One time Laura was talking to her father about how good of a person her grandfather was. With a stern, yet soft, look on his face he told her: “Your grandfather is not the same father I knew. Right now he is the man who wants to get into heaven”. In the novel Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, one of the main themes is religious hypocrisy and how it affects the characters and their journeys. Ms. Watson is a great example of religious hypocrisy. She is the sister of Widow Douglas, who adopts Huck after several problems with the court and his father. Ms. Watson is always talking to Huck about the church and religion, but she never fully explains it to him. She is a wealthy, old woman who is a good owner to many slaves, including Jim. Jim is a black man who always puts his family first and risks everything in order to stay close to them. Ms. Watson made a promise to Jim that she would never sell him so that he could stay with his family. Jim and Huck go in an adventure and when they return to Huck’s hometown, Tom tells them that: …show more content…
In the eyes of the church, Huck is doing the wrong thing by freeing Jim from the cruelty of slavery. Ms. Watson tries to teach Huck that he should pray and follow the religious values of the church: “Here she was a-bothering about Moses, which was no kin to her, and no use to anybody, being gone, you see, yet finding a power of fault with me for doing a thing that had some good in it” (Twain, ). Teaching an uneducated child about religion is hard, and teaching Huck is harder. Here, we see how Huck struggles with the principle of learning from the past. He doesn’t understand the idea of studying history in order to improve himself. Ms. Watson gives a lot of importance to Christianity. That is the reason why she frees Jim in her will. Before Ms. Watson died, she may have realized one of two things: slavery went against her beliefs or breaking her promise to Jim went against her
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
Huck began to over exaggerate as he was expressing his feelings of wickedness for “stealing a poor old woman’s nigger”, which is an over exaggeration since he did not steal Jim, but instead was helping him escape a terrible lifestyle (Twain 318). Also ironically, if he went to Sunday-school he would have learned that helping a slave would lead him to “everlasting fire”, instead of to Paradise, although holding slaves is against Christian ideologies (318). By doing this Twain subtly emphasizes the foolishness and irony that religious women such as Miss Watson would even own a slave while parading herself as a devout Christian woman because of the fact that Christians do not believe in harming other beings, which slavery does by oppression. As Huck pondered on his ethical dilemma whether to save
A major theme of the novel is the hypocrisy and double standards that are evident in the society surrounding Huck. This trait is found especially within Christian and religious types in the novel. Twain shows almost every good Christian in the novel as having a generous and kind side, which completely contradicts much of their actions. Twain believes that this hypocrisy is the underlining element that makes religion skeptical. As it is seen in the book, almost every good Christian contradicts himself or herself in some way. Perhaps Huck's first example of this was when the Widow Douglas did not allow him to smoke, as it was a mean practice. However, “she took snuff too; of course that was all right, because she done it herself” (Twain 2). Another example was the Grangerfords. Huck described this family as very nice and kind and even considered Buck a good friend. But once again, the hypocrisy of religious types was bound to come into play. These same people are slave owners and have a feud with a similar family, the Shepherdsons for reasons they don't remember. Perhaps the biggest example of this hypocrisy was when Huck went to church with the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons. As Huck explains, “the men took their guns along, so did Buck, and kept them between their knees.... it was pretty ornery preaching all about brotherly love” (Twain 83). It is obvious that the two families had their guns in their laps while the preacher talked about
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a sequel to the Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain illustrates the Southern states and slavery. Published in 1884, the novel focuses on the important issues that affected America. These issues included racism, slavery, civilization and greed. The book has become one of the most controversial books ever written. The controversy has grown to the point that the novel became banned in several states due to its racial and slavery context. Various symbols, quotes and events have been used in the novel to show hypocrisy in the civilized society in the novel.
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.
