Henry Adams has a sound, moral character.  His honest character becomes apparent when he says he has “nothing to depend upon but [his] wits and a clean reputation” (Twain 103).  This clean reputation shows that he is a good person who can be trusted easily.  Character is extremely important when it comes to trusting someone.  His honest character also becomes obvious when he is chosen for the brothers’ experiment, because the first line of their letter reads: “You are an intelligent and honest man, as one may see by your face” (106).  The brothers want an honest person, and that is why they choose Henry.  Their decision to choose him for their experiment is based on the fact that they can tell he has to right character for it just by looking at him.  Henry’s good character is so obvious that even strangers can see it.

Henry Adams is intelligent and puts his intelligence to good use.  He is very smart when he comes up with his plan to bring Portia with him to ask the brothers for his salary.  He says to Portia, “You’re so beautiful and so lovely and so winning, that with you there I can pile our salary up till I break those good old fellows and they’ll never have the heart to struggle” (115).  Henry realizes that he has spent a lot of money and hopes to be able to receive enough money from the brothers so he can pay back all of his debts.  He thinks that if he has a woman as beautiful as Portia with him, the brothers will not be able to refuse his requested salary.  Henry shows he can manipulate people into believing that he is something that he’s not, and then makes them feel ignorant for judging him so quickly: “My friend, you shouldn’t judge a stranger always by the clothes he wears.  I am quite able to pay for this suit; I simply didn’t wish to put you to the trouble of changing a large note” (108).  Henry knows the clerk thinks he is poor because of the way he dresses.  However, he makes the clerk realize his ignorance when he pulls out his £1,000,000 bank note.  With the help of his intelligence, Henry is able to achieve a happiness he never thought he could.

As a result of his honesty and intelligent industry, Henry finds happiness beyond measure.  He attends a dinner party at Lloyd Hastings’ house and he met “an English girl of twenty-two, named Portia Langham, whom [he] fell in love with in two minutes, and she with [him]” (112).  He met a girl whom he fell in love with, and he would not have done so if he had not gone to meet Hastings in England.  Because Henry is so in love with Portia, he finds it extremely important to be completely honest with her from the start.  He lets her know at the beginning that he is not actually rich, and that he just happens to have gotten lucky in being chosen to participate in a bet between two brothers.  Henry loves that Portia “could be so cheerful when there wasn’t anything to be cheerful about” (115).  She laughs when there is nothing to laugh about, and that makes Henry the happiest man in the world.  Portia’s cheerful nature makes him realize what a great wife she would make for him, because that is exactly the kind of woman he needs.  Honesty plays an important role in their relationship because it needs to have a solid foundation before they become married.

Plot Summary

The story starts in a fictional town of St. Petersburg, Missouri, on the Mississippi River. Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer are two young boys who have earned a considerable money through their little adventures (which were explained in the book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer). Huck lives under the guardianship of Widow Douglas. Along with her sister, Miss Watson, she tries to civilize Huck. Though Huck appreciates their efforts, he feels that the civilized life is confining and limited.

With the help of Tom Sawyer, he manages to escape from the house and meet Tom's gang and plan to do some adventurous crimes. Suddenly, Huck's drunkard and abusive father "Pap" comes and it changes Huck's life. Huck manages to save his fortune from his father. Pap gains Huck's custody forcibly and locks him up in a cabin. By faking his death, Huck manages to escape from the cabin and goes off in the direction of Mississippi river.

While leading a comfortable life in the wild life along the Mississippi, he meets Miss Watson's slave Jim, who has escaped from the house. They both team up and they soon miss their destination, Cairo to which they have planned to escape. The raft they traveling in is destroyed by water and they both are separated.

A local family, the Grangerfords gives shelter to Huck. Huck becomes friends with Buck Grangerford, a boy in their family who is about Huck's age. Eventually Huck meets Jim and they both flee in the raft south in the Mississippi.

