Character Study of Huckleberry Finn Huckleberry Finn is the main protagonist and narrator of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He is a thirteen year old orphan who lived with Widow Douglas and her sister, Miss Watson. He doesn’t appreciate all the beautiful surroundings and clothes that he receives and just wants to live a normal, regular life. Huck would much rather being with his friend Tom Sawyer but to as shown in the book, Huck respects Tom and to be in Tom’s gang, he is told to go back to the Widow and so he does. Huck is very superstitious like Tom and Jim. When Huck accidentally swats a small insect into the candle, it burns so Huck spins around three times and ties thread around his hair. This shows how superstitious he is. He is also very impulsive because he is usually shown to do things without thinking of the consequences. In the book, Huck seems to be pressured by Miss Watson to be the perfect image of the boy she wants and he seems to go out of his way to prove Miss Watson wrong. Huck is polite but goes to his own lengths to get his freedom. Like Tom, he is a rebel. He follows Tom and they journey through many adventures in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. One in which they receive 6000 dollars each which Judge Thatcher is trusted to keep for them. He seems to struggle with his identity and moral dilemmas. Huckleberry is very intuitive and determined. This is shown when Huck discovers some evidence that Pap (Huck’s father) is in town.
Huck's observation and reaction to the feud of the two families has reinforced his conscience about the chaos of white society in comparison to Negroes. Huck's reaction in regards to the King and the Duke is also an important point in Huck's development as a person. Huck, having been exposed and shown the immoral and corrupt products of society has grown strong enough to work against society in the end. This development has allowed huck go approach society in a more skeptical manner and to confront and accept that society and the world is not Widow Douglas' delusional mirage. This resulted in Huck to have more confidence in his relationship with Jim and loosened his bond with society's immoral
Huck Finn seemed like a rebel without a cause right from the start. He seemed as if he hadn’t a care in the world. Huckleberry Finn was also greatly influenced by Tom Sawyer. Huck even joined a band of robbers called “Tom Sawyer’s Gang” in which a group of young boys pretend to capture, rob, and murder people. He saw Tom as a role model, someone who he could look up to. Huck’s decisions during the course of the novel are solely based on Tom and whether he would see fit to it. Huck appeared as a naïve troublemaker in the beginning of the novel.
Huck has a grim attitude toward people he disagrees with or doesn't get along with. Huck tends to alienate himself from those people. He doesn't let it bother him. Unlike most people Huck doesn't try to make his point. When Huck has a certain outlook on things he keep his view. He will not change it for anyone. For instance in Chapter Three when Miss Watson tells Huck that if he prayed he would get everything he wished for. “Huck just shook his head yes and walked away telling Tom that it doesn't work because he has tried it before with fishing line and fishing hooks.” This tells us that Huck is an independent person who doesn't need to rely on
Although Huck is only 14 years old, he is mature for his age but as the novel goes on he must take on more of a leadership role despite being more of a follower. For example, when he is with his friend Tom Sawyer he looks up to Tom as a role model because Tom can be assertive and be a leader. He also looks up to Tom because he comes from a good family and has a better education then him. Huck takes over as a more of a leader as the story moves along because if he doesn’t then Jim will get caught and Huck will be sent back to live with his father. T.S. Eliot writes that “Huckleberry Finn, like other great works of imagination, can give to every reader whatever he is capable of tacking from it. On the most superficial level of observation Huck is convincing as a boy” (Eliot, 352-353). T.S. is extending the point that even though Huck is just a boy, he matures and steps up as a
The first book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, features Huck, who narrates his adventures along the Mississippi with Jim, a runaway slave. Huck escapes from his alcoholic, abusive father early in the book, and, immediately thereafter, is primarily concerned with his own survival and contentment. However, even these basic amenities are threatened as he continues his voyage south. First and foremost, Huck must survive in the wild, a task he undertakes with remarkable skill and resourcefulness. Early on in the novel, Huck's skill at living in the wilderness is plainly established, and the reader never doubts his ability to provide for himself.
The novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, covers the situations and people Huckleberry Finn encounters after he runs away. Huck prevents his alcoholic father from getting his fortune and is able to run away after his father, Pap, kidnaps him and leaves town. It has many colorful characters that exhibit several facets of society at that time in history. It is anti-racist although it uses the word "nigger" frequently. Huck seems to struggle throughout the book with what he has been taught and what is morally right. His main and most consistent interaction is with Jim, a runaway slave. Although he had been taught differently throughout his entire life, he eventually makes the choice to go against what society deems to be right and be Jim's
Huck, who is a child in a book, has a lot of room for development. In the beginning, he was taught to follow the rules of society like practicing Catholicism and refusing to associate with slaves. However, during Huck’s journey with Jim, he learns a valuable lesson about respecting people based on their character, despite what he was taught by Widow Douglas, Miss Watson, and Tom Sawyer. During the first few days of his journey, he pulls pranks on Jim, like attempting to trick him into thinking that getting lost in the fog was all a dream. However, later on in his journey, he refuses to follow the rules of society in order to save Jim. He even says “All right, then, I’ll go to hell” when he chooses not to tell Miss Watson Jim’s whereabouts (Twain 214). Jim in turn sees Huck as a great friend as well, thus showing how Huck is now seen as a
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn begins with the boy, Huckleberry (Huck for short), telling a story in a very conversational tone. The story is a recap of Twain’s previous novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, in which Huck and Tom find a robber’s treasure of 12 thousand dollars, and invest it in the bank. Tom had apparently reached out to Huck again, asking him to join Tom’s very own band of robbers. Huck, of course, agreed, and moved back in with Widow Douglas, who cares for him, and makes sure he remains clean. Huck, however, is selfish, and dislikes being “civilized.” He accepts religious and social views the widow enforces upon him, yet decides for himself if he wants to follow them, and doesn’t tell her so as to not cause any unnecessary
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 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain, we are introduced to Huck a boy of about 13 years of age. From a young age Huck grows up in the absence of both his parents. However, Huck is raised by two women who take him in as family, the Widow Douglas and her sister Miss Watson, who make it their goal to “sivilize” (Twain 1) Huck. In the plot of this novel we learn that Huck is beaten repeatedly, and even kidnapped by his overbearing and critical father, Pap. We also learn that Pap, because he is always drunk, is an intimidating figure in Huck's life. Twain also writes about a character named Jim; Jim was Miss Watson's slave, freed after her death. Throughout the novel, Twain creates a strong friendship between Huck
He also sees how hypocritical they truly are, and, it can be inferred that, Twain wanted them to represent society in the novel. Huck thinks their way of living was ineffective, and that is why he used to sneak out in the middle if the night, skip school, and smoke his pipe. It was difficult for Huck to adjust from an unstructured home, with no training, raised by an alcoholic and abusive father, to two strict, cookie-cutter women in a house with plenty of rules and regulations. After earning a large amount of money as a reward, with his best friend, Tom Sawyer, Huck's abusive alcoholic father, who he calls Pap, comes back to steal his money by kidnapping him, and while Huck is with his father he says, "I didn't see how I ever got to like it so well at the Widow's, where you had to wash, and eat in a plate, and comb up, and go to bed and get up regular, and be forever bothering over a book and have old Miss Watson peeking at you all the time" (Twain p. 37). Huck's view on society is one of dissatisfaction and rebellion, as his opinions reveal how imperfect, and unjust society's rules actually are. Especially after hearing that his behavior will determine whether or not he will go to Heaven or Hell scares him a little bit, because he wasn’t taught right from wrong his entire life up until this point. After this Huck's thoughts are, how can a man not be punished by law (his father), for abusing him, but Huck can be reprimanded for harmless things like
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.
Huckleberry’s life is changed and influenced by Tom Sawyer, the widow, his father, Miss Watson, and Jim. Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry’s best friend, is a wild imagination often caused trouble for him and others. Throughout the book, Huck questions what he is doing, and wonders if Tom would do the same. He almost always decides Tom would agree with his decisions and be on his side. When Huck’s life completely turns around, he receives thousands of dollars and a place to stay with a widow from town.
Throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Twain portrays Huck as an immature 14 year old boy, living with his abusive father in a racist and restrictive society, that solves his problems by running away. Twain uses Huck and intricate diction to suggest a theme that running away from your problems is never the solution. As the book progresses so does Huck, every few chapters he morally evolves, although his mindset is stagnant when facing civilization.
Huck's father is absent until he finds out that Huck has found some money. Pap is an outcast full of hate for blacks and pretty much for all of society. Huck, as a product of his society, speaks the language of his society. By choosing as his point-of-view a young boy from the slave south, Twain is able to present and challenge the values and assumptions of this time. Among the assumptions and values of the time that the reader encounters in the book are the strict definitions pertaining to Huck's world and the people who inhabit it: