James: A Novel

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) is a sequel to Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). Both novels examine life for both Black and white people in Twain’s home state of Missouri and feature adolescent characters Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Although Tom Sawyer is lighthearted and action-packed, Huck Finn is more somber in tone and theme, and Twain uses his characters to wrestle with big-picture ideas about ethics, morality, and enslavement. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is important within the canon of American literature for the way that it depicts boyhood in a changing United States and for its suggestion that young, white boys are capable of critiquing deeply entrenched attitudes on race and racism. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is often cited as an example of a picaresque novel. Such texts are told in an episodic manner and detail the misadventures of rough-and-tumble individuals who learn a series of lessons through their encounters with other unsavory characters. Although Huck Finn is the narrator and protagonist of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Jim plays a key role in the novel’s plot and thematic project.