Over the course of time man has interacted with the world around him in order to find the happiest way to live. He started off in the wilderness, with nature, where he discovered God, who kept him on the right path. Man than came together in communities to attempt to help one another to achieve happiness. In his novels Mark Twain does an excellent job discussing the relationships man has had with his surroundings. Twain's most renowned and praised work, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is coincidently also his most controversial novel. It is the compelling story of a young boy, Huck, who runs away from his drunken father with Jim, a runaway slave. Their journey takes them down the Mississippi River in hope of eventually being able to return north. Throughout Huck's adventures, the reader watches as society changes around him as he heads deeper and deeper into the South. It shows how horrible the blacks were treated before the Civil War and how little society has changed in the time after the Civil War. Another Twain novel, Letters from the Earth, shares the same theme of society. It contains an interesting collection of letters written by Lucifer, who is banished from heaven to live on Earth for a period of time. Lucifer writes to the other Archangels about the way humans live out their lives and their views on God and religion. Twain's own views on society are expressed in these letters; he writes about human nature and how the race functions in everyday life. Mark Twain's novels, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Letters from the Earth, critique the prosperous relationship man has with Nature, the unsteady bond Man has with God, and also critiques the rough relationship Man has with Society.
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Huck is found on a raft floating down the great Mississippi River to escape from civilization. By escaping civilization Huck finds himself in what seems to be his most comfortable place, nature.