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A Valuable Lesson in Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Decent Essays
Over time as people grow and learn new things, they develop morally. Mark Twain did not write The “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” just to entertain children with a story about a boy who goes on countless adventures. He wrote it to teach his audience a valuable life lesson. One question that may arise when pondering over this theme of Morality is How does Mark Twain show the development of Huck Finn’s moral in the novel, which other characters and what kind of techniques does he use to achieve his goal. The Widow Douglass is a large part of Huck’s development in the way he perceives religion. Jim teaches Huck what a true friendship is on their journey on the Mississippi River when he cares for him. Although Huck lives an independent life, nevertheless his morals, from the start of the novel, significantly changed by the end of novel, because of Twain’s skillful demonstration of moral development of Huck through his perception. The notion of moral was noteworthy from the very beginning of the novel when Huck learns about prayer and religion from the Widow Douglass. She talks about Heaven and Hell and Hucks response to that was he “couldn’t see no advantage in going where she was going” (2). This shows that Huck‘s perception of good and bad is biased. When the Widow Douglas tries to explain prayer to Huck, he somehow manages to get the idea that he will be provided with anything and everything that he prays for. He says “I tried it. Once I got a fish-line, but no hooks. It
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