Huck Finn Rhetorical Analysis

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

“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.”

Huck and Jim form a friendship that transcends the boundaries of race and the morals of the society they live in. The strongest example from the text that shows how well their relationship has developed is when Jim is caught due to the duke and the king selling him out. After pondering many ideas and reflecting on his past actions, Huck eventually decides to save Jim and that “[He’ll] go to hell” (195). Even after living his life in a racially ignorant society, Huck still realizes that it’s better for him to save his friend than to give up and let Jim become enslaved again. Along the lines of morals, Huck also makes a good decision when the duke and the king are impersonating the Wilkes brothers.

Huck starts thinking, “I went along slow then, and I warn’t right down certain whether I was glad I started or whether I warn’t. When I was fifty yards off, Jim says, ‘Dah you goe’s, de ole true Huck; de on’y white gentleman dat ever kep’ his promise to ole Jim.’ Well, I just felt sick.” (Twain 114). Jim has taught Huck about compassion and empathy, as well as to reject the racist upbringing he had. Slowly but surely, with the help of Jim, we see Huck beginning to form his own beliefs about the world, and reject the upbringings he

Huck's relationship with his friend Jim is always changing but is also never-ending. His perspective on concepts such as racism and societal perspectives become altered and developed throughout his relationship with Jim. Part of his perspective development about society's opinion came to him when he was traveling with Jim. Jim has always been a factor in Huck's life that made him develop his individuality, whether its good or bad development. Huck changes in many ways throughout this relationship, however, Jim did not change much in my opinion. Throughout this chapter, the reader can find many examples of Huck changing and growing throughout this blooming friendship while Jim really is the one initiating all of the changing. In the next section,

“I tried to make out to myself… I couldn't get around that, noway." (p.82) Here we see that Huck is debating with himself trying to determine whether or not the choice to help Jim escape was right or wrong. While he tries to rationalize his actions by claiming he wasn’t the one who made Jim run, his conscience attempts to push his southern values onto him. This conflict between Huck and his conscience demonstrates how Huck wants to help Jim, but also doesn’t want to go against the southern morals that were ingrained in

Even though Huck forms a friendship with Jim, his upbringing almost pushes him to betray his new friend. Huck decides not to turn Jim in, but is left feeling “...bad and low, because [he] knowed very well [he] had done wrong” (Twain 127). Even though he knows he is betraying society, he also realizes that he would not be happy either way. Huck asks himself, “‘...s’pose you’d a done right and give Jim up; would you felt better than what you do now? No, says I, I’d feel bad-I’d feel just the same way I do now’” (127). While Huck may believe that he is not man enough to betray Jim, he is actually “child enough to follow his natural impulses” (Martin 108). Despite society teaching Huck that a slave like Jim is inherently inferior, this scene marks the moment where questioning enhances his sound heart, so that it can begin to conquer his deformed

Throughout the novel, the reader sees instances of Huck’s moral development. Since the story is told from Huck’s perspective, the reader also gets a sense of what he is thinking, as well as his actions. This is important because it sheds light on Huck’s thinking process and how he analyzes problems. For example, in Chapter 8, Huck feels morally wrong about faking his death and hurting those around him. He realizes that the bread that they were using to try to find him was the kind of bread that the rich people ate. This supports the theory that the people looking for him really do care about him. Another example of Huck’s awareness of justice is when he and Jim are stealing. As they

Having each escape from prejudice faced in their daily lives (Pap for Huck and slavery for Jim), the duo were able to put their old lives behind them and mark the start of a relationship that would traverse into dangerous territory for both parties. The bonds between Huck and Jim began to parallel that of a father and son. Jim served as a guide and protector for Huck, especially seen when confronted with a horrific situation by shielding him away to preserve the young’s innocence. ”De man ain’t asleep-he’s dead, You hold still-I’ll go en see...“Come in, Huck, but doan’ look at his face – it’s too gashly. I didn’t look at him at all. Jim throwed some old rags over him…” (Chapter 9, page 61-62). The development of their relationship continued when Huck lost Jim. After losing each other in the fog, Huck became overwhelmed at this new prospect until the two were reunited. Huck had found a new family within Jim, and with each adventure down the river, new obstacles tested the relationship between the two. “All right, then, I’ll go to hell. It was awful thoughts, and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming… I would go to work and steal Jim out of slavery again...” (Chapter 31, page 222). Huck’s willfulness to sacrifice himself for Jim proves a substantial development to

As Huck and Jim continue on their expedition to freedom, Huck and Jim begin to develop a friendship, and along with it Huck’s point of view begins to evolve. For instance, after Jim finds out that Huck was playing tricking him into thinking that it was only a dream, Jim becomes angry with Huck and leaves the scene. Huck is sitting on the raft contemplating what he should do and finally he apologizes to Jim, but “It was 15 minutes before I humbled myself to a nigger” (Twain 100). Even though Huck is reluctant to apologize to Jim, his conscience makes him feel guilty and after he humbles up to Jim, he “warn’t even sorry for it afterwards” (Twain 100). Huck’s sincere regret in fooling Jim shows that his conscience is beginning to change what Huck

Huck begins to think about how ashamed he would be if everyone in St. Petersburg knew that he had helped a slave escape and then even continued living with him after that. He believes he has done awful things and therefore, sinned- he would be lying to himself and to God if he tried to pray while what he had done was still on his mind. Huck finally writes the letter to Miss Watson about Jim, and feels as if he is free of his sins now (Twain 213). He is no longer going against the religion and morals that he had grown up with. But as Huck begins thinking, he finally realizes that everything he has grown up with only contradict what he has learned himself.

Huck’s definition of being civilized is going to church, having good manners, wearing clean clothes, and following society’s rules. Huck, a carefree individual, lives a life of being an uncivilized outcast. He does not want to succumb to being civilized like the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson, and rejects dressing properly or attending school. He prefers to be unsupervised and live his life outside of the social norm. Huck makes his own judgments and decisions that are not influenced by society. Throughout the novel Huck struggles with two voices going through his mind. One voice is the voice of society, which suggests that he should turn Jim in to the authorities as a run away slave. The second voice is his own and he sees Jim as an equal individual and clearly can tell that turning him in would be wrong because he deserves freedom along with every other slave. As the novel continues, Huck’s judgment changes slowly into a person who sees everyone as equal and is not affected by society. When Huck talks about helping Jim escape to freedom, he feels guilty so he begins to write a letter to Miss Watson informing her that Jim ran away. Huck comes to the conclusion that he will end up feeling even guiltier if he turns in Jim, who has become a close friend of his. He decides to rip up the letter and says, “Alright, then, I’ll go to hell” (Twain

Huck bases many of his decisions on maintaining a strict and positive moral being for himself, and as he physically explores the frontier of the Mississippi River, he also explores his inner, emotional frontier of what he views as moral. Finn realizes that the concept of morality changes as his adventure ensues, and he begins to accept these changes and act in a way that reflects them; just as America and its “institutions” are “compelled to adapt” to the “changes of an expanding people” (Turner 3). Towards the beginning of the book when Huck finds Jim on the island that they had both run off to he expresses an automatic scolding towards Jim for running off despite the he had run off as well. He did this because it was what he had been surrounded by before he had run away, it was the Widow and Mrs. Watson that put the moralistic view within in him that made it seem immoral for a slave to run away, and because he had this obstructed view of morality, he treated Jim with an obstructed view of equality. Morality began to change for Huck as his adventure proceeded because he experienced changes like “crossing a continent” and “winning a wilderness,” which lead to the need for him to “adapt” himself to the new way of life he is experiencing (Turner 3). Many believe that Finn’s adventure is only an escape from structured community, but his strong concept of acting within morality shows that he was really escaping a life that obstructed his morality by structuring it in a way that he could not dominate. As the story came to an end Huck had created his own concept of morality and had overcome the fear of breaking moral rules that he did not believe in when he decided not to send a letter to Ms. Watson letting her know where Jim was. Despite the fact that he felt that he was “full of trouble” because of others ideas that helping a slave

One of Lackeys major points in his essay is that Huck ultimately has to make the choice between friendship and morality. If Huck wants to be moral that means he can’t free Jim, and if Huck want’s to have a friendship with Jim then he will suffer a loss of morality. We witness Huck with this tough decision throughout the novel. When Jim is talking about his family and how he’s going to work his way to free them, and if that doesn’t work, steal them. We see Huck 's inner turmoil.

Firstly, Jim and Huck have grown up in a society where they were pushed around, and prevented from reaching their own individual freedom. Huck was a character who had to overcome obstacles of internal conflicts questioning his moral beliefs which were against social norms. He grew up being taught to fit in with social norms, which he did not agree with, so he struggled with self acceptance. He was pressured to follow along with the rules and expectations in society because he didn’t want to get looked down on for being different. Therefore, this prevented Huck from exploring new ideas and discovering his true self. As a result, he was miserable from constantly being controlled on what to do and believe, he was not