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the adventures of huckleberry finn analysis
analysis of mark twain
huckleberry finn literary analysis essay
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Violence and Freedom in Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
In, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, author, Mark Twain contrasts what life is like on the uncivilized shore compared to the peaceful life on the river. Huckleberry Finn is a character that rejects society's behaviors and values because he does not want to be "civilized" like everyone wants him to be. Huck is someone with a mind of his own and someone who does what he pleases. Since Huck is someone who rejects society, he eventually ends up running away and traveling up the Mississippi River with a slave name Jim. The two runaways find peace on the river and they also find that they do not have to deal with the cruel society on shore. In this respect, what qualities make the river and society on shore so different from one another and how does Twain establish these contrasts? Huck and Jim are two individuals seeking freedom from the uncivilized people on the shore and during their journey together they find freedom on the raft floating up the Mississippi River.
The values of the society on land are of greed, violence, cruelty, and deception. Huck's father was one of these tasteless members of society. He was a drunken cruel person who only cared about finding Huck when he heard he was rich. He intended on getting all Huck's money. Huck's father states,
Looky-heremind how you talk to me, I'm a standing about all I can stand, nowso don't gimme no sass. I've been in town two days, and I haint heard nothing but you bein' rich. I heard about it away down the river, too. That's why I come. You git me that money to-morrowI want it. (59)
Huck's father is a perfect example of the greed in society. He does not care about anything else besides Huck's money. Huck's father will even beat him for no reason or because he is jealous of Huck for being clean and educated. Huck states,
Every little while he locked me in and went down to the store, three miles to the ferry, and traded fish and game for whiskey and fetched it home and got drunk and had a good time, and licked me. (61)
Hucks rejection for society began right with his father because he had seen what it had done to him.
Huck Finn thinks about his father in an unusual way. Huck does not like his father, which makes sense because his father is a greedy drunk, however Huck still looks up to his father as a role model. Pap is not a good role model for Huck because of his history of abusing Huck and his random disappearances. When Pap tries to gain custody of his Huck, the judges side with him just because he is the father. This is shown when Huck says “The judge and the widow went to law to ge...
Society has always denounced the acts of death and children running away from their homes. Huck can be seen as a morbid child as he is always talking about death and murder. Society would rather not have anything to do with people who have such a melancholic outlook on life. Living with years of torment by his drunkard father, Pap, Huck feared the day he would return to daunt his life. When Pap does return, he seizes Huck and drags him to a secluded cabin where Huck is boarded inside and unable to leave: This is where the dilemma occurs. In this position, Huck has a decision to make, either take note to the morals of society and listen to his conscience, which will result in more added years of pain and anguish from Pap, or Huck can listen to his heart and do what he thinks is best.
When one is young they must learn from their parents how to behave. A child's parents impose society's unspoken rules in hope that one day their child will inuitivly decerne wrong from right and make decisions based on their own judgment. These moral and ethical decisions will affect one for their entire life. In Mark Twains, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck is faced with the decision of choosing to regard all he has been taught to save a friend, or listen and obey the morals that he has been raised with. In making his decision he is able to look at the situation maturely and grow to understand the moral imbalances society has. Hucks' decisions show his integrity and strength as a person to choose what his heart tells him to do, over his head.
Huck would try and be a rebel because he had no male to tell him right from wrong. If Huck needed help the only real person that he could talk to would be Tom Sawyer, a very good friend also a thief, a rebel, and he lived on his own. Tom was not that great of a role model, for a young boy like Huck. His father was always away, and never there for him, and when he was around he was always drunk. It is hard enough to talk to a drunk man let alone when you have a problem and need advice. The childhood of a young boy is very crucial in what he will be like in his own life.
Huck develops morally from his companion on his journey, Jim, a runaway slave. At first, Huck doesn't respect Jim because he's his slave. "…He slipped Jim's hat off his head and hung it on a limb right over him…" P.6. This shows how Huck likes to trick Jim and play games on him. Later the two meet up on an island and immediately befriend and join up together. "…I didn't do him no more mean tricks, and I wouldn't done that if I'd 'a' knew it would make him feel that way." P.86. Huck says this after fooling Jim and telling him that a real event was just a dream of his. He r...
The first influence on Huck to be discussed is that of the darker, corrupt, and greedy side of society. This unfortunate commodity is all around him as the teenager ventures into towns and, most especially, when he meets the duke and the king, who, upon request, asked if Jim and himself “treated him according to his rights, and got down on one knee to speak to him, and always called him 'Your Majesty'” out of sadness from his lost fortune (124). Despite agreeing to their wishes, Huck immediately knew they were lying. These men have highly cunning social skills, and know how to obtain anything they want through fraudulent descriptions that bring others to sympathize. Despite its corruption, this lifestyle can bring results, as the two men were successful in controlling Huck in Jim. What Huck must decide is whether this system of lying for a personal gain of capital or respect is what he truly desires. After running from Ms. Watson, his father, and the rest of the community, he knew he was searching for something different, but did not know entirely what it was. This lifestyle could bring him happiness and a lack of any current problems. He experiments with it in many ...
