Hypocrisy In The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

Humans, in general, are horrible creatures. We pollute our land, hurt our own species, and have the nerve to complain about it and put up “Save the Trees” posters in our homes, while tossing a Pepsi bottle into the trash can. It may seem that no one has any moral values anymore, but that is not exactly true. One’s view on this depends on how they view “moral values.” Moral values, according to dictionary.com, “refer to a set of principles that guide an individual on how to evaluate right versus wrong.” But what do we classify as right or wrong? While nowadays it is “disgusting” or “wrong” to urinate in a public street, people in the 1600s may have considered this acceptable. Although the moral values of the community in the 1800s may have differed from that of the 2000s, it is evident that the characters of the novel Huckleberry Finn are lacking in basic moral values, and even show clear signs of racial hypocrisy.
Huck and Jim are the main characters in the novel, and throughout, they encounter many different people. At first, before their journey, Huck

When they meet the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons, who are at a family feud with each other, they witness their hatred for each other, and the families begin to kill each other by the time they get out. Murder and assault do not exactly scream moral values. Then they meet the duke and the dauphin, who engage in angering, destructive “joke” pranks that result in many people hating them, all in the name of “good fun.” And, finally, they encounter Silas and Sally Phelps, who kidnap Jim and keep him in the shed. Then Tom Sawyer arrives, and makes the escape a dramatic production, in part at the expense of Jim’s safety. It is evident that many, if not all these characters display signs of being rude, hypocritical, or even despicable. The only exceptions to this are Huck and Jim, who appear to be the only characters who have any sort of moral