Dear Bob,
I think Huckleberry Finn is an example of a number of classic
plot motifs:
---the buddy novel/movie (and one of the most important buddy
relationships culturally in any popular American
entertainment)
---the escape novel/movie (and one of the more important
escapes culturally in any popular entertainment, obviously
because of the slavery issue)
---the chase novel/movie, which I believe Mack Sennett and
later Charlie Chaplin cited as one of only three or four
basic plots (Chaplin's favorite, of course, was boy meets
girl.)
I agree wholeheartedly that the disruptive section with Tom
Sawyer is a debacle. And it undermines the seriousness of the
quest for giving Jim his freedom. But certainly the whole
novel ends with one of the most memorable resolutions in
American fiction---Huck's decision to follow his version of
the American dream and head out for the territories to
find/invent his own kind of freedom.
Bob Toomey wrote:
> Picaresque [Huckleberry Finn] is, maybe the best
ever written by an American, but
> plotted it is not....and is at its absolute worst in
the end when Twain makes a stab
> at plotting by bringing an insufferable Tom Sawyer
in from left field to
> resolve matters....
>
> Here's Twain's own NOTICE up front:
>
> "PERSONS attempting to find a motive in this
narrative will be
> prosecuted; persons
> attempting to find a moral in it will be banished;
persons attempting to
> find a plot in it will be shot. "
>
>
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