Huckleberry Finn Personal Response

Jim helps Huck develop greater character changes throughout the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. In the story Huck learns a lot of lessons on how to grow into a better and more trustworthy friend. Jim helped him throughout the story to show him a different side of life, and how everyone is different and they grow in different surroundings. Jim and Huck both grew in maturity with their life, and wanted the best for one another. Huck finds out a new identity for the world as he grows later on in the story.

People often hesitate to accept what they do not understand. In the absence of love and compassion, it is no question that fear, ignorance, and hatred, all contribute to a melting pot of negativity in the world. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, is about the love and friendship cultivated by a young boy and a black slave on the Mississippi River. Despite the pair’s differences, they are able to endure the struggles and difficulties that the toilsome journey brings. Mark Twain, in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, emphasizes the shift in Huck’s view towards slavery by contrasting Huck’s initial tone of reflectiveness to his assertive tone, both collectively addressing the issue of racism in society.

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

Huck decides to fight for Jim and their friendship even when he knows the possible consequences. “You’ll say it’s dirty low-down business; but what if it is,” Huck insists to Tom that he will save Jim no matter what he said (Twain 227). Huck knows that saving Jim could easily be considered low-down, but Huck says that he is dirty and low-down as well, and that helping Jim is what he must do. He knows what he will be labelled as, but to him it is irrelevant. Their friendship and the bond they created travelling down the river is worth more to Huckleberry. Huck knows how society feels, but he decides to follow his heart anyways. Huck later sees how awful the lynching done to the duke and the king is, yet he still feels bad after knowing how awful they are. “Human beings can be awful cruel to each other,” Huck feels awful even though he didn’t really do anything (Twain 233). Huck’s conscience has come back to bite him about these men even though he had nothing to do with it. Huck knows that this lynching, tarred and feathered, is a painful and brutal punishment. He feels that even though they weren’t the best people they didn’t deserve this cruelty even though it’s what society is prone to do. Society sees these mean as ‘bad,’ and therefore think it is okay to basically torture the conmen. Huck knows that isn’t okay, even with knowledge of the men’s nature, freeing

Huck is convinced and firm of his decision to save Jim, and we see Huck’s audacity to tell Tom about this entire situation without any second thoughts.

Huck is the only true friend Jim has, and he is sure to make that known to Huck. These few words cause Huck to stop and think. Huck starts to realize that maybe he has been treating Jim wrong all along. Huck begins to realize how wrong society truly is. The more people Huck encounters, the more he acknowledges hypocrisy: “Huck narrates the story of his encounters with various southern types...and at other times, his acute ability to see through the hypocrisy of his elders” (“The Adventures…”10).

In the end, Huck treats Jim as a friend. He wrestles with it a while and the whole idea upsets him greatly. Society tells him Jim belongs to his owner as property, thus giving Jim his freedom is stealing and lying. Huck cannot bring himself to turn Jim into the authorities. He treats Jim like the person he is and not as property. At this point, the reader is shown Huck’s bravery. He is willing to live against society’s rules and even “go to hell” in order to live in a way he believes is truly right

Chapter Eleven Response- Huck learns that the reward on Jim’s head is greater than that over his father’s head. Both Jim and Huck’s father are suspects in Huck’s alleged murder mystery.

Huck has not been one to follow the welcomed ways of his community, as he has more or less raised himself and counted on his urges and own personal opinions to steer him through life. He has always been one to follow his own opinions of what he thinks is right or what he thinks is wrong to make decisions, without coming to terms with the fact that what his own viewpoints are, are actually ones that contradict the ones of his society. This becomes evident when he says, “"The Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would civilize me... I got into my old rags and my sugar hogshead again, and was free and satisfied,” as well as the moment that he welcomes Jim, proving that he does not want to comply with the beliefs and choices of the ones around him. While Huck’s actions may be immoral to the ones of his society, they are not immoral to his own sense of what is right or wrong, and that is the only thing that Huck lives by; his own

In the end of the book the hatred and dislike finally reveals to Huck the sacrifices he has to not only act as someone else for recognition but to not be like looked down on . Huck has made it safely only now adding to the list is wanting to have Jim free and back to “normal”. Huck acts as Tom in order to find ways to get Jim free later running into Tom who knows that Miss Watson has died and writer in her will that Jim was free for getting his adventure and fun himself. The attitude of Huck and determination allows Huck to realize what's best for him. Twain places Huck in this because he has to decide and make deep decision in which shows how society can capture your mind wanting you to be persuaded that the wrong is good and the good in being wrong .

Huck thinks that Tom has everything he doesn’t. Having Toms traits are impressive and can be useful and his life seems superb but in the end who he is and what he has is not everything. Tom is lacking the most important thing,and that is moral

Nilon states, “Twain shows clearly that Huck must follow Tom’s leadership and that Jim suffers by Tom’s concern for style and throwing “bulliness” into his plans” (Nilon 23). Throughout the novel, Tom Sawyer symbolizes society to show Huck’s lack of low self-esteem as a white boy in reality. Regardless of being the same race, Huck does not represent a boy that meets the standards of a white boy in society. Some strive to be like Tom Sawyer in society when in reality we are like him but we try to be like Huck. Tom as the society does not sincerely want to free Jim and he finds pleasure in trying to make Jim like a real prisoner.

So, then, what you want to come back and ha’nt me for?” (Chapter 33) After explaining to Tom that he didn’t really die, Tom shows maturity for that rational account. However Huck’s reaction to tom’s willingness to help break Jim out is hypocrisy. Huck thinks Tom is a proper member of society so for him to break the rules so easily, it makes Huck think less of

Often times Huck found himself in a moral dilemma on whether to do what society instilled in him or to do what he thinks should be done. Huck betrayed those feelings of “what society would want” him to do in order to be a good friend to Jim, putting his own self up at risk again for Jim. Jim was being held captive by Huck’s current host and Huck, abandoning his duties of his superior race and being a good Christian, as the Widow called it Huck suddenly has an epiphany “All right then, I'll go to hell!” as he goes to “steal Jim out of slavery” (212). Seeing the situation through Huck’s perspective it gives the reader every little detail that goes into his thought process in his decision making. These types of actions were considered wrong by society at that time and place but Huck sets that all aside and does what he feels is the right thing. Most of the time Huck has to think on his feet making the decision making process even more difficult, like the time when Huck was going to give Jim up as a runaway slave. “Then I thought a minute, and says to myself, hold on, s’pose you’d ‘a’ done right and give Jim up, would you feel better than what you do now? No, says I, I’d feel bad---I’d feel just the same way I do now” (91). Even through Huck’s dialect you can see him argue with himself on what the right thing to is, but he throws out what society would do and does what his heart tells him. Through Huck arguing

To me personally, Mark Twain delivered a less-than-satisfying ending to a novel dealing with such savvy themes. Considering the time period in which he had written "Huckleberry Finn", the decision to "pull back a bit" is completely understandable, but I would've personally appreciated a stronger ending. This ending was rushed and inconclusive; no justice was served to anyone. As a result, Twain's main message against society's norms (specifically slavery) is rendered suffocated and buried in the middle contents of the book, undermined by a skin-deep "feel-good" ending - what is the point when a point is supposed to be made? The ending phrase gave me an impression that one may and should turn their back to social norms should he/she deem them