Huckleberry Finn Religious Analysis

Twain argues it was not only the slaves who were bound in slavery but also everyone else around them. Since Jim is a slave who ran away, Huck is socially expected to go and report him, but Huck said he “ain’t agoing to tell” anyone about Jim (32). Huck is breaking widespread belief and not partaking in what is expected of a white boy. Huck’s freedom is more ingrained than any expectations anyone has for him and is one of his greatest qualities. Slavery is a set of rules everyone participates in and to step out of that and treat an African American person as a person is a very difficult thing because society is not accepting of it. Earlier in Huck’s adventure, after he was adopted by a widow, she spoke to Huck about religion and the benefits of prayer, Huck did not seem to understand the purpose of it all. The Widow spoke of “spiritual gifts” that were to be attained by prayer, a concept that confused Huck because he did not see how it helped anyone. Huck quickly finds the flaws within the concept of religion and decides he “wouldn’t worry about it anymore, but just let it go,” especially since it does not help him in any way (8). Huck does not see how praying will benefit him and therefore decides that he will have nothing to do with religion. There is also a social connection through practicing any religion and Huck grew up without any of that. Religion is one of the biggest social expectations, everyone is expected to abide by it, just like any other social standard. Huck’s reaction to religion and the prospect of turning in his friend clearly argue Twain’s point that those who do not benefit from society are the ones who challenge its

Through the theme of rebellion against society, Huck demonstrates the importance of thinking for oneself and embodies the idea that adults are not always right. This is highlighted in his noncompliance when it comes to learning the Bible and in the decisions he makes when it comes to Jim, decisions that prove to be both illegal and dangerous. By refusing to conform to standards he does not agree with, Huck relies on his own experiences and inner conscience when it comes to making decisions. As a result, Huck is a powerful vehicle for Mark Twain’s commentary on southern society and

Now huck just sees religion as an opinion of sorts and he proves that by saying “Then she told me all about the bad place, and I said I wished I was there. She got mad, then, but I didn’t mean no harm. All I wanted was to go somewheres;”(mark twain ch 1 pg 2). Today religion is as I said a touchy subject because there are many opinions about it. Like there is no god or spirituality, the universe there are different takes on it which means that it’s different than what was believed back in the 1840s.

Huck emphasizes that he wants a “change” from society’s stereotypical beliefs, such as those in religion. According to Huck, hell is more favorable than heaven if he is not bound by the rules of society. Although Huck pursues individuality over conformity, he does not confront society’s stereotypes. At this point, Huck has a vision to pursue freedom, but not to yet challenge society as he “first hated school, but by and-by could stand it” (Twain 11). As Twain emphasizes Huck’s position as the “ego,” he highlights Huck’s indecisiveness towards the concept of morality, but also molds Huck into a rebel against society’s

Huck began to over exaggerate as he was expressing his feelings of wickedness for “stealing a poor old woman’s nigger”, which is an over exaggeration since he did not steal Jim, but instead was helping him escape a terrible lifestyle (Twain 318). Also ironically, if he went to Sunday-school he would have learned that helping a slave would lead him to “everlasting fire”, instead of to Paradise, although holding slaves is against Christian ideologies (318). By doing this Twain subtly emphasizes the foolishness and irony that religious women such as Miss Watson would even own a slave while parading herself as a devout Christian woman because of the fact that Christians do not believe in harming other beings, which slavery does by oppression. As Huck pondered on his ethical dilemma whether to save

Huck says: “Alright, then, I'll go to hell.” when he thought of his friendship with Jim. He finally figured out that Jim is going to be sold down the river so he ended up deciding to tear up the letter that he just wrote. He decided that going to “hell” was better if it meant following his own gut and not society’s hypocritical and rude principles and thoughts is a better plan than going to everyone else’s heaven for doing the wrong thing in his mind. This shows Huck’s big moment with society and the people around him and how they teach people.

A major theme of the novel is the hypocrisy and double standards that are evident in the society surrounding Huck. This trait is found especially within Christian and religious types in the novel. Twain shows almost every good Christian in the novel as having a generous and kind side, which completely contradicts much of their actions. Twain believes that this hypocrisy is the underlining element that makes religion skeptical. As it is seen in the book, almost every good Christian contradicts himself or herself in some way. Perhaps Huck's first example of this was when the Widow Douglas did not allow him to smoke, as it was a mean practice. However, “she took snuff too; of course that was all right, because she done it herself” (Twain 2). Another example was the Grangerfords. Huck described this family as very nice and kind and even considered Buck a good friend. But once again, the hypocrisy of religious types was bound to come into play. These same people are slave owners and have a feud with a similar family, the Shepherdsons for reasons they don't remember. Perhaps the biggest example of this hypocrisy was when Huck went to church with the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons. As Huck explains, “the men took their guns along, so did Buck, and kept them between their knees.... it was pretty ornery preaching all about brotherly love” (Twain 83). It is obvious that the two families had their guns in their laps while the preacher talked about

