Huck Finn Conflict

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is a classic for almost all ages. The novel was first published by the Prentice Hall Library in 1884 and since then has been republished. Something notable of this book is the amount of controversy it has brought throughout the years. With such strong characters and strong messages, I can see why. Yet, don’t let such things scare you into believing those who are young shouldn’t be exposed to these powerful ideas. The story consists of Huck’s adventures from planning his own murder, to boarding a steamboat with robbers and con-artists, and concocting plans to free Jim, a slave.

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

They see a town and decide Huck should go and see if this town is Cairo. Huck plans to give up Jim when they get to the city but Jim says, “Huck; you’s be de bes’ fren’ Jim’s ever had; en you’s de only fren’ ole Jim’s got now” (Twain 135). Huck struggles with whether or not he will turn Jim in. As Huck is paddling to the shore, he meets a few men who want to search his raft for escaped slaves. Huck concocts an elaborate lie and acts grateful to the men, saying no one else will help them. He convinces the men that his family on that raft has smallpox. The men, deathly afraid of smallpox, leave Huck forty dollars out of pity and leave. Here, Huck actively decides not to turn Jim in. Huck gets closer to realizing that Jim is a person that deserves rights. Huck struggles between what he thinks is right and what society thinks is right. Huck starts to think for himself, branching out from what society has told him to do from when he was a boy. This is a great leap for Huck in his growing maturity and morality.

"I felt so lonesome I most wished I was dead" (221). Mark Twain's, "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," is a tale about a boy in search for a family and a place he can truly call home. Through his adventure, he rids himself of a father that is deemed despicable by society, and he gains a father that society hasn't even deemed as a man. This lonely and depressed young boy only finds true happiness when he is befriended with a slave named Jim. Although Huck Finn was born and raised into a racially oppressive society, it is through his personal growth that he realizes that the color of skin does not make a man, and he finds a father and true happiness in Jim.

Like Huck, Jim also undergoes the various stages of a hero’s journey. For instance, at the beginning of the story, Jim runs away from Miss Watson, his master, because Miss Watson was about to sell Jim to slave traders. During his first meeting with Huck, Jim recalls hearing Miss Watson “‘tell de widder she gwyne to sell me down to Orleans, but she didn’ want to, but she could git eight hund’d dollars for me, en it ‘uz sich a big stack o’ money she couldn’ resis’” (Twain, 45). When Jim runs away, he accepts his “Call to Adventure,” the first stage of a hero’s journey. During this stage, the hero is impelled to leave his/her normal life to pursue a specific goal. In Jim’s case, his goal is to avoid being sold to slave traders by Miss Watson. If Jim was sold, he would face an uncertain future with unscrupulous slave traders who were willing to bribe Miss Watson with 800 dollars to buy him. By running away, Jim escapes this fate. As the story progresses, both Huck and Jim encounter “Temptresses”, who try to distract them from their goals. These “Temptresses” are the Duke and the King, two scammers who travel from town to town, looking for victims. Indeed, these “Temptresses” nearly end up destroying Jim’s goal of freedom. Towards the end of the story, the King sells Jim to the Phelps family for 40 dollars. As the Duke put it: “‘That old fool sold him, and never divided with me, and the

The Shepherdson and Grangerford feud altered Huck’s perspective about the definition of family. Huck’s first interaction with the Grangerfords gives him the impression that Widow Douglas’ assessment of the Col. and his family were correct. The Grangerfords were kind, caring, wealthy and well respected. They are very hospitable towards Huck. Despite owning hundreds of slaves and servants the Grangerfords are practically a perfect family, especially for this time period. However, when Buck talks about the feud it changes his perspective. "Well," says Buck, "a feud is this way: A man has a quarrel with another man, and kills him; then that

Huck Finn Compare and Contrast Essay Hi, my name s Hannah Million. In this essay I am going to compare and contrast myself and Huck Finn. Huck Finn and I have some similarities.

Jim is a runaway slave. He lived on Jackson’s island across the river from where the community he was originally at. By being a runaway slave, Jim is breaking the law. He is owned by another human, Miss Watson. Jim is considered the legal material property of another person. Huck rejects this legal law, and agrees to help Jim break the law by escaping. Huck is shocked at himself for doing this and even believes he will go to hell for his actions. But Huck decides to choose friendship over what society tells him to do. When Huck and Jim are on the adventure down the Mississippi, their friendship grows stronger and stronger. They depend on each other to survive. Huck attempts to turn in Jim. When Huck and Jim came to the shore by a town. Huck gets off and looks for someone to report Jim. However, Huck runs into some white people wanting to capture runaway slaves. They Huck if he had any others in the boat with him. Huck get scared for Jim and told them that there was his mom, dad and sister in the boat and they all had small pox. By doing this, Huck puts his heart ahead of his head. Huck and Jim returns to St. Petersburg. Jim gets to be free, although Huck doesn’t realize that. Huck saw Jim in a building thinking that Jim was now a slave that couldn’t leave the plantation. So he got Tom Sawyer and then Tom wanted to plan out a way to get Jim out. The plan that Tom had was ridiculous because they could just walk in and take Jim away. Huck tried to point that out to Tom but, as stubborn as Tom is, they did Tom’s plan. A while later, they finally got Jim

