Out of all my previous Book of the Months, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was by far my favorite.  When I first started reading the novel, I thought I had taken a liking to it due to its captivating tone.  Samuel Clemens uses a wide variety of dialects in his book, which informs the reader about the background of the characters and encompasses them to fully read and analyze the text.  While Clemens’s writing style may have been a contributing factor, my love for Adventures of Huckleberry Finn comes from the relatablility of the main character.  To start with, Huck and I are around the same age.  I’ve noticed that the books I enjoy most are books with teenage characters rather than adults.  Age and experience are a big part of who we are, which is why I am able to better connect with people my age.  While the book doesn’t explicitly say Huck’s age, the reader can assume that he is a young teen based off his childish actions such as joining Tom Sawyer’s gang (Twain/Clemens, 6).  Additionally, Huckleberry Finn faces the challenges of deciphering if what society is telling him is actually correct .  I can completely relate to Huck’s constant struggle of making his own opinions and beliefs. A recent example of this would be my mother telling me that coldness makes you sick.  I couldn’t see how simply being cold would make you catch an illness, so I did some further investigating.  I discovered that being cold doesn’t make you sick, but your immune system is weaker when you are cold which can make you more likely to catch a cold.    In my example, I did research and was able to come up with my own belief.  Huck uses the same process.  Ever since he was a child, Huckleberry Finn was taught that blacks weren’t real people.  Everyone told him that blacks were property and didn’t have feelings like white people.  While Huck once believed what others were telling him, his thoughts on slavery transform throughout the book.  In the beginning, Huck is in the mindset that slaves aren’t real people so he has no objection when Tom Sawyer wants to prank Jim (7).  After awhile Huck and Jim began to form a strong bond.  This bond is what leads Huck’s attempt to release Jim from the shed (274) and Jim to conceal that Huck’s pap had drowned (293).  

Mark Twain, also known as Samuel Clemens, is popular for culminating his many strong opinions and views into his countless works of literature.    Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is known to include many of these views. While Twain sends the reader several important messages, the main theme of the story is in regards to the fault in our society.  The story is set before the Civil War.  However, the book was written and released quite a bit later.  During that time, racism ran high in the United States, even though blacks and whites had the same rights. Twain’s novel told the story of a boy who grew up being taught that slaves were property, but made his own opinion and discovered that slaves were simply people. After getting into an argument with Mrs. Watson, Huck says to himself: “That is just the way with some people.  They get down on a ting when they don’t know nothing about it” (4).  This quote is important because it show Huck’s independent attitude and analysis skills.  Unlike many people, Huckleberry is very open-minded and always exposes himself before forming opinions.  References to this quote of trying things before making opinions is made throughout the entirety of the novel.  Huckleberry Finn’s independent mind is also shown while he is traveling down the river with Jim.  To describe the scene, Huck says: “It’s lovely to live on a raft.  We had the sky, up sky, up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made, or only just happened-Jim he allowed they was made, but I allowed they happened; I judged it would have took too long to make so many” (121).
Even though Huckleberry was told that stars were made, he used his own logic and came to the conclusion that stars just happened.  Later on in the book, Huck says, “You can’t pray a lie- I found that out”(216).  This is important because it shows that Huck is honest about what he believes.  In summary, the author’s  purpose is to show the importance of questioning society.  If more people were honest and did their research before making opinions, perhaps racism wouldn’t exist.

Samuel Clemens always wrote with the purpose of informing others on his opinion.  Since he wanted to inform as many people as possible, I believe that Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is intended for everyone.  However, the book may have been more specifically targeted towards racists and teens. To start, the book was intended for racists in an attempt to disprove their belief that race determines who we are.  The entire novel shows how black and white people are just that: people.  “I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks does for their’n.  It don’t seem natural, but I reckon it’s so” (23).  This quote is critical because it shows that blacks and whites aren’t really different.  Next, teenagers were apart of Twain’s target audience. In the novel, the main character is a teenager.  Many readers only find interest in a book if they can make a connection to it.  Therefore, teens may be able to understand many of Huck’s issues that he faces during his umpteen adventures.