In the fictional novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, the readers see how society can change people but also how society shapes people. People learn morals and and learn right from wrong from society. Huck is shaped by society and people tried to force him to believe things and do things that were accepted in society. Over time Huck changes his representation of right and wrong. Huck grew up in the lower class and was taught the wrong morals. He followed these morals so he could be more accepted in his society. Sacvan Bercovitch describes the novel as a “Tall [tale] humor was a form of initiation and survival in response to radical physical and social uncertainties on the edge of settler-colonial expansion” (Berconvitch). Berconvitch …show more content…
Huck is spending more time with Jim and he is forming a close relationship with him. Huck is forming feelings for a slave he says, “Well, I warn't long making him understand I warn't dead. I was ever so glad to see Jim. I warn't lonesome now. I told him I warn't afraid of him telling the people where I was. I talked along, but he only set there and looked at me; never said nothing” (8.25). Huck is realizing all colors are the same they have the same emotions and the same blood. Talking or being friends with an african - american is wrong in Huck’s society. He is forming a relationship with Jim because he is a human just like him. Cassander Smith points out that “The character Jim, to whom racial epithets are most often attached, remains a ni***r at the end of the novel but not a slave” (Smith). He is pointing out that people gave Jim no respect through the entire book. He was always looked down upon even when he did something good. Twain is trying to make the point that the environment a person is in is the way the person will become. On this journey Huck encounters many challenges. Huck came across his first gang and realized over time how wrong gangs were. This gang tricked him into thinking they were there for a play but then they stole money. They convinced Huck to be friends, “Make the best o' things the way you find 'em, says I—that's my motto. This ain't no bad thing that we've struck here—plenty grub and an easy life—come, give us your hand, duke, and le's all be friends” (19.47). They conned him into helping them. Later he saw they stole money and other things. When he stole money and hid it in the coffin he felt terrible and wanted to return the money to the family. Huck is also pulling more away from believing in God and believes more in superstitions and has a real faith in the outdoors. Huck describes church as, “When I got there it was all still and Sunday-like, and
The main character of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, Huck Finn, undergoes a complete moral change while having to make life changing and moral questioning decisions throughout his journey on the river. Huck appears first as a morally inferior character caused by living with a self absorbed and abusive father, because of his alcoholic habits. Throughout the whole book Huck is guided by Jim, a runaway slave who goes with him and helps Huck gain his sense of morality. During these encounters, he is in many situations where he must look within and use his judgement to make decisions that will affect Huck’s morals.
Twain’s purpose in writing that part was to get people to realize and understand how ridiculous it is to treat someone differently just because of the way they look. Twain’s depiction of Huck’s moral struggle has been just one of the ways he gets his readers to understand the idea he was trying to convey. Throughout the book, Huck begins to gradually change his views on the issues of racism and slavery. He is quoted saying, “Alright then, I’ll go to hell.” (p.195) Right before tearing up a letter he wrote to Miss Watson telling her where Jim was. Huck realizes that he would feel even more guilty if he turned in his friend. Throughout the book, it had been hard for Huck to separate himself from society’s view of African Americans, and this part is a definite turning point for him, but also an important lesson. Huck’s decision reminds the reader that society doesn’t always know what is best, and makes people realize that the right decision might not always be the popular one. As Huck’s friendship with Jim begins to form as the book progresses, he soon realizes that his perception of Jim and other African Americans isn’t entirely
Huckleberry Finn is a rebellious boy who defies rules whenever he deems it fit. In the satirical novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, a runaway boy befriends an escaped slave in the deep south. The majority of society frowns upon Huck and his choices and he struggles with his decisions the whole novel to reveal thematic subjects such as friendship, love, and betrayal. Throughout the story Huck can’t decide whether to do the right thing or not, but ultimately his heart wins over the views forced upon him by society.
Again, Huck describes feeling “wicked” and “ornery,” though this time he tries to justify his emotions with plausible insights into his upbringing; however, this is to no avail as Huck finds himself back in his perpetual state of self-deprecation. A key difference between Huck’s previous moral conundrum and this one is consistent religious reference, which is similarly reminiscent of Huck’s early morality. For example, Huck’s early rejection that Providence could love him is realized in this later scene. This example is what was previously referred to as the “religious enforcement of Huck’s emotions” and evidently does not subside; however, Huck, with his newfound empathy, now allows those emotions to lead his decision making. In doing this, Huck allows himself to surpass the status that religion attempts to fix him in. In this manner, the parallels between Huck’s early and late morals are necessary to show the extent of his shift in ideals and, moreover, Huck’s willful dislodging of his place in society, the thought of which had previously plagued him. Because of his connection with Jim, that relationship is the stable place that Huck needed and therefore his relationship to the greater society is unimportant, allowing Huck to make a definite and permanent decision of eternal hell (this idea reverts the seemingly immoral status of hell to a semblance of higher
In the novel, Huck learns a big lesson. Huck bonds with Jim causing him to rethink many things he is taught. Jim exclaims, “‘Dah you goes, de ole true Huck, de on’y white genlmen dat ever kep’ his promise to ole Jim’” (Twain 83). Jim is a slave, therefore, he is not treated with much kindness.
