It is well-known that many big literary people were and are dissatisfied with the ending to Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn.
At least one well-known literary legend has been on record saying that Huckleberry Finn should have had a tragic enging.
Here's why that is wrong.
Here's why Huckleberry Finn deserved to have the happy ending it has.
It's simple.
A tragic ending would not do justice to history.
Jim's people were freed in real life.
A tragic ending in general is bad enough.
A tragic ending where there was a happy ending in real life is unexcusable.
I don't mean to be harsh, but our worshipping of tragic endings is not healthy.
And Jim's people were freed in real life.
And went on to build places like Harlem, places of culture and beauty.
And so giving the book a tragic ending would be doing a great disservice to history.
And yet you could not just put the whole of the American Civil War at the end of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn.
And so, the best, though imperfect, solution is the kind of ending that Mark Twain actually gave the book.
And that was a great book.
God loves you!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson