One major tool, which Mark Twain has used throughout Huckleberry Finn has been his literary allusions. In the first half of the book he alluded to Robinson Crusoe and other adventurous stories, which Tom Sawyer used to model his band of pirates after. As the book progresses, Twain goes on from Crusoe to Shakespeare, with the King and Duke misquoting and mixing up Macbeth and Hamlet. The majority of the mix up is from the soliliquy from Hamlet, "To be or not to be.." in which Hamlet is questioning the good in people and the cruel society in which he lives. Such soliliquies are present in Huckleberry Finn when a character undergoes a deep change through an internal monologue. This very internal change occurs to Huck Finn as he is debating about Jim being property and Mrs. Watson being his owner.

"I felt good and clean and washed of sin for the first time I had ever felt so in my life, and I knowed I could pray now. But I didn't do it straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking -thinking how good it was all this happened so, and how near I come to being lost and going to hell. And went on thinking. And got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me, all the time, in the day, and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a floating along, talking and singing and laughing. But somehow I couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind. I'd see him standing my watch on top of his'n, stead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how glad he was when I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him again in the swamp, up there where the feud was; and such- like times; and would always call me honey, and pet me, and do everything he could think of for me, and how good he always was; and at last I struck the time I saved him by telling the men we had small-pox aboard, and he was so grateful, and said I was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the only one he's got now; and then I happened to look around and see that paper."

A connection I can make from one book to another is based on symbolism. Huckleberry Finn can be connected to A Separate Peace, By John Knowles. I believe that the river in Huckleberry Finn could be analogous to the tree and river into which Finny and Gene jump in A Separate Peace. For Huck and Jim, the river is the only sacredness in their lives. It represents a freedom and purity from the swindling cruel world encountered every time either Huck or Jim sets foot on the shore. On the river, Huck and Jim can be themselves, holding nothing back. They can also live a life, not a half lived life in fear of being discovered, as they must when they step into the world. For Gene and Finny, the tree and river was the place in which they first became friends, separated from the other prep school boys. The tree is both the place in which their friendship begins but also the place where the same friendship undergoes extreme strain and even death. This is also the same with Huck and Jim.

Each respective symbol, the tree and the river, and the mighty Mississippi, represent a coming of age by rite of passage for Huck, Finny, and Gene, and a journey towards a new life for Jim. Huck travels onwards towards going back to his old life of being "sivilized", while Jim becomes his friend and teacher. Finny and Gene's relationship becomes devastated by Gene's jealousy of Finny and the subsequent "accident" which later becomes the causing of Finny's death. Each character was involved with and grew through the common symbols in these two different books.

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