Huckleberry Finn Comparison

Huckleberry Finn- The main character, from whom we get a first person account of in much of the book. Huck travels down the Mississippi to escape his abusive, alcoholic father. On the way he meets the theatrical King and Duke who come up with endless schemes to get rich. Huck is involved in every significant plot event because the book is focused around his journey. Some adjectives to describe Huck are: Rebellious, Brave, Smart, Patient, Content, Generous, and Loyal. Huck’s most notable attribute is his ability to discern what is right and wrong.

Huck Finn seemed like a rebel without a cause right from the start. He seemed as if he hadn’t a care in the world. Huckleberry Finn was also greatly influenced by Tom Sawyer. Huck even joined a band of robbers called “Tom Sawyer’s Gang” in which a group of young boys pretend to capture, rob, and murder people. He saw Tom as a role model, someone who he could look up to. Huck’s decisions during the course of the novel are solely based on Tom and whether he would see fit to it. Huck appeared as a naïve troublemaker in the beginning of the novel.

The primary relationships of Huck with the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson as well as Huck with Pap and Huck with Jim are established. Throughout the novel, Huck takes on different identities to further his attempts at freedom. In this section three of these identities are seen. One is Huck, the dead boy when he “kills” himself in order to cover his escape from Pap at his cabin and the other is Sarah Mary Williams whom he disguised himself as when he attempted to get information and later George Peters emerges when Sarah is discovered to be a boy.

The relationship between Huckleberry Finn and Jim are central to Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". Huck's relationships with individual characters are unique in their own way; however, his relationship with Jim is one that is ever changing and sincere. As a poor, uneducated boy, Huck distrusts the morals and intentions of the society that treats him as an outcast and fails to protect him from abuse. The uneasiness about society, and his growing relationship with Jim, leads Huck to question many of the teachings that he has received, especially concerning race and slavery. Twain makes it evident that Huck is a young boy who comes from the lowest levels of white society. Huck's father, Pap, is a drunk who disappears for

In the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain follows protagonist, Huck Finn throughout his endeavors. This coming of age story displays Huck’s actions that lead to him running away from home. From a young age, Huck is forced to become emotionally and physically autonomous due to his father’s alcoholism. Huck runs away and begins his adventure with fugitive slave, Jim. Together they meet a diverse range of individuals and families. Mark Twain illustrates Huck Finn’s character development by exposing him to different moral systems.

The only thing that distinguishes the two characters is that Tom’s motives were based off of the adventure books he’s read, whereas Huck has more common sense because all of his motives are based on experience and not fiction. Tom’s common sense is compared to Huck’s in chapter 3 of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn when Tom claims that (he fought a pack of Spaniards and A-rabs) “[Huck says], But there warn’t no Spaniards and A-rabs, and there warn’t no camels nor no elephants. It warn’t anything but a Sunday- school picnic...” (Twain 13) “So then I judged that all that stuff was one of Tom Sawyer’s lies. I reckoned he believed in the A-rabs and elephants, but for me I think different”(Twain 14).

It can also be considered an “opposites attract” scheme by Twain. As Tom has a stable, loving family and a home to go too. While Huck who is considered an orphan (due to being the town drunks son) sleeps where he wants, eats what he wants (if he can) and is never forced to go to school or do his “duties”. Most Importantly, Huck has fended for himself for years, and because of it has developed common sense beyond his years and grounding him self in his harsh reality. This is a stark contrast to Tom Sawyer, who creates worlds in his mind and has deep imagination. Even with all these differences Tom still envies the free spirited Huck and will go to great lengths to prove himself, even if Huck sees Tom as his closest friend already.

