Huckleberry Finn took him nearly seven years to complete as he struggled to finish the story several times and let the manuscript rest while working out the story's direction.
Set in the 1830s or 1840s, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn features Huck as the first-person narrator of the novel. He is running from the Widow Douglas's attempt to turn him into a respectable citizen, as well as from his alcoholic, abusive father. With Huck on his journey is Jim, a runaway slave owned by Miss Watson, the widow's sister who also tries to civilize Huck in the early chapters of Huckleberry Finn.
As Huck and Jim travel along the Mississippi River by raft and canoe, they encounter a variety of people from many social classes, from con artists to kind-hearted wealthy families. Both seek total freedom and enjoy the liberty they have along the way. Huck eventually ends up at the Phelps farm where Jim is held as a runaway slave. In the end, both Jim and Huck remain free as Huck will not let himself be adopted and changed by the Phelpses. He plans to continue his journey.
Huckleberry Finn satirizes society's hypocrisy as it demonstrates the positive results of moral action.
