Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn - Essay Example

Since its publication, it has not only caused a lot of fame and praise, but also a lot of critical reception and controversies. It greatly reflects the realities of America in the 1880s, during the Black reconstruction of America. The novels balance between safety and danger, tragedy and comedy, in a way, shows and exemplifies the political and societal actualities of that period of time. Throughout the whole story, there are physical and emotional shifts between perilous situations of bleakness and promising situations filled with hope of dreams coming true.

There are also moments of misfortune and there are also moments of slapstick humor. In the early part of the story, Huck and Jim faces danger in their own individual lives. Huck runs away from the beatings and cruelties of his abusive drunken father, Pap. Jim, the household slave of Miss Watson, also runs away from his destiny, his future life of physical pain from scourging and whipping and from the fact that he will be separated from his wife and family. They then find safety and hope for freedom as they set out on a raft, travelling through the Mississippi River, away from their past life.

However, it leads them to even worse circumstances, before finally, reaching the beginning of a new life. Society in America in the 1880s was much like this. People profited by the trading business of African Americans, bringing them to America to be slaves filled with a harsh life of labor, beatings and separation of families. It also reflects the reality of how so many try to free themselves from that kind of life, and to finally reach a better place, where one can be free of a corrupted society.

Safety and danger was not only limited to the physical aspect, but also to the moral. The central theme of enslavement is possibly the most widely known part of this novel. The Adventures of