The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the story of an unciviliized and rebellious boy on a quest for independence and self-discovery. In an attempt to escape from a drunk and abusive father and the constraints of the 19th century Southern society, both Huck and his travel companion, Jim, a runaway slave in search of freedom, travel down the Mississippi on a makeshift raft. Through their many adventures and attempts to fit into the world around them, Huck and Jim give us a highly amusing and satirical look into the contradictions and ironies of Southern life in the 1840s.