Huck Finn Conformity

In the middle of the book, Huck starts to distinguish what is the right thing to do. He starts to think if all the things he was doing before with Jim and Tom were too mean and stupid to do. One specific example is when he decides to steal the money that the king and duke have, “I got to steal that money somehow; and I got to steal it some way that they wont suspicion I done it." (Twain 133) After Huck stole the money Huck and Jim didn’t feel bad at all, and knew that they did the right thing after all. He learns that not everyone can be scammed on, that the real life is important and that you can’t do anything stupid like that. He sees eye to eye with Jim and realizes that he cant have someone taken advantage of just because of their

Aside from the scientific aspect of social influences, we can observe this habit in fiction as well, like Huckleberry Finn. In the novel, the whole society follows a collective reasoning and collective values, specifically around slavery. Blind conformity was not a rare2 theme in this novel, as well as going off of what was learned and taught. This is represented through Huck when he chooses to listen to others on slavery until he has a personal experience with Jim, a slave, and begins to change his mind. The transition between blind conformity and independent thinking shows that Huck begins to think for himself and follow his conscience instead of following what he was told instead.

Although he predicts society will deem him to be "a low down Abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum," he prefers to be shunned and to risk punishment and shame for the sake of freeing Jim (Twain 43). Clearly, Huck's fondness for Jim is evident when Huck intends to send a letter to Miss Watson returning Jim but chooses to rip it to save him instead. Huck responds, "‘I'll right, then, I'll go to hell'- and he tore it up" (Twain 214). Huck accepts his rebellious nature and terrible fate to hell as he escapes from civilized society and into a place driven by his instincts. Jim's desire for freedom puts Huck in a moral dilemma because he must decide whether to follow his innate sense of morality or the restrictive guidelines of society.

In the end, Huck acted on the highest level of morality regardless of society’s laws and ideas. Early in the story Huck displayed childish traits and a skewed morality because of how he grew up. But Huck changed entirely in his time spent with Jim. When life was forced upon Huck he had to develop and “grow up” rather fast. He quickly progressed from a naïve boy to a mature morally correct young man. Most humans strive for the betterment of themselves and society as a whole, and this is what makes Huck’s final reconciliation so

In the beginning, Huck is like all the town people and a follower that went with the norms of society he didn’t want to stand out. One example is when Huck’s morals seem to show no concern about Miss Watson’s ownership of Jim. Huck’s mentality thought it was perfectly normal to treat the slaves as a piece of property, play tricks for one’s personal amusement, and have the slaves do all the work. Huck uses his moral sense to expose hypocrisy in others and to try to correct such situations if possible. It’s very ironic that Miss Watson claiming to be Christian lets society norms influence her. Not only that, society was a hypocrite, love your neighbor and have an African-American as your slave. Huck let’s go of all the misguide concepts from the society. Huck could see how wrong his action towards Jim has been. Without the pivotal scene Huck wouldn’t have a stand up and truly analysis the norms of society. There is an evolution between the old Huck we meet in the beginning. Now, he slowly starts to change and matures “I know’d [Jim] was white inside,” indicates that Huck sees Jim as a human. Huck see’s Jim through the eyes of a human not as a white man. He is beginning to slowly escape the attachment of the white’s see. Twain want Huck to overcome all racists thinking and look at African-Americans as people with feelings, families, and friendships, even with

Despite Huck’s initial intention to write to Tom Sawyer convey him of Jim’s location; therefore allowing Miss Watson to retrieve her “property”, Huck decides to follow his increasing sense of his conscience. Huck does expresses some worries that are selfish, such as the shame and isolation he would experience if anyone found out that he followed his moral compass and helped Jim reach freedom. Although Huck questions his conscience with these selfish thoughts, Huck worries equally as much for Jim in the fact that he may be condemned a slave forever. Huck decides to follow his moral compass and plans to free Jim from his confinement. This experience proves that Huck doesn’t follow the rules of society, but rather follows what he knows is the right thing to

Huck’s moral development decreases, returning him into his old self, since he doesn’t want to be civilized. In the beginning Huck was taken in by the Widow and Miss Watson, who will always ask Huck, “why don’t you try to behave?”, showing that Huck had his own kind of moral understanding (Twain 2). After Jim is freed and Huck is on his own again, Aunt Sally wants to take him in, like the Widow, but Huck rejects the offer since, “[he] can’t stand it. [he’s] been there before”, this shows the reader that he is not going to change, but keep running away from those who want to civilize them (Twain 220). As we saw Huck’s moral development decrease, there is still a question to answer, should the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn be read in

Mark Twain’s famous realist novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is a masterpiece of social criticism and analysis. The author skillfully depicts a variety of human failings and foibles, personified in the characters of everyday people and groups. Twain appears to be satirizing and criticizing the old South, but underneath his humorous portrait of Southern social issues, the book is a serious critique of all humanity. With his typical biting satire, Twain points out social issues such as racism, and lynching, as well as human character flaws like religious hypocrisy, gullibility, and violent natures. Many

After seeing all the wrongs in society, Huck finally realizes that society, the authority in this book is wrong and leaves because he was no longer able to deal with all the hypocrisy and deceit in society. Huck decided to defy authority because the ideas of those in power were not only wrong but

Huck is a child who raises himself therefore he relies on his own instinct to get him through life. Although many try and civilize Huck, he chooses to rebel not knowing that his own instincts are more moral than societies. Huck’s role in the novel Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is an innocent child which illustrates how society constraints the individual from thinking for themselves in the civilized world. Society and Huck’s point of view on slavery, Huck’s point of view on civilization, and Huck’s relationship with his father depict the effects of a constraining society.

The conflict between society and the individual is a theme portrayed throughout Twain's Huckleberry Finn. Huck was not raised in accord with the accepted ways of civilization. Huck faces many aspects of society, which makes him choose his own individuality over civilization. He practically raises himself, relying on instinct to guide him through life. As portrayed several times in the novel, Huck chooses to follow his innate sense of right, yet he does not realize that his own instincts are more moral than those of society.

When Huck found an island to stay on that was along the river that he would be traveling, he met Miss Watson’s runaway slave, Jim. At first, Huck was hesitant because he had been taught his whole life that slavery was a normal, and acceptable, phenomenon. However, Huck felt that he owed it to Jim to help him get to freedom. This is one of the first examples of Huck becoming a favorable and moral person. Huck and Jim had this conversation that showed Huck’s moral development early in the story. “But mind, you said you wouldn’t tell- you know you said you wouldn’t tell, Huck’ ‘Well, I did. I said I wouldn’t, and I’ll stick to it. Honest injun, I will. People would call me a low-down abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum- but that don’t make no difference. I ain’t a-going back there, anyways” (Twain 51). Here it is proven how even though Huck was taught that slavery was acceptable, he knew that he should save Jim because it was the morally appropriate thing to

Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is a very well thought out book about a kid trying to gain freedom from being ‘sivilized’ by his legal guardians by running away and eventually acquiring a friendship with his guardians ex-slave. Mark Twain, however, is a hypocrite because he breaks numerous literary rules that he wrote about another author’s book, basically acting as if he is better than the other author (James Fenimore Cooper), which was not appropriate since he proved he was not in his own novel. This was done in a professionally documented list called “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses.” I will now dissect it and ruin your experience. One of the biggest hypocrisies that Mark Twain is guilty of is the first one

It is clear throughout the novel that Huck was not raised as part of proper society, in the beginning, however, he does face many different pieces of society so to speak which makes him choose his own views before those of a backwards society. Huck’s great dislike of structure and order in society and the reader sees that Huck would rather be in his own world than have to deal with the realities of nineteenth century society. The novel shows Hucks great dislike of Ms. Watson and the Widow Douglas’s religious views:

From the early stages of his life, Huck was raised in a lifestyle that society deemed was the “Truth” and the “right way”, but as Huck grows he had adventures through nature and that taught him lessons that he himself accepted. Conflicted by these two polar opposite lessons, he chose to end up with nature as he leave most of society’s “way of life” behind and proceeds to exploring nature’s. From the very start, Huck never really belonged in society because Huck “..said I wished I was there. [Miss Watson] got mad then, but I didn’t mean no harm. All I wanted was to go somewheres; all I wanted was a change, I warn’t particular” (Twain