Greed In Huckleberry Finn

1292 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Mark Twain and his role in the development of American literature

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, is set along the Mississippi River in the pre-Civil War 1840s and discusses greed and cruelty in society. Discontent with the sedentary lifestyle he currently leads, Huck decides to run away, meeting the runaway slave, Jim, on Jackson's Island. Together, Finn and Jim decide to journey down the Mississippi River to Cairo, meeting an assortment of unsavory frontiersmen. Among these people are the King and the Duke, two con-men willing to make money by any means necessary, including by defrauding the orphan Wilks sisters. While they do not succeed in doing so, they do make an easy $40 selling Jim, leading Huck to question whether he is capable of helping Jim escape from slavery a second time. …show more content…

Upon first joining Huck and Jim on the raft, the younger of the two con-men promptly declares himself to be the Duke of Bridgewater. Jealous of the Duke’s preferential treatment, and royal position, the King begins to mock him by calling him the Duke of “Bilgewater” (Twain, 145). When the King calls the Duke “Bilgewater”, he shows that he doesn’t respect the Duke and his (albeit fraudulent) identity. In his contempt towards the Duke, his disdain for the Duke’s title disparages the Duke’s personhood. Later, following the failure of their Romeo and Juliet show, the King and the Duke are eager to make some money, and decide to put on a low comedy show titled Royal Nonesuch. On the playbills they post around town, it is written at the bottom “ladies and children not admitted” (Twain, 177). In prohibiting women and children from seeing Royal Nonesuch, the King and the Duke make an unnecessary generalization about all women. They help perpetuate the delicate, frail woman stereotype by barring women from seeing their play and refuse to see women as a diverse group, assuming them to be a monolith, thus contributing to the erasure of their personhood. After claiming to be the dead Peter Wilk’s remaining brothers, the King and the Duke decide to sell his property to make the most amount of money possible. They start by first …show more content…

By simply selling the slave family to make an easy profit, the King and the Duke completely disregard that the slave family also shares a deeply personal connection to each other. Contrary to the popular belief at the time, slave families felt as much kinship with their family members as white people felt to theirs, and the King and the Duke’s indifference to the plight of the slave family only serves to further dehumanize them and deny them their basic right to feelings as humans. Once Huck finally succeeds in ditching the King and the Duke, he ecstatically runs back to raft to tell Jim that they should go now to escape. He is chagrined to discover that Jim is not there, and is told by a boy in the area that Jim. He goes to confront the Duke, who tells him “No! That old fool sold him, and never divided with me, and the money’s gone” (Twain, 252). By simply selling Jim, without consulting Huck or Jim, it illustrates how the King and the Duke view Jim as a piece of property to do with as they please. By viewing Jim as for-profit property instead of a human being, the King and the Duke rob Jim of his dignity and personhood.

Show More
Related

  • Comparing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and A&P

    604 Words  | 2 Pages

    Why would anyone in his or her right mind even think about freeing a slave? Everyone in the society was telling Huck that slaves were no more than ones property, but Huck began to question this belief when he got to know the property for who it really was. During the story there are many times when Huck feels an obligation to turn Jim in to the authorities and just get on with his life, but his conscience kept telling him that this man is a real person. Near the end of the story, Jim was stuck in a holding cell, since he had run away. After much consideration of the situation, Huck decides that he wants to free Jim because he believes that he shouldn't be treated that way. Even though the entire town believes that Jim should be contained and treated like property, Huck still sticks to his morals and goes along with the plan that could get him in trouble or even killed. At the end of the story we find out that Jim had always been free, and we now find Huck's actions to be heroic and noble.

