The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written by Mark Twain in the mid-nineteenth century. Much of the inspiration for the book came from Mark Twain's encounters. Twain's experiences as a steamboat pilot from 1835 to 1845 provided much of the historical context for his work. The novel revolves around a Southern boy, Huck, and a slave named Jim, who both reject society by running away in hopes of finding freedom. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn highlights and portrays the cruelty of racism that surrounded the South in pre-Civil War America; the racism described in the book still receives a welter of controversy and criticism today. Mark Twain's ideas for his books such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and many others came from his own experiences. Mark Twain was originally born as Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835 in Florida, Missouri. At the age of four, he moved to a small town called Hannibal, located on the Mississippi River, which was a major focal point of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In 1847 Samuel's father died suddenly, sending the entire family into financial crisis. The disappearance of Samuel's father could symbolize why Huckleberry Finn's father is also absent from his life. The Mississippi River flourished with steamboats which piqued Twain's interest in them. Huckleberry Finn, much like Mark Twain, also had a fascination with steamboats throughout the book. The violence and murder in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn coincides with the violence Twain observed as a child. Growing up, Twain witnessed a murder and the death of a slave after his owner hit him with a piece of iron. As Bob Frost explains in his biography of “Mark Twain,” Twain's childhood...... center of paper......inn.Works CitedBates, Christopher. "Slavery and Its Consequences, 1800-1877". In Waugh, John and Gary B. Nash, eds. Encyclopedia of American History: Civil War and Reconstruction, 1856 to 1869, Revised Edition (Volume V). New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2010. American History Online. Facts on File, Inc. Chadwick- Joshua, Jocelyn. "Introduction." Jim's Dilemma: The Reading Race in Huckleberry Finn. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1998. Print.Frost, Bob. "Mark Twain." Biography 6.10 (2002): 60. Completed collection of biographies. Network. February 8, 2012. Plante, Andrew. "Huck Finn." Teen Ink 22.9 (2011): 25. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Network. February 26, 2012.Schulten, Katherine. “Huck Finn: Born for Trouble” www.pbs.org. Culture Shock, Web. January 15, 2012.Twain, Marco. Four great American classics. Classic Bantam. New York: Bantam Books, 1986. 1-281. Press.