Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is a story of a boy, Huck Finn, who runs away from home and travels down the Mississippi River with a “runaway nigger” named Jim. Huck’s father, Pap, is a drunken low life who doesn’t seem to care for his son. He comes from a poor, troubled family and isn’t very educated which is something he seems to embrace. “Huck Finn runs away not only from an abusive father but also from his good-intentioned guardian, Miss Watson, who tries to civilize Huck, educate him, and make him a Christian” (Sienkewicz). Whether he knows it or not his journey down the river isn’t just an escape, it is a learning experience. Huck learns a few life lessons from dealing with his conscience, to friendship and …show more content…
His whole life has been taught that “niggers” are property and are not meant to be free but In his heart he knew helping Jim was the right thing to do, no matter what anybody else says. “both Huck and Jim are depicted as characters who are capable of learning from their own mistakes, empathizing with others, and acting on the behalf of others” (Evans). As the journey down the river continues they run into two con men. These men pretend to be the Wilks brothers in order to rob this family of all of their possessions. Huck couldn’t see them do this poor family wrong. He spends some time really contemplating telling one of the girls, Mary Jane, the truth about these liars (Twain 175). He knows inside that it is the right thing to do but he doesn’t want to put himself at risk. He plans out every little detail of how he is going to tell her and how he is going to expose these men (Twain 175-178). His actions result from his sympathy for others and his conscience and show major growth as the story continues. True friendship is something you didn’t see very often back then between a little white boy and a grown black man. True friends care and only wish the best for each other. One foggy night Huck and Jim got separated. Huck found the raft again with Jim on it sleeping. He wakes him up and Jim was so happy to see him because he was so worried and thought he was dead (Twain 83). Huck tries to play a trick on Jim and tell him he was only
Friendship includes a lot of things, one of those things is trust. Trust is exactly what made Jim and Huck friends. For example, In Document B Huck says, “Blamed if I would, Jim” after he was asked if he would tell why Jim was in the woods and how he got there. Another part of
In Mark Twain's novel "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," the protagonist, Huck Finn, undergoes a transformative journey that shapes his character and challenges societal norms. Throughout the narrative, Huck evolves from a carefree and naive boy to a morally conscious individual who grapples with complex issues of race, morality, and personal freedom. This character study will explore Huck's development through three key aspects: his independence and defiance of societal norms, his moral growth and empathy, and his struggle for personal freedom and autonomy. Through these lenses, we gain insight into Huck's complexities as a character and the profound impact of his experiences on the Mississippi River. At the beginning of the story, Huck is portrayed as a carefree and adventurous boy
On Huck and Jim’s journey to Cairo, Jim begins to speak about when he is free he will go and find his children and take them from the slave owner. This rubbed Huck the wrong way; his standards of Jim had been lowered because, from Huck’s point of view, why would Jim steal his children away from a man who has done nothing to him? Huck’s conscience began to come into play and he had made up his mind: He was going to turn Jim in when they reach shore. He was sure of it until Jim began to sweet talk Huck, telling him that Huck was the only white man that had ever kept a promise to him. This comment went directly to Huck’s heart; he could not possibly
At this point in the novel, Huck still holds the belief that blacks are essentially different from whites. Also, Huck's conscience constantly reminds him that he is an abolitionist for helping Jim run away from his owner. Huck does not see that Jim is looking for freedom just as he is.
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
Huck’s major turning point was when he decided not to tell on Jim. Huck tore up the letter he was going to send to Miss Watson. It was during Chapter 31 when Huck decided he cannot listen to what society believes, which is that niggers are worthless and trash. He would rather go to jail than to send Jim back into slavery. In the past, Huck has been arguing against what he learned versus what he was experiencing. Huck was taught that niggers and slaves were bad, however, throughout the adventure, Huck begins to realize niggers, such as Jim, were kind and caring. Blacks have feelings just like white people do. When coming to the conclusion not to tell on Jim, this shows that Huck cannot accept society’s rules. He would rather challenge what society endorses and their values than betray his true feelings. In addition, Huck reached his conclusion because of the adventures he had with Jim on the raft and the Mississippi River. After writing the letter, Huck begins to feel relieved because he doesn’t have to worry about his “wrong” doings. However, Huck begins to think about Jim and the adventure they had together. Huck also realizes that if Miss Watson received the letter, she would sell Jim anyway. Based on the strong relationship Huck and Jim developed throughout this novel, Huck began to accept Jim as a father who cares for him. Therefore, this causes Huck not to give Jim back to “sivilized” society. He knew he cannot let Jim
Mohandas Gandhi once said, “Morality is rooted in the purity of our hearts.” However, it may not hold true in Twain’s novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In the novel, the protagonist Huck Finn’s morality and perception of others is shaped by the society he lives in, demonstrating that an individual’s morality or the epistemological sense of right and wrong can be largely influenced by society and the living environment. Yet despite strong traditions of the 19th century south, Huck is able to live away from the “civilized” world, leaving behind his hometown and travelling down the Mississippi river with Jim, a runaway slave. Huck’s unusual experiences with Jim contrast with his predetermined notions of race and power in the midst of the Jim Crow Era, thrusting Huck into a great crisis of morality dictated by his consciousness instead of his intellect. Through Huck’s journey in the search of morality, Twain conveys the theme that that morality is dictated by society, despite the goodness of an individual’s consciousness, it is difficult for and individual to intellectually challenge societal paradigms.
