turned to Hannibal, and taken a steamboat voyage down the Mississippi River in 1882, just before he returned to his manuscript for Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which he had abandoned several years earlier due to writer's block (Jackson 54-55). Twain was feeling quite stressed as a result of creative problems with his narrative, but the steamboat trip had a profound effect upon him. In fact, the voyage "arocked him with a chorus of memories, emotions, and visceral associations whose power over him was more authoritative than ever" (Jackson 55). Thus, his return to Hannibal and the Mississippi Valley awakened his feeling for the region, and allowed him to return to the manuscript with fresh ideas and more concrete visions of the local color of the area.
Indeed, one can see feel this vividly in the passages where the landscape is described. The scenes in which Huck and Jim journey down the river are almost lovingly det
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