I craved completion of Twain's work.

Reading has the power to captivate oneself, making the brain salivate with hunger for more words. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn definitely had this effect on me, primarily because of the diction. Mark Twain uses accurate dialect to attribute to a the voice of a young boy. Beginning in the first chapter, “Huck” uses words such as “sivilize”, “we got”, and “never meant no harm”. This intentional use of grammatical/spelling errors truly allows the reader to grasp the idea of a children’s voice, and continues throughout the novel.

Initially, this style of writing proved to be a bit challenging. But upon finishing, I realized that this was the reason I craved completion of Twain’s work. I have never read anything like it before, and it felt like I was not only reading a novel written by a child, but one written in a historical era. Obviously the story is set in a past time because of the events. But I feel the diction is what really allows me to swallow the historical setting; words like “powwow”, “nigger”, and “chaw”.

Aside from supporting the lingual execution, the character’s relationship I am interested in the most is between Huck and Tom Sawyer. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom is mentioned in the first paragraph, and the last. Whether this was intentional on Twain’s part or not, I felt like all of the adventures of Huck are encompassed by the relationship between Huck and Tom.

The main difference in the two young boys is clearly stated, especially in the plans for the “escape” of Jim. Though Huck looks up to Tom, and often wonders what Tom would do in specific situations, he doesn’t understand the complexity of Tom’s ideas because he feels they are unnecessary. Twain writes, “That was just his way.” Here, Huck is talking about Tom’s strive for difficulty, because Tom feels he needs to be/seem noble and impressive (in the implementation of the procedure for Jim’s escape). I find this sentence particularly interesting because I think it sums up their relationship. Tom has a “way”, and Huck follows that way. And though Huck doesn’t care much as much about shaking spice and excitement on everything as Tom is, he “just” follows him. I believe this is why their friendship is so unique. It conveys the idea that friendship is more than having similarities with one another; it’s trusting each other and working together for a common purpose-whether it’s enjoying one’s company or freeing a slave.

I also discovered this was a theme, because it's displayed by other characters in the story. While on their adventures, the King and Duke are on a mission to manipulate people into giving them money, like in their skit of Romeo and Juliet, and their quest for Peter Wilk's fortune. Though they ultimately failed, their friendship grew because of this common goal.