Mark Twain/ Huck Finn Essay -- essays research papers

In Mark Twains’ books he relates himself to a characters by giving them some of his personal life and history. In the book The Adventures of Huck Finn, Mark Twain relates the most to the main character of Huck Finn. Mark Twain and the character Huck Finn have similarities in their lives, such as, Twain placing Huck on the river he grew up on, having Huck not be specific with his religious beliefs, and never staying in the same place for long.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The main thing that stood out in the book was that the story always happened around the river. Huck would go away from the river for a while but would always end up coming back to it a short time later. It was the same way with Mark Twain, whose real name is Samuel Langhorne Clemens. â€Å"Mark Twain† is a river man's term for water that was just barely safe for navigation (Kaplan). He was only four years old when his family moved to Hannibal, a small town in Marion County on the west bank of the Mississippi River. There Clemens spent his boyhood, amazed by the romance and shocked by the violence of the river life, with the steamboats, keelboats, and giant lumber rafts, as well as by the people who washed up by the river, the professional gamblers and confidence men. Near the river, the men were fierce and had little cares. It was no place for a young boy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Further from the banks of the Mississippi was Hannibal. Hannibal was a fine place to raise children. There were many places to go with fun things for young boys to do. Twain let his imagination go when he went to places like Holliday’s Hill and the caves close to the summit, where he may have played pirates just like Huck. A close friend of Clemens was Tom Blankenship, the son of the village drunkard, who was to be immortalized years later as Huck’s friend Tom Sawyer (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer). Tom Sawyer is Huck Finn’s best friend in the book. Tom freely invents lies and loves adventure, just as Tom Blankenship did.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When Clemens was just a young boy he saw death on the river and in his owns home. One of his sisters died when he was four years old, and his brother died three years later when he was seven years old (Encyclopedia Britannica). After the death of Samuel Clemens’ father, it became necessary for him to contribute to supporting his family. He worked so hard that he bu... ...g. So Clemens rode the Mississippi for almost four years, and he remembered these years as the most carefree of his life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The river is the main focus of the book. They never seem to stay away from it for very long. Even with all the bad stuff going on at the river, it seems to be the only place that Clemens and Huck can find peace. The river even takes his evil father away from him for good. Through spending so much time with Jim, and all the experiences on the river, Huck reveals a strong sense of humanity (â€Å"Huck Finn Notesâ€Å"). He showed this when he did everything he could to save the two murderers who fell off of the ship. Huck will always do everything that he can to help a person if they need it. Huck is a very clever character who always thinks his plans out, unlike Tom who just acts upon an idea.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Clemens seems to use his childhood experiences to write this book. To represent his self as a child he uses Huck and lets him live out all of his childhood adventures. Twain and Finn are similar because they both grew up on the river, have no specific religious beliefs, and they never stay in one place for a long time.