In this section, insight into the character of Jim is portrayed. Jim comes across as sincere and trustworthy. The loyalty of Jim and Huck to each other begins to be seen. An example of Jim’s loyalty is seen when Jim is overjoyed to find Huck is still alive after they are separated in the fog. During this section, it begins to be apparent that Jim would be willing to sacrifice to be sure that Huck is safe but Huck does not yet return those feelings. During this section, Huck’s moral dilemma about helping a slave escape begins to surface. The fact that the relationship is strengthening is revealed when Huck lies about having smallpox on their raft in order to prevent Jim from being caught as a slave. Huck again assumes several identities during this section, which reveal much about him. On the raft, Huck is very mature and responsible. He becomes the son of a
Miss Watson and the Widow Douglas, two wealthy Christian sisters, relentlessly shape Huck’s life as devout Christians, restricting his freedom and
In the forefront of the novel, Twain forces Huck to grow up under the supervision of Miss Watson, Widow Douglass's sister, a slave owning woman who was extremely religious and "[tried] to live so as to go to the good place."(Twain, 12) Miss Watson spent most of her time trying to educate Huck both religiously and academically, forcing him "to behave" and grow up a moral man. Twain challenges the reader to recognize the hypocrisy of slavery as he utilized Miss Watson as a metaphor for southern ignorance. Miss Watson, a woman whom many
Twain uses Huck to make decisions based on this hypocritical slave-owning, Christian lifestyle. Huck must choose to either aid a runaway slave named Jim or return him to Miss Watson, while the white society of the South would expect Huck to return Jim to Miss Watson. Huck and Jim 's friendship makes this a significant decision because Huck is morally conflicted. Jim is his friend, but he is also the property of Miss Watson. An excerpt from Magill 's Survey of American Literature puts the situation in a right perspective exclaiming “Jim is property before he is man, and Huck is deeply troubled, surprisingly, by the thought that he is going to help Jim, not only because he sees it, in part, as a robbery, but more interestingly, because he sees his cooperation as a betrayal of his obligation to the
The moral code of individuals shape their personality and contribute to the thoughts of people in society. Twain uses Jim to signify the journey Huck takes regarding his ethical values: “People would call me a low-down Abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum—but that don't make no difference” (Twain 43). Twain shows how Jim’s relationship to Huck makes him question what society teaches him about the lower class. When individuals encounter issues that question their ethical values, the result reassures their moral code. The decisions that people make happen for a reason. Therefore, every decision that individuals make reflect their principles. Additionally, in “Huck, Jim, and American Racial Discourse,” David Smith examines the topic of Jim’s role through the effects he has on Huck. As a moral figure, Jim allows Huck to develop his ethical values while using his own
Often times Huck found himself in a moral dilemma on whether to do what society instilled in him or to do what he thinks should be done. Huck betrayed those feelings of “what society would want” him to do in order to be a good friend to Jim, putting his own self up at risk again for Jim. Jim was being held captive by Huck’s current host and Huck, abandoning his duties of his superior race and being a good Christian, as the Widow called it Huck suddenly has an epiphany “All right then, I'll go to hell!” as he goes to “steal Jim out of slavery” (212). Seeing the situation through Huck’s perspective it gives the reader every little detail that goes into his thought process in his decision making. These types of actions were considered wrong by society at that time and place but Huck sets that all aside and does what he feels is the right thing. Most of the time Huck has to think on his feet making the decision making process even more difficult, like the time when Huck was going to give Jim up as a runaway slave. “Then I thought a minute, and says to myself, hold on, s’pose you’d ‘a’ done right and give Jim up, would you feel better than what you do now? No, says I, I’d feel bad---I’d feel just the same way I do now” (91). Even through Huck’s dialect you can see him argue with himself on what the right thing to is, but he throws out what society would do and does what his heart tells him. Through Huck arguing
Twain argues it was not only the slaves who were bound in slavery but also everyone else around them. Since Jim is a slave who ran away, Huck is socially expected to go and report him, but Huck said he “ain’t agoing to tell” anyone about Jim (32). Huck is breaking widespread belief and not partaking in what is expected of a white boy. Huck’s freedom is more ingrained than any expectations anyone has for him and is one of his greatest qualities. Slavery is a set of rules everyone participates in and to step out of that and treat an African American person as a person is a very difficult thing because society is not accepting of it. Earlier in Huck’s adventure, after he was adopted by a widow, she spoke to Huck about religion and the benefits of prayer, Huck did not seem to understand the purpose of it all. The Widow spoke of “spiritual gifts” that were to be attained by prayer, a concept that confused Huck because he did not see how it helped anyone. Huck quickly finds the flaws within the concept of religion and decides he “wouldn’t worry about it anymore, but just let it go,” especially since it does not help him in any way (8). Huck does not see how praying will benefit him and therefore decides that he will have nothing to do with religion. There is also a social connection through practicing any religion and Huck grew up without any of that. Religion is one of the biggest social expectations, everyone is expected to abide by it, just like any other social standard. Huck’s reaction to religion and the prospect of turning in his friend clearly argue Twain’s point that those who do not benefit from society are the ones who challenge its
Similarities appear in both Huck's and Jim's view of freedom. First of all, One important similarity is both, Huck and Jim’s, visions of freedom are joined with their escaping from society. Mrs. Watson's attempts at civilizing Huck are expressed when she orders Huck, "Don't put your feet up there, Huckleberry; and don't scrunch up like that, Huckleberry, set up straight" (2). Becoming one with society makes bad experiences for Huck, causing his strong feeling for an unrestricted life. In addition, Jim's bad experiences from society also outcome to Jim's portrayal of freedom. As a slave, Jim is not treated as equally as white people are. Jims unequal treatment from society
Although The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an exciting and seemingly light-hearted story, Mark Twain wrote the book to expose the systemic flaws in antebellum American society. One of its major themes is hypocrisy. Twain used a satirical approach to uncover the racial and religious hypocrisy of the South.
To begin with, religious hypocrisy is brought up with the Widow, The Grangerfords, and The Shepherdsons. In the first chapter, the reader gets a glimpse at how two-faced the widow is since she forces Huck to go to church, teaches him the Bible verses, and forbids him from smoking, saying “it [is] a mean practice and it [isn’t] clean,” (15) although she smokes, herself. She does not realize that the things she’s advising Huck to do, she doesn’t abide by them herself in the first place. Miss Watson, taking the same approach as the widow, teaches Huck religious matter and how one should act if they hope to reach heaven. However, talking so much about heaven and hell and the bible, she owns slaves which condemned her in the bible.