Food Rationale

In both The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the Mississippi River weaves throughout the piece and is a source of adventure for the boys. Not only that, but the river serves as a means of spiritual growth – it becomes a road toward development of moral character – something that the church failed to do for the boys. Huck makes his “first moral decision out on the water” (Trites 1). The Mississippi River becomes a symbol for spiritual growth, while working with the biblical motif of water, for example, Christ as the “living water” (KJV 4.10) in comparison to “the dry argument” (Twain 56) preached within the walls of organized religion. This living water serves as a source of spiritual sustenance for the two boys.

            Not only spiritual nourishment is extracted from the river, but physical as well. The boys are constantly “going over the river a-fishing, for a lunch” (Twain 90), and pulling literal sustenance from this source of moral development. This is interesting in comparison with the biblical quote “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men” (KJV Matthew 4.19). The overlap of spiritual nourishment and physical nourishment is best seen in Mark Twain’s writing of the Mississippi River. The goldfish – although not real fish – represent this intersection of the two.