Role Models
Role Models
Recently in the news childhood role models like Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, and Shia Labeouf have fallen under, not only damaging their careers, but more importantly setting lousy examples for the youth of our generation today. On the other hand, it is not just pop culture stars,the same can be said about the fictional character of Huckleberry Finn in Mark Twain’s Novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. To call Huck Finn a good role model we would have to ignore his superior complex, deceitful nature, and foul language present throughout the novel. As one reads the book, they start to think Huckleberry Finn has become a more compassionate, understanding person, however this is not the case. Throughout the book Huck continually belittles Jim, making him feel less than he actually is .An example of Huck’s superiority can be seen when he says, “It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger;”(Twain,
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Throughout the book his devious and sophisticated lies are meant to trick and harm others. An example of his low humor can be seen when he places a snake and has it, “ [bite] him on the heel”. This ended up resulting in Jim’s leg swelling and causing him immense pain. To consider Huck a role model after his stunt nearly killed Jim is unacceptable, since a role model should look to help others not harm them. As a result, what makes this even more unacceptable is that after this Huck tricks Jim into thinking, “ ain’ dead—you ain’ drownded—you’s back agin? “. Here again, Huck fools Jim this time, causing him to presume Huck dead. Not only does this joke hurt Jim’s feeling, but also their relationship with each other, proving that Huck’s deceitful nature disqualifies him as a role model. If the two incidents in Huck’s character do not prove his inability to be a role model his foul language would completely disqualify
He gets into all sorts of conflicts that force him to battle and work his way out of them, and in turn, they propel his moral position’s evolvement. It is especially hard on Huck when it comes time to resolving moral dilemmas. He is always stuck between making his own moral decisions, be it conventional or not, or allowing influencers, his father, the widow, and society, to make the decisions for him. He can never let go of the guilt associated with taking the unconventional path and rejecting what society upholds because that is all he has ever been taught in his life. That is why it is hard to apologize to Jim at first, but given time Huck is able to muster the courage to do so because that is the right thing to do even when society says so otherwise. The same goes for helping a slave, such as Jim, escape to a free state where he can find the opportunity to reunite with his family. Ultimately, he violates the demands of society to do what is right and not contribute to the enslavement of another human being. And it is not until the end of the novel that Huck no longer views his decisions as moral failings, but instead as moral triumph because he stayed true to himself and not once did he allow society to dictate his
	Huck’s attitude for Jim is racist which is seen when he decides to play a trick on Jim during their voyage. After Huck plays his trick his attitude toward Jim begins to change, "It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I warn't ever sorry for it afterward, neither" (Twain 72). The dialogue throughout the book between Huck and Jim illustrates that Jim is more than property and that he is a human being with feelings, and hopes for a better future.
Huck has been raised in a high-class society where rules and morals are taught and enforced. He lives a very strict and proper life where honesty and adequacy is imposed. Huck being young minded and immature, often goes against these standards set for him, but are still very much a part of his decision-making ability and conscience. When faced to make a decision, Hucks head constantly runs through the morals he was taught. One of the major decisions Huck is faced with is keeping his word to Jim and accepting that Jim is a runaway. The society part of Hucks head automatically looks down upon it. Because Huck is shocked and surprised that Jim is a runaway and he is in his presence, reveals Hucks prejudice attitude that society has imposed on him. Huck is worried about what people will think of him and how society would react if they heard that Huck helped save a runaway slave. The unspoken rules th...
Jim's character traits are easy to over look because of his seeming ignorance, but in reality Jim possessed some qualities that created a positive influence on Huck. He began by demonstrating to Huck how friends teach friends. His honest compassion also eventually causes Huck to resist the ideas society has placed upon him, and see Jim as an equal-- rather than property that can be owned. Huck knew he was going against society, and of the consequences that he could receive for freeing a slave. "It would get all around, that Huck Finn helped a nigger to get his freedom; and if I was to ever see anybody from that town again, I'd be ready to get down and lick his boots for shame", (269-270). Huck then claims, "All right, then, I'll go to hell…"(272) This shows that Huck was willing to put himself on the line for a slave, because he ceased to view Jim as property and recognized him as a friend. At the beginning of the story Huck would have never done this, but after the many adventures that occur, Jims unconditional love for Huck pierces the shell society placed ar...
In the beginning of the novel, Huck tends to have an immature side to him. There are some things in the beginning that show that Huck still has a very childish side to him. "They get down on one thing when they don't know nothing about it." (Twain 2) This is showing the ignorance and stubbornness that all children experience throughout life. He thinks as if everything he does is right and everyone else is wrong. "That all comes of my being such a fool as to not remember that wherever you leave a dead snake its mate always comes there and curls around it." (Twain 40) This goes one step further. This shows Huck's Immaturity and Stupidity gone one step too far when he puts the snake in Jim's bed and he ends up getting bit by it. If Huck was more mature and less childish he wouldn't have been playing this so called joke on Jim. Huck learns that jokes have a limit to them at times and need to be thought out more clearly.
In chapter 16, Huck goes through a moral conflict of whether he should turn Jim in or not. “I was paddling off, all in a sweat to tell on him; but when he says this, it seemed to kind of take the tuck all out of me (89).'; Right off from the beginning, Huck wanted to turn Jim in because it was against society’s rules to help a slave escape and Huck knew it. But when Jim said that “Huck; you’s de bes’ fren’ Jim’s ever had; en you’s de only fren’ ole Jim’s got now (89),'; made helped Huck to grasp the concept that there is a friendship in the making. Even though Huck didn’t turn Jim in, he is till troubled by his conscience when the slave catchers were leaving because he knows it is wrong to help a slave. Still Huck cannot bring himself forward to tell on Jim, thus showing that his innate sense of right exceeds that of society.
