The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?

Question

My essay topic over this book is: Analyze what the raft symbolizes in the novel. Include how the raft fits into the theme of the novel.

I think that the raft symbolizes freedom for Huck and Jim, but I'm not sure how that fits into the theme of the novel because I'm not sure what the theme is.
Can any of you help me to understand the theme of this novel?
All help appreciated.

Answer 1

Mark Twain was producing an end to a means,. Nothing more, nothing less...

Answer 2

There are several themes of the novel. Freedom, for one; but also there is friendship and doing the right thing. So is death (Huck's fake death, Huck's dad's death).
Freedom is a theme because Huck gets away from his dad and Widow Douglas, and because Jim ran away from the Widow's sister to avoid being sold downriver. The raft allows them to travel the rivers and keep away from other people who would try to capture Jim and send Huck back home. According to Cliff's Notes, the theme is freedom vs. civilization. Try reading the Notes on Huck Finn at Cliff's Notes.com Good luck.

Answer 3

psycho-cook says it best.

Calling the raft a symbol or theme adapts the book to the artificialities of contemporary criticism.

Put this in thematic terms if you like (or your teacher insists), but the raft is simply the place where Huck and Jim learn to relate to one another, and their characters develop. Jim becomes like a father to Huck, like the parent he never had with his drunken Pap or the moralistic Widow Douglas.

Huck, a potential betrayer to Jim, instead comes to understand him as a real human being, deserving of freedom. The climax of the novel, and of their relationship, happens when Huck (on the raft with Jim) says, "All right, I'll go to hell." (Check the quotation for accuracy.) That is, Huck, who still accepts the validity of conventional morality, believes that the "right" thing to do is to turn Jim in, betraying him. He decides, instead, that he'd rather "go to hell" and remain loyal to his friend and surrogate father. This all happens within the quiet solitude of the raft.

On shore, Huck is carreid along by the artificialities of "sivilization": the feuding of the Shepherdsons, the Duke and the Dauphin (parodies of class power), and even the silly shenanigans of Tom Sawyer at the end, pretending to "rescue" Jim, who he knows has already been freed.

On the raft, Huck sees things clearly, developing his own independent sense of morality. On shore, he still goes along with conventional morality, attempting to fit in wherever he finds himself.

Just thumb back through the novel, reading only those passages in which Huck and Jim are alone together on the raft. You'll see what I mean.

Answer 4

The raft is simply a 'vehicle' for Jim and Huck. The river is the path taken (freedom). In some ways, the two, as a racially diverse, age-differential couple of fellas, are able to 'navigate' their situations together on the path.

Twain isn't always saying that freedom is the best thing, or that these two are 'in it together' as you often see in harmonious theories about this book. The raft is as much an entitiy of imprisonment, however, as the situations from which the two are escaping. Their freedom is limited in its navigation and resources due to the vehicle of change or movement.

Answer 5

My favorite books are The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare. They are SO GOOD! The characters are so real and I love them :) Also by Cassandra Clare is The Mortal Instruments (they're making a movie out of the first book, City of Bones). Also really like: (Some already mentioned it) Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. Divergent by Veronica Roth (I liked it, but it was a literary masterpiece, exactly) The Book Thief (this, on the other hand, IS a literary masterpiece. MUST READ) The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith Delirium by Lauren Oliver (this is a piece of art. She was was born to write). Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (maybe I just liked this because I have a penchant for romance. If you can grasp it, because it was written in the 19th century, go for it). What you've mentioned, and I think you'll like these a lot :)

Answer 6

You or your teacher obviously didn't read the author's note in the front of this classic novel:

"Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot." BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR

So here is my attempt at analyzing the raft and it's purpose. This is a classic coming of age novel. The main character breaks ties with society and tries to find his own sense of morality outside of societal norms. The raft gives Huck and Jim a small Utopia where they can decide what the rules and norms will be. Like all Utopias outside influences keep rearing their ugly little heads making it more and more difficult to keep the peace--note the King and the Duke(if I remember right) It all ends when they leave their Utopia to once again function in the outside world with a new understanding of humanity and them selves.

Answer 7

you're absolutely right. think about this, Jim is a slave, Huck was an abused kid and was used to living on his own until he was adopted or whatever. these two became friends because of their thirst for freedom. Huck experienced it and longs for it again and is helping Jim get his own taste. i hope that helps a bit.
teachers probably go against it but you should go to sparknotes.com it sums up the book and helps out with themes and stuff. just don't copy anything from it cause teachers have ways of finding plagerism.

Answer 8

At the beginning of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain says that a reader shouldn't be looking for symbolism as none was intended. That didn't stop my 10th grade English teacher who insisted that the book was full of symbolism. I read books for enjoyment....not to analyze them...so all the looking for symbols kind of ruined the book for me.

Answer 9

But freedom comes at a terrible cost and if you don't know how to handle it (taking the river north from Cairo and to free states) things could get worse (farther south into slavery)

Answer 10

wow, pick a better book next time, i recommend "Catcher in they Rye" John Lennon was shot over that book :). *bang* no more beatles