They turn on each other as well as anyone else in a heartbeat in order to make some money. These con-men were allowed to stay on Huck’s raft, running cons on a multitude of towns during their journey. The King does not reciprocate this kindness to Huck and Jim. Instead, he decides to sell Jim. The group arrive at a new town, and the King goes out to see if they have gotten news of their Royal Nonesuch scam yet. The King doesn’t come back, so Huck and the Duke go looking for him. They eventually find him in a bar, and the King and Duke get into a fight. Huck decides to run away and goes back to the raft to leave with Jim, but Jim isn’t there. Huck asks someone nearby if they say anyone take Jim, and he says a stranger sold him for $40. Huck realizes that it was the King and confronts the Duke about it, “Hain’t he run off?’ ‘No! That old fool sold him, and never divided with me and the money’s gone’” (Twain 216). This action alone shows the King and Duke’s disloyalty. Also, when they were talking, the Duke wasn’t bothered with the fact that Jim was sold, but rather that the King didn’t split the money with him. Throughout the novel, Jim teaches Huck about loyalty, and is then betrayed and sold. Huck goes from thinking of Jim as a slave to thinking of him as a human. However, with the King and the Duke, Huck believes they are cool at first, but by the end of the book he thinks

“When Huck plans to head west... he is trying to avoid more than regular baths and mandatory school attendance” (Sparknotes 1). This quote summarizes the whole purpose of Huckleberry Finn’s journey throughout the novel, because even though he is only a young boy and his only concerns should be school and bathing, he has to worry about much more “adult” topics, such as helping an escaped slave and dealing with his abusive, alcoholic father. However, throughout these endeavors, he struggles with his conscience and the ideas that have been placed upon him by the people around him, while also trying to maintain his good heart. Examples of this ongoing battle in Huck’s mind include whether or not slavery is acceptable, the stark difference between the 2 gods that Miss Watson and the Widow argue about, and the seemingly pointless feud between the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons. One may think that these thoughts would take over Huck’s personality and make him into a more hateful, prejudiced, person, but Huck remains good hearted and true to himself until the end of the book, showing that he truly does have “a deformed conscience but a good heart.”

Pap Finn, Huck's father, gives him a horrendous idea of what a family truly is. Huck grew up without truly understanding what a family should do for one another or how it feels to be a part of one. When Huck goes to the Widow Douglas's house and starts to live with her and Miss Watson, they treat Huck as if he were their own, and slowly, Huck starts to understand what a family really is and how it feels when you are a member of one. Huck also finds family with Jim, when they both are on Jackson's Island after running away. A father/son dynamic emerges between the two as they travel towards Cairo so Jim can be free. The dynamic becomes evident along the way during the many adventures the pair endures together. Jim begins to care for Huck in a paternal way. These feelings being extremely evident when the pair finds the floating house in the river and Jim covers the face of the murdered man with clothing. The murdered man is actually Pap Finn; Jim wanted to protect Huck from having to face the reality of his father's death (Twain 304). The satire comes from the way Huck feels about all of these people. Huck likes the Widow Douglas enough, but does not like how Miss Watson always lectures him. When it comes to Jim, Huck felt as if he was not supposed to like him, or rather had to make his life harder because of his skin color and his status as a slave. With Pap it was different, as Huck knew that his father

“I liked the old ways best, but I was getting so I liked the new ones, too, a little bit...she said she warn’t ashamed of me.” Chap 4, pg 15

Huck hates that when he is with the widow Douglas he has to be civilized an constantly groans when they have to pray at the table

Another example that indicates hypocrisy in the civilized society in the novel is the biased punishment of crimes according to the society’s rules and regulations. This is shown by the non-judgment of the Duke and the King regardless of the fraudulent schemes that both con artists involved in the community. Huck and Jim rescue the Duke and the King and offer them their raft. The first scheme begins when both criminals present fake identities to Huck and Jim. The Duke introduces himself as the English Duke’s son, also known as the Duke of Bridgewater whereas the King presents himself as the Lost Dauphin as well as Louis XVI’s son and France’s designated King (Twain, 144-145). Additionally, one of the con artists, the Duke, takes advantage of Jim’s race and position as a runway slave and prints leaflets that offer $200 reward to any person that manages to catch the runaway slave. The Duke is

In every man’s life he faces a time that defines his maturation from boyhood to manhood. This usually comes from a struggle that the boy faces in his life. In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck’s defining moment of maturity is Huck’s struggle with Tom in helping Jim escape. Tom sends Huck and Jim through a wild adventure to free Jim because of his Romantic thinking. Tom represents society and its Romantic ideals while Huck struggles to break away from these and become his own realist individual. These Romantic ideas lead Huck into many dangerous situations that pit Huck and Jim as Realist individuals versus a society infused