Huckleberry Finn was an orphan adopted by Widow Douglas and Miss Watson. They took a lot of pains to raise him and teach him religion and proper manners. Huck and his friend Tom Sawyer had discovered a stash of gold belonging to some robbers. As a result, both of them were rewarded and the bank kept their money in a trust.
Huck was dissatisfied with his new life, and wished for the simplicity and adventure of his earlier life. So one night, he sneaked out of the house.
Tom Sawyer searched for him and convinced him to return home by promising to start a band of robbers. All the local young boys joined Tom’s band, using a hidden cave for their hideout and meeting place. However, many of them were soon bored with their make-believe battles, and the band fell apart.
One morning, Huck discovered footprints in the snow and recognized them as those of Pap, his father. Pap had a history of violence and drunkenness. He had heard about his son’s money and had come to stake his claim on both. Judge Thatcher and Widow Douglas tried to get legal custody of Huck but were unable to do so. Another judge tried to reform Pap, but failed.
One day, Pap kidnapped Huck and took him across River Mississippi to a small cabin on the other shore. Initially, Huck enjoyed the cabin life free from religion and school, but after receiving regular beatings from Pap, he decided to run away.
Once when Pap went to the town, Huck seized the opportunity and decided to fake his death. He broke his way out of the log cabin, killed a pig, spread the blood as if it were his own, took a canoe, and floated downstream to Jackson’s Island.
The next day, Huck discovered Miss Watson’s slave, Jim, living on the island. After overhearing the widow’s plan to sell him to a slave trader, Jim had run away.
Jim like the rest of the people in the town had thought that Huck was dead and was frightened to see him at first. Soon, the two shared their escape stories and were happy to be together.
Both Huck and Jim soon came to know that some men were coming to search Jackson’s Island, and the two fugitives escaped down the river on a raft. As Jim and Huck continued floating downstream, they became close friends. Their goal was to reach Cairo, where they could take a steamship up River Ohio and into the free states, where slavery was prohibited. However, during dense fog, with Huck in the canoe and Jim in the raft, they got separated. When they found each other in the morning, they had already passed Cairo.
During their long journey Huck and Jim encountered several interesting people including a band of robbers aboard a wrecked steamboat and two families who were involved in a bloody feud. The only time that they felt they were truly free was when they were aboard the raft. But this freedom did not last long. Their meeting with the Duke and the King, the two swindlers, shattered it. The two men took control of the raft and started to travel downstream. They made money by cheating people in the various towns along the river.
One day, the two swindlers got to know about a large inheritance meant for three orphaned girls. To steal the money, they pretended to be the girls’ British uncles. The girls were so happy to see their uncles that they did not realize that they were being cheated. At the same time, the girls treated Huck so nicely that he vowed to protect them. Huck stole the large bag of gold from the inheritance and hid it in the girls’ father’s coffin. He told the girls the entire story.
Before Duke and the King could complete their plan, the real uncles arrived. But as they had lost their baggage on their voyage, they were not able to prove their identities. In this entire chaos, Huck and Jim escaped. The Duke and the King also escaped and joined them on the raft again! Disappointed at the failure of their plan, the two swindlers betrayed Huck and Jim, and sold Jim back into slavery.
Huck decided to rescue Jim, and went to the house where Jim was kept. Luckily, Tom Sawyer’s Aunt Sally owned the house. Huck immediately pretended to be Tom. But when the real Tom arrived, he had to pretend to be his own younger brother, Sid Sawyer! Together, Tom and Huck made a plan to help Jim escape.
One night, the three of them ran away. But the local farmers followed them and shot Tom in the leg. Huck returned to the town to fetch a doctor and sent him to Tom and Jim’s hiding place. The doctor returned with Tom on a stretcher and Jim in chains. Jim was treated badly until the doctor told everyone how Jim had helped him take care of Tom.
When Tom got up, he demanded that they should let Jim go free. He revealed that Miss Watson had willed that Jim might be freed once she was dead; and she died two months earlier. So Jim was a free man all along! Tom’s plan of Jim’s escape was a game that he had played with Huck.
With a happy ending to this adventure, Huck pondered over his next adventure away from civilization. He announced his plan to set out for the Wild West!
