The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been rated one of the best books of American literature due to its unusual detail. Written by Mark Twain, it describes the escape of a boy from his abusive father and his adventures down the Mississippi river. Twain’s Huckleberry Finn was, and still is a brilliant novel because of the detail presented to by using the first person perspective.
Huckleberry Finn, a boy living in the south in thepre-civil war period, starts the book by describing his relations with the people around him, such as “the widow” his guardian. Even though she’s only a minor character Huck describes her in such detail that we get a very clear image of her. Because we’re seeing her from Huck’s perspective, we understand how Huck feels for her and we begin to feel the same way too. The first person perspective allows the reader to create an image of the widow, to feel for her and to link her to someone in our own lives.
Having the book being made in first person gives it the unique advantage for us to see what the main character is thinking. Take for example Huck’s opinion on religion, which was taught to us when Huck thinks to himself how he didn’t quite understand the bible, “why I should learn from bible characters if they’re dead?” he thinks. The use of first person allows us to see Huck’s opinions on situations more clearly, and from that we understand why he reacts the way he does.
An interesting, but obscure aspect of Huck Finn being written from the first perspective is that you never truly see the “big picture.” What the reader sees and hears is what Huck sees and hears, so you never know what might happen next, or even at that time, in a different place. There’s no obvious foreshadowing, and seemingly random events do occur at any time to move the story along. Take the Duke and Dauphin for example; they appear completely out of nowhere, running from dogs and horses. “Just as I was passing a place where a kind of cow path crossed the crick, here comes a couple of men tearing up the path as tight as they could foot it” Huck describes. If this book were written from the third person, Twain would have had to have created an entire back-story to the Duke and Dauphin, and then make it a coincidence that they met each other. With first person, illogical events are allowed to happen.
The use of first person throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn allows for greater character and plot development. By the end of the book we truly feel as though we know Huck, and that he has been by our side telling the story himself.
Part of the node your homework project- I would like to add: This book royally sucked.