Clearly, Twain knew the Mississippi River and its people well. With Frederick Douglass, William Dean Howells, Ulysses S. Grant, and John Hay (Abraham Lincoln's personal secretary) among his friends, Twain also knew America. That understanding, Wieck shows us, is richly evident in Huckleberry Finn by the ways Twain explored themes of justice, rights, knowledge, and truth; engaged with the thought of Douglass, Lincoln, and Thomas Jefferson; and expressed concern over the public discourse on race and equality.
In addition, in discussions that range from number play in the novel to the symbolic potential of the Mississippi's awesome, one