Huck Finn Essay: Moral Reconciliation

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.

Mark Twain's novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, encompasses a wide variety of moral implications faced by the main character, Huckleberry Finn. In the beginning, Huck was forced to decide what to do regarding his father. He could continue to subside to his father's actions, which would result in more abuse, or he could run away to escape the trauma he faced at home. Huck chose the latter, and embarked on a journey down the Mississippi River with Jim, the escaped slave. Throughout his journey, Huck would face many more difficult moral decisions. From realizing he was inadvertently helping Jim escape slavery, to ruining the Duke and King's plan, young Huckleberry Finn was forced to

The novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, covers the situations and people Huckleberry Finn encounters after he runs away. Huck prevents his alcoholic father from getting his fortune and is able to run away after his father, Pap, kidnaps him and leaves town. It has many colorful characters that exhibit several facets of society at that time in history. It is anti-racist although it uses the word "nigger" frequently. Huck seems to struggle throughout the book with what he has been taught and what is morally right. His main and most consistent interaction is with Jim, a runaway slave. Although he had been taught differently throughout his entire life, he eventually makes the choice to go against what society deems to be right and be Jim's

Huck, who is a child in a book, has a lot of room for development. In the beginning, he was taught to follow the rules of society like practicing Catholicism and refusing to associate with slaves. However, during Huck’s journey with Jim, he learns a valuable lesson about respecting people based on their character, despite what he was taught by Widow Douglas, Miss Watson, and Tom Sawyer. During the first few days of his journey, he pulls pranks on Jim, like attempting to trick him into thinking that getting lost in the fog was all a dream. However, later on in his journey, he refuses to follow the rules of society in order to save Jim. He even says “All right, then, I’ll go to hell” when he chooses not to tell Miss Watson Jim’s whereabouts (Twain 214). Jim in turn sees Huck as a great friend as well, thus showing how Huck is now seen as a

In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, the main character Huck matures throughout the book due to a sense of growing morality and accepting responsibility for his actions. The character of Huckleberry Finn is introduced to the reader as a lower class, uneducated kid with no manners that is influenced by a greedy society. As the novel progresses Huck into a wonderful, strong character that has dug deep into what it means to be an individual, and by becoming mature, he has also escaped from the negative way society depicts African Americans.

Huck's maturity grows with the same issue later on. When approaching Cairo, the point where Jim can become free, Huck decides that he has done something terribly wrong by not turning Jim in and decides he is going into town to tell on him. However, in a split second, while encountering some slave hunters, Huck decides against it and continues to protect Jim. This episode is particularly significant because even though Huck was "feeling bad and low, because [he] knowed very well [he] had done wrong" (91) he still made a conscious decision to do what he felt was right rather than what society thought was right.

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.

"…Then I'll go to Hell." P.215. Finally, after developing a good relationship, Huck realizes that Jim is a person and that society is wrong about him. "I knowed he was white inside…" P.276.

Chapter 11 1. When Huck goes to the woman’s house, she informs them that people are after Jim because a huge reward was issued for him. However, no one is after Huck but him using “us” indicates that he feels as if he and Jim are a team. 2. Slaves were viewed as lowly, but useful because they would do all the work.

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.

Throughout the classic novel of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn written by Mark Twain we see a lot of moral development with the main character Huckleberry Finn. Throughout the story Huck’s friendships greatly influence his moral identity. Throughout the series of events that unfold upon our main character, Huck Finn, we see huge moral leaps in the way he thinks that are influenced by that friendships he makes on his journey. He starts the book as a young minded individual with no sense morals other than what has been impressed onto him and ends up as a self empowering individual. Through the friendships he makes with Tom Sawyer, Jim, and the Duke and King we see big moral leaps with Huck.

In order for Huck to challenge any of the values and assumptions of the time he must first be acquainted with them.  And he is not only intimately acquainted with the values of his society but he holds many of its beliefs himself.  But Huck longs for freedom away

He like the majority of the Deep South’s population was forced to submit to popular religion in the form of Christianity, being racist and not being able to criticize the institution of slavery, as well as acting like a “proper” boy and being civilized with manors, rules, and restrictions. However, he is the polar opposite of the ideals expressed by his society. Huck is forced to reside with Widow Douglas, he describes the experience in the first chapter, “She took me… allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time … I wanted to smoke, and asked the widow to let me. But she wouldn't. She said… I must try to not do it any more.” (Twain, 2). In this particular environment, Huck is forcefully civilized by the Widow Douglas as well as Miss Watson. This essentially shows an indirect form of slavery in which Huck is forced to do as society and his elders dictate regardless of what he believes in which many of us are also subject to. This enslaves him and leads him to decide that he needs to relocate himself as far away from society as possible. Therefore, he forges his death and runs away meeting Jim on the way. This idea of Huck being controlled by society influences him through the novel, for instance he thinks about turning Jim in because it is wrong to steal since Jim is

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

Huck was taught by the world that slavery was right. It was the way of life and the way it was supposed to be. "All right, then, I'll go to hell." (206) Even though he thought this way he still knew the kind of man Jim was and disregarded what he knew to be right and wrong to save Jim