How Is Huck Finn Uncivilized

Huck makes a good point when he is living with the widow Douglas. Huck didn’t like to be in a civilized home, he wanted to be out doing adventures with Tom Sawyer. Twain

“The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance….” Albert Camus, a French author and philosopher once made that observation about society. In his mind, a lack of understanding of the issues led to problems for everyone. Mark Twain, an American novelist, saw problems in society and went about to expose the ignorance behind them and encourage change. That is what he was doing in one of his most well known novels, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, three issues, identified by Twain, are explored in education, religion, and conformity that are still relevant today.

Huck’s feelings about living with the Widow Douglas and her sister, Miss Watson. Which of the ladies does he like more? Why? What does he feel about their attempts to “civilize” him?

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

In the fictional novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, the reader sees how society can change people but also how it can shape people and how it can sometimes turn out for the best. In the book,

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.

At the beginning of the story, Huck is a young, wild boy who doesn’t really understand the world. He is distant from his father because he was very abusive, and he is cared for by both Miss Watson and Widow Douglas. Huck has very few morals and is usually dirty. He does not believe in religion. “Well I got a good going-over in the morning from old Miss Watson on account of my clothes; but the widow she didn’t scold, but only cleaned off the grease and clay, and looked so sorry that I thought I would behave awhile if I could.” (page 10) Huck does not genuinely care about what goes on or what he does, in fact, he didn’t care too much when people said that his father had died. He was only uncomfortable. (page 12)

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Huck Finn) by Mark Twain is a renown piece of literature both for its usage of language and the historical aspects that are heavily embedded in the storyline. Historically, society has looked at itself, each other, and events differently throughout the years. The slavery in the United States that is so heavily involved in Huck Finn was socially acceptable during the period of the book is no longer socially acceptable; both when Twain is writing Huck Finn and in the present time. What society finds acceptable can set the precedent of what is morally acceptable and this affects how Huckleberry Finn views some of the decisions he makes throughout the book. Huck struggles to understand the world he has grown up in and its moral ideas of how people should be treated. Society of the 1830s was a judgemental one due to the different social statuses and judgments people received from society. Huck Finn is a young boy who

At the beginning of the story Huck is the definition of an average teen boy. He is rebellious and doesn’t know who he is. He sets out to find himself. This is seen as soon as the book starts when he explains how he just wants to be free, “I lit out. I got into my old rags, and my sugar hog shed, and was free and satisfied” (page 3). He isn’t a little boy anymore, and his adventures through maturity begin to appear. Huck starts to realize that he doesn’t want to do what the Widow and Miss Watson say to do anymore. This is the first example of independence that Huck displays.

Miss Watson and the Widow spent the whole beginning of the novel trying to civilize Huck since he grew up less fortunate. Huck liked the way he lived then and did not want to change his lifestyle. The families in the novel who were thought of to be civilized like the Grangerfords and the Shepardsons were not actually civilized. Their lives were taken up by a feud that nobody knew what they were fighting about and killing became a normal part of their day. "I ain't agoing to tell you all that happened-it would make me sick again if I was to do that" (Twain 126).

Firstly, in the initial stages of their lives, both Huck and Douglass faced repression, though in different forms. While Huck is a character whose spirit longs to fly freely, there are others that would conform his ways. This is expressed early on in the novel when Widow Douglas attempts to compel Huck to dress in attire befitting of a civilized individual. She also tries to have him refrain from smoking and learn the

Mark Twain argues through Huck Finn that following one’s own conscience is more important than following society’s expectations. For example, Jim and Huck are friends, and need each other, even though society thinks that a white and black man can't be friends. Huck also shows this when he leaves civilization to be on the river, and finally, Huck wants to have his own adventures and not follow so many rules. Society sometimes knows what is best, but Huck is smart enough to not go by society's rules but to go by what he needs.

In society, there are always diverse and controversial views on events that not everybody see’s eye to eye with. In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn where the society in the old racial days was such that African American’s were considered to be slaves and were neglected the opportunities that others had, they were not considered to be “free men.” Huck is morally correct by helping Jim escape to be reunited with his family, however, by helping him, Huck is going against the social standards in society of his time. In this novel, the main character and narrator of the story, Huckleberry Finn, is constantly trying to grasp the views of the society in which he is living in.

Within the first seven chapters of the novel, it becomes abundantly clear that Huck resents society. Thus, the characters who are abundantly civilized are shown with a veil of resentment and due to Huck’s age and ignorance, they are not described as more than just a figure of authority. Due to Huck only being 14 years old and being quite childish for his age, he does not take notice into more than what is blatantly obvious about each character. Thus, the readers only see what a child notices: their authority and how kind (or unkind) they are to him.

Widow Douglas forces Huck into white society standards by making him wear new clothes, come when called, pray before dinner, and listen about Mosses after dinner (para. 3 and 4). Widow Douglas wants Huck to be “civilized” as she correlates being well-behaved with being able to enter heaven. She believes Huck not complying with her rules determines if Huck will being go to “the bad place” or heaven. The level of civilization and respectability is based off of religion. Because of Huck’s different beliefs and morals, Widow Douglas feels it is her responsibility to “civilize” him in order to change him into a polite, well-mannered individual. Freedom to Huck can be defined as liberation from the corrupt white society represented by Miss Watson's Home as illustrated in Mark Twain’s satirical novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Widow Douglas chooses to “civilize” Huck in which he responds by getting into his old clothing that makes him feel “free and satisfied” (para. 2). Huck views society standards as idiotic and senseless. He prefers defying society because of the freedom he gets to express his individuality. To Huck, his freedom is the equivalence to his happiness. When Huck is describing the woods, he personifies it to be someone who understands his and accepts him for who he really is (para. 8). Huck feels the most free when he is in the woods which is the antithesis of civilization and