Abuse In Mark Twain's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain’s classic novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn took place during a tense period in U.S. history. Heated debate over the morality of slavery had sparked and deep divisions were emerging between the northern and southern states. Born in Missouri, a slave state, the novel’s protagonist Huckleberry Finn was raised on values of racism and prejudice. He adhered to these principles as they were all he knew. However, over the course of his journey, Huck’s formerly provincial morality was challenged by his real-world experiences, and he was forced to derive a new set of morals for himself. At the start of the novel, a blind acceptance of slavery was present in Huck’s mind. This was revealed when Huck thought, in reference to Jim’s plan to free his children, “Here was this nigger, which I had as good as helped to run away, coming right out flat-footed and saying he would steal his children – children that belonged to a man I didn’t even know; a man that hadn’t ever done me no harm” (137). Although grateful for Jim’s companionship and reluctant to report him to the authorities, Huck still believed slavery to be a moral practice. As evidenced by this thought process, Huck held on to the values of the slave-owning states in the south, believing that Jim’s children, as slaves, were property. He even felt remorseful at the thought of a man’s slaves being stolen. Regardless of his budding friendship with Jim, Huck was still concretely in favor of slavery. This static view on

The men pose as great men, but they have unethical intentions. Twain’s use of satire is a parody of the duke and king to add a comical effect, but it also serves to enhance Huck’s character. He humorously juxtaposes the morally intelligent but uneducated Huck in contrast to the duke and king who perceive themselves as educated but indeed the two are arrogant con

On the way to the northern states they meet the Duke and the King. The duke and the King are both con artists and they show Huck and Jim just how bad white people can be. Jim gets captured and Huck gets help from Tom Sawyer to free him. When they run away Tom gets shot and Jim takes him to a doctor to heal him. Huck changes his view on black people when he realizes that Jim helped Tom.

To Huck, a slave is another’s property or investment; so consequently, he believes Jim is wrong to run from his master. Living in a society tolerant of such deep-rooted racism and prejudice, Jim’s generation is challenged merely to survive.

The reader can clearly see that the Duke and the king have bad intentions that seek to benefit nobody but themselves. Lying is a crucial part of the story that occurs in almost every chapter. Typically people view lying as wrong, but in the case of Huck’s journey with Jim, lying is the only thing that keeps Jim safe. Hucks

By creating characters such as the Duke and the Dauphin, two frauds, Twain uses the negative characteristics of humans to satirize the human race. When the Duke and the Dauphin pretend to be Peter Wilks’ brothers in order to get his inheritance, Huck, a thirteen-year-old boy, says, “It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race” (Twain 163). When saying this, Huck magnifies that the Duke and the Dauphin are a satire

Pap’s dialogue concedes to the established relationship he has with Huck. In a society built by social constructs, one would expect there to be an adverse relationship between father and son. Instead one observes a father using this relationship, shamelessly in order to gain any amount of

Huck and Jim eventually make their way to a family called the Grangerfords, though Jim stays behind while Huck goes ahead. Uck makes friends with one of the Grangerfords boys, his name being Buck. The Grangerfords are in a feud with another family, and after a short shootout, Buck and another die. When Huck covered up their bodies, he “cried a little when I was covering up Buck’s face, for he was mighty good to me”. (Chapter 18, page 118.) He becomes wary of the dangers of ridiculous feuds and the evils that people can commit to each other. Huck then leaves and meets up with Jim, where they continue on their journey and soon meet up with two frauds who claim to be a king and a duke. The king and the duke put on shows throughout towns that are only half-finished, ripping off any paying viewers. After they leave the town, Jim eventually says that he doesn’t want to deal with the frauds and Huck agrees, “It’s the way I feel, too, Jim. But we’ve got them on our hands, and we got to remember what they are, and make allowances.” (Chapter 23, page 158) This shows how much Huck is maturing as the story

At this time of the novel, the King and Duke are being chased after the townspeople have feathered and tarred them. Although, both of them caused many problems for Huck and Jim, he was still sympathetic toward them. He is beginning to realize how cruel the townspeople are, and states, “Human beings can be awful cruel to one another.”

When Huck and Jim met the duke and the king, they wore ragged clothes, which weren’t appropriate for their titles :

Huck is faced again with a choice of letting bad acts happen or standing up against the Duke and the King when Huck first meets them in chapter 19. These two men are con-men and swindlers, faking themselves as royalty to get special treatment by Jim. Huck recognizes this early

The duke and the dauphin are first introduced as liars claiming to be people that they are not; until Huck leaves them, the two men provide a greatly negative example of morals. One of the first things the two men do after joining Huck and Jim is go to a religious revival meeting to steal from the unsuspecting crowd. The thievery committed by the king establishes him as a character with immoral intentions. Furthermore, as the king is stealing money, the duke creates a wanted poster displaying

Their role in the novel definitely emphasizes their uncivilized behavior and lack of moral compass, which becomes more and more unnerving for Huck as he strengthens his own moral compass almost in response of disgust to what he witnesses them do. Needless to say, the Duke and King are rude and ruthless. More often than not, they are found lying and scheming in order to obtain money, alcohol, or female affection. Run entirely by greed, their characters are symbolic of human avarice and how an obsession with materialistic possessions can make someone terrifyingly cruel. In addition, it becomes evident by hearing them speak that they are not well-educated, tying into a theme of ‘uncivilized’ behavior in the novel. Overall, their entry onto Huck and Jim’s raft only promote chaos as they deceive people with more and more lack of compassion. Their actions frequently put Huck and Jim’s safety in risk, though Jim’s safety at much higher cost; if Jim gets caught, he will be put back in slavery. However, there is still a trickle of what one can consider civilized behavior when it comes to the King and the Duke. For one, when they are planning schemes, they always make sure to properly organize and arrange their ideas. In comparison, Huck and Jim rarely strategize about how to best use their time and reach Jim’s goal of becoming a free man. In other words, they live a life of extreme

The society which Huck tries to escape looks down upon blacks. Society sees blacks as nothing more than slaves, possessions. Jim himself reinforces this: "I owns mysef, en I’s wuth eight hund’d dollars" (Twain 41). The society also sees blacks as superstitiously afraid. Huck and Tom tease Jim at the beginning of

Along the way, they meet the duke and the king, two white people. What Twain is doing here, is to contrast these two cons with Jim, a kind and honest man. The duke and king, over and over again, make up stories, fake their identity to cheat on people and take their money. When they try to be the two brothers of a rich man to take all the iherited money: “Well, when it come to that it worked the crowd like you never see anything like it, and everybody broke down and went to sobbing right out loud -- the poor girls, too; and every woman, nearly, went up to the girls, without saying a word, and kissed them, solemn, on the forehead, and then put their hand on their head, and looked up towards the sky, with the tears running down, and then busted out and went off sobbing and swabbing, and give the next woman a show. I never see anything so disgusting.” (Twain 178). Why was it so disgusting to Huck? The true nature of these two white men, the duke and the king, proves that the stereotypes of racism was completely wrong. There are white people who do not have morality like Jim does. The contrast was too large, to be compared, Jim shall be loved and valued more than the two frauds. While the Victorian women complaint about Huck’s behaviors, considering him