“Right is right, and wrong is wrong, and a body ain’t got no business doing wrong when he ain’t ignorant and knows better.”― Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn has been described as the preeminent great American novel with Earnest Hemingway declaring that,” all modern American literature stems from this one book,” and T.S. Elliott referred to Huck as “one of the permanent symbolic figures of fiction, not unworthy to take a place with Ulysses, Faust, Don Quixote, Don Juan, Hamlet.” Despite the high praise, this book is not without its detractors and controversy due to its use of racially charged language.

The story of Huck Finn picks up after the adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck finds himself at loose ends with his life. Despite having a small fortune, a place to call home, and an adult taking an active interest in his life, he is not happy with his conventional life. He also wants to escape the influence of his abusive father. He decides to help Jim, a slave to Miss Watson, escape. The rest of the novel is the story of their adventures and misadventures along the Mississippi. Often witty and poignant, it addresses topics of personal freedom, morality, and racism.

Content Advisory: Racism, racial slurs, violence, use of the n-word

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