Julius Lester speculates on the competency of Huck Finn as a young boy making assessments of others. He says, "Even allowing for the fact that the novel is written from the limited perspective of a fourteen-year-old boy (and at fourteen it is not possible to take anything seriously but oneself), the author must be held responsible for choosing to write from that point of view." ... Huck goes to Jim and asks him about his father, and whether he will stay. Jim consults his "hairball " and the reader may begin to expect that because magic hairballs are nonsensical, that Jim was about to also prov...

• Word Count: 1132
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Although modern society largely scorns racism, racism still continues, making books like "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," a story about slavery and racism, still relevant to today. The novel takes place in pre-Civil War America where slavery still exists, and it tells a story of a boy who goes on a quest to free Jim, a slave. During his quest, Huck, the boy, faces a series of events that force him into a position between two very different cultures. In "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," by reversing the black-white paradigm, Huck ultimately learns of the invalidity of the ideology behi...

• Word Count: 1798
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

As Huck and Jim float down the river in their journey for freedom, each of their adventures shows us a little more about how Mark Twain felt about the South, and it's views on slavery, brotherhood, and society as a whole. ... We are shown that every male in the family is shouldering a rifle, including the youngest boy, around the age of thirteen. ... Within these chapters, Huck has virtually no effect on the proceedings, he is merely an observer, leading the reader to believe that the reason Twain wrote these words was more of a personal message about the South, rather than to build upo...

• Word Count: 1495
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate