Twains Huck Finn Compared To The Movie :: essays research papers

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is a classic novel about a young boy who struggles to save and free himself from captivity, responsibility, and social injustice. Along his river to freedom, he aids and befriends a runaway slave named Jim. The two travel down the Mississippi, hoping to reach Cairo successfully. However, along the way they run into many obstacles that interrupt their journey. By solving these difficult tasks, they learn life lessons important to survival. The reader will find Huck and Jim more knowledgeable at the conclusion of the novel, and notice their love for life and for each other.After reading the novel and watching the Disney film Huck Finn, one will find many dissimilarities. Many of the classic scenes have been switched around and combined in the 1993 version. There are a few scenes in particular that I will focus and comment on.The major difference between the movie and the book is an important character named Tom Sawyer, who is not present or mentioned in the film. It is evident from reading the story that Tom was a dominant influence on Huck, who obviously adores him. Tom can be seen as Huck's leader and role model. He has a good family life, but yet has the free will to run off and have fun. Tom is intelligent, creative, and imaginative, which is everything Huck wishes for himself. Because of Tom's absence in the movie, Huck has no one to idolize and therefore is more independent. Twain's major theme in the novel is the stupidity and faults of the society in which Huck lives. There is cruelty, greed, murder, trickery, hypocrisy, racism, and a general lack of morality. All of these human failings are seen through the characters and the adventures they experience. The scenes involving the King and Duke show examples of these traits. The two con-artists go through many towns playing the same tricks and scams on the gullible townspeople hoping to make money. They put on acts in the novel such as the "Nonesuch" that get them almost killed as they run out of each town. These scenes, which prove as examples of the foolish society are not in the film.The naivetà © of the Wilks sisters is disturbing to Huck who attempts to help them stop the frauds from stealing their inheritance. The movie is dissimilar to the book in that it concludes with Mary Jane and her two sisters as the heroes who save Jim from being hanged and Huck from dying of a gun wound.