While traveling in the river, they rescue two cunning grifters and the two grifters join them on the raft. They force Huck and Jim to let them to travel on the raft. On their way, these two grifters manage to steal money from a family and all the four people are considered thieves. They manage to escape from the place and reach the raft.

The four fugitives travel south in the river on their raft. The two grifters plan to rob Miss Watson's house with the help of Jim. But Huck comes to know after arriving at the house where Jim is held that the grifters have sold Jim for forty dollars to Tom's uncle, Silas Phelps. In the meanwhile Tom's aunt Polly mistakes Huck for Tom and takes him along with her. Huck takes this chance to find a way to free Jim.

By following an elaborate scheme involving secret messages, hidden tunnels, and a rope ladder sent in Jim's food, they manage to free Jim.

The book is really interesting one and it doesn't make you feel bored even after repeated readings.

The book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was first published in England by Chatto and Windus. After six months it was published in the United States. This is the reason for the piracy of this book in the United States and the pirated books were made available there even before it's publication.

Tom Sawyer is one of the very much loved fictional characters literature has ever produced. He is very loved for his mischief, his innocence, and his playful nature.

Plot Summary

Tom Sawyer is an orphan and he is being taken care of by his aunt, Aunt Polly. He is a very mischievous kid. The book tells a series of adventures he goes through along with his fiends, Huckleberry Finn and Joe Harper.

Tom is a mastermind of mischief and he is a prankster and plays a lot of tricks. He is uncontrollably charming at the same time. He often escapes the punishments he is ordered to with his tricks and his charms. But he is sometimes foolish and sometimes unpredictable too.

He has a good sense of humor and he often shows his smartness through his clever doings. He has a sweetheart, Becky Thatcher and he tries to win her heart. When he is not doing this job, he either gets into mischief or goes on for an adventure.

His moods often change. He is normally in playful mind and there would be a grin on his face most of the time. But his grinning face often changes into that of a fearful pirate suddenly or anyone or anything else. His smile and laugh often changes to an yell or to a captain's voice suddenly.

Tom normally tries to impress girls with his adventures and stunts, and races bugs. He seldom gets lost in caves and forests. He often plays pirates on the Mississippi river.

The book is a compilation of his adventures and all the above stints. The best stint of Tom Sawyer explained in this book is about how he tries to persuade his friends Joe Harper and Huckleberry Finn to paint, or whitewash a long fence in the garden for him.

The book is a very impressive work and though it doesn't really have a particular plot, it keeps the reader glued to it throughout. It is one of the books which you can read for hundred times but don't get bored of it.

The idea that the author “of a typical sentimental text subscribes to a worldview that is radically different” (Castelvecchi 4) can serve as an explanation for why The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was extraordinarily controversial. If Twain partook in a feminized genre, he overcame gender barriers simply by authoring the sentimental piece. His text is also radical due to “the book's advocacy of racial equality, though buried in irony, [which] is almost completely sentimental” (Camfield 102). In a highly religious and racist society, a narrator that was a challenger of white supremacy and believed going to church was “one of the roughest Sundays [he] had run across yet” (Twain 129), was not embraced by the society depicted in the novel, and oftentimes the society at the time of it's publication. The novel was so radical that it was even banned from certain libraries. Twain finds a voice in the narrator to express his abolitionist view points.

“Central to the emergence of a sentimental culture… was a new confidence in the fundamental goodness of emotions and their power to act as a binding force between humans” (Castelvecchi 2). This concept is apparent in Huck's inherent morality, which he often doubts due to his conscience that reflects the values instilled upon him by the community. While Huck constantly degrades himself into thinking he is a lesser person due to his aid in Jim's escape during a time of Fugitive Slave Laws, his instinct to help Jim to freedom is the most moral action ever taken in the novel. Huck's decision to abandon the laws of a so-called “civilized” society create the premise of the novel: an unlikely friendship between two “American Isolatos” (Dobson 279).

