Examples Of Coming Of Age In Huckleberry Finn

The great American novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a coming of age story written by Mark Twain. The novel is about a young character named Huck Finn; he is an eleven years old boy who faces many challenges throughout the book. The challenges he faces eventually help him to become mature. One of the main challenges he faces is his father’s less affectionate for him. His father Pap is an alcoholic man and he is never around. With this reason, Huck stays with Miss Watson and the widow. At Miss. Watson’s house, Huck is introduced to another main character named Jim. Jim is Miss.Watson’s slave. Miss.Watson and the widow mostly take care of Huck throughout his childhood, until one day when Pap discovers about the 6,000 dollars Huck

At the beginning of the novel, Huck and his friends decide to form their own gang. One day, they all decide to steal and kill people. Huck asks a question, “Must we always kill the people?” And Tom response was “Oh, certainly. It’s best. Some authorities think different, but mostly it’s considered best to kill them.” This shows how these young men don’t understand the importance of life and how immature they truly are. In the beginning of the novel, Huck is immature and does not care about death because he has never experienced it. But that all changes during his adventure on the Mississippi River, after he escapes from Pap. He discovers a dead man on a ferryboat, which we later found out at the end of the novel that it was his father, Pap. As a young child witnessing death, it is the first start of coming of age. At the last chapter, Jim finally tells Huck that his father will not be coming back, and Huck

During the experiences of the adventure with Jim, Huck realizes that blacks should be treated equally. At the beginning of the novel Huck and Tom tie Jim to a tree. “When we was ten foot off, Tom whispered to me and wanted to tie Jim to the tree for fun” (). In the beginning Huck thinks Jim as a property and that he has no feelings or rights as a white human being. Throughout the novel, Huck figures that Jim has feelings just like everyone else. “ It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go to humble myself to a nigger-but I done it, and I warn’t ever sorry for it afterwards, neither. I didn’t do him no more mean tricks, and I wouldn’t done that one if I’d knowed it would make him feel that way “ (). It shows how Huck feels guilty for tricking Jim into believing he was dreaming. Huck thought that blacks don’t have any feelings that can get hurt. Huck learns that what society is telling him about blacks is wrong. One day, Huck lie to these men when they ask whether the man, Jim, on the raft was back or white, and Huck lies that said he was white, just to protect Jim. These actions and decisions show Huck’s formality of coming of