Huck Finn Ending Analysis

Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn shows the development of a young boy named Huck Finn. We see Huck develop in character, attitude and maturity as he goes on his adventure down the Mississippi River. This is displayed through his search for freedom from civilization and it's beliefs and through his personal observations of a corrupt and immoral society. Most importantly, we are in Huck's head as he goes through his confusion over his supposedly immoral behavior and his acceptance that he will “go to hell” as he conquers his social beliefs.

The book introduces Huck as the first person narrator which is important because it establishes clearly that this book is written from the point of view of a young, less than civilized character. His character emerges as a very literal and logical thinker who only believes what he can see with his own eyes. In this section Huck’s life with the Widow Douglas and her attempts to raise him as a civilized child sets up the main theme of this book which is the struggle or quest for freedom. Huck’s struggle for freedom from civilized society is paralleled by Jim’s struggle to escape from slavery. Irony as a key literary

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

Huck tries to paddle back to Jim and the raft, but the fog is too thick and the river to rough, forcing him to wait for things to clear up. After a lonely time adrift, Huck reunites with Jim, who is asleep on the raft. He wakes Jim up and proceeds to trick him into thinking that Jim dreamed up their separation, and he had been worried about Huck being dead for nothing. Jim is quick to realize he had been tricked, and gets mad at Huck for making him seem foolish after he had been so worried and scared for Huck’s safety. “It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger,” (148) Huck says, showing moral courage in willing to apologize to Jim after realizing what he did was wrong, even though society would say

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

The first adventure Huck and Jim take part in while searching for freedom is the steamboat situation. Huck shows development of character in tricking the watchman into going back to the boat to save the criminals. Even though they are thieves, and plan to murder another man, Huck still feels that they deserve a chance to live. Some may see Huck's reaction to the event as crooked but, unlike most of society, Huck Finn sees good in people and attempts to help them as much as he can. Getting lost in the fog while floating down the Mississippi River leads to a major turning point in the development of Huck Finn's character. Up to this event, he has seen Jim as a lesser person than himself. After trying to deny the fog event to Jim, he says, "It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a [slave]; but I done it, and I warn't ever sorry for it afterward, neither"(74). He continues by explaining how he could never do such a thing again. Huck has clearly gained respect for Jim here and shows it by feeling so horrible over what he did.

I feel this way because it is what I am least able to understand. From what I understand, some people feel as if the ending was too glorified for the rough plot that encompassed the rest of the novel. Moreover, Huck seems to revert back to the innocent, society-influenced boy he was in the beginning of the novel before going through the transformation he does going down the river. Quite simply, Huck sees Jim as a human, even a friend at times, on the river, but feels superior and treats Jim like property just as everyone else does on shore. Considering the novel ends on shore, as it starts, it is easy to assume that the novel ends with Huck as racist and ignorant as the rest of antebellum society and as he was before his journey down the

Throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn we are taken through what life was truly like back in the 1880’s. We discern through the eyes of a young 13 year old trying to find himself and develop his own opinion. We meet his unlikely friends and acquaintances and receive a glimpse of how he was affected. We are taken through his tough childhood and how this affects his life further into the novel and how he is able to overcome the obstacles that come his way. Though sometimes the authenticity and honor of Huck is challenged, there are facts in the novel that if looked at closely, there are aspects of Huck and others that make him an honorable character. Huck has developed into his own person giving him traits that made him by far the best teller of this story.

Huck has an established sense of morality which changes throughout the novel, his moral development is shown through Huck’s guilt when he is presented with two opperunities to turn Jim in, and how he feels after choosing not to. Huck was raised to believe that white people were above black people, and that slaves were nothing more than property. This is shown through the way he treats Ms. Watsons slave Jim. He thought it was ok to treat him like property, to play mean tricks on him with Tom Sawyer, and still expect him to do all of Ms.Watsons hard work. As Huck and Jim meet on Jacksons Island,and travel down the river, sharing their adventure, Huck comes to see things differently.Huck discovers that Jim knows valuable camping information to help them while they’re on the island, He finds out that Jim has a family that he loves and cares about, and that he is deeply troubled because he may never get to see them again. After all of this Huck comes to the realization that Jim is his friend, and when Huck and Jim run into slave capturers on the river, Huck is faced with the decision to

Huck’s major turning point was when he decided not to tell on Jim. Huck tore up the letter he was going to send to Miss Watson. It was during Chapter 31 when Huck decided he cannot listen to what society believes, which is that niggers are worthless and trash. He would rather go to jail than to send Jim back into slavery. In the past, Huck has been arguing against what he learned versus what he was experiencing. Huck was taught that niggers and slaves were bad, however, throughout the adventure, Huck begins to realize niggers, such as Jim, were kind and caring. Blacks have feelings just like white people do. When coming to the conclusion not to tell on Jim, this shows that Huck cannot accept society’s rules. He would rather challenge what society endorses and their values than betray his true feelings. In addition, Huck reached his conclusion because of the adventures he had with Jim on the raft and the Mississippi River. After writing the letter, Huck begins to feel relieved because he doesn’t have to worry about his “wrong” doings. However, Huck begins to think about Jim and the adventure they had together. Huck also realizes that if Miss Watson received the letter, she would sell Jim anyway. Based on the strong relationship Huck and Jim developed throughout this novel, Huck began to accept Jim as a father who cares for him. Therefore, this causes Huck not to give Jim back to “sivilized” society. He knew he cannot let Jim

Another way to divide the criticism of the ending of the novel is to split the seriousness and the satire. The novel can be viewed as satire, with Tom providing the comic relief with his Romanticist like ideas. On the contrary, it can be viewed with utter disappointment, in regards to an overall poor and easy way to end the novel. As Marx argues, humour is used to mask the very human existence in which Huck faces (Page 337-338). I believe that Twain wants to abandon the notion of seriousness (slavery, southern hospitality, etc) to that of foolishness and childlike antics. Take, for instance, when Huck does some reconnaissance dressed as a woman, but gets caught in the act when he catches the lead ball between his legs (Page 48-54).Or when the town first realizes that Huck is gone and fires cannon over the water and throws mercury poisoned bread into the river. Superstitious, but silly antics like these and many others help back up the notion for humour. Although both of these events occur near the beginning of the novel, their direct sense of humour can be linked to the ending and its own satire. I believe that Twain’s message was impartial to that of the touchy subjects of slavery and general prejudice, but more so to that of the direct targeting of laughter and folly of the

     Aside from the ending as a downfall, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn taught an important lesson, one that showed the importance of the self in the maturing process. We saw Huck grow up by having the river as a place of solitude and thought, where he was able to participate in society at times, and also sit back and observe society. Through the child's eye we see how ignorant and mob-like we can all be. Then nature, peace, and logic are presented in the form of the river where Huck goes to think. Though no concise answer is given, the literature forces the reader to examine their surroundings, and question their leaders, which can also lead into this great disappointment. Because we idolize Huck for his individualism and beliefs, the end of the novel lets all the readers down. We can no longer refer to Huck as a hero because he never got Jim to freedom, instead prevented him from it. Although Huck loved Jim, he feared his future and what would happen to him if he were caught

As evidenced in the introductory instances regarding death, Huck’s morality is defective and his sympathy is missing. Perhaps, Huck’s flaws are due to his close contact with the iconic delinquent Tom Sawyer, who is likely corroding Huck’s ethics. Consequently, when Huck bonds with his new partner-in-crime, Jim, a stark juxtaposition is evidenced between the ideals of Tom and Jim. However, luckily “youth is a time of greater potential for change than any other stage of life”, and Jim’s positive influence proves beneficial (Trites 53) . Specifically, Jim is extraordinarily superstitious and attaches a copious amount of meaning to just about everything, even a measly snake skin (Twain 162). Of course, this means that Jim does not completely disregard the significance of death and importance of sympathy, as Tom and his mischievous mates do. Consequently, Jim “has proven himself as a morally admirable figure” (Bollinger). As a result, after prolonged exposure to Jim, Huck starts to exude more concern for the life of others, as evidenced in quite a few scenarios that take place on his and Jim’s journey.

In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain presents the problem of slavery in America in the 19th Century. Twain poses this problem in the form of a character named Huckleberry Finn, a white boy raised in the antebellum South. Huck starts to question his view regarding slavery when he acquaints himself more intimately with a runaway slave while he himself tries to run away. Huck’s development as a character is affected by society’s influence on his experiences while growing up in the South, running away with Jim, and trying to save Jim. Although Huck decides to free Jim, Huck’s deformed conscience convinces him that he is doing the wrong thing.

Freedom plays a significant role in the story because Huck is trying to free himself from Widow Douglas and his father and Jim is escaping from slavery. When Miss Watson and Widow Douglas took Huck in, they were determined to make him more civilized. They don’t allow him to smoke and they’re constantly reminding him to stop scrunching up