Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Metaphor and Social Critique in Huck Finn

Twain's Adventures of Huck Finn illustrates a time and place that is familiar to everyone. In setting his story on and around the Mississippi River, Twain is comparing the boys' struggles and exploits to those of the greater society. In this way, the author draws comparisons between life and life on the river in many intriguing ways. It is both the symbol of freedom to children eager to escape the mundane society that surrounds them as well as a representation of a larger existence. Author Mark Twain skillfully crafts a story to help expose the darker side of humanity while, at the same time, entertaining the reader with historically significant interactions and playful scenes of childhood. Perhaps Twain's commentary on humanity and society is best summed up in his notice, which appears at the beginning of the book, "Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot." (Twain, 1). Twain tells this story through the mind and eyes of a child, which helps to expose the hypocrisy and social inefficiencies that might otherwise go subtly unnoticed.

For Twain, the significance of the Mississippi River is quite profound. The river itself is used as a setting for the novel and as a vehicle that transports the boys and other characters through the stories and scenes contained within it. But the river itself is a metaphor for something larger than itself. It represents life and the continuous flow of time as something that humans inhabit yet cannot change or move. People, like the characters in the book, are all affected by the permanence and majesty of the river, sometimes in a passive respect. But the river itself takes on a new meaning when compared in significance to life for all humans in this way. For the boys, the river is also representative of freedom, for it is the river that carries their raft through the story as they move both physically and figuratively through life. Interestingly enough, as Jim and Huck travel further south, Jim becomes less and less "free." Huck exclaims about this freedom, "Yes-en I's rich now, come to look at it. I owns mysef, en I's wuth eight hund'd dollars. I wisht I had de money, I wouldn' want no'.'" (Twain, 52).

Certainly there is danger found in everyday life, just as it is found on the river for Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer. But just as in life this danger is inherent and inescapable. It is the magic and the excitement that is derived from this danger that helps Twain tell the stories within the larger story. The two also spend more time onshore as they drift south, which also helps to add to the danger of the situation, especially for Jim as a slave. If Jim is caught in the south, his punishment will be far worse than if he were to escape and come back home to where he belonged at the time. The danger that surrounds Huck and his friends in the book is also exciting, and lends much to the story in many places. It is Huck's first foray into the real world, and through the metaphor of the river, he and his friends get to share some very eye-opening experiences

As the boys travel south, the river becomes more and more dangerous and hostile. Huck and Jim have to endure the duke and dauphin as they try to invade the raft as well as other small skirmishes and escapades. In a thick fog, the two are unable to find the mouth of the Ohio River as it splits from the Mississippi, further dooming them to a southward drift. As they drift they become further enveloped in territory where slavery is common and the human condition is more apparent yet less jovial. There is also a metaphorical drift that Twain exerts upon Huck and Jim as author. He shows, with the southward drift into slaveholder territory, the frailty of the human condition and the way in which people harm other people often without thinking of the ramifications or consequences. Twain writes, "Well, it made me sick to see it; and I was sorry for them poor pitiful rascals, it seemed like I couldn't ever feel any hardness against them any more in the world. It was a dreadful thing to see. Human beings can be awful cruel to one another." (Twain, 254). In this way Twain is questioning the institution of slavery through his story telling. He also brings up for review the relevant observation of the ways that human enact specific laws and regulations upon one another. This is another aspect of Twain's social commentary that comes through the pages of Adventures.