The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, is a very popular novel. In fact this book is required reading in almost every high school in America. There are many themes that take place in this novel such as the battle between good and evil as Huck tries to decide what decisions he should make while on the Mississippi River with Jim. There is also a great amount of contrast in regards to slavery and racism. Among all the themes in the novel I believe the one that best represents the story is childhood. Huck's childish thoughts and actions conclude with Huck making adult decisions in tough situations while encountering river adventures. Twain shows us Huck’s childlike nature in chapter 20. As Huck and Jim are floating down the river it is Huck's turn to keep watch. As he is on watch a fierce summer storm approaches …show more content…
As Huck tends to look at situations logically, Tom is more imaginative in his thinking. When Tom insists on using less efficient tools to dig Jim out he finally gives in to using more efficient ones when he realizes that they are making no progress. The way Tom handles this situation in chapter 36 shows us his childlike imagination as well as his stubbornness.
"Gimme a CASE-KNIFE."
I didn’t know what to do – but then I thought. I scratched around amongst the old tools, and got a pickaxe and gave it to him, and he took it and went to work, and never said a word”
Instead of Tom just admitting that the case-knife isn’t working he asks for it in a way that Huck knows to give him the pickaxe.
In conclusion The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, reveals a numerous amount of themes throughout the novel, expressed by many characters. Themes such as friendship, family, and religion may be argued to be the overall theme of the story. In my opinion the ultimate theme of this book is childhood. All of the decision Huck makes and adventures he goes on each start with the mindset of a
When Huck and Tom reencounter towards the end of the novel, Twain’s portrayal of each boys’ ideology sparks sharp contrast between practicality and romanticism. Tom is a risk-taker, a divergent thinker, an imaginative boy; exactly Huck’s opposite. Huck is a realist, a hesitant decision-maker, and a submissive boy. When faced with the challenge to free Jim from captivity by the Phelps family, both adventurists come up with a plan and after Huck presents his effective plan to Tom he says “Wouldn’t that plan work?” to which Tom replies, “Work? Why cer’nly, it would work, like rats a fighting.
Tom gives him forty dollars for being such a good prisoner. He is so excited and says that he 's rich; he knew he would be rich again one day because of his hairy arms. Tom suggests that they all go and play around in outfits among the Injuns. Huck says that he would like to but he doesn 't have the money for an outfit. And he doesn 't want to go home to get money because he thinks Pap probably stole it all already. Jim tells him that isn 't possible and Pap isn 't going to be coming around ever again. He tells Huck that the dead man he found covered up was
Mark Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of the greatest American novels ever written. The story is about Huck, a young boy who is coming of age and is escaping from his drunken father. Along the way he stumbles across Miss Watson's slave, Jim, who has run away because he overhead that he would be sold. Throughout the story, Huck is faced with the moral dilemma of whether or not to turn Jim in. Mark Twain has purposely placed these two polar opposites together in order to make a satire of the society's institution of slavery. Along the journey, Twain implies his values through Huck on slavery, the two-facedness of society, and represents ideas with the Mississippi River.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain is about the great adventures that Huck finn has with his slave Jim on the Missouri River. The story tells not only about the adventures Huck has, but more of a deeper understanding of the society he lives in. Twain had Huck born into a low class society of white people; his father was a drunken bum and his mother was dead. He was adopted by the widow Douglas who tried to teach him morals, ethics, and manners that she thought fit in a civilized society. Huck never cared for these values and ran away to be free of them. During Huck’s adventure with Jim he unknowingly realized that he didn't agree with society’s values and could have his own assumptions and moral values. Twain uses this realization to show how the civilized and morally correct social values that was introduced to Huck was now the civilized and morally contradicting values.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, is a novel about a young man's search for identity. Huckleberry Finn goes through some changes and learns some life lessons throughout his journey. Huck changes from being just an immature boy at the beginning of the novel to being a more mature man who looks at things in a different perspective now.
When a child is born it’s actions and morals are solely based on the environment it’s parents set for it. The child is unable to move, eat, learn and speak without the guidance of an individual. However as the child progresses in life it starts breaking away from the environment that is set for them and engage themselves in the environment of their choice. The child starts to develop it’s own morals and an identity for themselves overtime, similar to Huck Finn. In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is a story about a 13 year old boy who heads out on a journey through the Mississippi River with a black runaway slave, Jim. Through the trials they went through during the adventure, it opened up a new sense of understanding for the world. Twain manipulates Huck to be an evolving character in the novel supported by his changes in maturity and morals.
Soon after joining Jim on the island, Huck begins to realize that Jim has more talents and intelligence than Huck has been aware of. Jim knows "all kinds of signs" about the future, people's personalities, and weather forecasting. Huck finds this kind of information necessary as he and Jim drift down the Mississippi on a raft. As important, Huck feels a comfort with Jim that he has not felt with the other major characters in the novel. With Jim, Huck can enjoy the best aspects of his earlier influences. Jim's meaning to Huck changes as they proceed through their adventure. He starts out as an extra person just to take on the journey, but they transform into a friend. "It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger."(chap. XV) Huck tries to squeal on Jim but can't because he remembers that Jim called him "de bes' fren' I ever had;...de on'y white genlman dat ever kep' his promise to ole Jim."(chap. XVI) Huck realizes that he can not turn Jim in since they both act as runaway outcasts on the river. The support they have for each other sprouts friendship. As does the Widow, Jim allows Huck security, but Jim is not as confining as is the Widow. Like Tom Sawyer, Jim is intelligent but his intelligence ...
