The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

The main character of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, Huck Finn, undergoes a complete moral change while having to make life changing and moral questioning decisions throughout his journey on the river. Huck appears first as a morally inferior character caused by living with a self absorbed and abusive father, because of his alcoholic habits. Throughout the whole book Huck is guided by Jim, a runaway slave who goes with him and helps Huck gain his sense of morality. During these encounters, he is in many situations where he must look within and use his judgement to make decisions that will affect Huck’s morals.

There are many different ways Huck shows morality throughout, but only a few of them are significant. For example when Huck gives the money to judge Thatcher so Huck can spend quality time with his dad and not have anything to do with money. When Huck tells Mary Jane the truth about who the Duke and the king actually are is a way Huck shows morality. When Huck was going to send a letter to Miss watson telling her about what happened to Jim and his whereabouts, but he tore up the note instead. If Huck would not have done any of these things than many things throughout his lifetime would have been different.

An early indication of Huck maturing is when he feels guilty about playing a joke on Jim. This acceptance of knowing he did something mean shows that he has gained a sense of responsibility. Another major step in Huck's maturity is when he decides to give Mary Jane back her stolen money. Huck footnotes, “I felt so ornery and low down and mean that I says to myself, my mind’s made up; I’ll hive the money for them or bust”(177). By saying this, it shows guilt in Huck's heart for the King and Duke’s criminal activity, and it shows a sense of morality that is developing inside of Huck. This morality developing in Huck blossoms when he decides to go after Jim. Huck then and there concludes, “All right, then, I’ll go to hell” (215). This display of a moral compass is one of the novel's most important representations of Huck's growing maturity. A continuation of Huck's moral compass is his empathetic reaction when he sees the Duke and King tarred and feathered running from an angry mob. Huck remarks, “Well, it made me sick to see it; and I was sorry for them poor pitiful rascals, it seemed like I couldn’t ever feel any hardness against them any more in the world. It was a dreadful thing to see. Human beings can be awful cruel to one another” (232). Even though the Duke and King were criminals and liars, because of Huck's now established maturity, he feels sorrow for the

Huck has an established sense of morality which changes throughout the novel, his moral development is shown through Huck’s guilt when he is presented with two opperunities to turn Jim in, and how he feels after choosing not to. Huck was raised to believe that white people were above black people, and that slaves were nothing more than property. This is shown through the way he treats Ms. Watsons slave Jim. He thought it was ok to treat him like property, to play mean tricks on him with Tom Sawyer, and still expect him to do all of Ms.Watsons hard work. As Huck and Jim meet on Jacksons Island,and travel down the river, sharing their adventure, Huck comes to see things differently.Huck discovers that Jim knows valuable camping information to help them while they’re on the island, He finds out that Jim has a family that he loves and cares about, and that he is deeply troubled because he may never get to see them again. After all of this Huck comes to the realization that Jim is his friend, and when Huck and Jim run into slave capturers on the river, Huck is faced with the decision to

In the book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the character, Huck Finn, struggles with what he thinks is right and what society thinks is right. On a journey to freedom, the boy tended to go back and forth fighting with his conscience until he went with what he thought was right. Huck was faced with difficult decisions that tested his beliefs and where his loyalties lied. As Huck continued freely down the river, he matured and learned that other people didn't have to tell him what to believe. Not only did he have his conscience to lead the way, he also had a caring runaway slave to guide him.

In mostly every chapter of the book, Huck shows how he can be a spotlight character. The moral Huck possesses is much greater than any others, and that is something that only true heroes' possess. Hucks' father, Pap, would abuse Huck every now and then, "I reckoned I was scared now, too; but in a minute I see I was mistaken - that is after the first jolt, as you may say, when my breath sort of hitched, he being so unexpected; but right after I see I warn't scared of him worth bothring about"(Twain 17). Huck wouldn't let his father get under his skin; he wouldn't revolt back at his father and take action. He let what was going to happen, happen, and it didn't really affect him. Huck was a little different than most people, he saw a different view of life, a more humane way of life, "I was a-trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: "All right then, I'll go to hell"...and tore it up. It was awful thoughts and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming"(Twain 191). Huck decided against turning Jim in because their

