Is Huckleberry Finn Worth a Read? | Teen Ink

Is Huckleberry Finn Worth a Read?

December 1, 2022
By maxknuth SILVER, Oconomowoc, Wisconsin
maxknuth SILVER, Oconomowoc, Wisconsin
6 articles 0 photos 0 comments

When I went to read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn I didn’t expect much because I do not like reading or books in general so my expectations were set low. Still, this book blew them out of the water with its fun plot and interesting characters. I liked the book so much when I first started reading it that I ended up reading three whole chapters the first time I read the book, which might not sound like much but when you do not like reading that is a lot.


Written by Mark Twain, and published in Dec, of 1884., it is no question that the book feels old to me with its older time setting, the 1830s, back when Missouri was a slave state, but the characters being children and younger makes the book feel more adventurous and fun, It is fun seeing Missouri through Huck Finns eyes and his adventures exploring the Missouri river and his attempts to find a better life. 


However, seeing the story and adventure of these kids from the eyes of one of the kids makes the story and the setting feel unreliable because kids are not the most credible narrators and tend to exaggerate and make things seem worse than they are or more exciting than they are. 

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has a little taste of everything, a playful and fun plot, fun characters, and realistic feeling dialogue. Mark Tawin uses the character of Huckleberry Finn as a white stereotype of the time both to amuse the reader and to make them awaire of the time period. The one problem I have with the book is its overuse of the N-word, It makes sense with the time period of the book but to the reader, In modern times it can feel uncomfortable and sometimes unnecessary. 


When reading an adventure fiction book set in a time period such as Huckleberry Finn, you are not just reading a book, you are traveling back in time to what can feel like a whole new world. Even though Tom Sawyer, one of Twain's Previous books, overshadowed Huckleberry Finn in its early days, the book has come forward as one of, if not Twain's best American novels, with its fun yet serious plot and interesting characters. I would give this book about 4 stars, give or take a half.



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