Independence in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn shows the development of a young boy named Huck Finn. We see Huck develop in character, attitude and maturity as he goes on his adventure down the Mississippi River. This is displayed through his search for freedom from civilization and it's beliefs and through his personal observations of a corrupt and immoral society. Most importantly, we are in Huck's head as he goes through his confusion over his supposedly immoral behavior and his acceptance that he will “go to hell” as he conquers his social beliefs.

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain provided social commentary on southern society and beliefs. Twain addressed a number of significant issues throughout the novel, including religion and slavery. There are a number of instances where Huck, the 14 year-old protagonist, pushes back against the idea of organized religion. Similarly, Huck encounters a personal and moral dilemma when it comes to the practice of slavery. This idea of rebellion against society is a major concept explored in the book. Small instances of Huck’s rebellion culminate with him eventually freeing a runaway slave. The main examples include Huck’s refusal to learn the Bible, Huck’s decision against not to turn Jim in, and Tom and Huck’s choice to set Jim free at the end of the story. Huck’s refusal to conform to and demonstrate the social norms of the South illustrate the theme of rebellion against society.

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Huck Finn experiences many tough decisions and meets a variety of people. Huck meets those whom he can trust and those he cannot. Growing, Huck starts to find who he is meant to be and his stance on topics during his time. Throughout his journey down the Mississippi, Huck encounters crooks, caregivers, and racists who positively influence his moral growth.

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.

Huck makes a good point when he is living with the widow Douglas. Huck didn’t like to be in a civilized home, he wanted to be out doing adventures with Tom Sawyer. Twain

At the beginning of Huck’s narration, he immediately mentions his previous adventures with Tom Sawyer; by instinctively introducing himself in terms of Tom’s story, Huck demonstrates that he thinks of himself more as a supporting character to Tom’s life than the protagonist to his own. This belief also compels Huck to listen to Tom’s advice. When the Widow Douglas decides to civilize Huck, he initially runs away in disgust, but Tom ultimately convinces him to stay. Huck explains, “But Tom Sawyer he hunted me up and said he was going to start a band of robbers, and I might join if I would go back to the widow and be respectable. So I went back,” (1). Tom’s influence outweighs Huck’s instinct to escape civilization, and Huck instead chooses to try to become “respectable” like Tom. Despite Huck’s multiple sets of ideologies, the values he adopts from Tom Sawyer prevail as the most influential and serve as a guide for many of Huck’s

Mark Twain once described his novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, as “a struggle between a sound mind and a deformed conscience”. Throughout the novel, Huck wrestles with the disparity between his own developing morality and the twisted conscience of his society. In doing so, he becomes further distanced from society, both physically and mentally, eventually abandoning it in order to journey to the western frontier. By presenting the disgust of Huck, an outsider, at the state of society, Mark Twain is effectively able to critique the intolerance and hypocrisy of the Southern South. In doing so, Twain asserts that in order to exist as a truly moral being, one must escape from the chains of a diseased society.

Mark Twain's novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is based on a young boy's coming of age in Missouri in the mid-1800s. The adventures Huck Finn gets into while floating down the Mississippi River depict many serious issues that occur on the shores of civilization, better known as society. As these events following the Civil War are told through the young eyes of Huckleberry Finn, he unknowingly develops morally from the influences surrounding him on his journey to freedom and in the end, becomes a mature individual.

”(39). Taking everything into account, Huck makes it clear that no one has an influence on his actions. Doing this makes him an individual in the society at the time. Taking everything into consideration, by not doing what people tell him to do, he defies society’s thoughts and

