Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

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As Marcel Proust said, “We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.” Set 20 years before the Civil War, Mark Twain’s novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, depicts the adventures of a young troublemaker named Huck Finn and his companion, a runaway slave named Jim. Throughout the journey, Huck is depicted as a hero, cut from the mythical mold. At every step of his journey, he conforms to one or another of the eight elements of Campbell’s paradigm. We see this most readily in Huck’s trials and tribulations, his symbolic death and rebirth, and his special traits from birth.
Throughout Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck overcomes many trials and tribulations. One of the first trials Huck faces is his father, Pap Finn. An abusive alcoholic and an extreme racist, Pap Finn shows up suddenly in Huck’s life, trying to take the money Huck had received from a hidden stash in the past. Although earlier attempts to receive the money were thwarted by the town judge, Judge Thatcher, Pap eventually locks Huck in a cabin away from civilization. Huck describes his dreary situation as a prisoner by saying “He kept me with him all the time and I never got a chance to run off. We lived in that old cabin, and he always locked the door and put the key under his head nights He had a gun which he had stole, I reckon ...” (31) Although Huck enjoys living “free” in the presence of nature, Huck dislikes being with his father due to his abusive behaviors. So in order to escape his dreary position, Huck eventually hatches a plan to escape the cabin. By faking his death, Huck is able to escape his father and overcome the first trial which would mark the beginning of his journey on the M...

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...made-up family Huck had made. The situation eventually escalates when one of the men think that Huck’s made-up father has the smallpox even though Huck never specified what kind of problem he had. This realization leads to the men to avoid the raft and to even provide Huck with $40 for help. Throughout the journey, Huck’s natural qualities allow him to overcome many situations.
In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain depicts Huck as a hero, cut from the mythical mold. At every step of his journey, he conforms to one or another of the eight elements of Campbell’s paradigm. We see this most readily in Huck’s trials and tribulations, his symbolic death and rebirth, and his special traits from birth. Although Huck is still a fledgling at the start of the novel, Huck begins to grow and finally develop into a full-fledged hero, sacrificing his soul to save another.

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