...ion. Twain ends his novel by setting Huck up for a new experience and personal growth. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn taught an important lesson, one that showed the importance of the self in the maturing process. We saw Huck grow up by having the river as a place of solitude and thought, where he was able to participate in society at times, and also sit back and observe society. Through the child's eye we see how ignorant and mob-like we can all be. Then nature, peace, and logic are presented in the form of the river where Huck goes to think. Though no concise answer is given, the literature forces the reader to examine their surroundings, and question their leaders.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is a classic novel about a young boy who struggles to save and free himself from captivity, responsibility, and social injustice. Along his river to freedom, he aids and befriends a runaway slave named Jim. The two travel down the Mississippi, hoping to reach Cairo successfully. However, along the way they run into many obstacles that interrupt their journey. By solving these difficult tasks, they learn life lessons important to survival.
...e to Miss Watson (224). Huck’s own morals replace the belief society gave him and convince him that turning in Jim would be wrong. As a result, he resolves that he will set Jim free again, and continues helping him.
Huck Finn learns from the actions of people around him, what kind of a person he is going to be. He is both part of the society and an outlier of society, and as such he is given the opportunity to make his own decisions about what is right and what is wrong. There are two main groups of characters that help Huck on his journey to moral maturation. The first group consists of Widow Douglas, Miss Watson, and the judge. They portray society and strict adherence to rules laid out by authority. The second group consists of Pap, the King, and the Duke. They represent outliers of society who have chosen to alienate themselves from civilized life and follow no rules. While these characters all extremely important in Huck’s moral development, perhaps the most significant character is Jim, who is both a fatherly figure to Huck as well as his parallel as far as limited power and desire to escape. Even though by the end of the novel, Huck still does not want to be a part of society, he has made a many choices for himself concerning morality. Because Huck is allowed to live a civilized life with the Widow Douglas, he is not alienated like his father, who effectively hates civilization because he cannot be a part of it. He is not treated like a total outsider and does not feel ignorant or left behind. On the other hand, because he does not start out being a true member of the society, he is able to think for himself and dismiss the rules authority figures say are correct. By the end of the novel, Huck is no longer a slave to the rules of authority, nor is he an ignorant outsider who looks out only for himself. This shows Huck’s moral and psychological development, rendering the description of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” as a picaresq...
Another theme that is dealt with in this book is slavery. In fact, slavery is one of the main topics that has been frequently debated in regards to Huckleberry Finn since it was first published. Twain himself was vehemently anti-slavery and Huckleberry Finn can in many ways be seen as an allegory for why slavery is wrong. Twain uses Jim, a slave who is one of the main characters, as a way of showing the human side of a slave. Everything about Jim is presented through emotions: Jim runs away because Miss Watson was going to sell him South and separate him from his family; Jim is trying to become free so he can buy his family's freedom; and Jim takes care of Huck and protects him on their journey downriver in a very materialistic manner.
“The situation of the orphan is truly the worst, you’re a child, powerless, with no protectors or guides. It’s the most vulnerable position you can be in, to see someone overcome those odds tells us something about the human spirit. They are often depicted as the kindest or most clever of characters.” Michelle Boisseau describes how important these types of characters are. In a Sunday Times article, she states that a lot of the stories and novels are considered to be apologues about orphans becoming the hero of the book. Huck’s story is quite like this subject. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel written by Mark Twain, it’s about a boy named Huckleberry Finn, who sets out on a journey to discover his own truth about living free in nature, rather than becoming civilized in a racist and ignorant society. Mark Twain implies that Huck Finn resembles more of what he believes is right rather than what society surmises from him. Twain reveals this through the themes of satire, racism, and hero’s journey, which he uses constantly through out the book.
In conclusion, the physical journey in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the central focus of the novel and serves many purposes; ranging from plot development to teaching Huck multiple lessons about equality and treating people for what they are, rather than what they appear to be. In this novel the beginning and the end are not significant, only the middle because this is where Huck learns things by experience that the rest of the country is ignorant to.
The theme of growth and maturity is portrayed heavily throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain which centers on Huck Finn, a rambunctious boy whose adventures with a runaway slave build him into a mature young man. The novel is a bildungsroman because it depicts the development and maturing of a young protagonist. In the first part of the story, Huck is seen as very immature. He struggles between doing what he wants and what society would have him do. On the raft, Huck realizes what his own beliefs are because of the people he meets in his journey. Huck?s biggest transformation is through his relationship with Jim. Although Huck isn?t a wonderful person, by the end of the book he has matured extraordinarily.