Jeremy Abrams. Mr. Rau. English Iii. D Block. 02/24/17.

This is exactly the kind of behavior that twain didn’t like. However, the main theme in this book is breaking free. He urges his readers to do the right thing, not necessarily what everyone else is doing. He illustrates this ideal with Huck. Most everyone else thought of Jim, along with blacks in general, as something less than human. Huck knew this was wrong, and his actions followed this when he rescued Jim. Main characters Huckleberry Finn Huck is the narrator of the story and for the most part is honest to us, the readers. He dreads the rules and conformities of society such as religion, school, and everything else that will eventually make him civilized. A big debate surrounds Huck on whether he changes or not throughout the story. Huck, in the beginning, seems very set in the south’s anti-black ways, however, Huck states that he will go to hell to keep Jim out of slavery. At this point it seems like he does change, but at the end of the book, Huck plays yet another joke on Jim and seems as though any change was temporary. Huck has little sense of humor, which is ironical, considering the book is satirical. Twain has also been criticized about Huck’s character, in that it seems as though Huck knows too much for his age. In one of the movies Huck was about seventeen, in another he was about eight. I figure from the book that Huck is

The book introduces Huck as the first person narrator which is important because it establishes clearly that this book is written from the point of view of a young, less than civilized character. His character emerges as a very literal and logical thinker who only believes what he can see with his own eyes. In this section Huck’s life with the Widow Douglas and her attempts to raise him as a civilized child sets up the main theme of this book which is the struggle or quest for freedom. Huck’s struggle for freedom from civilized society is paralleled by Jim’s struggle to escape from slavery. Irony as a key literary

In the middle of the book, Huck starts to distinguish what is the right thing to do. He starts to think if all the things he was doing before with Jim and Tom were too mean and stupid to do. One specific example is when he decides to steal the money that the king and duke have, “I got to steal that money somehow; and I got to steal it some way that they wont suspicion I done it." (Twain 133) After Huck stole the money Huck and Jim didn’t feel bad at all, and knew that they did the right thing after all. He learns that not everyone can be scammed on, that the real life is important and that you can’t do anything stupid like that. He sees eye to eye with Jim and realizes that he cant have someone taken advantage of just because of their

In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, the main character Huck matures throughout the book due to a sense of growing morality and accepting responsibility for his actions. The character of Huckleberry Finn is introduced to the reader as a lower class, uneducated kid with no manners that is influenced by a greedy society. As the novel progresses Huck into a wonderful, strong character that has dug deep into what it means to be an individual, and by becoming mature, he has also escaped from the negative way society depicts African Americans.

He has a father who is abusive as well as an alcoholic, which is why two older ladies by the names of Miss. Watson and Widow Douglas watch over and care for him. The concept of a journey to freedom is portrayed through Huck due to him leaving home as a young boy and seeking for independence. In chapter eleven, Huck dresses up as a girl to go steal food and other items from a home for Jim and himself. “My mother’s down sick, and out of money and everything…” (62). Huck lied to a woman just to steal things from her home to survive because he was running away to become free. "It didn't take me long, though, to make up my mind that these liars warn't no kings nor dukes at all..." (40). This is ironic because Huck is noticing that the King and the Duke are con men and liars, but Huck himself is just like them because he lies to people all the time to better himself and get to freedom. Huck has to go through many disadvantages as well as Jim, on their journey to

Huck, who is a child in a book, has a lot of room for development. In the beginning, he was taught to follow the rules of society like practicing Catholicism and refusing to associate with slaves. However, during Huck’s journey with Jim, he learns a valuable lesson about respecting people based on their character, despite what he was taught by Widow Douglas, Miss Watson, and Tom Sawyer. During the first few days of his journey, he pulls pranks on Jim, like attempting to trick him into thinking that getting lost in the fog was all a dream. However, later on in his journey, he refuses to follow the rules of society in order to save Jim. He even says “All right, then, I’ll go to hell” when he chooses not to tell Miss Watson Jim’s whereabouts (Twain 214). Jim in turn sees Huck as a great friend as well, thus showing how Huck is now seen as a

Although he predicts society will deem him to be "a low down Abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum," he prefers to be shunned and to risk punishment and shame for the sake of freeing Jim (Twain 43). Clearly, Huck's fondness for Jim is evident when Huck intends to send a letter to Miss Watson returning Jim but chooses to rip it to save him instead. Huck responds, "‘I'll right, then, I'll go to hell'- and he tore it up" (Twain 214). Huck accepts his rebellious nature and terrible fate to hell as he escapes from civilized society and into a place driven by his instincts. Jim's desire for freedom puts Huck in a moral dilemma because he must decide whether to follow his innate sense of morality or the restrictive guidelines of society.

