Huck Finn Post

Huck Finn is a story full of satire and repeated images worth mention and further investigation. Above all, the recurring theme present throughout Huck Finn that really deserves investigation and analyzing is the developement if Huck Finn relative to Tom Sawyer throughout the novel. In the beginning of the novel, Huck is seen as Tom's sidekick. Tom creates ridiculous adventures based on stories that he may or may not have read and Huck follows along as Tom creates his imaginary adventure that Huck doesn't understand because he looks at things from a non-romantic, realistic perspective where Tom looks at things from a very romantic perspective. This contrast in ways of thinking was a dimension of the novel that Mark Twain added as an acknowledgement that writers in his time period were moving away from romanticism and towards realism. As the story progresses, and Huck procedes to have many adventures with Jim, he develops into what he saw Tom as at the beginning of the novel. He becomes the adventurer that Tom always was in his imagination. As the novel begins to wrap up, and Tom and Huck come in contact with each other again, Huck reverts to his position as Tom's sidekick, but only in the manner that he acts. Tom is allowed to create the plan to free Jim, but instead of just mindlessly trusting Tom as he did in the beginning, Huck constantly speaks out and questions Tom. This is different because in the beginning of the novel, Huck would wonder why he didn't see the elephants that Tom did, for example, but he wouldn't come out and tell Tom that there were no elephants and his plans were ridiculous. At the end of the novel, as Huck has developed into a wiser, more experienced adventurer than Tom, Huck constantly questions Tom and his romantic ideas. In the end, Twain not only shows the development of Huck relative to Tom based on the adventures that Huck experiences, but he also shows the progression of realism past romanticism based on the progression of Huck, the realist, past Tom, the romanticist.