Huck Might Have Become a River Boat Captain.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Life on the Mississippi were both written by Mark Twain. However, they were written at different times in his life. This obviously affects the type of voice and themes present in the two stories. Keeping this in mind it is essential to compare and analyze these differences present in each of the stories.
In the passage from Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain describes Jim and Huck's independence on the river by constantly using words such as "lonesomeness," "stillness," and "not a sound." The voice that Twain gave Huck is that of a young uneducated boy, who is utterly enjoying every moment of his life, and all the new experiences he is having. Huck and Jim basically just "lazy" along down the river traveling only at night and not really caring how fast or slow they are traveling, just taking in the sites and talking about such things as whether or not the moon laid the stars. Huck only sees the romance of adventure while on the river. The underlying theme that seems to be present in this passage is the enjoyment of freedom. During this time of his life Mark Twain might possibly have been going through the same experiences and decided to write Huck Finn in such a way as to express his new found interest and feeling of supreme freedom on the river.
The passage from Life on the Mississippi is similar to the passage from Huck Finn because it describes the river in a similar way. Twain describes the river as being wide, and depicts what is on the horizon just as he does in the passage from Huck Finn. Something that he also does is to describe the hidden pitfalls of the river. The story is told by an old, hardened river boat captain. He can practically describe the river with his eyes closed, and it seems like he hates that. The river is not necessarily ugly, but he sees everything in a very pessimistic way. At one point he says, .