Throughout the rest of Huck 's journey he continues to meet people along the way that believe themselves to be good civilized people but they all contradict that in some way. The Grangerford 's are in a murdering feud with another family, the Phelps own slaves and are trying to get a reward for Jim, the townspeople that feather and tar the Duke and King without a trial, the execution of Boggs, even the Widow tells Huck not to smoke but takes snuff herself. Huck spends a large amount of time in the book pondering over how to be good and do the right things, and at the end of the book when he decides to go West and leave it all behind he has finally realized that he 's not the one that 's bad, society is. Huck heads back out into the world not for more adventure, but to get away from
In the novel, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” the main character Huck Finn learns how to make better decisions. He realizes how his decisions will affect other people, specifically, his best friend Jim. Huck begins the novel with no direction or guidance, living with his drunk and abusive father. Miss Watson and the Widow Douglas struggle to try to teach Huck how to have good judgement and how to be a good person. Huck is also guided and taught by the runaway slave, and Huck’s best friend, Jim.
So, when Huck picks up Jim, a recently escaped slave, and heads up the Mississippi River, he gets nervous when Jim begins to talk about how he will soon be free and plans to buy, or even steal, his wife and children. This was during a time where Huck would be committing a crime by helping a slave escape. He has a difficult time deciding to be loyal to his friend and let Jim continue up the rest of the way up north so that he can be freed, or to turn Jim in as an escaped slave. Huck fears getting in trouble, but he also is very torn because of the relationship that he now has with Jim. Huck’s askew sense of sympathy and morality are conflicting each other.
Huck Finn hates living in the home of the Widow Douglas because she is always “pecking” at him and attempting to “sivilize” him, she, imposes rules and regulations (“Don’t put your feet up there, Huckleberry,” “Don’t scrunch up like that,” “Set up straight”) . With new clothes to wear, and extreme ways to govern his daily life including and bells to order him, Huck finds domestic life with the Widow and her sister Miss Watson with restricting rules Huck, “felt so lonesome I most wished I was dead.” Then when Huck stayed with his drunken father Pap he also is provided with no real home. Huck is in an isolated cabin in the woods and Pap locks Huck inside and poses a threat with his rifle. Huck also hates Tom Sawyer’s gang of robbers that pretends
To begin, Huck’s struggles within the deformed conscience of an entire society leads to his maturation. Throughout the book, Huck struggles within himself whether or not to follow his heart or to follow society’s deformed views. In one situation, Huck begins to feel guilty about helping a runaway slave, Jim, to freedom. Huck narrates, “My conscience got to stirring me up hotter than ever, until at last I says to it, ‘let up on me- it ain’t too late yet-
Huck Finn isn't afraid of a challenge not when it comes to people he cares about. He knew that by helping Jim escape slavery he was going against everything he was taught by the people around him. It wasn't what society expected of you, but he didn't care, all he cared about was setting his friend ,Jim, free. In the beginning of the novel Huck sees Jim as a slave, never treated him any less or any more than what he was. Yet as the story and relationship between them progressed his opinion towards Jim changed from being a slave who is beneath him to being a good friend, his
Specifically, through the controversy of slavery at the time, Huck learns how to listen to his intuition and conscience. His slight hesitation escaping with Jim makes him question the authenticity of his morality. He says, “I begun to get it through my head that he was most free--and who was to blame for it? Why, me … But you knowed he was running for his freedom, and you could ‘a’ paddled ashore and told somebody”
Huck quickly realizes he has no place in society, when Tom and him decide to start a gang. However, in order to become a member, one must consent to the murdering of their families if one breaks the rules. When one of the boys call out, “Here’s Huck Finn, he hain’t got no family, what you going to do ‘bout him?” Huck starts to realize that he has never had caring and loving parents that he would have to feel obligated not to kill (Twain 6). His father, who is known as the town’s drunk, has physically and mentally abused Huck all his life, which has given him no sense of direction.
“Jim, this is nice, I says. I wouldn’t want to be nowhere else but here” (Twain). This implies that Huck feels safe and feels at home when he is with Jim. Throughout the novel, it becomes apparent that Jim is not only a slave, but he is more like a father to Huck than Pap is. Throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,
After Huck finds out that Jim is captive, Huck “set down and cried. [He] couldn’t help it” (210). After returning to the raft and not finding Jim there, Huck is overcome with emotion. The fear of Jim not being around causes Huck to realize how important Jim is to him. The friendship they developed on the river and through their adventure causes Huck to be more concerned for Jim’s safety than society’s need to keep Jim captive.
4. Huck develops and matures throughout this novel. At the beginning, he is unsure of his opinions on matters, and is afraid to break the status quo of slavery. Soon enough, he has matured enough to be able to question the morality of the acts of the duke and king. Moreover, he has grown to realize that the duke and king are
Judging someone for their race, ethnicity, or skin color is never portrayed as the right thing to do. However, these are some of the main themes in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This was taken place before the Civil War, when slavery was still legal. When Huck Finn and Jim meet, even though Jim is a slave, they connect immediately. Their friendship grows stronger and stronger as the novel continues, it got to the point where Jim was not only a friend, but a father figure to Huck. There was a couple of times where Huck realized that what he was doing was not only wrong, but illegal, and wondered if he should do the right thing, but decided against it. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck sees Jim as a slave, friend, and a father
Huckleberry Finn is a story about a rambunctious young boy who adventures off down the Mississippi River. “The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain demonstrates a situation where a Huck tries to find the balance between what is right and what is wrong. Huck faces many challenges in which his maturity will play a part in making the correct decision for himself and his friend Jim. Huck becomes more mature by the end of the novel by showing that he can make the correct decisions to lead Jim to the freedom he deserves. One major factor where Huck matures throughout the novel is through his experience.
This is the climax of the novel, in which many of the underlying themes are made clear. Huck’s morals overcome his fear for punishment, and he is determined to help Jim even if he has to go to hell for it. Furthermore, Jim is a runaway slave, and in the context of the story, helping a runaway slave, albeit one that was sold and has a new owner, would be almost traitorous to Huck’s community. Another revelation is that Huck has transcended the racial constructs of the time, recognizing Jim’s humanity and considering him someone worth rescuing at great personal risk. In this scene, Huck finally breaks the restraints of society, and indeed, his environment, by ignoring all societal and theological constructs and instead choosing what is right by his conscience.
Though they have different motives for leaving their pasts, both characters feel they need to leave the life they have settled into. For Huck, he needs to escape his abusive father and confinement of the cabin. He suffers through living with his father for a while, but Huck becomes so miserable he cannot stay any longer. He even adds that “it was dreadful lonesome,” saying “[he] made up [his] mind [that he] would fix up some way to leave there” (Twain 34). In this moment, Huck determines he will not live confined to some shack in the woods, stifled by his father’s rules.