Throughout the classic novel of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn written by Mark Twain we see a lot of moral development with the main character Huckleberry Finn. Throughout the story Huck’s friendships greatly influence his moral identity. Throughout the series of events that unfold upon our main character, Huck Finn, we see huge moral leaps in the way he thinks that are influenced by that friendships he makes on his journey. He starts the book as a young minded individual with no sense morals other than what has been impressed onto him and ends up as a self empowering individual. Through the friendships he makes with Tom Sawyer, Jim, and the Duke and King we see big moral leaps with Huck.
In Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the young protagonist Huckleberry Finn runs away from his abusive father with Jim, a black slave. Throughout the novel, Huck encounters people that fail to understand the injustice of slavery and violence, despite their education. Although Huck lacks any substantial education, his moral values and judgment are highly developed. In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain uses uneducated, colloquial diction and deliberate syntax to provide ironic contrast between Huck’s rudimentary level of education and profound use of moral judgment.
The character development of Huckleberry Finn from Mark Twain’s piece, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” reflects the transition from boyhood to manhood of the main protagonist who is challenged by society to either maintain his own unique perspective and attitude or assimilate into a civilized community that upholds traditional White-American beliefs. Similarly, Kate Chopin in her novel “The Awakening,” utilizes fictional storytelling to articulate the internal struggle of Edna Pontellier on her quest to part from her conventional role as a woman and for the first time since youth, pursue her self interests. Chopin’s work targets current social understanding of morality and ethics, removing the notion that you have to abide by what society demands from you based on predetermined unjustified reason. The development of the characters’ identity in these texts reciprocate the complex nature of living life with society pushing down on you with standards and expectations, challenging your own thoughts and visions. This a persistent topic that Chopin and Twain, both engage in explaining through storytelling to highlight current social issues, where they indirectly reference the American Civil War and Women’s Rights Movement during the mid to late eighteen hundreds. The social conflict in Huckleberry Finn examines the nature of an individual’s process to gain consciousness about their role in life, which enables them to do what they consider morally just. This thinking is also
One component of these chapters that I felt was extremely prevalent was the character development of Huck. There were multiple instances when Huck had to make certain decisions that would effect him in the long run, and with most of those decisions came a moral struggle. It seemed as if within these chapters, Huck is trying to find out who he truly is as a person. One example of these moments is in chapter 16 when he is having an internal battle, trying to convince himself that helping Jim gain his freedom is in fact the right thing to do. The quote reads, “I couldn't get that out of my conscience, no how nor no way. It got to troubling me so I couldn't rest; I couldn't stay still in one place…I tried to make out to myself that I warn't to blame, because I didn't run Jim off from his rightful owner” (Pg. 87). In the quote stated above you can clearly see the internal struggle that Huck goes through, trying to find himself along the way. He looks at the situation with 2 different perspectives, one of them being that taking Jim to gain his freedom is immoral and the wrong thing to do, the other being taking Jim to gain his freedom is the right thing to do. Although Jim knows that either way he will feel guilty but he ends up choosing to take Jim's side because of his loyalty. Jim shows his appreciation to Huck by saying things like, "Dah you goes, de ole true Huck; de on'y white genlman dat ever kep' his promise to ole Jim”(Pg. 92), causing Huck
Huck is on the right path in becoming a faithful friend to Jim. He finds himself struggling to be his support system. He feels divorced from the outside world. As expected, his heart is confused in deciding what is morally and ethically appropriate. His conscience pushes him to reflect on the effects of society and how it incites behavior like his: reckless and unforeseen. This situation made him “trembly and feverish…because [he] begun to get through [his] head that [Jim] was most free… and [he Huck] was to blame” (Gerald and James 100). As a white male, he is expected to turn it runaway slaves of color. Nevertheless, he has no personal desire to follow these expectations. Rather, he chooses to protect Jim, even if he undoubtedly fears to
“Deep down in me I knowed it was a lie, and He knowed it. You can’t pray a lie--I found that out”( Twain 213). In the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, a conflict between the heart (individual choices and actions) and the mind (logical reasons and society’s influence) develops. Huck begins a journey along the Mississippi River to find his individuality and comes across a runaway slave named Jim. His views are challenged when confronted with the fact that it is the socially correct thing to turn Jim over, but he doesn’t. Along the journey, Huck represents the fight against his conscience and his heart, in which he adapts, conforms, and also rejects society’s constraints, following his inner heart’s promptings.
Throughout Mark Twain 's novel he shows the budding of an unorthodox friendship between a runaway slave and a juvenile delinquent. Mark Twain also shows how people from too different but similar situations come together to try to free one another from their troubles. Huck And Jim Are Two you can say friends who are Trying to escape their own Troublesome lives, encountering many obstacles such as getting Jim captured and disguising as different people and much more.In the story of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Jim and Huck have become very close because they experience some sort of the same situations in life. Jim is a African American slave who wants to run away to make enough money so he can free his family from slavery and be a
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been labelled as a picaresque novel. A picaresque novel is an adventure story that involves an anti-hero or picaro who wanders around with no actual destination in mind. The picaresque novel has many key elements. It must contain an anti-hero who is usually described as an underling(subordinate) with no place in society, it is usually told in autobiographical form, and it is potentially endless, meaning that it has no tight plot, but could go on and on. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has moulded itself perfectly to all these essential elements of a picaresque novel. Huck Finn is undeniably the picaro, and the river is his method of travel, as well as the way in which he wanders around with no