Huck and Jim's Adventures in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain develops the plot into Huck and Jim's adventures allowing him to weave in his criticism of society. The two main characters, Huck and Jim, both run from social injustice and both are distrustful of the civilization around them. Huck is considered an uneducated backward boy, constantly under pressure to conform to the "humanized" surroundings of society. Jim a slave is not even considered as a real person, but as property. As they run from civilization and are on the river, they ponder the social injustices forced upon them when they are on land. These social injustices are even more evident when Huck and Jim have to make …show more content…
The widow Douglas adopted and tried to "civilize" Huck. The two sisters', one redeeming quality is their concern for Huck, which, though it possesses moralistic overtones, includes an element of sincerity, giving them some patience in dealing with the "uncivilized" Huck. Other than this, the sisters' role is to represent the artificial, empty civilization to which Huck rejects. As much as the widow Douglass tries to adopt conventional religion upon Huck, he continues to reject it. Before every meal the widow told Huck he had to say grace. Huck referred to this as having to "grumble" over the food before they could eat it (14). She tried to teach him about Moses, until Huck found out Moses was dead and lost interest. The comments made by Huck clearly show both women as hypocrites, scolding Huck for wanting to smoke and then using snuff herself and firmly believing that she would be in heaven: Here she was bothering me about Moses, which was no kin to her, and no use to anybody, being gone, yet finding fault with me for doing a thing that had some good in it. And she took snuff too; of course that was all right, she done it herself (15). Huck shows his anger and dislike for the values that were constantly placed on him by the Widow Douglas and her sister, Miss Watson. They both try to socialize Huck into a good boy. Huck was going stir-crazy, made especially restless by the sisters' constant reminders to
(Twain 2). When Huck asks the widow to let him smoke, she refuses. As a result, Huck becomes upset with her, despite him being unaware that smoking is bad for you. From this, the widow may been seen as a harsh authority figure who does not allow Huck to do as he pleases. “Miss Watson she kept pecking at me, and it got tiresome and lonesome.”
What the Widow and Miss Watson do not do is explain to Huck why he is doing unnecessary chores and acting so properly. When Miss Watson would say things like "Don't put your feet up there, Huckleberry;" and “Why don't you behave", Huck’s young mind asks himself, ‘Why should I behave?’ All of the critiques of Huck’s behavior makes him think that if he stays with the Widow and Miss Watson he will always be failing. His attitude toward the goals that the two sisters have for Huck change with every order he receives and eventually the two “kept pecking at me, and it got tiresome and lonesome." At this point Huck’s sentiment towards living in their house moves to more of a prison like atmosphere and, “considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn’t stand it no longer, I lit out”. He realizes that he is being held against his will, only after he realizes how “regular” and boring the two women are. This is very telling of his character and the same mentality of an ‘against the grain’ lifestyle pushes Huck to question the people and environments around him. The freedom Huck realizes from the sisters’ house of “sivlized” teachings is not the type Huck looks for and his oppressive time with pap
Huck absolutely hated how they are forcing him to follow a bunch of rules. The Widow Douglas teaches Huck the Bible, which he doesn 't mind but he doesn 't like how she 's forcing it on him. One of the rules was Huck was not aloud to smoke. Miss Watson told Huck that he had to get an education. She tried to teach him how to spell but he had no interest. She also gave him lectures on good behavior because she said that 's how he would go to heaven. He told her he didn 't believe that, he thought hell sounded more fun than heaven, so he 'd rather go to hell instead. Even though he doesn 't like either one of the women, he does like Widow Douglas more than Miss Watson. She gave him encouragement even though she had strict rules. And she took care of him, like buying him clothes even though he didn’t want them. Huck respects Widow Douglas because she gives him good advice and is not so harsh on him about certain things. Huck ran away, and they sent Tom to search for him. Tom convinced him to come home, but he still complained about having to wear new clothes and eat only when the bell rang for dinner. He didn 't like their rules because he wasn 't used to it growing up with his Pap. One of the examples is that his Pap forbid him from going to school, yet they want him to be
The relationship between Huckleberry Finn and Jim are central to Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". Huck's relationships with individual characters are unique in their own way; however, his relationship with Jim is one that is ever changing and sincere. As a poor, uneducated boy, Huck distrusts the morals and intentions of the society that treats him as an outcast and fails to protect him from abuse. The uneasiness about society, and his growing relationship with Jim, leads Huck to question many of the teachings that he has received, especially concerning race and slavery. Twain makes it evident that Huck is a young boy who comes from the lowest levels of white society. Huck's father, Pap, is a drunk who disappears for
In HuckleBerry Finn there are two systems of belief, there is religion and superstition. The uneducated characters in this book, like Huck and Jim are skeptical about religion. Widow Douglas and Miss Watson are very educated about religion. Huck looks at the uselessness of Christianity, because prayers are never answered according to Huck. Many characters in Huck Finn have different interpretations of religion.
