Mark Twain's masterpiece tells the adventure of a boy on a picturesque raft journey down the Mississippi. The story captures the unique voice and experience of the American frontier like no other work before it. When Huck escapes from his drunken father and the "civilized" Widow Douglas, along with the runaway slave Jim, he embarks on a series of adventures. These adventures bring him into contact with quarrelsome families and the deceptions of the unscrupulous "Duke" and "Dauphin." Beneath the surface of these experiences, however, lie more serious themes—such as slavery and adult control—that threaten his deep and enduring friendship with Jim.