Any Other Way?

Many people have differing opinions on the ending of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Some feel that Tom’s return, which returned the attention to Tom and left Huck in the background, ruined the book while others claim that it was a good ending, that Huck could never be the hero of the story and that Tom needed to return. While I was reading the book I was a little cautious because I had heard these talks of how controversial the ending was and how unhappy people were with the way Twain ended the book. Unfortunately once I finished the book I felt many different emotions. I was on both sides, which I know is not a really understandable answer so let me explain.

I was at first very frustrated with the return of Tom because he completely took over, as usual throughout the novel. He turned the most intense moment of the novel, when Jim is in the cabin awaiting his return to slavery, into a ridiculously long moment of silliness. Instead of the readers experiencing Huck saving his friend Jim, who he bonded with on the river, from his fate they get to hear endless accounts of Tom’s dumb ideas to make this serious moment into a storybook adventure. So I would say that I was incredibly annoyed with Tom but I also realized that Huck could not have taken the “hero” spot in the story because that was not in his character traits nor could Tom have slipped into the background.

Huck was a follower of Tom from the very beginning as proven when they were planning out ways to “kill” people and rob them (pg 37) so if Twain were to suddenly change his behavior patterns just to make the ending perfect for anyone reading is illogical. Twain is very true to his characters and Huck had not matured enough at that point to save Jim. He had a chance to write to Jim’s owner and tell them where Jim was and instead of doing the “more mature” thing he chose to just continue on with his adventure, never owning up to his real life or real problems as you could say. Huck never matured enough to take the lead role in the moment of saving Jim and so Twain had no other choice but to bring in the character that could and would take control. Now since Tom is taking control, let’s not forget he is still a child with a huge imagination and he himself has not matured throughout the novel, and so instead of handling the situation like an adult would he handles it just like he did in the beginning of the novel, in a very childlike way. I think we forget that they are both children and children do not react or handle situations in the same way that adults do. They do not rationalize that Jim is a human being who does not want to go back to slavery and that there could be very serious consequences for Jim instead they see how these moments look like in books and movies and try to emulate them. That is not the mentality of an adult and we as readers I think forget that we are reading it with, hopefully, a matured mindset and we expect rational solutions to problems but that is because we are adults. I think the events at the end of this book may seem to us really dumb and annoying but in reality they represent how little boys truly think, react, and handle most situations. So I am on both sides. Yes, the ending was frustrating and Tom as always will annoy me but I do not see how the novel could have ended any other way. Huck was not at a high maturity level and they were both just kids having fun. Twain is a master at writing and if he as an author can get such a huge reaction from his ending then he has truly done his job as a writer.