preview

Huckleberry Finn Morality Essay

Decent Essays

The Morality of a Huckleberry Lawrence Kohlberg, a psychologist in the field of moral education, identified three stages that explain human moral behavior. The first stage says someone’s moral development is based on doing the right thing to avoid punishment, the second says one’s morals are built on what is acceptable in society and obedience to the law, and the third stage, which very few are in, says that morals are decided upon one’s own judgement and concern for the welfare of others. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, tells the tail of a young boy named Huck and his many adventures with a runaway slave named Jim. This novel also outlines the moral development of Huck as he gradually passes through different stages of morality much like these. Judging morality based on whether someone does the right thing is impossible since it relies on opinion, so this leaves morality to be judged based on how well someone develops their own sense of right and wrong and acts according to those beliefs. Huck becomes a moral person by the end of the story. Huck grew …show more content…

The morality must instead be measured by how well a person creates their own morals and lives them out, without cloning someone else’s behaviors. Huck, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, became a moral person because he learned to do just that. Lawrence Kohlberg, a psychologist in the field of moral development, would have loved to get to know Huck since he is an example of the very few that make it into the moral stage of deciding for yourself what is right and sticking to it no matter what. Huck did this with the help of his old guardians, boys he knew, and his conscious that pushed him to change his lifestyle and grow as a moral person. Instead of existing as a conventional product of society, Huck wrote his own beliefs, which led him on an adventure and made one heck of a

Get Access