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^^^This quote is a reason I loved Huck Finn, and I love teaching it. Among other things, Huck Finn is about the decisions you make when you have a crises of conscience - what choices do you make when your society/culture tells you certain things are right/wrong and your heart/mind tells you the opposite. What can you do, what should you do, and what kind of person does that make you?
Along with that, the trip Huck makes down the river is a lot like Odysseus' trip home in The Odyssey. Huck meets people along the river that teach him about human nature, and change the way he views his world. Although slavery is an important theme in the book, it is less about slavery than it is about how we grow up and become wise people with strong character.
Beyond just the themes, this thread illustrates why Huck Finn works perfectly for an English teacher who wants to explain the power of words.
Although I like most of Twain's writings, I don't think he wrote a better one than this. However, in the interest of fairness, I will say that while I liked it the first time through, I came to love it the second time when I was in college, and it was being taught by a professor who (shockingly) could actually teach.
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