Through this tale we learn that “Affectional experience, with its contradictory aspects of fulfillment and constraint, are as essential to human existences as food” (Dobson 266). The bond formed between the unlikely pair of a fourteen year old lower class white child and an African slave challenges all preconceived notions of friendship. We are overwhelmed with sentiment when the two exchange verbal affection, such as Huck stating “Jim, this is nice,' I says. “I wouldn't want to be nowhere else but here” (Twain 60) and Jim replying “I couldn't even ben free ef it hadn' ben for Huck; Huck done it. Jim won't ever forgit you, Huck; you's de bes' fren' Jim's ever had; en you's de only fren' ole Jim's got now” (Twain 111). “Such a view of racial harmony stems ultimately from a sentimental view of the world, a view that Twain, though he also disliked to admit it, to a large degree shared” (Camfield 100).

In sentimental literature, “The greatest threat is the tragedy of separation, of severed human ties… (and) failed or disrupted family connections” (Dobson 267). Although understated, as paramount of sentimental literature, these emotionally wrenching losses are indeed prevalent in the novel. For instance, Huck Finn epitomizes the family dysfunction addressed here. Mark Twain never delves into the sadness of orphanhood, nor illustrates Huck as a character locked up in his room and mourning the loss of his absent parents. Instead, it is addressed through conversation with his friends, Tom Sawyer and his Gang of Robbers. “Here's Huck Finn, he hain't got no family” they say, and “He's got a father, but you can't never find him, these days” (Twain 21). Rather than have our narrator mope about his abusive father, Twain writes him observational, saying things like “Pap got too handy with his hickory… I was all over welts” (Twain 37).

Another theme of sentimental writings is the “ distorted or unsympathetic community” (Dobson 267). The community does not understand neither Huck nor Jim, as they try to civilize Huck by telling him “'Don't put your feet up there, Huckleberry;' and "don"t scrunch up like that, Huckleberry---set up straight;'” (Twain 15) and pursue further methods such as force-fed religion to a nihilist child built to find God in adventure rather than The Bible. The irony of this is that Huckleberry appears to be more “civilized” than the people trying to reform him, who own slaves and have family feuds in which senseless killings are acceptable. Huck is conditioned by society to feel that he is doing something wrong by helping a “nigger” like Jim escape, when actually he is the most humane person in the novel. The community, the widow and Mrs. Watson attempt to “educate” and “civilize” Huck, whereas he should be teaching them a lesson in humanity.

The presence of a twisted community does not cease there. Jim's recollection of his owner's decision to sell him shocks a modern reader who can not conceive the notion of slavery. “I hear ole missus tell de wider she gyne to sell me down to Orleans, but she didn' want to, but she could git eight hund'd dollars for me, en it "uz sich a big stack o" money she couldn' resis'” (Twain 55). In the Antebellum Era, which is the setting for this particular text, the ability to place a price tag on a human soul and degrade them into property is evidence of a distorted society. Jim and Huck form a friendship as they sail up the Mississippi River on a raft together, which “Convey(s) the primary vision of human connection in a dehumanized world” (Dobson 268).

Additionally, characteristic of sentimental literature is “the certain knowledge of inevitable separation - whether temporal or eternal - from the others who constitute the meaning of one's life.” This is apparent through Jim's decision to flee and leave his family as a means not to be permanently torn apart from them. This concept is illustrated when Huck finds a somber Jim on the raft “thinking about his wife and his children, away up yonder… low and homesick; because he hadn't even been away from home before in his life,” and Huck reflects “I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks do for theirn” (Twain 170). Another proof of this separation anxiety theme in the novel is Huck's division from his best friend Tom Sawyer. Huck is forced to grow up quickly due to the tragedies of his past, and when an older man such as Jim becomes his only friend, it gives validity to the statement “I wish Tom Sawyer was here” (Twain 77).

