Through its association with The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn alone, the Mississippi River
evokes something distinctly American, although even Twain was seizing upon the
sense of adventure wrought by explorers from Lewis and Clark onward who
ventured west in search of the country’s Manifest Destiny. The River is a
dividing line between the east with its magnificent cities, institutions of
higher learning, tamed land, and civilization, and the new frontier,
lawlessness, and new beginnings of the east. More than that, the Mississippi is
a mighty river, flowing hard and fast, washing away the junk people don’t want
or try to hid, and occasionally carrying people southward, like Huck Finn and Jim,
to escape.