In the middle of the book, Huck starts to distinguish what is the right thing to do. He starts to think if all the things he was doing before with Jim and Tom were too mean and stupid to do. One specific example is when he decides to steal the money that the king and duke have, “I got to steal that money somehow; and I got to steal it some way that they wont suspicion I done it." (Twain 133) After Huck stole the money Huck and Jim didn’t feel bad at all, and knew that they did the right thing after all. He learns that not everyone can be scammed on, that the real life is important and that you can’t do anything stupid like that. He sees eye to eye with Jim and realizes that he cant have someone taken advantage of just because of their
Throughout the book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the main character, Huck goes through major changes. The story is set before the Civil War in the South. Huck is a child with an abusive father who kidnaps him from, Widow Douglas and Miss Watson, the people he was living with. He eventually escapes from his father and finds Jim, Miss Watson’s runaway slave. As Huck travels with Jim, Huck begins to realize that Jim is more than a piece of property. During the travel down the river, Huck makes many decisions that reflect his belief that Jim deserves the same rights he has. Because of these realizations, Huck chooses to do the right thing in many instances. Some of these instances where Huck does the right thing instead of society’s
In the novel of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the author Mark Twain portrays Huck Finn as the main character. The setting of this novel took place shortly before the Civil War. The conflict in the novel was that Huck is trying to be civilized by society throughout the entire novel. Later in the novel though, Huck struggles with making a decision to turn in Jim, and stand up for what he believes in and fight against society, rather than conform to society. Huck acts this way to society because he is an extremely independent individual, he is very accepting of all, and he is really mature for his age.
Finally, Huck decides that he has had of enough of these frauds and he wants nothing else to do with them. He does not value money as much as he values honesty.
“Huck Finn helped a N***** to get his freedom; and if I were to ever see anyone from that town again I’d be ready to get down and lick his boots for shame” (Twain 215).Throughout Huckleberry Finn Huck’s views as well as society’s conflict. This novel shows the view points society has on everyday situations and how they are still present today including; morality vs. society, the importance of education, and the control materialistic items have over people. The novel Huck Finn proves that personal morality is not always in alignment with society’s beliefs.
Mark Twain argues through Huck Finn that following one’s own conscience is more important than following society’s expectations. For example, Jim and Huck are friends, and need each other, even though society thinks that a white and black man can't be friends. Huck also shows this when he leaves civilization to be on the river, and finally, Huck wants to have his own adventures and not follow so many rules. Society sometimes knows what is best, but Huck is smart enough to not go by society's rules but to go by what he needs.
Nilon states, “Twain shows clearly that Huck must follow Tom’s leadership and that Jim suffers by Tom’s concern for style and throwing “bulliness” into his plans” (Nilon 23). Throughout the novel, Tom Sawyer symbolizes society to show Huck’s lack of low self-esteem as a white boy in reality. Regardless of being the same race, Huck does not represent a boy that meets the standards of a white boy in society. Some strive to be like Tom Sawyer in society when in reality we are like him but we try to be like Huck. Tom as the society does not sincerely want to free Jim and he finds pleasure in trying to make Jim like a real prisoner.
He like the majority of the Deep South’s population was forced to submit to popular religion in the form of Christianity, being racist and not being able to criticize the institution of slavery, as well as acting like a “proper” boy and being civilized with manors, rules, and restrictions. However, he is the polar opposite of the ideals expressed by his society. Huck is forced to reside with Widow Douglas, he describes the experience in the first chapter, “She took me… allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time … I wanted to smoke, and asked the widow to let me. But she wouldn't. She said… I must try to not do it any more.” (Twain, 2). In this particular environment, Huck is forcefully civilized by the Widow Douglas as well as Miss Watson. This essentially shows an indirect form of slavery in which Huck is forced to do as society and his elders dictate regardless of what he believes in which many of us are also subject to. This enslaves him and leads him to decide that he needs to relocate himself as far away from society as possible. Therefore, he forges his death and runs away meeting Jim on the way. This idea of Huck being controlled by society influences him through the novel, for instance he thinks about turning Jim in because it is wrong to steal since Jim is
At the beginning of the novel, Miss Watson, Miss Douglas’s sister, tried to teach Huck the Bible and to raise him as a Christian. However, Huck vehemently refused this notion and ironically even said that he would rather be in hell than learn about Christianity. He chose to follow his own rules, not the ones that were just taught to
The moral development of Huckleberry Finn in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is constant. As the novel progresses there are many situations and examples of Huck’s moral development as his journey goes on. Huck struggles to decipher between right and wrong when it comes to protecting Jim, leaving his father, and dealing with the con-men. Huckleberry Finn is faced with the decision of agreeing with society's views on african americans or treating Jim as a real human being. Huck has spent his entire life being raised to believe african americans are less important than others and was constantly submerged in the culture of slavery.