Huck Finn, a Journey

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.

Huck has a grim attitude toward people he disagrees with or doesn't get along with. Huck tends to alienate himself from those people. He doesn't let it bother him. Unlike most people Huck doesn't try to make his point. When Huck has a certain outlook on things he keep his view. He will not change it for anyone. For instance in Chapter Three when Miss Watson tells Huck that if he prayed he would get everything he wished for. “Huck just shook his head yes and walked away telling Tom that it doesn't work because he has tried it before with fishing line and fishing hooks.” This tells us that Huck is an independent person who doesn't need to rely on

Tim Lively Critical Analysis: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Setting: Late 1800’s along the Mississippi River Plot: When the book begins, the main character, Huck Finn possesses a large sum of money. This causes his delinquent lifestyle to change drastically. Huck gets an education, and a home to live in with a caring elderly woman (the widow). One would think that Huck would be satisfied. Well, he wasn’t. He wanted his own lifestyle back. Huck’s drunkard father (pap), who had previously left him, was also not pleased with Huck’s lifestyle. He didn’t feel that his son should have it better than he. Pap tries to get a hold of the money for his own uses, but he fails. He proceeds to lock Huck up in his cabin on the outskirts of town.

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

Huckleberry Finn by: Mark Twain has many examples of the Hero’s Journey. The main ones that stuck out were challenges, mentors, and return. First, the challenge was to escape his father. Second, his mentor for his journey was Jim. Finally, his return was when he got caught when he was getting the doctor for Tom. In conclusion, There are a lot of examples of the Hero’s Journey in Huckleberry Finn by: Mark Twain.

In “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain, the main character Huck grows with his morals and maturity throughout the book. Huck Finn was a thirteen year old boy with a deadbeat drunk dad. Huck lived with his adoptive mother Widow Douglas, his care taker Miss. Watson, and her slave Jim. Huck shows a growth of maturity when he fakes his death to escape his father, when he helps Jim escape, and when he stands up to the king and duke. Throughout their adventure Huck Finn exemplifies a major growth of maturity and a deeper understanding of his morals.

Mark Twain wrote the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. At the beginning of the novel, Huck Finn is an immature thirteen year old boy. He goes south on a river with a runaway slave, Jim, trying to leave his old life behind. During the course of the novel, Huck meets many different people who teach him very valuable lessons. Throughout the novel, Huck has changed in several different ways. There are many things that he obtained from these people that will help Huck build the foundation of the person that he will become. He learns what true friendship is, how dependable, and how to be honest.

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.

     The final sign of maturity occurs at the end of the novel when Tom and Huck are mistaken for thieves and Tom is shot. If this occurred at the beginning of the novel, Huck would have probably tried to fix it himself, making up a grand story to go along. Now, at the end of the novel, after Huck has matured, he decides to blow their cover and against Tom’s wishes, seek medical help.

“The Hero’s Adventure,” an essay by Joseph Campbell, mentions the usual hero: “the usual hero adventure begins with someone from whom something has been taken, or who feels there’s something lacking in the normal experience available or permitted to be members of society.” In this case Huck is a usual hero--he didn’t have a caring father, who starved him, beat him, and left him in a cabin for days. “He got to going so much, too, and locking me in. Once he locked me in and was gone three day” (Twain 27). This shows that Pap was not a good father to Huck or a good role model that Huck could count on. Moreover, in Campbell’s essay he mentions “the hero is today running against a hard world that is in no way responsive to his spiritual need” (Campbell 130). Huck in the book is running against the corrupt ideas of the society, he is helping a black man escape slavery which, in that time, was a crime and a disgrace to the family. Furthermore, the essay “Huckleberry Finn, Epic Hero” by Carl Grimes says “Huckleberry Finn fits many of the characteristics of an epic hero. He takes off on a quest for something of great value, faces villains who try to keep him from his quest, and was born a human birth therefore possesses human weaknesses” (Grimes). Huck takes on an adventure to achieve freedom from his father, he faces many villains such as the duke and king who slow down his process of achieving his goal and he helps a slave escape to freedom which all fit the description of an heroic figure. Also, Grimes mentions the most important characteristic a hero is that he comes a changed man from the adventure he takes on. Huck at the end of his journey is a changed man, he believes that it doesn't matter what color you are because we are all human. He also learns how to differentiate between right and wrong and has his own opinion towards issues. Huck fits the qualities of a

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

Lawrence Kohlberg, a 20th-century psychologist principally known for his research on moral psychology and development, conferred and grouped six stages of moral development into three main groups: pre-conventional, conventional, and post-conventional. These stages focus on external, internal, and social standards with which we hold ourselves to. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Huck Finn, the main character, shows most of these stages of moral development as he goes on his journey. Huck shows development in his character while interacting with others and also finding out more about himself and society, as he advances from living with Miss Watson and Widow Douglas to freedom on the river with Jim, then to living with Uncle

I’m kind of a boring person. I don’t really like to do outside things. I’m more of a stay at home

From the beginning of Huck Finn, the reader can recognize that Huck is not living the same life as any other child in his surroundings. Huck’s disregard for manners, lack of parental influence, and rebellious attitude leads one to assume that his family life is not quite as healthy as it could be. His adoptive family, consisting of himself and Widow Douglass, appears to him far too civilized. His father is far too drunk, greedy, and neglectful of his own son to provide a healthy family life for him. Perhaps, in relation to his family life with his father, the lifestyle Huck leads with Widow Douglass is too healthy for his taste rather than too civilized.

Mark Twain also demonstrates how undesirable civilized society really is. Both Huck and Jim desire freedom, which greatly contrasts the existing civilization along the river. They both turn to nature to escape from the unprincipled ways of civilization. Huck wants to escape from both the proper, cultured behavior of Miss Watson and Widow Douglas and the tyranny of his father. Jim, on the other hand, hopes to escape from slavery and start a new life as a free man, hopefully with his own family eventually. Throughout the novel, the raft enables Huck and Jim to escape from the barbarism of their society to a place of serenity and peace, which is always on their raft, away from any other people. Through the duration of the story, Huck learns and does many things that would be contrary to the beliefs of society such as helping Jim