Why Is Sherburn Important In Huck Finn

Throughout the incident on pages 66-69 in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck fights with two distinct voices. One is siding with society, saying Huck should turn Jim in, and the other is seeing the wrong in turning his friend in, not viewing Jim as a slave. Twain wants the reader to see the moral dilemmas Huck is going through, and what slavery ideology can do to an innocent like Huck.

The critic Kenny Williams states that the Colonel Sherburn scene inThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark twain, “allow[s] a brief platform for Twain to express his own contempt for mobs in an era known for such activities and lawlessness.” This draws the attention to other scenes Twain uses to show his contempt for activities in society. In his novel Mark Twain uses characters and scenes to show his disdain for zealot faith, corrupt human nature, and blind adherence to law.

Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn satirizes gratuitous violence, excessive greed, and racism. First, Twain illustrates the satire in the gratuitous violence with the backwater families and the rural country people starting with the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons. Huck first meets the Grangerfords when Huck and Jim’s raft breaks apart and Huck ends up on a shore. Huck meets Buck Grangerford who asks if Huck is a part of the Shepherdson family, in which Huck responds that he is not. Buck explains to him that the Grangerfords and the Shepherdson’s have been in a feud with each other for as long as the families can remember, however, no one knows or can even remember how or why these two families are fighting. Twain goes on to explain that the two families even go to church with their rifles while the priest preaches about love and peace. Twain also uses Boggs and Sherburn to further satirize these nonsensical violent habits. Boggs, who is very drunk, keeps causing a ruckus and speaking ill of Sherburn. Sherburn tells him to stop, but Boggs does not listen, so Sherburn shoots and kills Boggs. Soon after a mob forms declaring that they must kill Sherburn in retaliation. Sherburn tells the mob that they do not have the prowess to go through with their plan to kill him. He says that “Because you’re brave enough to tar and feather poor friendless cast-out women that come along here, did that make you think you had grit enough to lay your hands on a man? Why, a man’s safe in the hands of

Throughout the incident on pages 66-69 in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck fights with two distinct voices. One is siding with society, saying Huck should turn Jim in, and the other is seeing the wrong in turning his friend in, not viewing Jim as a slave. Twain wants the reader to see the moral dilemmas Huck is going through, and what slavery ideology can do to an innocent like Huck.

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.

Huckleberry Finn is a rebellious boy who defies rules whenever he deems it fit. In the satirical novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, a runaway boy befriends an escaped slave in the deep south. The majority of society frowns upon Huck and his choices and he struggles with his decisions the whole novel to reveal thematic subjects such as friendship, love, and betrayal. Throughout the story Huck can’t decide whether to do the right thing or not, but ultimately his heart wins over the views forced upon him by society.

Mark Twain once described his novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, as “a struggle between a sound mind and a deformed conscience”. Throughout the novel, Huck wrestles with the disparity between his own developing morality and the twisted conscience of his society. In doing so, he becomes further distanced from society, both physically and mentally, eventually abandoning it in order to journey to the western frontier. By presenting the disgust of Huck, an outsider, at the state of society, Mark Twain is effectively able to critique the intolerance and hypocrisy of the Southern South. In doing so, Twain asserts that in order to exist as a truly moral being, one must escape from the chains of a diseased society.

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

Furthermore, Huck internally criticizes Jim’s talk about “saying he would steal his children—children that belonged to a man I didn’t even know; a man that hadn’t ever done me no harm,” and states that it was a “lowering of him” (16). Huck’s lack of moral development epitomizes here, as he criticizes a “n*****” for his utopian vision of a peaceful life with his family. Huck’s conscience starts to attack him in this moment as he no longer thinks about Jim as his friend and starts to acknowledge that, in reality, he’s a black person. Although it appears that Huck is moral since he helped Jim escape, Huck doesn’t disapprove of the institution of slavery; he only helped Jim because he values their friendship. This is further exemplified when Huck makes the decision to take the canoe and go tell on Jim, though he tells Jim that he will go and check if they’re in Cairo. Twain juxtaposes Jim’s two possible futures, one of freedom, and the other of enslavement, to show the influence Huck’s choice will have. When Jim calls out “‘Jim won’t ever forgit you, Huck;

I agree with you that the speech by Sherburn is very powerful. His speech is only about a half of a page and in that time he is able to calm down a mob. I feel that Sheburn is trying to show his fellow southerners that their idea of themselves is wrong. Southerners as a whole are not the most courageous and incredible people that have ever lived, they are just like every other person in the world. Also, I like that Sherburn mention that the southern newspapers state that the southerners are brave often. Sherburn says newspapers mention how brave southerners are so much that southerners “think [they] braver than any other people in the world”. I think it is interesting that Twain mentioned the media in this speech. The media can often influence

He begins to despise the stipulation set towards human nature and mindsets toward abolition. Huck derives such perseverance towards their condition as Jim continuously describes his life after gaining freedom. There is an instantaneous gleam of happiness that is achieved once they become near Cairo, that has led Huck to be astounded by his change in hope. To illustrate, “Well, I can tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish, too, to hear him, because I began to get it through my head that he was most free-and who was to blame for it? Why, me.” (Ch. 16). Significantly, this defines the moment where Huck indicates what “coming of age” is. He has grown to assess himself and resonate that the judgement of others has no relevance towards how he should fulfill his sensibilities. As expressed, “...and I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks does for their’n.” (Ch. 23). Huck distinguishes the idea that Jim shouldn’t be judged either. Just as anybody else, his actions had to define him. Not by the color of his skin or what society had labeled him. Even more, Jim had emotions. There wasn’t an instance where he didn’t care about his family just as any other man, it had been vital to him. With that in mind, Huck acknowledged the desperate need to be set free, because there is no division in the intent of

Since the beginning, Huck was not allowed to express his own beliefs because that would be going against Southern norm, which is seen as inexcusable and disgraceful. As the novel progresses with Huck going on a strenuous journey with Jim, a runaway slave, Huck learns incredible life lessons and eventually changes his viewpoints about slaves. This sudden change in his beliefs and values of slaves is due to the environmental change Huck experiences. This new environment conditions Huck and makes him realize that slaves possess human traits and qualities like every other white person do. In particular, Huck’s journey with Jim on the Mississippi River teaches him not to judge other people based on their outer appearances, but to treat everyone with compassion and love. Huck becomes more inclined to disregard social norms that he learned to accept in the past. Huck is essentially influenced by his environment throughout the novel.

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

In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain presents the problem of slavery in America in the 19th Century. Twain poses this problem in the form of a character named Huckleberry Finn, a white boy raised in the antebellum South. Huck starts to question his view regarding slavery when he acquaints himself more intimately with a runaway slave while he himself tries to run away. Huck’s development as a character is affected by society’s influence on his experiences while growing up in the South, running away with Jim, and trying to save Jim. Although Huck decides to free Jim, Huck’s deformed conscience convinces him that he is doing the wrong thing.

Despite an ardent view on slavery evident through interactions with Jim, Huck’s slowly shifting view of Jim from that of ignorance to seeming acceptance expresses his ability to stray from flawed societal values to his own developed moral code of conduct. This becomes evident when Huck protects Jim from men who board his raft, by hinting he has smallpox. Although one can see this as compassion for Jim, Huck questions with racist undertones, “s’pose you done right and give Jim up; would you felt better than you do now? No, says I, I’d feel bad” (Twain 127). However, he later affirms himself to “do whatever come handiest at the time.” (Twain 127). At this point, society still influences Huck, but his statement marks his decision to detach from societal values, and eventually allows him to form his own views on Jim. This comes slowly, as Huck cannot shake free from racism.