“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain

A very overdue book report to my high school English teacher

Dear Mrs. Eichorn,

I finally finished Huck Finn. It took me 27 years, but I did it. Ever since I faked my way through the weekly quizzes, relying on last-minute summaries provided by my locker-mate Jon Der (and a few furtive glances at Cliff Notes), I have felt guilty about somehow pulling off an “A” in your class without even actually reading the book. I don’t fault you for not noticing. Guys like me can BS our way through anything. I’m still pretty good at it. (I did become a Christian preacher, after all.)

For what it’s worth, I didn’t not read the book because I wasn’t interested. I was! I was just one of those overly busy high school students who had a hard time keeping their priorities in order: play practice, student council, etc. In fact, I still remember your infectious enthusiasm for the novel, and how I wish I had kept up with the book as the class debated its merits. That, plus my ever-present sense of guilt at disappointing authority figures, kept nagging at me for 27 years, until I got ‘er done. 

As far as the book…umm, well, how can I say this?

Meh.

I’ve heard it’s one of America’s greatest. Maybe I’m missing something, but Why?

I mean, I love the world of the novel. Surely that has something to do with its acclaim. As a lifelong St. Louisan, I’ve taken bridges over the Mississippi countless times, and wondered what life down on the riverbanks would have been like. Our world has shifted to airports and highways (the new rivers), but it was fun to fall into Twain’s vivid description of river life.

And there’s the novel’s socio-historical value. For Mark Twain to write so directly about the racist attitudes of the south—and my goodness with such language!—well, I imagine it got people talking. I’m guessin’ it took some courage to describe his fellow Missourians in such an unflattering light. He held a mirror up to America and I’ll bet you a river canoe many didn’t like what they saw. And the humanity he imparted to Jim, the slave, probably surprised people. To suggest that a black man had dignity, and feelings, and a family he missed—like any normal person would, really—was undoubtedly a radical suggestion for the time. (And still is! Maybe that’s why we still assign the book in schools?)

I’m sure Twain’s style has something to do with its special place in the American canon, too. Who knew the English language could be contorted to add such depth to characters? To read that Huck Finn thought himself being “sivilized” still makes me chuckle.

And speaking of Huck Finn, I think his characterization held the novel together. He’s funny and industrious and thoughtful. His constant back-and-forth between the guilt of enabling a slave to seek his freedom and his conscience at doing something he knew to be wrong but felt to be right…well, it says a lot about the way we think and the way our society manipulates our moral sense. Thankfully, sometimes our conscience speaks louder than social norms. And even as Finn was one of the more lying, thieving characters I’ve encountered in the library, his inner goodness co-mingled with his street-smarts to create an uber-character that many authors and screenwriters still try to re-create. Katniss Everdeen comes to mind.

But back to “Meh.” I’m a plot guy. I want a good story. Do English scholars really think this is one? It starts off great, I guess. Huck escapes his loser-dad and ends up in an unlikely partnership with a runaway slave floating down the river, straight into the heart of Dixie. Great start! But then the book just gets kind of episodic and I lose the overall plot. They meet two weird con-artists who get them into big trouble. Huck has an inland adventure with two warring families, a la Hatfield vs. McCoy. Basically, it turns into a serial TV show that ambles along from one chapter to the next, with no sense of where this river is taking them.

Maybe that’s Twain’s point, though? Maybe that’s why it’s called, “The Adventures of…”? But dare I say, it don’t work well.

And then the ending. Sheesh. Who do they meet down in the deep south? Lawd gawd awlmighty, none others than Tom Sawyer himself! Of all the many riverside communities they could visit, they happen upon Tom’s distant family’s home, at the exact moment Tom has chosen to pay a visit. Twain lost me, here…big time. So much of the story was so real, except this huge plot development that basically wraps the novel up. The book becomes something entirely different: a children’s book with fun little stories in which everything works out in the end, instead of the realistic portrayal of midwestern life that Twain seems to want to write—or at least the more realistic work of historical fiction that we want it to be.

Now, I do remember from your class that Mark Twain himself had mixed feelings about his novel. I laughed at the last page when Huck Finn is narrating the end of his account: “if I’d a knowed what a trouble it was to make a book I wouldn’t a tackled it, and ain’t a-going to no more.” It’s hard to not imagine Mr. Twain not penning those words at the end of an arduous book-writing experience, just glad to be done with it and wishing he had never started. In so many ways I know the feeling! Heck, my LIFE is a novel I have second thoughts about having started. Living seems more trouble than it’s worth sometimes. But oh well. Might as well finish it up, and see where this river takes me.

Don’t get me wrong. I liked the book. “A” for effort, Mr. Twain! Good choice, Mrs. Eichorn! And it did impact me. I want to see other people on the other side of difference as human beings, like me. I want to think carefully about what society tells me is right, vs. what my conscience knows to be so. I want to be skeptical of my own religious beliefs and practices, as Huck Finn was towards the many who tried to cram their own religious hypocrisies down his throat.

But it was still “Meh.” It had everything but a good story to go with. 

Speaking of conscience, there is a stack of other high-school books I need to get to. I owe Mr. Blaha a report for “The Fountainhead,” and Dr. Dulick will be disappointed to learn that I never really read “The Canterbury Tales.” (And still don’t want to, really.) If you see them in the Teacher’s Lounge, tell them I’m working on both accounts. But “Huck Finn” is now off my list. I’m at least a little more sivilized for getting it done. Here is my report. Credit for late work, perhaps?

Sincerely,

Matt Herndon

P.S. Now that I think about it, there is a decent chance yours wasn’t the class in which I was supposed to read “Huck Finn.” That might have been Mrs. Singer’s. If so, can you put this in her mailbox? But I’m still confident I at least owe you a report for “Crime and Punishment” by Dostoyevsky. (Another book about a conscience-stricken criminal. This time set in Russia!) If so, can I get an extension? I just have a lot going on, with play practice and student elections and all. You understand, right?