The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain is one of America's greatest writers and I do believe it is for that very reason that I have trouble deciding whether I like the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn more than I like the Adventures of Tom Sawyer. I do, however, like Huckleberry Finn as a character; he seems a bit more complex than Tom Sawyer or any other character created by Mark Twain. Huck is only thirteen years old and he has already had a rough life so far; he was pretty much abandoned by his drunken father and left to fend for himself on the fringes of society. He is a truly intelligent young man even though he was never formally educated and his true potential for learning is brought out by the schooling he receives from the Widow Douglas and her sister, Ms. Watson. Nevertheless, it is his various mishaps and adventures that truly makes Huckleberry Finn the fine, well rounded young man he becomes. He learns much from his misadventures with the slave boy Jim and the two con artists who refer to themselves as the King and the Duke; it is during this strange journey that Huck begins to realize that what he has been told about the world is not exactly true. He struggles with his feelings of what is right and wrong concerning his traveling companion, Jim; should he turn him in like any other white man would any other runaway slave or should he help him escape like he believes that Jim deserves. Many would perceive this thought as odd coming from a young man at this point in history but I think it would have been perfectly normal seeing as Huckleberry Finn was not brought up by "normal" people of a society, he raised himself and therefore he learned to follow his gut instinct and his heart to what he thought was right. I think we should all be a little more like Huckleberry Finn.