Mark Twain, pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910) is a great humorist, the true father of American national literature, and the great realist in the Age of Realism and “the Lincoln of our literature” who acquired international fame for his travel narratives, especially The Innocents Abroad (1869), Roughing It (1872), and Life on the Mississippi (1883), and for his adventure stories of boyhood, especially The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)。 

As the sixth child in his family, he was born two months prematurely and was in relatively poor health for the first 10 years of his life。 For his vulnerability, Twain was often coddled, and he developed early the tendency to test his mother’s indulgence through mischief, offering only his good nature as bond for the domestic crimes he was apt to commit。 When his mother was in her 80s, Twain asked her about his poor health in those early years: “I suppose that during that whole time you were uneasy about me?” “Yes, the whole time,” she answered。 “Afraid I wouldn’t live?” “No,” she said, “afraid you would。” Not surprisingly, in some degree, his brilliant sense of humor was inherited from his mother, not his father, a serious lawyer who seldom demonstrated affection。 Twain moved at the age of four to Hannibal, Missouri, by the Mississippi River, where he spent his boyhood with such fondness and where he listened to stories told by the slave Uncle Daniel, who served, kind of, as a model for Jim in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn。 But it cannot be a paradise always with joy and pleasance。 As a boy, Twain had a gruesome experience with the fate of a runaway slave。 He learned that a boy named Bence had been secretly taking food to the runaway slave for some weeks before the slave was apparently discovered and killed。 Bence’s act of courage and kindness served in some measure as a model for Huck’s decision to help the fugitive Jim in Huckleberry Finn。 Nevertheless, with the death of his father, his boyhood had effectively come to an end at his age of 13。 All those uneasiness should be faced by himself as a strong-willed boy which can be found in his works in another way more or less。论文网

As his masterpiece, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn on which Mark Twain spent for eight years was first published in the United Kingdom in December 1884, and 1885 in America, commonly named among the Great American Novels, which also displays the major achievements of his art。 Combining his raw humor and startlingly mature material, Twain developed a novel that directly attacked many of the traditions the South held dear at the time of its publication。 This book’s “recording of a vanished way of life in the pre-Civil War Mississippi Valley have moved millions of people of all ages and conditions, and all over the world。 It is one of those rare works that reveals to us the discrepancy between appearance and reality without leading us to despair of ourselves or others” (Baym,1161)。 Hemingway once wrote: “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn。”（Ernest Hemingway,1935） 

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a book appeared to be just a story about a young boy and a runaway slave going on a grand Tom Sawyer style adventure in the middle of the 19th century。 Huckleberry Finn, the main character and Huck’s companion Jim, a runaway slave, provide friendship and mutual protection while the two flee along the Mississippi on their raft。 The novel opens with Huck telling his story: in order to run away from the decent but dissatisfying new life and his drunkard father, Huck makes a scene that he was drowned after being kidnapped by his father。 It is this decision that makes him meet the runaway slave Jim。 The two share their escape stories and are happy to have a companion。 Learning the news that the island cannot be safe anymore, they flee the island to avoid discovery immediately。 Using a large raft, they float downstream during the nights and hide along the shore during the days to reach their goal-Cairo where they can take a steamship up the Ohio River and into the Free States。 During this time they confront the thunderstorm, chase, killing, frauds, separation, captivity…which makes them get closer and closer to each other。 Though Huck struggles to tell on Jim from time to time, he helps Jim run away from the chase and captivity over and over, and finally witnesses Jim’s freedom with the help of Tom。