Samuel Clemens was born in Missouri in 1835, a slave-state at the time. After a brief formal education, Clemens found work on a steamboat travelling the Mississippi River. There he developed his love for the open drifting waters of the Mississippi and the life that accompanied it. Clemens worked on several pieces of writing while living on the ship, including Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Both novels were published under his pseudonym Mark Twain, several years after his marriage to Olivia Langdon in 1870. At the time of publication, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn received many negative reviews despite selling over half a million copies during a time of economic crisis in The United States of America. Upon the beginning of the modern era, the book was frequently banned from schools and many public libraries due to its alleged racial bigotry. Nonetheless, Huckleberry Finn has become a literary classic known worldwide, due to the universal theme of slavery and deliverance.Huckleberry Finn is the protagonist and narrator of the novel. He is the young teenaged son of the town drunk, who is being cared for by two wealthy sisters The Widow Douglas and Miss Watson. Huck is kidnapped by his father Pap and fakes his own death to escape from his fathers harsh beatings and constant drunkenness. He retreats to Jackson Island where he meets Jim; a runaway slave of Miss Watsons who fled after the rumor surfaced that he would be sold to a farmer up stream. Huck and Jim both run for their freedom while encountering many interesting characters and experiencing many exciting adventures. The relationship between Huck and Jim is one of the most important aspects of the novel. Jim acts as both protective father figure and sympathetic companion to Huck, and Jim sees Huck as a saint and a martyr for risking his own wellbeing to ensure Jim a safe passage into a non-slave state. Despite their indestructible friendship, Jim and Huck do...
