My Favourite Book: Huckleberry Finn

What is your favourite book? My favourite one is "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Read on to find out why.

"Let us say you were transferred to an island where you could only pick one fiction book, and only one. Your decision would be limited to just the English classics, books with more than one hundred years of age. Which book would you choose? Would you be more inclined to romance rather than adventure? Would you prefer Jane Austen to Mark Twain? Well, in my case the decision would go to Mark Twain, and his “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”.

Huckleberry Finn is a book that comprises adventures, emotions, a historical context, a rebel and a happy ending. The adventures in the book appeal to young people as well as grown-ups. This boy-adult protagonist escapes to the Mississippi from a brutal father and survives in the wild by fishing or hunting until he meets the escaped slave. That is when he decides to help him. In his journey he shares the raft with “scumbugs”, witnesses the fighting between two families, disguises himself as a girl, escapes from the site of a murder and prepares the evasion of his friend from prison.

The emotions are revealed in the friendship that arises as the two fugitives sail down the Mississippi river. Huck will remain loyal to this slave till the end even though he feels his conscious telling him that his actions are wrong. In spite of his upbringing, the drunkard father and the lack of education and a mother, his noble heart will always tell Huck which road to choose.

The historical context appears in the facts of racism of an American society that was changing. The rebel shows a Huckleberry Finn fighting the established beliefs of his society where the slaves were bought and sold as animals and considered less than dogs.

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A happy ending demonstrates that, almost universally, people want the arguments to be solved in a positive way.

When I read the book back in the 1970s I was all by myself; my brothers lived in another country, my parents were absent and I lived with my grandmother. After the homework, the black and white TV series and the chocolate I did not have much more left  so I spent my time going over old books that showed me the classics: French, Italian, Spanish, English and American books.

This book reminds me of the old house where I lived in, the old pictures of gone relatives hanging on the walls, the yellow clippings from past newspapers collected in old drawers and the antique furniture that had seen better ages and could be sold in any antiquary at excellent prices.

I did not know it at the time but Mark Twain was, somehow, directing my taste as far as reading was concerned. From that time on I would look for a lively history and some humor in any book. I would see some adventures with a happy ending and perhaps a lesson from the story. And I would also search for the rebel one, fighting injustices or protecting the weak or the dispossessed.

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