Another trademark of sentimental writing is the keepsake, which “embodies the memory of love, the anguish of separation, the hope of eventual reunion” (Dobson 279). Jim and Huck's raft can be considered a keepsake, because is serves as a symbol for Jim's reunion with his family, Huck's escape from his abuse father, and ultimately their journey towards freedom. The Mississippi River and the raft they sail upon symbolizes their escape from an oppressive society. Although a raft may not seem like the desired dwelling to the average person, for two people attempting to flee society “There warn't no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don't. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft” (Twain 136).

Sentimental literature does not merely have themes, but also a specific style. There is certainly an emphasis in sentimental literature on what the author omits, and “language tends to be understated, even self-effacing, focusing not on verbal excesses or flourishes of style but on its function as a communicative medium” (Dobson 270). Twain never tritely tells the reader of Huck's sorrows, but illustrates them so that the reader can feel the underlying emotion. “The sentimental motifs of abandonment, orphanhood, and death do not wallow in excessive emotionality; rather, they represent an essential reality and must be treated with heightened feeling” (Dobson 273). Mark Twain epitomizes this style of writing, which is the Mark of a great writer, and a sentimental writer at that.

Perhaps critics “damn Twain altogether for capitulating to a "feminized" culture” (Camfield 97) but those sexist critics can not ignore the success of this sentimental novel. The critics who condemn Mark Twain for subscribing to feminist culture are the modern versions of those who disapproved of his plight for racial equality. The banning of a book has to be the ultimate compliment to the success of a writer, and to produce something that conjures up such strong emotions in the public is a victory in writing.

Father Christmas by Raymond Briggs

Father Christmas was published in 1979. The education department of Holland, Michigan, removed the text from all elementary schools after some parents made a complaint. They claimed that the book portrayed Santa Claus as having a negative attitude towards Christmas and the spirit of Christmas.

The Bible

In 1980, Columbus County Library stopped children from checking out The Bible without the permission of their parents to bring home and read adult books. The library claimed that the book is classified as adult because it is too difficult for children to read.

Encyclopedia Britannica

In 1986 Encyclopaedia Britannica was banned in Turkey because it was claimed that it contained articles which spread 'separatist propaganda'.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

In 1985 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was banned from school libraries in London. The educational department accused the classic of being both racist and sexist.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling

Schools in Zeeland, Michigan, removed all Harry Potter books from their libraries after parental complaints. It was claimed that the books could lead to violence like the shooting at Columbine High School in 1998. A year later the ban was reversed and the libraries could stock them again, however, there was still a ban in place on them being read in the classroom.

These are not historical book banning sprees as they have all happened in recent years. Other famous books that were banned for varying reasons, during the 1990's, include: 'Of Mice And Men' and 'The Grapes Of Wrath' by John Steinbeck, Roald Dahl's 'James and The Giant Peach', and Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night'.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemons) and was first published in 1884, and it didn't take long for the book to be talked about. The immediately controversial novel was first banned in 1885 by the Concord Public Library. Many more followed in their steps, however, some believed it should be defended. Quickly to their aid was the San Francisco Chronicle, claiming “Nothing is truer.” However, this was thwarted by many more libraries and schools saying the book's crude language was irrelevant and racist.

Nevertheless, many people feel Mark Twain intended to show the inhumane nature of slavery from a young boy's point of view. Those people also believe Twain is trying to instill the symbolism of personal values, free speech, and basic human rights. The allegations of the constant use of the word “nigger” (212 times total) is combated by a constant theme of friendship, and how it can overcome anything. These people also believe Twain enlightens us on how ignorant we can be, and the stupidity of some of us towards people of another color.

All in all, the fact of the matter remains that there is no consensus. The book will always have its critics, just as any other debate in life. No matter the reasoning there will never be a unanimous outlook on the novel. But one thing is for sure: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has sparked constant debate for over a century, and will continue to do so for many centuries to come.

