There are several apparent reasons for Mark Twain's choice of a nighttime setting for most of Huckleberry Finn. First, and most obviously, the plot, as well as historical accuracy, demanded it: a runaway boy and a fugitive slave had to travel under the cover of darkness and lie low during the day.
Then, too, night is indispensable to the variably Gothic and mock-Gothic moods of the novel, with its haunted structures and titillating graveyard scene; its sleeve-clutching tales of mayhem, murder, and misrule; its heroes' hairbreadth escapes from disaster and their superstitions about snakes and witches.
Thirdly, darkness—because of its inherent associations with the unknown, the forbidden, and the irrational—helps to define Mark Twain's metaphysics of evil as well as his sociology of evil and his concern for the "deeper psychology."
Lastly, the nighttime setting, in juxtaposition with the day, serves to convey the fundamental doubleness, the Manicheanism, of Mark Twain's mind and to illuminate his ambivalence on a variety of issues, especially the irksome one raised by the novel's ending.
Underlying these four reasons is Mark Twain's preoccupation with freedom and its limits, the principal theme of Huckleberry Finn. Here, too, the nighttime setting has a significant function, for darkness promises license to all who wish to act out the repressed desires or wicked schemes, the bright dreams or dim mysteries that are within. Whenever the light of day reveals that evil is the consequence of acting on such an inner prompting, Huck Finn comes to make a "judgment of regret," that argues for the need to observe moral constraints. Indeed, that Huck has made a significant step toward maturity during his adventures is revealed in the famous climactic scene when he stops to anticipate the consequences of his actions, while deciding whether to turn in Jim, and thus tries to avoid having to make a judgment of regret in the future.
Next, 's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is set in essentially two different places: on and off the . What occurs in each of these two settings contrasts in content and nature, bringing out different aspects of 's writing. On the , emphasizes the free and easy nature of , while introducing and its conformity in 's time off the .
When is traveling on the , he can be and do whatever he wants. It's a completely informal situation, and he doesn't have to change to fit anyone else's rules. He can choose what he does without having to conform to an acceptable practice, even going so far sometimes as to travel on the raft naked because that's what's most comfortable for him. Because of the complete freedom that the gives , it represents his individuality. It's a place where he can be himself and not have to abide by 's rules. He also doesn't have to accept 's treatment of and other slaves; as long as and are by themselves, they can live without the ideals of civilization. 's treatment of on the is just as it would be toward any good friends, and so without the watchful eye of , lives the way his true feelings dictate. He doesn't have to grapple with what thinks he should do until he is faced with having to deal with its views. Before that, helps to run away and does only what comes naturally to him. also associates freely with people without the constraints of and its influences. The and the , whom townspeople are running out of town, become and 's companions on their way down the . These are people with whom would normally not have associated with; if for instance he were still with the widow, she would have tried to discourage him from befriending such rascally people in her efforts to civilize him.
's experiences off the and among are completely different, forcing him to change his actions to become part of . He frequently must adopt another identity, such as George Jackson, to be accepted by the people he meets, and must adapt to their ways of living. For instance, in the episode with the Grangers and the Sheperdsons, becomes a part of the Granger family and adopts their customs, some of which he normally would object to as too stiff and formal. He is also exposed to the cruelty of in this episode, witnessing the savageness of the feud between the two families. must change who he is as well when he is with the and the , almost involuntarily ta part in their fraud and being exposed to the dark side of human nature. In their experiences with the deceased ' family and town, sees how very evil they are as they unscrupulously try to rob the girls out of everything they have, and he decides he must get rid of the and the first chance he gets. While they traveled with , the and the consistently showed their utter lack of morals, thus further exposing to the evils of man. also has to find ways to explain 's presence when he is on , an example of how he must conform to 's views. Because of the changes must make and the darker sides of man that must deal with when he is on , being off the symbolizes 's search for identity. When the evil and good sides of man are shown to , he is exploring human nature in a search for what's inside of himself. As he frequently changes his name, for instance, once becoming a girl, and once , is searching for himself and trying to become someone.
's experiences on the , where he is free to do what he wants and lives in innocence, contrast greatly with his experiences on , where he is faced with conformity to and its cruel nature. This enhances the meaning of the work because it brings out 's need to find himself. Everything that he encounters is merely a step in his toward finding his identity, and this, the true meaning of the novel, is played out with all of 's discoveries about man and the decisions that he makes.
Now moving on to the book of Siddhartha, Herman Hesse makes use of the setting to depict the main themes in the novel. The river is the main symbol of completeness in the novel. Siddhartha and Vasudeva venerate it as a cosmic teacher, who binds the two sides of the universe together and links earth to eternity. The great river marks the center of the imaginary geography in Hesse's novel. Siddhartha crosses it several times. At first, when he is still a wandering ascetic (samana), he learns from the river that everything passes away in an endless flow that links life to death in the cosmic cycle of reincarnations. Later on, when he returns to the river as a ferryman, he experiences the revelation that the river has simultaneously contained, since time immemorial, all the nurturing energies and "images" of the world.
Thus in conclusion, I can proudly state that through the implementations of an appropriate setting, both Mark Twain as well as Herman Hesse depict their themes in a clearer and more effective manner.