During his journey with Jim, Huck begins to understand his own beliefs better. He comes across many people who test those beliefs and he grows internally because of it. When Huck and Jim discover The Walter Scott, a wrecked steam boat, Huck decides to go on and have an adventure. He discovers two robbers threatening to kill a third. As he?s leaving, Huck feels genuinely sorry for these robbers who are stranded on the wreck. The fact that he is able to feel badly for these terrible people shows that he is maturing. After he comes on land, Huck meets the Sheperdsons who show him the nature of human violence through their feud with the Grangerford family. Huck matures through witnessing the feud and also begins to comprehend the hypocrisy of religion:

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

One component of these chapters that I felt was extremely prevalent was the character development of Huck. There were multiple instances when Huck had to make certain decisions that would effect him in the long run, and with most of those decisions came a moral struggle. It seemed as if within these chapters, Huck is trying to find out who he truly is as a person. One example of these moments is in chapter 16 when he is having an internal battle, trying to convince himself that helping Jim gain his freedom is in fact the right thing to do. The quote reads, “I couldn't get that out of my conscience, no how nor no way. It got to troubling me so I couldn't rest; I couldn't stay still in one place…I tried to make out to myself that I warn't to blame, because I didn't run Jim off from his rightful owner” (Pg. 87). In the quote stated above you can clearly see the internal struggle that Huck goes through, trying to find himself along the way. He looks at the situation with 2 different perspectives, one of them being that taking Jim to gain his freedom is immoral and the wrong thing to do, the other being taking Jim to gain his freedom is the right thing to do. Although Jim knows that either way he will feel guilty but he ends up choosing to take Jim's side because of his loyalty. Jim shows his appreciation to Huck by saying things like, "Dah you goes, de ole true Huck; de on'y white genlman dat ever kep' his promise to ole Jim”(Pg. 92), causing Huck

On very rare occasions, do people react to bad news by killing someone with a frozen leg of lamb and then feeding it to the detectives. Mary Maloney, the protagonist in Dahl’s story “Lamb to the Slaughter”, is characterized as a dynamic character comparing the beginning of the story where she is a loving housewife, then in the end a murderer. This illustrate how much her intentions of being a good person has changed. Throughout the story Mary is changing how she is becoming with the actions and diction that makes the story compelling to read.

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

As evidenced in the introductory instances regarding death, Huck’s morality is defective and his sympathy is missing. Perhaps, Huck’s flaws are due to his close contact with the iconic delinquent Tom Sawyer, who is likely corroding Huck’s ethics. Consequently, when Huck bonds with his new partner-in-crime, Jim, a stark juxtaposition is evidenced between the ideals of Tom and Jim. However, luckily “youth is a time of greater potential for change than any other stage of life”, and Jim’s positive influence proves beneficial (Trites 53) . Specifically, Jim is extraordinarily superstitious and attaches a copious amount of meaning to just about everything, even a measly snake skin (Twain 162). Of course, this means that Jim does not completely disregard the significance of death and importance of sympathy, as Tom and his mischievous mates do. Consequently, Jim “has proven himself as a morally admirable figure” (Bollinger). As a result, after prolonged exposure to Jim, Huck starts to exude more concern for the life of others, as evidenced in quite a few scenarios that take place on his and Jim’s journey.

Demonstrate how your prescribed text and ONE other related text of your own choosing represent this interpretation of belonging.

Huck’s morality started to change soon after he allowed Jim, a runaway slave, to come along with him on his adventure to freedom. This decision shocked me but, as a result of Huck meeting

After this Huck spent all his energy on stealing Jim from the Phelps family, and he did not even feel guilty about it. At the beginning of the novel, Huck believed that slavery was right and that it was not immoral to support slavery. By the end of the novel, Huck had become truly moral because he realized that everyone was just human. Jim's presence in this novel and in Huck's adventure allowed Huck to achieve this great moral growth, It was through Jim that