It takes great character for one to negate the gains of others that would also result in a gain for oneself. This is shown when Huck undermines the Duke and Dauphin's con games. The Duke and Dauphin con people into giving them money, which would also benefit Huck since they must travel together. However, one example of when Huck shows great character is when he steals the money that the con artists steal for themselves. Huck intends to give it back to their owners but he loses the money due to the fear of being caught. Huck found out that, “They took and shoved the bag through a rip in the straw tick that was under the featherbed”(177). He then sneaks his way into their room and “had it out of there before they was halfway down-stairs”(177). Huck frequently does actions to contradict the values of the Duke and the Dauphin in order to satisfy his own high moral values.

The rejection of slavery is a key action of Huck's that truly shows that his own moral values were in conflict with the laws of society. The accepted law of all southerners was to return slaves to their owners. However, Huck disregards this law and the both of them, Huck and Jim, travel down the river together, white and black. Huck and Jim both meet up on a deserted island. Jim is a runaway slave and Huck has escaped his drunken father, Pap. Huck knows the laws of the south and contemplates of turning Jim into the authorities. His conscience comes into play and he decides to allow Jim to travel down the river to freedom with him. Huck told Jim that, “People would call [him] a low down Abolitionist and despise [him] for keeping mum-but that don't make no difference. I ain't going to tell, and I ain't a-going back there, anyways” (43). Huck refuses to turn Jim into the authorities unlike what most other Southerners would do.

Jim is a big contributor to the theme of moral values often contradicts society's laws. Jim exhibits his exceptionally high moral values by showing himself to the doctor who must take care of Tom after being shot. Jim must decide between helping Tom survive and gaining freedom. Jim chooses to sacrifice his own welfare to save Tom's life. As a result, Jim's “karma” works for him and he is able to “win.” He saves Tom and the Doctor says in his behalf, “ I judged he must be a runaway nigger…he was risking his freedom” (285). His captors set Jim free, even though he was free from the beginning. Jim values his own morals and disregards society's laws on slavery.

Huck and Jim are both exceptional characters that know between right and wrong. Huck, on many occasions, saves Jim from slave hunters. He also follows his conscience and thwarts the plans of the Duke and Dauphin. Most slaves would be resentful towards whites, however, Jim helps a white man in order to save his life. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn teaches us to believe and follow in our high moral values because sometimes our values are more right then society's laws.

Huck is okay with it but he knows that he is doing the wrong thing. Jim has all his trust in Huck and doesn't have the least suspicion that Huck might deceive him. Twain shows here that Huck is a good person but he does what's right but only if it has a good purpose.

The Chapters about the Duke and the King are very humorous. They two men who are professional con artist. They think they tricked Huck and Jim into thinking that they were a king and Duke. Huck wasn't fooled by this Lie, but Jim completely believed them. So Huck and Jim first see them at Work in a small town in Arkansas.

They went to a woman's temperance group. The Duke and King went o work. They said they were pirates and were working on starting a new life. They got everyone to put together a sum of money for them to go to pirates back in the Indian Ocean. Twain shows here how back in these times there are many people who can deceive you. It also shows that Jim m is very Gullible and still believes that the two men are a Duke and King.

Jim, Huck's companion, is a literal slave, and the members of the camp meeting as well as the family and friends of Peter Wilks are bound by their emotions and are not able to think clearly. Also, the reason for Grangerford/Shepardson feud is not known but the feud is only carried on because it has been a tradition for generations (the people have become enslaved by tradition). The three main bondages that Huck witnesses are physical, emotional, and mental bondage

Jim, the slave, portrays the first and most obvious form of bondage in the story: physical bondage. Jim is a literal slave; he is under the ownership of another. He is physically bound by uncomfortable living conditions and other restrictions (for example he cannot own property), and physically and verbally maltreated by others. Throughout the story he is constantly called a nigger, which suggests that he is lower in status than everyone else.

This is verbal oppression and he is called a nigger several times in the book. “Miss Watson's big nigger, named Jim…” “I wouldn't shake my nigger [referring to Jim] would I? the only nigger I had in the world and the only property.” “Do you reckon that nigger [again referring to Jim] would blow on us?” Not only is Jim degraded by being called a nigger, but he is also referred to as property. Also Jim is sold by the king and duke and forced to live with another owner.

