Self Reliance In Huckleberry Finn Essay

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn begins with the boy, Huckleberry (Huck for short), telling a story in a very conversational tone. The story is a recap of Twain’s previous novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, in which Huck and Tom find a robber’s treasure of 12 thousand dollars, and invest it in the bank. Tom had apparently reached out to Huck again, asking him to join Tom’s very own band of robbers. Huck, of course, agreed, and moved back in with Widow Douglas, who cares for him, and makes sure he remains clean. Huck, however, is selfish, and dislikes being “civilized.” He accepts religious and social views the widow enforces upon him, yet decides for himself if he wants to follow them, and doesn’t tell her so as to not cause any unnecessary

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.

In multiple studies of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, many critics have closely examined Huck Finn’s struggles to conform to society’s expectation because he becomes conflicted between his true ideals and the ideals society has forced upon him. According to Johnson, "Huck has his own flaws: He rarely tells the truth, he steals, and he is gullible, particularly when it comes to superstition. But when faced with a dire situation, Huck usually does the right thing” (75). Although Huck repeatedly finds himself to be conflicted with Southern ideals at the end of the novel, Huck finally decides to follow his own beliefs. Davis states that, “Through Huck 's innocent descriptions of white misbehavior, Huckleberry Finn implicitly condemns not only individual white characters but also the culture that they represent. Huck rarely fully

Throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn we are taken through what life was truly like back in the 1880’s. We discern through the eyes of a young 13 year old trying to find himself and develop his own opinion. We meet his unlikely friends and acquaintances and receive a glimpse of how he was affected. We are taken through his tough childhood and how this affects his life further into the novel and how he is able to overcome the obstacles that come his way. Though sometimes the authenticity and honor of Huck is challenged, there are facts in the novel that if looked at closely, there are aspects of Huck and others that make him an honorable character. Huck has developed into his own person giving him traits that made him by far the best teller of this story.

“When Huck plans to head west... he is trying to avoid more than regular baths and mandatory school attendance” (Sparknotes 1). This quote summarizes the whole purpose of Huckleberry Finn’s journey throughout the novel, because even though he is only a young boy and his only concerns should be school and bathing, he has to worry about much more “adult” topics, such as helping an escaped slave and dealing with his abusive, alcoholic father. However, throughout these endeavors, he struggles with his conscience and the ideas that have been placed upon him by the people around him, while also trying to maintain his good heart. Examples of this ongoing battle in Huck’s mind include whether or not slavery is acceptable, the stark difference between the 2 gods that Miss Watson and the Widow argue about, and the seemingly pointless feud between the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons. One may think that these thoughts would take over Huck’s personality and make him into a more hateful, prejudiced, person, but Huck remains good hearted and true to himself until the end of the book, showing that he truly does have “a deformed conscience but a good heart.”

Huckleberry Finn is a young boy who struggles with complex issues such as empathy, guilt, fear, and morality in Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". There are two different sides to Huck. One is the subordinate, easily influenced boy whom he becomes when under the "guide" of Tom Sawyer. His other persona surfaces when he is on his own, thinking of his friendship with Jim and agonizing over which to trust: his heart or his conscience. When Huck's ongoing inner struggle with his own duality forces him to makes difficult and controversial choices, the reader sees a boy in the throes of moral development. And it is, indeed, a struggle. Although Huck believes in the rules of the harshly racist society in which he lives, a deeper and

Mark Twain argues through Huck Finn that following one’s own conscience is more important than following society’s expectations. For example, Jim and Huck are friends, and need each other, even though society thinks that a white and black man can't be friends. Huck also shows this when he leaves civilization to be on the river, and finally, Huck wants to have his own adventures and not follow so many rules. Society sometimes knows what is best, but Huck is smart enough to not go by society's rules but to go by what he needs.

In other words Huck Finn shows self reliance, non conformity, and independence through his ability to rely on himself and his mind. Huck survives adversity throughout the book and changes a lot making him a dynamic character. From writer to writer in every book there is a character who changes. This is also true in real life. People change and people are very different. Some are independent where others are followers. Everyone acts in a different way. Life is to short to

Huck Finn knows that he made a promise and he values that above all else. Earlier on Huck made a promise with Tom Sawyer and the rest of their gang in which they swore on their families lives, but in this promise he is being forced contradict society and go against what he has been taught his entire life. Huck is supposed to be a rebel and and go against the ideas and beliefs of civilization, but no one, not even the most individualistic of us all, can avoid the manipulation of society. Society’s influence is insidious and it has very clearly shaped Huck’s ethics, as he remarks that an abolitionist is one of the worst insults to be called. The influence of society is

Mississippi River in the fog. All of a sudden, they see a ferry boat and Huck

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain, Twain shows how Huckleberry Finn grows as a person. He uses important parts of the story to show that Huck is willing to go against what he was taught as a child to do what he thinks is right. Twain uses parts in the story like when Huck did not turn Jim into the slave hunters, tries to save the murderers, and when he tells Mary Jane about the King and Duke to show that Huck has grow into a nobler person. These are used throughout the whole novel to show that Huck was growing and maturing, while learning what is noble even if it went against what he thought was right. All the things he learned as a child went out the window and he went with

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 Huck we meet at this time feels he knows what is best for him thus giving him the idea of running away to create his own destiny. “Miss Watson she kept pecking at me, and it got tiresome and lonesome” (Twain, 3). The quote explains how even though Miss Watson only had the best intentions for him, he wants nothing of it, he now realizes he had enough of the bossing around, this was a breaking point for him meaning he is ready to leave the nest. Huck tried to go into living with these two women with a clear head, he was willing to try their system but it was just not for him. Huck had come from an alcoholic father who did not properly teach Huck what it is like to be a man, he abandoned him until he finds out about his fortune. This is leading the next stop on Hucks

From the beginning of Huck Finn, the reader can recognize that Huck is not living the same life as any other child in his surroundings. Huck’s disregard for manners, lack of parental influence, and rebellious attitude leads one to assume that his family life is not quite as healthy as it could be. His adoptive family, consisting of himself and Widow Douglass, appears to him far too civilized. His father is far too drunk, greedy, and neglectful of his own son to provide a healthy family life for him. Perhaps, in relation to his family life with his father, the lifestyle Huck leads with Widow Douglass is too healthy for his taste rather than too civilized.

In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, Huck Finn, the protagonist, epitomizes a self-reliant individual as defined by Ralph Waldo Emerson in his essay, “Self-Reliance.” In “Self-Reliance,” Emerson describes four main qualities that a person must demonstrate in order to be considered self-reliant. Emerson states that in order to be self-reliant, a person must maintain his own values even if they oppose the values of society. Likewise, a person’s actions must be rooted in his own moral sensibilities, as opposed to society’s moral standards. Additionally, Emerson argues that a person who is self-reliant does not thoughtlessly submit to a religion because religion hinders independent thought. Lastly, Emerson explains that the significant value that society allots to property, inhibits self-reliance, as individuals grow to depend on their property instead of learning to be self-reliant. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck and Jim, an escaped slave, raft down the Mississippi River in hopes of reaching freedom. Throughout his journey with Jim, Huck Finn proves to be a self-reliant individual according to the standards that Emerson details in his essay, “Self-Reliance.”