Huck Finn’s personal definition of family changes throughout the book as he encounters relationships with the other characters. Growing up, Huck did not have a normal home life. His dad was a drunk, his mother was dead, and he was the “bad” kid in the neighborhood that the other parents resented. Throughout the story, Huck spent time with a number of different “families”; some related by blood and others just a group of random individuals who lived and interacted in proximity of each other. Each of these had something different to offer and to each belonged a different backstory.
First off, Huck concludes that the Widow Douglass’s interpretation can make a “body’s mouth water” (Twain 21). Even though Huck admits that he would prefer to belong to the Widow’s vision of heaven, he begins to see the moral emptiness that underlies the Widow’s faith. For example, when the Widow Douglass attempts to punish Huck for his “mean practice” (6) of smoking, he observes that she applies double standards. When the Widow uses snuff it is acceptable “because she done it herself” (6), but when Huck tries to smoke it is sinful. The faith’s hypocritical nature is also seen when the Widow urges Huck to “help other people” (21).
In the beginning of the story of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, one of the first things that the author, Mark Twain, addresses is Huck and his friend, Tom Sawyer, finding money that robbers hid. I believe that Twain introduces the story with this topic to show that Huck is an adventurer and lives for the excitement and possibly the dangers of going on crazy journeys like finding stolen money. There are several different characters in this story that I believe influence Huck’s personality and character traits. One of which is “the widow”. The widow is a woman who basically adopted Huck because he didn’t have anyone else to take care of him.
Throughout this story you see how Huck wants to have his freedom from the widow and also from his father who is a drunk and just wants to take advantage of Huck’s money he had. Such as when he is telling us this “The Widow Douglas, she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn’t stand
Huck’s dual mother figures cover both the good and bad sides of motherhood between Miss Watson’s strict ways and Widow Douglass’s care and generosity. Jack as well has a love-hate relationship with his mother, resenting her for her list of lovers and yet admiring her for her youthful and determined loving nature. Although Miss Watson and the Widow Douglass have their faults, Huck admits they “never meant no harm” (1). Miss Watson, who ultimately means well, displays her care for Huck in a nagging manner rather than one out of love like the Widow Douglas, who can be characterized as one of Huck’s mentors. The Widow Douglass “took [him] for her son”, promising him she would civilize him into a proper young man (1).
“When you got to the table you couldn’t go right to eating, but you had to wait for the widow to tuck down her head and grumble a little over the victuals … After supper she got out her book and learned me about Moses …” (2) The Widow is a true example of Twain’s portrayal of the hypocrisy shown in society. She forces Huck to learn religious practices, which seem to take out all the meaning in Christian values. Lecturing Huck on the mean practice of smoking while taking snuff is another example of the ridiculousness in her teachings. “And looky here—you drop that school, you hear?
Even though Huck was happy about escaping from Widow Douglass, he did not want to be around his father either. All he wanted was to go back to his independent life where he did not have to be controlled by anyone. This book also shows how selfish family can be. For example, Huck’s father knew that he did not want to take care of Huck, but he still took him to the cabin because he wanted his money and also because he did not want Huck to excel in life. Once Huck got tired of his father’s abuse, he found a way to escape and faked his
In the beginning of the novel while Huck was living with Widow Douglas she took him in as her son. She thought that she could eventually civilize Huck, but for Huck it was anything but easy living as he said it was “rough living in the house all the time.” (Pg. 13) Since Huck was so used to living on his own and being free, he saw Widow Douglas’s demands as terms of confinement and imprisonment. Living with Widow Douglas was impossible because it meant that he lost all sense of his freedom and who he really is. Huck feels that he belongs out in the free and wild where the community cannot tell him
Furthermore, he contradicts the norm of the time by showing the strong bond between Huck and Jim. In of the scenes, Huck gets a job save enough money to free Jim. Huck says, "And for a starter, I would go to work and steal Jim out of slavery again..." In chapter 1, Huck depicts the widow as a devoted Christian who forced him upon many rituals. For instance, he "...had to wait for the widow to tuck her head and grumble over the victuals, though there really nothing the matter with them." However, through Huck's blatant honesty and humour comments we see her tendency to cuss. Huck asserts that "she also called me a lot of other names too...." she adds more irony to this agitating unholylike behavior by smoking snuff even while preaching to Huck that he is not allowed to do such things. Mark shows the religious satire and especially hypocrisy of southern whites, who are supposed to set an example of morality yet end up contradicting
A prominent example of religious hypocrisy in the novel is the Watson sisters, Widow Douglas and Miss Watson. Very quickly Huck observes that each sister represents a different version of the “good place.” Both sisters ardently try to civilize Huck and teach him good religious values. Huck tells the reader that, “Sometimes the widow would take me one side and talk about Providence in a way to make a body’s