Societal Values vs. Moral Instincts Essay

Huck's observation and reaction to the feud of the two families has reinforced his conscience about the chaos of white society in comparison to Negroes. Huck's reaction in regards to the King and the Duke is also an important point in Huck's development as a person. Huck, having been exposed and shown the immoral and corrupt products of society has grown strong enough to work against society in the end. This development has allowed huck go approach society in a more skeptical manner and to confront and accept that society and the world is not Widow Douglas' delusional mirage. This resulted in Huck to have more confidence in his relationship with Jim and loosened his bond with society's immoral

At first, Huck enjoyed his new setting and life in the cabin, but eventually he started to grow sick of being locked up for long periods of time. He began to get annoyed at seeing his father getting drunk and violent all the time. He says, "But by-and-by pap got too handy with his hick'ry, and I couldn't stand it. I was all over welts. He got to going away so much, too, and locking me in." (Twain 1216).

Through the theme of rebellion against society, Huck demonstrates the importance of thinking for oneself and embodies the idea that adults are not always right. This is highlighted in his noncompliance when it comes to learning the Bible and in the decisions he makes when it comes to Jim, decisions that prove to be both illegal and dangerous. By refusing to conform to standards he does not agree with, Huck relies on his own experiences and inner conscience when it comes to making decisions. As a result, Huck is a powerful vehicle for Mark Twain’s commentary on southern society and

Huck hides out on Jackson's Island and for the first time in a while has no authoritative figure controlling him. Even when he discovers Jim, the Widow's slave, Huck doesn't consider himself "outranked." Huck has been taught that a runaway slave is an evil thing. Being able to make his own decision about the matter, however, Huck decides to go against society. "People would call me a low-down Abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum - but that don't make no difference. I ain't a-going to tell" (43). This is Huck's first sign of maturity as we find that he is able to make his own decisions.

Society can have a huge impact on an individual's moral growth. Sometimes the impact is positive but other times the learned habits and set morals of society have a negative effect. In Mark Twain's novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the main character, Huck, struggles with what society teaches him and with what he knows to be good and true. During different conflicts concerning either the king and duke, various women or Jim, Huck's sound heart wins the battle over his conscience, which the reader knows to be ill-formed.

Mohandas Gandhi once said, “Morality is rooted in the purity of our hearts.” However, it may not hold true in Twain’s novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In the novel, the protagonist Huck Finn’s morality and perception of others is shaped by the society he lives in, demonstrating that an individual’s morality or the epistemological sense of right and wrong can be largely influenced by society and the living environment. Yet despite strong traditions of the 19th century south, Huck is able to live away from the “civilized” world, leaving behind his hometown and travelling down the Mississippi river with Jim, a runaway slave. Huck’s unusual experiences with Jim contrast with his predetermined notions of race and power in the midst of the Jim Crow Era, thrusting Huck into a great crisis of morality dictated by his consciousness instead of his intellect. Through Huck’s journey in the search of morality, Twain conveys the theme that that morality is dictated by society, despite the goodness of an individual’s consciousness, it is difficult for and individual to intellectually challenge societal paradigms.

Huck struggles with his feelings towards society and the compassion he has for people

Although Huck ultimately does what he feels is right, the reader is left with a sense that the issue is not completely eradicated from Huck's conscience.

In order for Huck to challenge any of the values and assumptions of the time he must first be acquainted with them.  And he is not only intimately acquainted with the values of his society but he holds many of its beliefs himself.  But Huck longs for freedom away

As we know Huck was enjoying his life of clean ways, good vibes, attending the church of god, and also school. I know that Huck did all these things just to joins ties with tom which tom had Huck under the impression that by doing all these things that he will be respected. Everything was going fairly well until his dad came back around and was asking for money which he wasn’t really okay with. There was someone who claim that they were trying to help Hucks’ father to better him and try to help him change his ways so that he could be a better person. That goal went down the drain so fast that he knew that there wasn’t no change coming from his dad at all. With that being his dad went right back to his old his ways. However he never did leave town right away instead he decided to stick around and just annoy and bug Huck till he got tired of it. After a period of time he grew to just accept it which his dad didn’t like to much. When they decided to fake death, and met Jim while on the island and ended up going through so much it wasn’t getting no better. To come to it all Huck and Jim both had to leave the island and find some where else to go. Huck did began to realize that an unknown women that was on the beach that her dear husband had seen smoke fumes from the hiden island and was telling people that he seen Jim the runaway slave but it was already

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

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

Mark Twain also demonstrates how undesirable civilized society really is. Both Huck and Jim desire freedom, which greatly contrasts the existing civilization along the river. They both turn to nature to escape from the unprincipled ways of civilization. Huck wants to escape from both the proper, cultured behavior of Miss Watson and Widow Douglas and the tyranny of his father. Jim, on the other hand, hopes to escape from slavery and start a new life as a free man, hopefully with his own family eventually. Throughout the novel, the raft enables Huck and Jim to escape from the barbarism of their society to a place of serenity and peace, which is always on their raft, away from any other people. Through the duration of the story, Huck learns and does many things that would be contrary to the beliefs of society such as helping Jim

Life on the river with Huck and Jim is distinguished with a striking sense of calmness, serenity, and cohesiveness. As the novel progresses, it seems as if Huck and Jim are members of a functional family, rather than two misfit runaways who refuse to comply with society. They have a balance of power when it comes to maintaining the raft, though Jim often takes more than his share in order for Huck to be able to live as happily as possible. In the end, Twain poses a spectrum of civilized and uncivilized behavior. On one end of uncivilized behavior is the Duke and the King, marked by an utter lack of sympathy and an overwhelming selfishness. In the middle lies the Grangerford family. In one way, they are incredibly civilized through their accordance with religion, their abundant wealth, and their knowledgeable diction. Yet in contrast, they are involved in a savage battle where ultimately none of those civilized customs matter, acting in incredibly reckless and dangerous ways in the sake of vengeance. With Huck and Jim, their place in the spectrum seems to fit best with civilized behavior: they work well together, they keep to themselves and do not bother others, and they clearly care for each other. While on the other hand, in a very uncivilized manner, they have run away from home and their responsibilities, cutting any type of attachment to society. In a way, Mark Twain implicates that true

As it says in the first paragraph huck prefers to live a carefree life for example, instead of going to school and read books he prefers to go fishing. Is not like he dislikes all his foster parents, he prefers to live life as an uncivilized child since the beginning he was homeless. He traveled across the Mississippi River with Jim living a life of freedom by losing contact with civilization. Furthermore, every time he made contact with society Huck and Jim did have an awful time, not only huck felt guilty about helping Jim escape from slavery but also convicted with the thought of losing him, huck knows he is doing something wrong because society has taught him that is wrong