Huckleberry Finn

"You don't know about me, without you have read a book by the name of 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,' but that ain't no matter."

I don't really see what the first line is supposed to be tell me other than the fact that I don't know who Huck is unless I've read "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," but that doesn't matter. Huck is talking to the reader as if the reader is right there he uses the word you which is really annoying. It seems really informal to me. Huck doesn't seem very educated. Obviously there's another story since it doesn't matter if we don't know about Tom's adventures. It's a friendly tone and I suppose the mood is carefree. I feel like I need more than a sentence to determine the mood or tone of something.

Huckleberry Finn lives with a widow in a lovely house. He reads the Bible and eats dinner with her and is very fortunate and cannot really recognize it. At night Huck sneaks out with Tom. The boys almost get caught by one of the slaves because Huck has many itches that he wants to scratch, but he doesn't scratch because that would blow his cover. The slave, Jim falls asleep and the boys put his hat on a tree branch over him. This makes Jim think he's been bewitched or something. Jim and the story of his hat becomes famous. Huck tells us about Tom's gang of robbers and in order to be in it Huck must go home to the widow, which he does.

Twain ended chapter one when Huck sees Tom so that it's sort of a cliff hanger I suppose. There's a distinct line between being inside with the widow and outside with Tom. Chapter two continues with the same language, Huck still is narrating the story. Chapter two however is less about the life inside and more about the life outside, the life Huck likes and the chapter ends when he enters the house.

I expect a to find out what a "great American novel" is from this story. I like the first chapters fine, they kept me engaged. I don't really now what exactly to expect story wise. I know I've watched a Huck Finn episode of Wishbone, but it's been a LONG time since then. I hope to like this book. I don't really know why people think that Huck Finn is the "great American novel." Even my mom said it was. I suppose there must be a good story about a boy who achieves something. But other than that I don't really have an inkling as to what it could be about. Sorry.