Author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, "father of American literature"
An American writer whom Hemingway called the man from whom "all modern American literature comes." He was the first to write copiously in the real spoken language and dialect of Americans, freeing literature from the English accent to grow a genuinely American voice. Huckleberry Finn tells of a white boy and a runaway slave drifting down the Mississippi; along the way, a child’s conscience overcomes the prejudice society has instilled in him. Behind his humor lies a biting critique of slavery and hypocrisy.
Huck faces a choice: to turn in the runaway Jim as the "rules" of his time demand, or to help him to freedom. He wrestles with himself, believing that helping a slave will send him to hell — then tears up the note of betrayal, saying, "All right, then, I’ll go to hell." Through a child’s plain conscience, Mark Twain passed a death sentence on the morality of a whole slaveholding society.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.