Social Ostracism in Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

In the beginning of the novel, Mark Twain shows his disdain for the blind faith of religion through Huck’s confusion. For example, when Huck states; “I says to myself, if a body can get anything they pray for,

These chapters establish components of Huck’s self that others hope to influence: his emotions, his intelligence, his fiscal responsibility, his spirituality, his social self, and his physical health and habits. To what and whom does Huck conform and when/how does he reject conformity in these chapters?

In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a variety of people influence Huck’s ideology. From the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson’s religious rhetoric to Pap’s brutal, uncivilized manner, many contrasting ideas shape Huck’s belief system. However, among these people, Tom Sawyer holds the greatest impact over Huck’s actions and mentality because of Huck’s immense admiration for him. Huck’s initial encounters with Tom Sawyer establish Tom as a major component of the ideology Huck maintains throughout his journey. Despite Huck’s skepticism and confusion about Tom’s imaginative schemes, Huck regards Tom’s judgements as the truth and follows all of Tom’s plans.

The novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn emphasizes the strategies of ethos, logos, pathos to satirize religion in the mid nineteenth century. It is arguable that Huckleberry Finn is obviously centered around the degree of racism during the given time period, but other topics are apparent when audited. Throughout Huckleberry Finn, religion is cultivated in a humorous way such that Huck’s views, a warring family’s morals, and the teachings of the time period are prime examples of religious satire in Huckleberry Finn and utilize ethos, logos, and pathos.

In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck struggles to conform to society’s views and expectations. Society pressures Huck Finn into earning a standard education, but through his worldly knowledge and common sense, he can view the world differently than the people around him. Through his perspective on Southern society, Huck struggles to accept the moral beliefs that have been instilled upon him at birth because he befriends an African American slave. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain effectively uses the motif of dead bodies to suggest that truth finally reveals the inconsistencies in society through Huck’s common sense.

In order to truly understand what Huck is trying to retaliate against, one must know what the ideas of nature and convention are according

In the fourth chapter Huck sees Pap's footprints in the snow. So Huck goes to Jim to ask him why Pap is there. Jim gets a hair-ball that is the size of a fist that he took from an ox's stomach. Jim asks the hair-ball; “Why is Pap here?” But the hair-ball won't answer. Jim says it needs money, so Huck gives Jim a counterfeit quarter. The counterfeit quarter allows the reader to ponder the thought that Jim and Huck are superstitious, yet they still cheat the superstition like it doesn’t exist. Almost as if being superstitious is such a normal attribute that Huck and Jim don’t know they’re superstitious. Jim puts the quarter under the hair-ball. The hair-ball talks to Jim and Jim repeats it back to Huck. "Yo'ole father doan' know yit what he's a-gwyne to do" (19). Jim tells Huck that he’s going to have many troubles in his life, but also considerable joy. Also, that he’s going to get sick, but always recover healthy and that he’s going to marry first a poor woman, then a rich one. If a person knows, or think they know how their life is going to turn out life can go two ways: they could come to a

to look past conformist and the effects of his environment. Huck was born into a

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

Superstition is characterized as “a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation” (merriam-webster.com). Throughout Huck Finn, superstitious beliefs are prominent in many scenes, as well as the development of many character. Within this novel, superstition is used to develop characters through bold senses of belief, along with use of different examples of superstition to allow a thorough sense of understanding in the meaning of a superstitious person. Examples of superstition range from Huck wondering about the dead man and Jim’s response to how he feels about wondering about the man, to Jim’s response to the birds flying overhead and what them flying overhead means, and even Jim’s belief in touching a snakeskin with your bare hands. Indeed, Jim may be the most prominent view of

These experiences present Huck with sympathy, a moral conscience, and the knowledge of what is right and wrong based on his own- not society’s- standards. By traveling down the river, Huck not only travels into the

Huck is a kind of natural philosopher, skeptical of social doctrines, and willing to set forth new ideas. However, when it

The main character of Twain’s novel, Huckleberry Finn, is a rambunctious character that the author uses to express the deeply imbedded desire of mankind to obtain freedom. As the story opens, Huck is reflecting on his civilized life with the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson. Both women insist that Huck becomes more civilized and are very stern regarding his clothes, grooming, and posture. The Widow Douglas teaches Huck religion through fear of God’s punishment. On the contrary, Miss Watson teaches him to pray, and tries to change him by showing him God’s love. Although the women feel they are helping Huck, he finds the life to be monotonous and taxing,

Throughout the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Twain tells the reader exactly how he feels about different facets of human life. Religion and the blatant hypocrisy of the church and people who attend it become the first victims of Twain’s hatred. The theme of humans believing whatever they are told continues with the innate racism of those who lived in the South during the mid-1800s. Twain also exposes his feelings on the way humans act before they think, and how many people accept the beliefs of others as their own, without much thought or consideration to others. Therefore, through Twain’s characters and events written in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain’s pet peeves are revealed to the reader.

Polarity in Huck’s life pulls him in many different directions and brings and draws out different