“PEOPLE who attempt to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; people who try to find morals in it will be banished; people who try to find a conspiracy in it will be shot.” This quote is from Mark Twain at the beginning of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and shows Mark Twain's humor while also setting the tone for the book. This book was published in 1880, about twenty years after the Civil War, but it showed that there were still signs of discrimination against African Americans. The main themes of this story are racism and slavery, superstitions and the problem of conforming to society to please others. The theme of the story largely revolves around the ideas of racism and slavery and is conveyed through Huck's relationship with Jim, who is a runaway slave. Huckleberry Finn was helping Jim escape because he found him on an island and believed that Jim was a person like everyone else, he was the same. Jim ran away from his owner, Miss Watson, because she was thinking of selling him for $800 down the Mississippi River. Jim ran away to raise money to redeem his family from slavery. Other people treated Jim like property and tried to turn him in for a reward. At the end of the story it is revealed that Jim had been freed because Miss Watson had died and granted him freedom in her will. Tom Sawyer said "They have no RIGHT to silence him! PUSH! - and don't waste a minute. Set him free! He is not a slave; he is as free as any creature that walks this earth!" (Twain, chapter 42)Racism and slavery were a very important part of American culture in the 1800s. Since it was part of the culture, not everyone who supported it was truly a bad person; it was just how they had been brought up in...... middle of paper ...... and had gotten used to going to school. The main themes of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn were slavery, racism, and problems with conforming to society. Another important theme was superstitions. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written during the realism literary movement. Being part of the Realism movement meant that the story had a more realistic ending and all the characters ended up happy. Mark Twain's time period also influenced the novel because it allowed the controversial topic of slavery to be a main theme. In his time, Mark Twain was a radical thinker because he believed that slaves were not property, but were people and should be treated equally. In the words of Frances Wright “Equality is the soul of freedom; in fact, there is no freedom without it”. If you want to delve deeper into these topics you should really read this book.