What I have done, I have done because it has been play. If it had been work I shouldn't have done it When we talk about the great workers of the world we really mean the great players of the world." -Mark Twain As this quote shows, games were a very important part of life to Mark Twain. This would help explain why games are such an important part in most of his works, one of which is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He uses these games to symbolize many different things from maturity to the quest for knowledge, opening new views to what could have been a simple novel. This importance of games reflects that of our lives, when we must play the game of life as we learn, lose, and win. This is the reason that Mark Twain uses the various games such as tricks, disguises, superstitions, and fantasies to parallel Huckleberry Finn's maturation and his education in life in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The novel is broken up into three main stages exemplifying Huck's maturation through the games he encounters. In the first stage, the novel parallels childhood and recklessness with games. Most obviously, Huck plays "games" with the people of his own town that he comes in contact with. From the very beginning of the novel, Huck terrorizes Ms. Waterson, his keeper with various tricks and antics. He plays his games on her because he is immature and only a child. Ms. Waterson tries desperately to conform Huck to the rules of her "game" by making him civilized and not allowing him to just be a child. Huck rebels against this and plays childish pranks on her, never meaning any harm and only for his own amusement. Another example of Huck's childish tricks is when he and Tom play a trick on Ms. Waterson's slave, Jim, while he is asleep. Although Jim could retaliate, the boys are only children and they are regarded as harmless. Another example of Huck's child-like games is he and Tom's "gang of robbers" whom they and the other boys form for fun.
