Themes In Mark Twain's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect” ~ Mark Twain (“Mark Twain Quotes”). The idea of going against societies standards is not something Twain only believed in life, but incorporated it in his writing. In the story The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Huck finds himself questioning if he should follow societies expectations, or what he believes is right. He ponders this idea as he and a runaway slave Jim travel down the Mississippi River together on a raft. The two experience many things on the way down the river that shapes them into the person they are in the final chapters, and creates themes that also are resolved at the end. Through the analysis of the ending of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, one can see

In the story, it is expressed that slaves don’t have the same qualities as other humans. Thus, runaway slaves need to be captured and returned to their owner. This idea causes Huck question if he should turn in Jim or not. After contemplating it he decides not turn Jim even though it could hurt his reputation. In the story the idea that helping a slave will hurt his reputation is shown when he says Tom helping him would “…make himself a shame, and his family a shame…” (Twain 236). If Tom helped, he would be shaming his family, thus Huck helping Jim would hurt his reputation. Towards the end of the story Jim is captured, but Tom and Huck help him escape. However, Tom was shot as they were escaping, so Huck get a doctor to help him. The doctor needs help with Tom, so Jim risks his freedom to help. In the story the doctor says, “‘…I never see a nigger that was a better nuss or faithfuller, and yet he was risking his freedom to do it, and was all tired out, too, and I see plain enough he’d been worked main hard lately. I liked the nigger for that; I tell you, gentlemen, a nigger like that is worth a thousand dollars—and