Throughout the novel, Twain shows his contempt for corrupt human nature. Although these instances are often satirized and exaggerated, the message is still the same. For instance, when the King and the Duke first start to lie about being the dead Peter Wilks’ brothers to obtain his money, Huck says, “It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race,” (191). In this instance Twain is utilizing Huck to show his aversion to the way people lie and cheat, and how a couple of people can make a bad name for all of us. Another example is when Jim sells the King and Duke out to the townspeople and they are carried on a pole, tarred and feathered. Although Huck, has tried to escape the King and Dukes several occasions and has witnessed the cruelties put on others and lies they tell, he does not think that they deserve similar treatment. In fact, he says, “Human beings can be awful cruel to one another,” (269). Through Huck, Twain is voicing his opposition to how people treat one another, whether they deserve it or not. Thus Twain is using his novel to voice his enmity for the cruelty in human nature.

     On Huck and Jim’s journey to Cairo, Jim begins to speak about when he is free he will go and find his children and take them from the slave owner. This rubbed Huck the wrong way; his standards of Jim had been lowered because, from Huck’s point of view, why would Jim steal his children away from a man who has done nothing to him? Huck’s conscience began to come into play and he had made up his mind: He was going to turn Jim in when they reach shore. He was sure of it until Jim began to sweet talk Huck, telling him that Huck was the only white man that had ever kept a promise to him. This comment went directly to Huck’s heart; he could not possibly

Huck feels so bad for deceiving Jim that he says, “It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself; but I done it, and I warn’t ever sorry for it afterward, neither. I didn’t do him no more mean tricks, and I wouldn’t done that one if I’d ‘a’ knowed it would make him feel that way” (90). This quote is important to their relationship, as it shows Huck bringing himself down to Jim’s level; which for a slave, was extremely low compared to that of a free white man like Huck. It also establishes how Huck initially felt an entitlement and superiority over Jim as he say,” ... I could work myself up to go and humble myself…”

Twain uses this quote to show that Huck feels that if he helps out Jim he will be shamed by the town. It shows that the society that Huck lives in is very judgmental to each other. Huck is afraid of what the town will think of him and is anxious; he doesn’t want the town to criticize him for doing the thing he believes is right. Twain expresses a society where Huck is judged for being different and going with a decision he believes is

In the story of Huckleberry Finn Huck is facing a constant battle within himself between following the laws of the land and doing what he knows is morally correct. There appears to be an underlying question of whether or not a person is born with morals and good character or if this is a learned behavior raised in the story. The circumstances of Huck’s upbringing were not ones that were conducive to him being a person with a good moral compass, in actually he should have been just the opposite, but he decided to go against the grain and do what he felt was morally correct which was befriend a runaway slave and try to set him free. Now we can questions his motives for wanting to help Jim, i.e., did he

Huck Finn’s morality near the beginning of the novel is immature and set upon doing what he wants and trying to escape being “civilized”. Huck Finn is being raised by the

His whole life has been taught that “niggers” are property and are not meant to be free but In his heart he knew helping Jim was the right thing to do, no matter what anybody else says. “both Huck and Jim are depicted as characters who are capable of learning from their own mistakes, empathizing with others, and acting on the behalf of others” (Evans). As the journey down the river continues they run into two con men. These men pretend to be the Wilks brothers in order to rob this family of all of their possessions. Huck couldn’t see them do this poor family wrong. He spends some time really contemplating telling one of the girls, Mary Jane, the truth about these liars (Twain 175). He knows inside that it is the right thing to do but he doesn’t want to put himself at risk. He plans out every little detail of how he is going to tell her and how he is going to expose these men (Twain 175-178). His actions result from his sympathy for others and his conscience and show major growth as the story continues.

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