Huck is a free spirit who finds socially acceptable actions to be restrictive and unbearable. This is demonstrated after Huck and his best friend Tom Sawyer find a large amount of money. The Widow Douglas adopts Huck. With Widow Douglas, Huck feels as though society's values and norms

He also sees how hypocritical they truly are, and, it can be inferred that, Twain wanted them to represent society in the novel. Huck thinks their way of living was ineffective, and that is why he used to sneak out in the middle if the night, skip school, and smoke his pipe. It was difficult for Huck to adjust from an unstructured home, with no training, raised by an alcoholic and abusive father, to two strict, cookie-cutter women in a house with plenty of rules and regulations. After earning a large amount of money as a reward, with his best friend, Tom Sawyer, Huck's abusive alcoholic father, who he calls Pap, comes back to steal his money by kidnapping him, and while Huck is with his father he says, "I didn't see how I ever got to like it so well at the Widow's, where you had to wash, and eat in a plate, and comb up, and go to bed and get up regular, and be forever bothering over a book and have old Miss Watson peeking at you all the time" (Twain p. 37). Huck's view on society is one of dissatisfaction and rebellion, as his opinions reveal how imperfect, and unjust society's rules actually are. Especially after hearing that his behavior will determine whether or not he will go to Heaven or Hell scares him a little bit, because he wasn’t taught right from wrong his entire life up until this point. After this Huck's thoughts are, how can a man not be punished by law (his father), for abusing him, but Huck can be reprimanded for harmless things like

Character development is used in Huck Finn to represent an idealistic lifestyle of any young child, but eventually begins to form into the rest of society. Huck has no active relationships other than the one with his drunken and absentee father, and has the freedom to do whatever he pleases. He is admired by all the other kids as a symbol of freedom and a perfect lifestyle. Nonetheless Huck begins to change throughout the story, and fit into the typical structure of most children in the story. While most adult despise Huck Mr. Jones welcomes him with open arms, into his home. The sudden change in events begins to reform Huck and starts a very drastic change in his character. Although Tom begins the story despising the actions of the so called “model boy”, although he senses the change in his character by

Twain establishes Tom as a white person belonging to the rich class in order to emphasize the disparity between Tom and Huck’s upbringing. Although Huck is initially posed as an individualistic character, Tom pulls Huck to stray from his ideals; he places the importance on materialistic traditions such as believing that “the people that made the books knows what’s the correct thing to do” (Twain 7). Tom’s blind belief of adhering to the “books” represents Tom’s romantic notion of sticking with the stereotypes and not questioning society. Tom represents the “id”, because he displays his innate desires to have a standing in society and lead a life with pleasure without questioning morals. This emphasizes his greed to only safeguard himself and blinds him of the injustices others, such as slaves, face.

That is to say it is an educated, religious, good mannered, and a society boy. Everything about Huck says anti-society, except for the way he treats blacks, on and off. His future is set out for him, and it seems quite perfect, but because he despises society and its people he can not trust Sally or her perspectives. Thus he can not be civilized like we saw prior in the book. Again history is repeating itself, making the argument the Huck has made no progress in the book: but that is like saying WW1 and WW2 were fought for different reasons. Because he can’t really “stand” being any of these things , nor the idea or right or wrong his life becomes a war between him and Society. In change for this fight he wants to move out west with Indians, which is possibly the perfect people for him to strive and find himself. They are white, uncultured people whom roam free and survive off the land; does this not sound like Huck himself? But why does he want to leave his loving family and his dear friend

Huck grew up in the lower class and was taught the wrong morals. He followed these morals so he could be more accepted in his society. Sacvan Bercovitch describes the novel as a “Tall [tale] humor was a form of initiation and survival in response to radical physical and social uncertainties on the edge of settler-colonial expansion” (Berconvitch). Berconvitch

Huck and Tom have one of the same qualities about them, they both are mischievous. Although they have one of the same traits they are so different from each other. Huck is reasonable where Tom is very imaginative. Tom always has his nose in a book but Huck runs away to the river or woods when he needs to escape. Huck wishes he could have a life as good as Toms because from his prospective his life looks like it is all together.

Comparison of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain