...without some kind of God, Man is not even very interesting.

Thus the River makes the book a great book. As with [Joseph] Conrad, we are continually reminded of the power and terror of Nature, and the isolation and feebleness of Man. Conrad remains always the European observer of the tropics, the white man's eye contemplating the Congo and its black gods. But Mark Twain is a native, and the River God is his God. It is as a native that he accepts the River God, and it is the subjection of Man that gives to Man his dignity. For without some kind of God, Man is not even very interesting.

—T.S. Eliot, Introduction to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1950)