Niek--The connection you mention is discussed by David E. E. Sloane in
his essay "Huck's Helplessness: A Reader's Response to Stupefied
Humanity," which can be found in my essay collection Making Mark Twain
Work in the Classroom (Duke UP, 1999). Pascal Covici, Jr. makes the
same connection more briefly in his essay "Teaching Huckleberry Finn:
The Uses of the Last Twelve Chapters," in the same volume. Both of
those essays have also been republished electronically on the CD titled
Huck Finn: The Complete Buffalo and Erie County Public Library
Manuscript--Teaching and Research Digital Edition. --Jim Leonard