Huckleberry Finn's Journey to Morality Through Societal Emancipation

The theme of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn is that the ideas of society can greatly influence the individual, and sometimes the individual must break off from the accepted values of society to determine the ultimate truth for himself. In Huckleberry Finn's world, society has corrupted justice and morality to fit the needs of the people of the nation at that time. Basically, Americans were justifying slavery, through whatever social or religious ways that they deemed necessary during this time.

In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn the protagonist, Huck Finn, witnesses the flawed society of 1883. Huck meets Jim, an african-american slave, and they run away together to escape Huck’s abusive father and haunting past. Huck’s morals tend to be whatever is easiest for him, and how he could get around doing hard tasks. Huck may seem as though he is fixed on his own ideas but as the reader goes through Huck’s adventure they learn that his morals change. Although, at the beginning of the novel Huck’s morals tend to be self-centered, ultimately his morals have changed because he puts JIm before himself and realizes the wrongdoing of others.

In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huckleberry’s changed morals are revealed when he decides to save Jim and free him from slavery. Huck’s revelation relates to the structure and meaning of the work through the growth of his personal views on society.

American author Mark Twain was one of the most influential people of his time. Twain is perhaps best known for his traditional classic, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a novel about an adventurous boy named Huck Finn as he traverses about on the Mississippi. Under first impressions, Huckleberry Finn would be considered nothing but a children’s tale at heart written by the highly creative Mark Twain. However one interprets it, one can undoubtedly presume that Twain included personal accounts within its pages, humorous and solemn opinions on the aspects of the diverse societies around him during his life. Throughout the entire story, Huck Finn would often come into conflict between choosing what was consciously right and what was morally

In Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain places the main protagonist, Huck Finn, in a society that undermines childhood innocence. Huck is confronted with many events, such as slavery, deception, and murder that forces him to see the dark side of society. In the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck’s innocence is violated by the harsh realities that surrounds him causing him to question his conflicting morals with what society views as the norm. From the start of the novel, readers can see the internal struggle that Huck has with adjusting to society’s rules. For instance, Huck is represented as an outsider in his society due to his alcoholic father, Pap (19).

“Huck Finn helped a N***** to get his freedom; and if I were to ever see anyone from that town again I’d be ready to get down and lick his boots for shame” (Twain 215).Throughout Huckleberry Finn Huck’s views as well as society’s conflict. This novel shows the view points society has on everyday situations and how they are still present today including; morality vs. society, the importance of education, and the control materialistic items have over people. The novel Huck Finn proves that personal morality is not always in alignment with society’s beliefs.

Huck Finn, a narcissistic and unreliable young boy, slowly morphs into a courteous figure of respect and selflessness. After Pap abducts the young and civilized Huck, Huck descends into his old habits of lies and half-truths. However, upon helping a runaway slave escape, Huck regains morality and a sense of purpose. Throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Huck lies to characters, casting the authenticity of the story into doubt but illustrating Huck’s gradual rejection of lying for himself and a shift towards lying for others.

In the article “The Conscience of Huckleberry Finn”, Jonathan Bennett discusses the conscience of Huckleberry Finn, Heinrich Himmler and Jonathan Edwards. For the purposes of this essay I will focus on the argument of Huckleberry Finn. Bennett concedes that that there is a relationship between sympathy and “bad morality”.

Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is a wonderful novel, which tells a story about a boy, named Huckleberry Finn, who fakes his death to escape his abusive father. The boy escapes down a river in a lost canoe and hides on an island. On the island Huck meets Jim, a kind runaway slave. The two decide to hide together, and encounter many exciting and dangerous adventures on their travel down river. It is on this travel down the river Huck encounters thieves, conmen, feuding families, and death. Throughout the book Huck struggles with the concept of morality. He is often conflicted between what he believes is right and wrong, and mostly chooses the “wrong” path when making decisions. What I find to be really interesting

Huck is a child who raises himself therefore he relies on his own instinct to get him through life. Although many try and civilize Huck, he chooses to rebel not knowing that his own instincts are more moral than societies. Huck’s role in the novel Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is an innocent child which illustrates how society constraints the individual from thinking for themselves in the civilized world. Society and Huck’s point of view on slavery, Huck’s point of view on civilization, and Huck’s relationship with his father depict the effects of a constraining society.

In Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the young protagonist Huckleberry Finn runs away from his abusive father with Jim, a black slave. Throughout the novel, Huck encounters people that fail to understand the injustice of slavery and violence, despite their education. Although Huck lacks any substantial education, his moral values and judgment are highly developed. In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain uses uneducated, colloquial diction and deliberate syntax to provide ironic contrast between Huck’s rudimentary level of education and profound use of moral judgment.

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain criticizes a “sivilized” society, by depicting those who are considered “civilized” to be deceiving. Huckleberry Finn, also referred to as Huck, is the protagonist and the narrator of the story. He is influenced by many, but makes decisions that contradict societal norms. As the story develops, Twain employs dramatic, situational, and cosmic irony, as Huck overcomes difficult situations throughout his journey with Jim; a slave.

Huck knows what is acceptable in society, but he constantly finds his conscience pulling him in the opposite direction. For instance, when Huck contemplates the fact that he is traveling with a runaway slave, he resolves to turn Jim in because of that is what society tells him is the right thing to do. He is paddling out to shore when Jim tells Huck that he was his best friend and the first white man to ever keep a secret for him. This deeply affects Huck and he realizes that he cannot turn Jim in, even when he runs into an assemblage of men searching for slaves that have run away. Twain is especially critical of slavery in Southern society in this novel. When Jim tells Huck he plans to earn enough money or find a way to steal his children away from their owner, Huck pities the slaveholder saying, “Here was this [slave] which I had as good as helped to run away, … saying he would steal his children- children that belonged to a man I didn’t even know; a man that hadn’t even done me no harm.” Huck is not a bad person; he is simply blinded by his time. Twain is pointing out the social irony of a man having to steal his children because a white man owned them.

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.

One of the main major themes in the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is about a boy’s “coming of age.” Huckleberry Finn’s mentality goes from boyhood to manhood. Huck experiences a moral transformation upon having to make his own decisions throughout his voyage for a new better life. Huck appears into the novel with an inward complex caused by his past life of having to live with an abusive father who would always be drunk. Meaning that this was the first time where Huck was seen without any knowledge of knowing what rights and wrongs were. Fortunately Huck is later helped by the guidance of Jim, a runaway slave who helped Jim and joined him on his journey. Jim helps Huck gain his own perception of morality. All the way