Summary:
Just as the boys are ready to put their plan into effect,
a group of angry townspeople with guns, enter the shed. In the confusion,
Tom, Huck, and Jim escape through the hole. Tom accidentally makes some
noise as they go over the fence and is shot in the leg. They make it to
the raft and intend to head downstream. Their joy over their success is
dampened when Jim insists that Tom must have a doctor look at his wound.
He refuses to leave even though he knows that he is risking his own life
by staying.
On the way to the doctor, Huck is found by Silas and taken
home. The next morning, Huck sees that Jim has been recaptured and Tom is
back also. After the doctor takes care of Tom, the boys tell everyone what
they had done and that they were the ones that had freed Jim. In addition,
Tom also announces to everyone that Jim is actually a free man, having been
freed by Miss Watson before she died. During all this, Aunt Polly arrives
and the masquerade of Tom being Sid is also revealed.
After everything is cleared up, Huck still decides to leave
and seek his "freedom" by living in Indian territory.
Review:
The final chapters reveal that Tom knew that Jim had been
a free man all along and that the escape plan was simply for the sake of
adventure. They also reveal that Huck's father is dead and that the corpse
that Huck and Jim had seen earlier in the story, had been he.
Huck's decision to head off into new territory reemphasizes
his dislike of the civilized society.
Twain tells the story through Huck Finn and his diction is
very informal and typical of the southern speech of a young boy during that
time. This makes the diction simple and easy to understand with humorous
differences between this writing style and other more formal ones. Much
of the descriptions and imagery is humorous in this way. Twain also pays
close attention to the diction of the speech of the various people from
the various areas down the river.
The writing style in this book is not flowery or poetic, but
simply the speech of a young boy.
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