Huck knew it was his time to go and explore the world for himself. He was tired of everybody’s “rules and guidelines, and he was ready to make his own rules. He wanted to travel to the western territory to start fresh where the people did not yet establish a set of rules. He was done with society completely and wanted in no way to return to its harsh and cruel judgment. Huck grew as a person and became his own man. He overcame all his adversity and showed his father and society that he didn’t need them in his life to be great (Sparknotes).
In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, the nature of individual and societal morality is a pivotal theme to Huck’s storyline and the lens through which he views Southern culture. Through the storyline, Huck is introduced to multiple renditions of moral codes from pap, the widow, Tom, and Jim. Additionally, Huck is also given an ideal seat to view the motives of the multiple mobs and how they interact as a part of society. In Huck’s narrative, an individual 's morality is directly linked to personal benefit being valued above all else and this shapes how and where Huck applies his moral code. Despite this, Huck is able to cultivate his sense of moral responsibility. Moreover, societal morality is even less developed than personal and
Life on land was filled with many difficulties. There were many rules that Huck had to follow set by both the widow and his father. The widow’s main goal was to “civilize” Huck into a member of society. She expected Huck to go to school, wear clean clothes, sleep in his bed, and go to church. She just wanted him to be like a normal child of his age. Even though Huck bends the rules a bit and tries to sneak a smoke here and there, he eventually grows to like living under the widow’s protection. He proves this point when he says, "Living in a house, and sleeping in a bed, pulled on me pretty tight, mostly, but before the cold weather I used to slide out and sleep in the woods, sometimes, and so that was a rest to me. I liked the old ways best, but I was getting so I liked the new ones, too, a littl...
Tom's upbringing is typical for this time period. He belongs to a middle class family made up of himself, his Aunt Polly, and his half brother, Sid. Tom is obsessed with stories of heroes and villains. He spends his spare time trying to pull together a group of robbers made of the other boys in the neighborhood. Huck's father is a poor alcoholic who habitually beats his son when he is drunk. All their money goes to support his addiction. In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer find $6000 and the Widow Douglas adopts Huck to "sivilize" him. The Widow's house is the only place where Huck lives as a human being. He wears nice clothes, eats well, and attends school and church on a regular basis.
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huckleberry Finn is seen as an orphan, but he has a father, Pap. Pap is a horrible influence and he is abusive towards Huck. During the beginning chapters of the book, Pap kidnaps Huck and keeps him on an island. Huck finds a way out by faking his own murder. This leaves Huck orphaned because Pap thinks he is dead. So this leads Huck to find his own family in Jim and Tom. Huck’s story exemplifies the theme of finding family in many places.
When we are first introduced to Huck, he is very immature. Refusing to give in to "civilized society," he is not making a mature decision; he is merely being stubborn. Huck is unable to be mature because his father has literally beaten into him his own values and beliefs. Because of his father, Huck has almost no self-confidence. He has been taught to shun society and is unable to make a decision to accept it because of the constant threat that his father may come...
Since Tom’s parents died, he lives with his Aunt Polly, his half-brother Sid, and his cousin Mary. Huck, however, still had his father, Pap, but is equivalent to not having a father at all. Pap always disappeared for months and would return home often drunk. Huck lives by himself, usually homeless. He does what he pleases at his own leisure. Huck does not attend school nor church, so he has very little education. He smokes and swears without anyone to fuss at him. Tom envies Huck’s freedom and laid-back life. Tom, on the ...
At the beginning of the tale, Huck struggles between becoming ?sivilized? and doing what he pleases. He doesn?t want to listen to the rules that the Widow Douglas and her sister force upon him, even though he knows the widow only wants what is best for him. Miss Watson pushes Huck away from society even more through the way she treats him. She teaches him religion in such a dreary way that when she speaks of heaven and hell, Huck would rather go to hell than be in heaven with her: ?And she told all about the bad place, and I said I wished I was there?I couldn?t see no advantage in going where she was going, so I made up my mind I wouldn?t try for it? (12-13). Huck is taught a very different kind of morality by his father who believes ?it warn?t no harm to borrow things, if you was meaning to pay them back?? (70). He likes his father?s idea of morality better because he is not yet mature enough to fully understand right and wrong, although living with the widow...
A “true father” can be described as one who displays paternal qualities, substituting an individual’s real, less nurturing father. This figure can be anyone that spends a lot of time with a younger individual, becoming a role model for him or her. In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain presents many leading figures that impact Huck’s life, including Pap, the Duke, the Dauphin, and Jim. Most of them serve as negative influences on Huck, taking advantage of him for their own selfish purposes. However, some of these figures teach Huck principles and morals to live by, and impart important values needed to make proper decisions. Jim, an African American slave, is one of Huck’s role models, allowing the reader can easily identify Jim as a father figure. He provides like a real father for Huck, caring for him, as well as listening to his ideas and teaching him, proving that Jim is Huck’s “true father.”