    Read More

  • moralhf Comparing Moral Strength in Huckleberry Finn and On The Rainy River

    715 Words  | 2 Pages

    Together, Huckleberry Finn and a runaway slave named Jim head south along the Mississippi during one summer.  During their adventures, Huck has trouble with his conscience—he knows Jim is a runaway, and that the socially correct thing to do would be to turn him in and get him sent back to his owner.  However, whenever the opportunity to do so arises, Huck finds it impossible to do.  Near the end of the book, when Huck is out meandering and Jim is still on the raft in the river, Jim is captured by an old man as a runaway and gets sold for $40.  It is here, at this point, that Huck has his largest moral dilemma.  Should he let Jim remain captured, as he is legally the property of Miss Watson, or should he rescue the true friend who has stayed steadfastly and unwaveringly by his side?  Huck does not want to remain “wicked,” as he himself calls it, so he writes a letter to Miss Watson informing her that her slave is being held by a Mr. Phelps down south of Pikesville.  He cannot, though, bring himself to send the letter.  He winds up ripping the letter to shreds, with the comment, “All right, then, I’ll go to hell” (p. 207).  He is willing to sacrifice his soul, and do a deed he believes he will be damned for, to save Jim, the runaway slave.  It takes a character of great moral strength to do what he did.

    Read More

  • Why Should Huck Finn Be Banned

    1274 Words  | 3 Pages

    While staying with a farming family, Huck’s partner, known as “The King,” sold off some slaves that he swindled away from the family. While the slaves were crying and saying goodbye to each other, Huck thinks that “I couldn’t a stood it all but would a had to bust...if I hadn’t knowed the sale warn’t no account and the niggers would be back home in a week or two”(Clemens, 234-235). While traveling with Jim down the Mississippi, Huck’s transformation on his outlook on slaves is drastic. He no longer sees Jim as “Miss Watson’s big nigger,”(Clemens, 22) but as a

    Read More

  • Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

    965 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Greed In Mark Twain's The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer

    578 Words  | 2 Pages

    “The point is that you can’t be too greedy,” says Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States. Many people look up to him as he is apparently now president. The definition of greed is an intense and selfish desire for something especially wealth or power. Greed is a part of human nature. The main character, Tom Sawyer experiences it quite often in the book. Thomas Sawyer is an eleven-year-old boy who lives with his aunt in a small religious town. One of the themes that Mark Twain explores in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is that everyone has some amount of greed in them. Three examples that support this theme are when Tom risked his life in the search for gold, Tom tried to get Becky by making her jealous, and when Tom and his friends ran away because they didn’t feel appreciated.

    Read More

  • Alienation of Huckleberry Finn in the Advertures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

    1178 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Parallelism In Huckleberry Finn

    1353 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel and sequel through which Mark Twain weaves a consistent theme regarding the battle of right versus wrong. Twain presents Huckleberry Finn, or simply Huck, as the main character who finds himself on a current-driven journey down the Mississippi River to escape the abuse of his alcoholic father. The encounters of Huck and Jim, the escaped slave of the widow Mrs. Watson, serve as a catalyst for the moral based decisions in this MORAL-riddled novel.

    Read More

  • Huck Finn

    1211 Words  | 3 Pages

    Jim had run away from his abusive father and enabling small town to find himself traveling down the Mississippi on a raft. His traveling partner was a black slave, Jim. Wondering why Jim was there, Huck discovers that Jim had run away from his slave owner, Ms. Watson. Jim had spoken about his harsh life as a slave, and resented talk of being sold down to Orleans for a “big stack o’ money.” Huck felt that Jim’s escape was wrong, but kept his promise of secrecy, like any good friend would.

    Read More

  • Huckleberry Finn

    1052 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout his voyage down the Mississippi, Huck has various arguments with Jim, which force him to question the facts that he has been taught from a white society. These serve as metaphors addressing different beliefs that are disputed amongst the rivaling races. Huck and Jim quarrel about “King Sollermun” (Twain 266), who threatened to chop a baby in half. Jim debates that Solomon had so many children that he became incapable of valuing human life. Huck then defends what he believes to be “de wises’ man dat ever live’” (266) by explaining to Jim that he has “‘clean missed the point’” (267). Huck’s subsequent comments relate Jim’s conclusion about Solomon and his view of white treatment of blacks as infinitely replaceable bodies. Instead of bickering, Huck “went on talking about other kings, and let Solomon slide” (267).