In lieu of his escape, Jim emphasized his feelings of becoming a free man. Jim said it made him all over trembly and feverish to be so close to freedom (p. 238). Huck came to the realization that Jim was escaping for a far different reason than he, and began to see this “nigger’s” freedom as his own fault; he was an accomplice. Huck’s conscience became plagued by the fact that Jim was escaping the custody of his rightful owner, and he was doing nothing to stop this. In Huck’s eyes, Jim was essentially the property of poor old Ms. Watson, who didn’t do anything less than teach Jim his manners and his books. Altogether, Huck felt that he was doing wrong by concealing this, and felt miserable to say the least.
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, events throughout the novel suggest that Huck is a racist to Jim, Miss Watson’s runaway slave, whether he knows it or not. Despite the fact that Huck travels with Jim, he does not care about freeing Jim from slavery. As a result, Twain’s purpose is more focused on the adventures Huck and Jim experience rather than freeing Jim.
Jim looks at Huck as a friend, savior, and a superior. Jim sees Huck as a friend because Huck is helping Jim to be free. Huck is also seen as a savior because Huck shows up to rescue Jim from the hut after he has been captured. Finally Huck is seen as a superior because white people are a higher rank at the time in the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn By Mark Twain. “ A great relationship is about two things. First appreciating the similarities, and second respecting the differences” by an unknown
Although Huck can sometimes be labeled as a miscreant, he is actually a very honest person. In a literal sense, Huck doesn’t always exhibit honest behavior. However, it is Huck’s realistic and slightly naive view of society that is honest--he sees things for what they truly are. One example of this honesty occurs when Huck helps Jim to freedom. While he doesn’t view his own actions as honorable, the reader can infer that they are. Huck feels guilty for his role in Jim’s escape, knowing that he was doing something society would have scorned. He says,
As a result of his immaturity, Huck causes issues with the people who care about him. For example, Huck and Jim become separated from each other, and Huck tries to convince Jim that he dreams the situation. However, Jim realizes that Huck is messing with him, which saddens Jim. Huck then apologizes to Jim, because he realizes how much that his prank hurt him: “It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to and humble myself to a nigger-but I done it and I warn’t ever sorry for it afterwards…”(Twain 94). This is a turning point for Huck, because he starts to realize that Jim is not just property, but a human with real emotions. It also shows that Huck can relate more to Jim than he can to the other characters in the book, because he struggles to feel empathy for others. This proves how Huck starts to mature, because he understands that he hurt Jim, which ultimately leads him to apologize to Jim. Brownell also expresses similar ways Huck changes for the better because of Jim. For example, Brownell expresses in his essay, “But it is this incident [when Huck lies to] Jim which,
Despite all the criticism, of racism and other questionable material for young readers, Mark Twain’s The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn is a superbly written novel, which in the opinion of this reviewer should not be remove the literary cannon. Twain’s novel is a coming of age story that teaches young people many valuable lessons and to some extend makes students reexamine their own lives and morals. The most common argument for its removal from the literary canon is that the novel is too racist; it offends black readers, perpetuates cheap slave-era stereotypes, and deserves no place on today’s bookshelves. However one must ask if Twain is encouraging traditional southern racism or is Twain disputing these idea.
From the start, it is patent that Huck is somewhat an outcast who fails to agree with the morals and perceptions of society. As his bond with Jim tightens, Huck questions and disregards many of the lessons he has received about slavery and race. Rather than following the teachings of civilization, Huck decides to follow his own experience, logic, and conscience. At first, he struggles to decipher which is correct, society or his heart; but Huck decides that regardless of right or wrong, he is going to embrace his conscience in regards to Jim. In the beginning, Huck starts out seeing Jim as a worthless “nigger”, but he gradually defies the Jim Crow South by valuing and admiring the escaped slave. One sees Huck following his moral instincts when he battles social customs and accepts his ideas to help Jim in many dire situations. Regardless of feeling the pressures of having the social obligations to turn in a runaway slave, Huck remembers “how good [Jim] always was” (214) and is internally faced with the dilemma of trying to do what he perceives as right. More than once, Huck comes to the resolution, “All right, then, I’ll go to hell” (214), because he sees Jim as more of a father and friend than anyone he has previously encountered. For Huck, his time on the raft is where he truly receives his moral education because that is
In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the character of Huck considers himself to be a wholly bad and ignorant character. However, throughout the story Huck manages to commit many selfless acts and to live through some remarkable adventures that would give to the reader the image of Huck as a truly selfless hero. During the time in which Twain’s tale was written many people were unaware of the incorrectness of society’s attitudes towards black people. Huck, however, through his heroism grows and learns from the experiences he goes through and manages to form his own perspective on race and discrimination, and indeed it seems to be that the adventures of the story really begin when Huck meets the escaped slave Jim. “I was ever so glad to see Jim. I warn’t lonesome, now.” (Twain, page 36.) It is apparent to the reader that Jim is not classed as just a slave to Huck but rather he is his partner. Thus, in t...
In the beginning, Huckleberry Finn hasn?t fully formed opinions on topics such as slavery. He is quite immature and content to just have ?adventures? with his friends. During his journey on the raft, he learns much more about himself through his dealings with others. He establishes his very own standards of right and wrong. Huck?s most important lessons are learned through Jim. He learns to see Jim as a person rather than as a slave: ?I knowed he was white inside? (263). More than any other character in the book, Jim is a catalyst for Huck?s maturity. Through Jim as well as other people he meets along the way, Huck becomes a more defined person who?s more fully himself. His development through the course of the novel proves The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to be a gradual journey toward growth and maturity.