Essay on Huckleberry Finn: A Freudian Perspective

In the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, Huck lives in two different settings. One of the settings is on land with the widow and with his father and the other is on the river with Jim. There are many differences of living on land as opposed to living on the Mississippi River. On land, Huck has more rules to live by and he has to watch himself so as not to upset the widow or his father. On the river, Huck didn't have to worry about anything except people finding Jim. He also had to worry about the king and the duke for a while. Even thought there are many differences of the two living styles, there are also some similarities.

In Mark Twain's novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the adults in Huck's life play an important role in the development of the plot. Pap, Huck's father, constantly abuses the boy, never allowing him to become an intelligent or decent human being. He beats and attacks Huck whenever they meet up, and tries to destroy Huck's chances of having a normal life. This situation is balanced by several good role models and parent figures for Huck. Jim, the runaway slave, embraces Huck like a son, and shares his wide ranging knowledge with him. He also protects Huck on the journey down the river. Widow Douglas is another good role model for Huck. She tries to civilize him and make him respectable to society,

He walks along the garden and sees someone’s tracks on the snow. When examining the tracks, Huck saw that it was a cross made out of nails, to keep off the devil. This startled Huck, so he left. He then went to Judge Thatcher, where the judge wants to give him his interest. Huck refuses and tells the judge to keep all of it. Judge Thatcher is surprised, but ultimately he accepts.

3. How does Huck know the drowned body that was found is not his Pap?

In the appropriately titled novel, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", by author, Mark Twain, a young boy, named, Huckleberry Finn's life is completely changed. The story is basically that, Huck is sent to live with his strict relatives that try to conform him into someone he isn't, but, sequentially ends up traveling down the Mississippi River, with an escaped slave, Jim. As the novel progresses, Jim and Huck develop an extremely close friendship, which makes him change his views on slavery. Despite numerous chances, Huck never turns Jim in, because of his new outlook on slavery. Although slavery is a main theme in the book, it is not the only one. Because, author, Mark Twain creates a social critique by juxtaposing the

Mark Twain's novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is based on a young boy's coming of age in Missouri in the mid-1800s. The adventures Huck Finn gets into while floating down the Mississippi River depict many serious issues that occur on the shores of civilization, better known as society. As these events following the Civil War are told through the young eyes of Huckleberry Finn, he unknowingly develops morally from the influences surrounding him on his journey to freedom and in the end, becomes a mature individual.

His father yells at him for being able to read and go to school. He dislikes how Huck is trying to be better than he will ever be. Huck is forced to move in with his father in a cabin away from the Widow Douglas and Mrs. Watson. Hucks dad continues to torment him and take money for alcohol. One night Huck’s father is so drunk he almost kills Huck, in defense he holds a gun all night just to be safe. With no other way out, Huck fakes his death by making it look like Pap killed him and runs away without telling anybody. This stop is significant for Huck because it reminds him of what his old life was like. Just as he was starting to like his new life and getting used to being civilized, he had to revert back to his old ways. Finally, this stop showed that Huck was so desperate to get away from his father that the only thing he could think of doing was to fake his own

When Pap wakes with a gun pointed at his head, he confronts Huck about how the gun appeared there (40). Away from the safety of society, Huck must fabricate a lie to save his life, even though he must lie to his father. Life or death situations necessitate Huck’s lying. Before escaping from the cabin, Huck fakes his own death with pig blood, axe markings, and other signs (42-44). Huck commits an epic lie when he fakes his own death successfully; he lies to the entire town as well as to his father.

Huck's father is absent until he finds out that Huck has found some money.  Pap is an outcast full of hate for blacks and pretty much for all of society.  Huck, as a product of his society, speaks the language of his society.  By choosing as his point-of-view a young boy from the slave south, Twain is able to present and challenge the values and assumptions of this time.  Among the assumptions and values of the time that the reader encounters in the book are the strict definitions pertaining to Huck's world and the people who inhabit it:

Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is a story of a boy, Huck Finn, who runs away from home and travels down the Mississippi River with a “runaway nigger” named Jim. Huck’s father, Pap, is a drunken low life who doesn’t seem to care for his son. He comes from a poor, troubled family and isn’t very educated which is something he seems to embrace. “Huck Finn runs away not only from an abusive father but also from his good-intentioned guardian, Miss Watson, who tries to civilize Huck, educate him, and make him a Christian” (Sienkewicz). Whether he knows it or not his journey down the river isn’t just an escape, it is a learning experience. Huck learns a few life lessons from dealing with his conscience, to friendship and

A major theme in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is slavery and our evolvement towards the institution. “In fact, Twain’s novel is often taught as the text that epitomizes this tradition, with Huck held up as its exemplar: a boy courageous enough to stand against the moral conventions of his society. . .” (Bollinger, 32 – Say It Jim) In the beginning of Huckleberry Finn’s relationship with Jim, he has little respect for him and as their journey progresses he

When reading this part of the novel, �The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,� I found that Huck and Jim were set in a period of society that was or can be labeled as somewhat hypocritical, judgmental, and hostile. However, the characters have one escape that being the Mississippi River. The river is a quiet and peaceful place where Huck and Jim can revert to any time to examine any predicament they might find themselves in. The natural flow of the river and its calmness causes deep thoughts, which shows how unnatural the collective thought of society can be. We actually see Huck grow up having the river as a

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.

When Huck runs away from his father, he goes down the river in a canoe that he found until he gets to Jackson Island. There he is able to relax and recharge while feeling “rested and ruther comfortable and satisfied” (44). While Huck is on the island, no one can find him and take him back to the widow or his father. He is safely hidden from everything he was trying to escape from. Jackson’s Island is where Huck and Jim find each other after they’ve both escaped and it’s the place where they first become acquaintances. “…it was Miss Watson’s Jim! I bet I was glad to see him” (49). In this moment, Huck and Jim are no longer on their own. From then on, they both had each other and nature to rely on to help them escape from what was holding them back. The river is the only place where Huck, a white boy, and Jim, a black slave, are able to interact as friends and form a deep level of bonding. Jim even tells Huck, “’Jim won’t ever forgit you, Huck; you’s de bes’ fren’ Jim’s ever had; en you’s de only fren’ ole Jim’s got now’” (106). In normal society at that time, a black and white would never have a friendship like theirs, but on the river there’s no one to see them interacting and judge them for it.

The Mississippi river is one of the most widely recognized symbols of freedom in the novel. It is used as a means of escape by both Huck Finn and Jim. The first time it is used as such is when Huck runs away from his father and the possibility of being forced back into society. Huck devised an elaborate scheme to escape via the river. He had a few close calls but when he saw his chance he took it: “I didn't lose no time. The next minute I was a-spinning down-stream soft, but quick, in the shade of the bank. I made two mile and a half, and then struck out a quarter of a mile or more toward the middle of the river,” (pg. 48).Without the aid of the river Huck’s departure