    Read More

  • Twains Huck Finn Compared To The Movie

    856 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The search for self in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Catcher in the Rye

    1943 Words  | 4 Pages

    Set in pre-civil war America, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn takes place along the Mississippi river. As Huckleberry travels along it he learns lessons about life, society and most importantly; himself. Surrounded by a world of prejudice and racism, Huck is forced to learn to make decisions on his own. He is able to learn from the imperfections in the rest of the world as he views them. While on the river, Huck and Jim are at peace. The river symbolizes freedom for both Jim and Huck. The river is Jim’s path to freedom from slavery, and it is Huck’s freedom from society. When Jim and Huck journey onto the banks of the river they see the inhumanity to man that goes on in the world. This juxtaposition of the river and the land help emphasize the peacefulness of the river in comparison to the crazy society on land. Huck learns to think for himself, and tries not to conform to the ways of the people on the land. Although the world that he lives in teaches him to be a racist, his journey down the river teaches him to use his own mind, and find out what he really believes in.

    Read More

  • Why Does Huck Lie To Protect Himself

    1814 Words  | 4 Pages

    He did not care whether society thought what he was doing was right or wrong he just wanted to look out for Jim. When Huck gets washed ashore after the wreck he comes upon this strange family, named the Grangerfords. The Grangerfords are very cautious of Huck because they are in the middle of a feud with a family named, the Shepherdsons. When they notice that Huck is not a Shepherdson they welcome him into their home. Since Huck was a stranger they wanted to know more about him and his family. Huck shares with them about his family and how they used to live on a small farm in Arkansas. He explains that his sister ran off and his brother went to go find her but both of them were never heard of again. Also, he had two brothers who died and a father who was very poor. So when his father died he took what was left and went up river but fell overboard. Huck never says anything about Jim or mentions him at all. Huck did not know the Grangerfords for all he knew they would try to get the prize money for Jim because they themselves have slaves. Even though they were nice people Huck does not know if they can be trusted so Huck just does not say anything about Jim. Huck lies about Jim again when they meet up with the Duke and King. The Duke and King asked if Jim was a runaway and Huck proclaims, "Goodness sakes! Would a runaway nigger run south?" (125) Huck then continues to lie about his family

    Read More

  • Abolitionist Mark Twain

    1400 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, is considered a classic novel from the realism period of American Literature that accurately depicts social conventions from pre-civil war times. Despite this reputation as a historical lens of life on the Mississippi River, elements of blatant racism overshadow the regionalist and realist depictions. Huck Finn does not promote racism because all derogatory or racist remarks are presented as a window to life during the 1850s, in a satirical context, or to show Mark Twain's moral views on racism.

    Read More

  • moralhf Moral Choices in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

    572 Words  | 2 Pages

    So when Huck fakes his death and runs away to live on an island he is faced with yet another problem, which revolves around the controversial issue of the time of racism. While living on the island he meets Jim, who was a slave, but Huck soon learns that he has run off and now in the process of making his way up north to Canada. Here Huck is faced with his first tough decision, to go with Jim and help him, or just go and tell the officials of a runaway slave and get the reward. Huck reluctantly joins Jim and promises to get him to free land for the sake of a good adventure, but he still feels guilty to be conversing with a runaway slave, let alone help him escape. Along the way Huck has many challenges, which are just like this one.

    Read More

  • Hypocrisy In Huckleberry Finn

    836 Words  | 2 Pages

    Twain also presents this idea by revealing Aunt Sally’s attitude towards African Americans. After being captured by the King and the Duke, Jim is sold to Aunt Sally and Uncle Silas. While Jim is kept as a prisoner, Aunt is incredibly friendly towards Jim. She checks in on him every so often and makes sure he is never too hungry. However, when Huck first arrives and tells Aunt Sally about the boat wreck, she worriedly asks if anyone was hurt.

    Read More

More about Greed In Huckleberry Finn

Open Document