Ernest Hemingway on Huckleberry Finn

In 1935, Ernest Hemingway stated “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn” and he was exactly right. Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is more than just an iconic American novel. It is the single-handedly the book that defines all American novels to come. The very plot of this americana novel is filled with the idea of the american spirit and american dream. Mark Twain does spectacular job of representing the notion of the American spirit by using a young boy named Huckleberry Finn. Huckleberry Finn is an adventurous young boy who molds his own future by getting away from a lifestyle that did not suit him. The American dream right? The belief that you as have the ability to shape your destiny, if you don’t like where you’re at and what you are doing then go and change it. No one is stopping you. This novel also shows the diversity that makes up America and that people from all over are accepted and are allowed to reach for their goals just as much as any other man. Jim, an African-American runaway slave, is a key character, and the hero in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Jim dreams of becoming free and buying his family out of slavery. Jim, like Huck, decides to take fate into his own hands and try and create a better life for him and his family. That is why Ernest Hemingway said all American literature comes from this book. It completely represents that the people of America are a different breed than any other. And this story of leaving a situation that does not suit you and individually forming your own destiny is a story that is told over and over in American novels. Stories like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn show traits that we value such as determination, tenacity, and a sort of rebellion from the formal way of doing things.