way he lives his life is out of necessity rather than rebellion. And, in contrast, we come to see Tom as rather comfortable and… bored. 

One of my favorite things about Huck: he lies, A LOT. He is someone who lives by his own moral code, but he doesn’t seem to be bothered by this sin in particular. But the sin of stealing… the sin of assisting a runaway slave… is one he believes to be unforgiveable. Huck believes that, not only will he be tarred and feathered if they are caught, but he genuinely believes he is risking going to hell for all eternity. And he does it anyway because he truly values Jim’s freedom and sees the injustice before him. That’s what makes him a real hero. 

Contrast this with Tom Sawyer and you’ll see what Mark Twain saw as one of the greatest failings of our country: apathy. Tom thinks it’s all a game. Yes, he “tries” to free Jim. Because it’s fun. It’s a challenge. And he’s not supposed to. But the reality is, all he’s really risking is a slap on the wrist. Huck, on the other hand, willingly risks his very soul for his friend. “All right, then, I’ll go to hell.”

“Just because your taught that something’s right and everybody believes its right, it don’t make it right.”

Now, let’s talk about my favorite character in the book: Jim. Jim is kindhearted, understanding, loving, gracious, patient, and… a little sneaky. See, even though Huck gets things wrong in his mind sometimes, Jim never shames him. He never tells him he’s wrong. He always let’s Huck arrive at what’s right in his own time and in his own way, even though Jim’s very life and the life of his family are on the line. But Jim does, in his own kindhearted way, manipulate Huck a little bit to get there. I love the banter between the two of them. It’s the ironic comedy that went straight over my head as a kid. They really don’t understand each other much on a surface level, but on a deeply moral level, they’re brothers who understand each other’s hearts perfectly. “Right is right, and wrong is wrong, and a body ain’t got no business doing wrong when he ain’t ignorant and knows better.”

 

This has always been a very controversial book because of the commentary on slavery, the use of Southern vernacular, and the use of the N-word (which appears 219 times). In fact, for those reasons, it’s become the fourth most banned book. As such, there have been several publications that took out the N-word and replaced it with the word “slave” and changed various other offensive things to make the book more palatable. Disney’s versions obviously don’t include any strong language (since they are for children), but it does beg several questions: Should this book be read in school? Should it be required reading? And if so, should it be kept in its original unpalatable form? Or is talking about slavery and the historic implications of certain language something that should be saved for higher education? Are we doing readers a disservice if they cannot read for themselves the text in its original form, in the time period it was written? 

Well, Mark Twain himself wrote that “the difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter.” As a proofreader, I am obliged to agree with him. Words have meaning. And these are his words. 

I do believe this should be required reading AND kept in its original context, and although I would have a hard time deciding at what age are students able to have discussions about race and the history of our country without alienating one another, I do NOT believe that children should be shielded from inconvenient facts just because they’re young. However, the moral and religious themes, which are of upmost importance for understanding this story, I think are fully understood at a more adult age. Perhaps that’s why Twain described The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as “a children’s book for children” and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as “a children’s book for adults”.

 

I rate this book 5 cups of Luke’s coffee!

☕️☕️☕️☕️☕️