He like the majority of the Deep South’s population was forced to submit to popular religion in the form of Christianity, being racist and not being able to criticize the institution of slavery, as well as acting like a “proper” boy and being civilized with manors, rules, and restrictions. However, he is the polar opposite of the ideals expressed by his society. Huck is forced to reside with Widow Douglas, he describes the experience in the first chapter, “She took me… allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time … I wanted to smoke, and asked the widow to let me. But she wouldn't. She said… I must try to not do it any more.” (Twain, 2). In this particular environment, Huck is forcefully civilized by the Widow Douglas as well as Miss Watson. This essentially shows an indirect form of slavery in which Huck is forced to do as society and his elders dictate regardless of what he believes in which many of us are also subject to. This enslaves him and leads him to decide that he needs to relocate himself as far away from society as possible. Therefore, he forges his death and runs away meeting Jim on the way. This idea of Huck being controlled by society influences him through the novel, for instance he thinks about turning Jim in because it is wrong to steal since Jim is

The protagonist of Huckleberry Finn is arguably one of the most remarkable character Mark Twain created in all his writings. Huck can be seen as both a symbol of the freedom of the natural man and an individual man with a conscience and a basic sense of decency. He is also very much still an out of control teenager who has issues with most modest things in life like society, religion, work, and even his own father, yet as a reader you never question that Huck is a sensitive, caring human being who is in many ways, superior to the figures of adults that surround him on a daily basis. These are just some of the reasons that Huck is able to find his closest friendships with boys his own age like Tom Sawyer or with outcasts from society

Huckleberry Finn is the main character in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Huck is a young boy that comes from the lower level of the white society. Huck is an intelligent boy but sometimes he makes his own rules. He learns to read and write when the widow Douglas sends him to school. He doesn’t like living with the widow because he is not allowed to cuss or smoke. Huck makes it clear how he feels about living with the widow when

Huck’s views regarding black people come into question when Huck and Jim run away together. Their experiences together let them become closer to each other and let Huck recognize Jim as a human being with real feelings. Huck starts to view Jim as a caring individual when they are on the raft. This is a scene taken from when Jim and Huck were working together on the raft and Jim was trying to protect them both from the rain, “Jim took up some of the top planks of the raft and built a snug wigwam to get under in blazing weather and rainy, and to keep the things dry. Jim made a floor for the wigwam, and raised it a foot or more above the level of the raft, so now the blankets and all the traps was out of reach of steamboat waves” (Twain, pg 64). In this part of the novel, Huck seems to be all Jim has, and Jim is also all Huck seems to have, and they work together to build a place that the waves cannot reach them. Their feeling of friendship is born through working together and protecting each other. Even though Huck and Jim are having new experiences together, Huck’s conscience is still going back and forth about the idea of freeing a slave. This quote is taken from when Huck

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, presents a human vs. society conflict. The main character, Huck, is raised without any structure. He has no rules, no discipline and strongly rebelled against anything that could civilize him. Through the novel, the audience sees Huck try to be civilized by society. Because of this conflict, we are introduced to many characters throughout the narrative. Mark Twain being a very descriptive writer uses a ton of characterization through his work. He also introduces his readers to many different settings through the span of the fiction. Every chapter of the book has relation to Huck running away due to him not wanting to be formed into society’s ideal citizen. Huck refuses to change because his beliefs and qualities that make him up his personality . Huck likes who he is and does not want to change for other people.

In the novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck longs for an uncivilized life. The boy dislikes many societal norms such as religion and school, preferring to go out on his own and explore the world . At Widow Douglas’s house, Huck feels trapped and cannot act like himself since she imposes very strict rules on him. Instead he longs for his rags and old adventures with Tom Sawyer because he misses the worry free life. The concept of civilization feels out of place for Huck due to his father getting drunk almost every day, not caring about the wellbeing of his son. Without a male role model , nobody teaches the boy how to act properly amongst men. Huck was never brought up as an educated boy since he believed a simple life leads to happiness . Having a good heart is a characteristic most human beings lack, but this is not the case with Huck. His choice of not turning Jim in shows that he understands the great struggle inferior citizens experience . Both Huck and Jim search for a unique identities as minorities. Huck rejects civilization in order to liberate himself from a restrictive society full of uniformity and hypocrisies . Most Southern citizens in the 1800s lack individuality due to the majority of humans following one another, leading to a decreased amounts of risks . Therefore, this contrasts with Huck’s drive to experience new environments and his unrivaled desire to learn about the world. He does not agree with society's unfair rules and desires to see life