Huck is an archetypal innocent, able to discover the "right" thing to do despite the prevailing theology and prejudiced mentality of the South of that era.

He wears the clothes of full-grown men which he probably received as charity, and as Twain describes him, "he was fluttering with rags."

In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the Widow attempts to "sivilize" [sic] the newly wealthy Huck.

Jim is running away because he overheard Miss Watson planning to "sell him South" for eight hundred dollars.

Jim wants to escape to Cairo, Illinois, where he can find work to eventually buy his family's freedom.

In Abroad, Huck joins Tom and Jim for a wild, fanciful balloon ride that takes them overseas.

Their friendship is partially rooted in Sawyer's emulation of Huck's freedom and ability to do what he wants, like swearing and smoking when he feels like it.

In one moment in the novel, he openly brags to his teacher that he was late for school because he stopped to talk with Huck Finn and enjoyed it, something for which he knew he would (and did) receive a whipping.

This is seen when Huck considers sending a letter to Ms. Watson telling her where Jim is but ultimately chooses to rip it up despite the idea in the south that one who tries helping a slave escape will be sent to eternal punishment.

The character of Huck Finn is based on Tom Blankenship, the real-life son of a sawmill laborer and sometime drunkard named Wood-son Blankenship, who lived in a "ramshackle" house near the Mississippi River behind the house where the author grew up in Hannibal, Missouri.