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Mental Development Of Huckleberry Finn

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In the book “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” a young boy named Huckleberry Finn rides down the Mississippi River with a runaway slave named Jim, encountering various types of people along the way. During their trip Huck and Jim meet two conniving men, whom call themselves the “Duke” and the “Dauphin,” and learn of their scheming ways. After the Duke and the Dauphin take Jim and sell him, Huck is left all alone, only to his thoughts. Huck’s thoughts give the reader an interesting thought on Huck’s growth and who he really is. Twain use a shift of conflicting tones and moods in order to parallel the shifts in Huck’s mental development, which helps Huck face the truth about himself. Twain injects the mood of fear so that it shows the reader …show more content…

As Huck keeps trying to come up with a solution he says, “I was full of trouble, full as I could be; and didn’t know what to do” (205). Twain shows a depressed tone when Huck says he does not know what to do and cannot come up with an idea; the mood is stressed as Huck tries to think. Twain makes Huck think that any idea can work, but shows that he is a little mentally hurt. Huck decides to pray again, even though it is difficult for him, and thinks, “…it was astonishing, the way I felt as light as a feather right straight off, and my troubles all gone” (205). The desperate tone that Twain uses goes away for a moment as Huck tries to do what he believes he cannot do. Twain shifts this desperation from Huck wanting to know the answer to Huck forgetting about his “burdens;” the mood also shifts to a more calming state. As Huck’s thoughts finish up, Twain’s use of a desperate tone, during one of Huck’s low points, changes in order to show Huck finally understanding what to do. After a long, depressing moment for Huck, he finally comes up with a solution to his problem. Twain shows Huck thinking neither more negatively nor positively, but by the same things in a different way. Like the book itself, the character Huck is a mix of many concepts and feelings which keeps changing, and surprises the reader along the way. Twain shows Huck’s mental development side by side a series of changing moods and tones, and shows that these changes help Huck understand

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