“How can he blow? Hain't he run of?”

“No! That old fool sold him [Jim], and never divided with me and the money's gone.” Jim is physically put into bondage and he is verbally rejected from society. The bondage that Jim must go through may be the most severe bondage because there is actual physical discomfort and verbal rejection.

The family and friends of Peter Wilks and the people at the camp meeting portray another form of bondage, emotional bondage. At the camp meeting, the king presents himself as a pirate who has changed his ways and is in need of money. Although the story is obviously a trick, the peoples' emotions override their sense of reason. They are so swept up by their emotional feelings that they do not even stop to logically think, they act on the instinct of their emotions: “And then he [the king] busted into tears, and so did everybody. Then somebody sings out, "Take up a collection for him, take up a collection” (pg.100).

No matter how ridiculous the story, their sense of emotion overturns their ability to reason. In the instance with the Peter Wilks family and friends, the same thing happens. The duke and the king pretend to be the brothers of the deceased Peter Wilks and they arouse compassion from the family and friends of Wilks by pretending to cry over his grave. Again, these actions of compassion, shown by the Peter Wilks family, are not of free will but they are pushed by emotion.

The emotions of the people replace their reason so they act out of their emotions. The only people who are not overwhelmed by their emotions and still act on reason are Dr. Robinson and Levi Bell, the lawyer. They see the false acts preformed by the duke and the king because they are able to act on reason whereas the other people are completely blinded by their emotions. This emotional bondage is probably the most referred to bondage in the story.

Additionally, the feud between the Grangerfords and the Shepardsons shows mental bondage. This can also, in a sense, be described as bondage by tradition. In the story, the reason behind the feud is unknown; someone killed someone, then someone killed another person and it went on and on. One instance in the story, Buck (a Grangerford) and Huck discuss how the feud started and Buck doesn"t even know and yet the tradition still continues.

“What was the trouble about Buck-land?

“I reckon maybe-I don't know.”

Well, who done the shooting? -was it a Grangerford or a Shepardson?

“Laws, how do I know? It was a long time ago.”

“Don't anybody know?”

Oh, yes, pa knows I reckon, and some of the other old folks; but they don't know, now, what the row was about in the first place” (pg 82).

The Shepardsons and Grangerfords basically feud because they are carrying out tradition; there is really no other reason. Everyone else before them did it so know they are doing it. That is why this mental bondage can be known as bondage by tradition as well. Since they don't know the tradition that they follow, they have become enslaved by it, and they have the uncontrollable urge to pass it on and on even though they don't know what it is. This is an example of mental/traditional bondage.

In conclusion, Huckleberry Finn is about a boy named Huckleberry who witnesses physical, emotional, and mental (traditional) bondage. Jim, the slave, is a portrayal of physical bondage because he is a literal slave who suffers from physical and verbal actions. Also, the unreasoned compassion pushed by the camp members and the Peter Wilks' family and friends' shows the emotional bondage, and the feud between the Shepardsons and the Grangerfords shows mental/traditional bondage because they are following a tradition even though they don't know how it started. These are the three kinds of bondages that Huckleberry Finn witnesses in the story.

I was tugging at a buttonhole and looking sheepish. I blushed, and my eyes fell. Mr. Walters’s heart sank within him. He probably said to himself, “It is not possible that the boy can answer the simplest question –“
But he said out loud, “Answer the gentleman, Thomas – don’t be afraid.”
I still hung fire.
“Now I know you’ll tell me,” the lady said to me. “The names of the first two disciples were…“
“David and Goliath!” I shouted.

Obviously, the original paragraph was funnier. I know this is true because when the story was in third person, I could laugh at the story. The way I rewrote it into the first person, I felt bad for Tom. To conclude, the first instinct is usually the best – and Mark Twain didn’t realize that.