This quote shows how ignorant Huck really is, not only using racial slurs which was deemed okay by a majority of society during that time period and not even realizing how contradicting it is to say what he said. Twain's take on law vs morality is put to the test and Huck makes a lot of...choices because it's not in my place to say what is right and what is wrong. However it can be said that Huck does have some morals which is why he is seen as more appealing, because Huck debated whether or not to give Jim up just for an easy buck, but Huck made the right choice by deciding not to do so. Twain pushes Huck to utterly

In an internal monologue, he debates whether helping a slave escape to freedom is a sin. In Huck’s society, religion was central to racism. Many white members of Huck’s society used distorted Bible scriptures to reinforce prejudice and slavery against black people. Huck internalized many of these arguments, compelling him to wonder if he was doing something immoral by helping a black man escape slavery even though he knew that slavery was ethically wrong. At the resolution of his monologue, Huck tells himself that he’s going to do what he ultimately feels is right- helping Jim escape- even if it will condemn him to Hell. This passage stood out to me. Growing up in rural, small-town Southern America surrounded by conservative Christianity, there wasn’t much room to consider ideas contrary to the norm. As a young millennial in an evolving society with more liberal, open-minded views of life that frequently contest conservatism, I often wrestled with my own internal monologue of what’s right versus wrong. For a lengthy period of my life, I had struggles similar to that of Huck; even though I knew that being accepting and tolerant of non-Christian ideals was ethically sound and good, I still felt that I was immoral and that I was somehow a sinner. This passage helped me realize that I was grappling with my own ingrained

Mohandas Gandhi once said, “Morality is rooted in the purity of our hearts.” However, it may not hold true in Twain’s novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In the novel, the protagonist Huck Finn’s morality and perception of others is shaped by the society he lives in, demonstrating that an individual’s morality or the epistemological sense of right and wrong can be largely influenced by society and the living environment. Yet despite strong traditions of the 19th century south, Huck is able to live away from the “civilized” world, leaving behind his hometown and travelling down the Mississippi river with Jim, a runaway slave. Huck’s unusual experiences with Jim contrast with his predetermined notions of race and power in the midst of the Jim Crow Era, thrusting Huck into a great crisis of morality dictated by his consciousness instead of his intellect. Through Huck’s journey in the search of morality, Twain conveys the theme that that morality is dictated by society, despite the goodness of an individual’s consciousness, it is difficult for and individual to intellectually challenge societal paradigms.

These fears and superstitious thoughts dominate a good portion of Huck's decision making in the novel, which says a lot about who he is as a person. One of the jokes of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is that, silly as superstition can be, for Huck at least, it is a more accurate way to read the world than formal religion. Throughout the chapters, religion is one of Twain’s constant

The time frame his life falled in was, church was something you participated in every Sunday. In the novel, Huck was constantly battling the idea of religion. He was constantly in disagreement with Miss Watson when she was telling him to pray. Huckleberry says to himself, “If a body can get anything they pray for, why don’t Deacon Winn get his money he lost on pork?...No, says I to myself, there ain’t nothing in it.” (Twain, 1884, Pg 14) Without direct proof Huckleberry Finn keeps a more realistic or atheist view on his adventures. Until one situation, while he was with the Grangerford family, Huck found himself in a sermon with the Grangerfords and their disputing rivals; the two families brought weapons to church and Huckleberry Finn seemed absolutely repulsed by that act of interrupting the sermon. Likewise, there were plenty of ways to disrespect a sermon, not only bringing weapons to the church but coming completely intoxicated which a few had done in the

However, Huck also often feels torn between what is right and wrong. He wants to help Jim escape into slavery because Jim is his friend, but feels guilty about this since Jim is a slave. Because helping a runaway slave was considered sinlike in Huck’s time period, Huck states that he would go to Hell to help Jim in the quote, “all right then, I’ll go to hell.” (Twain) Huck is confused in the beginning of the novel, not seeing the importance of certain practices in religion, such as reading about dead men in the Bible. Twain also has these feelings towards religion, for he believes in God but not certain practices of Christianity.

Twain uses Huck to make decisions based on this hypocritical slave-owning, Christian lifestyle. Huck must choose to either aid a runaway slave named Jim or return him to Miss Watson, while the white society of the South would expect Huck to return Jim to Miss Watson. Huck and Jim 's friendship makes this a significant decision because Huck is morally conflicted. Jim is his friend, but he is also the property of Miss Watson. An excerpt from Magill 's Survey of American Literature puts the situation in a right perspective exclaiming “Jim is property before he is man, and Huck is deeply troubled, surprisingly, by the thought that he is going to help Jim, not only because he sees it, in part, as a robbery, but more interestingly, because he sees his cooperation as a betrayal of his obligation to the

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