Huck Finn Analysis
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
A Critical Analysis
SECTION I- Chapters 1 through 11
The book introduces Huck as the first person narrator which is important because it establishes clearly that this book is written from the point of view of a young, less than civilized character. His character emerges as a very literal and logical thinker who only believes what he can see with his own eyes. In this section Huck’s life with the Widow Douglas and her attempts to raise him as a civilized child sets up the main theme of this book which is the struggle or quest for freedom. Huck’s struggle for freedom from civilized society is paralleled by Jim’s struggle to escape from slavery. Irony as a key literary element in this novel is apparent in this chapter and is primarily expressed through Huck’s sarcasm. A major element of superstition is introduced and continues throughout the entire book. This superstition is used to give insight into Huck’s character, which is very naive and gullible, as well as foreshadow events. For example the killing of the spider in chapter 1 and, in a later chapter, the spilling of the salt does result in bad luck in the form of Pa coming home. Twain puts together an interesting juxtaposition of theft with honor when Tom Sawyer establishes his robber band with Huck and the other boys and they swear to their code of ethics. Interestingly, this is also paralleled at the end of the book when Tom is able to help steal Jim “honorably” because Jim is already a free man. Throughout this section, Huck’s character and personality is established. He is revealed as humble in that he constantly underplays his own intelligence. An example is when he plans his own death and then whi...
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...y Miss Watson in her will. Jim’s struggles had not been necessary for him to be free but had been for the emotional growth of Huck and his freedom from society’s view of slavery. Huck is also revealed to be free from Pap as it is finally reported to him that his father was the dead person found on the river. The ending of the novel, however, finds Huck still in the same place of trying to escape civilization but Huck is no longer seen as the poor uneducated boy rather intelligent young man who does not want to be part of the middle class hypocrisy. The most profound change throughout the book is the view of Jim and thus of slavery. At first Jim is a background character as are all slaves, his importance as a human being surfaced throughout the book as well as the strength of his character. Through this change Twain sends a strong message about slavery to his reader.
The book starts off telling us that you may know Huck from another book called the adventures of Tom Sawyer. Which was also written by Mark Twain. In the first chapter, we figured out the Tom and Huck found a stash of gold that some robbers stole and hid in a cave. They both got $6,000 a piece. After they both got their shares of the money they had Judge Thatcher put it into a trust, in the bank. Once Huck was known for finding the treasure Widow Douglass adopted Huck. Widow Douglass also tried to civilize Huck, but Huck didn't want to be with Douglass so he ran away. Huck took all of his belongings with him, but nothing that Douglass gave him. After Huck ran away he went to join up with Tom Sawyer and his new gang of robbers. The Widow tried to teach Huck about reading and writing before he ran away. But thats the reason why he left because he wasn't interested in any of that stuff. Huck left the Widow’s house when he heard something outside the house, it was Tom waiting for him in the yard. So Huck got up and left.
-The man vs. man conflict is brought up many times throughout this story. The first that is posed is the conflict between Huckleberry and Pap. Pap is Huckleberry’s abusive biological father, and an alcoholic to boot. He first comes in and tries to steal his son’s fortune, just so he can get drunk. Huckleberry is kidnapped by his father for a short time, and during this is beaten many times. Huckleberry eventually escapes as he saws his way out of a shed with an old saw he finds. He then kills a pig to fake his own death and smears blood all over the shed so the story is more believable.
Huckleberry Finn – The Changes of His Character Throughout the Novel. & nbsp; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, is a novel about a young man's search for identity. Huckleberry Finn goes through some changes and learns some life lessons throughout his journey. Huck changes from being just an immature boy at the beginning of the novel to being a more mature man who looks at things from a different perspective now. & nbsp; At 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 anything about it."
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck is the narrator. The character of Huck Finn was very different than the society that he was born into. Mr. Twain uses Huck’s open mindedness as a window to let humor and the book’s points and morals shine through. Huck always takes things very literally. This not only adds to the humor of the book, but it also lets some of the books deeper messages come through. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, traces the story of a young man, Huck Finn, from conformity to the Southern way of thinking, to his own ideas about religion, wealth and slavery.
In Mark Twain’s book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the character Huck is trying to figure out the struggles of adulthood while also trying to maintain his childlike wonders. Huck experiences many eye opening events, forcing him to grow up and start his adult life at a young age. From having an abusive father, floating down the river with an unlikely friend, and breaking away from society norms, his life was far from childlike dreams. In Twain’s novel, Huck’s experience with honesty, trickery, and perspective help develop the coming of age theme.
When Huck finds out he has been duped by the King and Duke and Jim has been sold to slave traders Huck goes on a mission to set Jim free stating “All right, then, I’ll go to hell” as his proclamation. Even though society tells him that is the wrong choice Huck believes betraying someone as good as Jim is a worse fate than going to hell. Huck’s transition from prejudice to acceptance of Jim gives light to the immoral act that is slavery.
Tom is intelligent, creative, and imaginative, which is everything Huck wishes for himself. Because of Tom's absence in the movie, Huck has no one to idolize and therefore is more independent. Twain's major theme in the novel is the stupidity and faults of the society in which Huck lives. There is cruelty, greed, murder, trickery, hypocrisy, racism, and a general lack of morality. All of these human failings are seen through the characters and the adventures they experience. The scenes involving the King and Duke show examples of these traits.
In this whole world, there is only one thing people are fighting over for, and that is freedom. In the Huckleberry Finn the main theme is also based on freedom. Huck and Jim they both are from different social class and have different characteristics, but as a human being they both are fighting for freedom. Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn illustrates the characteristic of Huck and Jim. Jim is more mature, while Huck is more of a developing character, but they are both running away from their society in search of freedom.
Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is considered the great American Novel with its unorthodox writing style and controversial topics. In the selected passage, Huck struggles with his self-sense of morality. This paper will analyze a passage from Adventures of huckleberry Finn and will touch on the basic function of the passage, the connection between the passage from the rest of the book, and the interaction between form and content.
Huck struggles with himself through his moral beliefs. Huck struggles with himself because he grows up in the lower class and when he moves in with the Widow it is hard for him to adjust to the life of the upper class. Huck is speaking to the reader at the beginning of the novel about events that have occurred in the previous novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Huck explains how he was adopted by The Widow Douglas and how she tried to civilize him. “The Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time … when I couldn’t stand it no longer I lit out … But Tom Sawyer he hunted me up and said he was going to start a band of robbers, and I might join if I would go back to the widow and be respectable. So I went back” (2). This passage shows how Huck is being civilized by the widow and since he is from the lower class ...
Throughout the beginning and midsection of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain illustrates the adventures of Huck and Tom cruising down the river. On this journey, through their many adventures and mishaps, Huck develops a more sympathetic view towards Jim, and changes from a child-like persona to a more adult person. By the time the story has reached the moral climax in Chapter XXXI, Huck has matured in his ways, and grown to see Jim the former slave as more than a piece of property.
...d his adventure with Jim on the hero’s journey, he now sees the world a different way, a different way that may cause Huck severe consequences if society became involved. Huck believes his ways are right and the society’s ways are wrong. Today the society we live in was Huck’s perspective in the years before the Civil war. Back then during that time society was more strict and involved in slavery. The way we think and act today would probably
In chapter 8 the key part being Huck stumbling upon Jim who ran away because Miss Watson was planning on selling him. This further reinforces the major theme of freedom and civilization between Huck and Finn. Chapter 12 introduces the river again but in a rough sense by the shores yet peaceful, as both Huck and Jim now travel down Mississippi. Chapters 14-16 defines Huck and Jim’s relationship as well as what they are capable of separately and together, their strengths and their weaknesses, as Jim proves to be more practical while Huck can read to an extent. Chapters 15 and 16 especially focuses on the complex nature of race as Huck is torn between protecting Huck as a friend but assisting a slave as an unnatural reflex which furthers the theme of slavery and race as a whole. The rest of the chapters further touches on the complex nature of friendship and race, as chapters 42-43 detail how Jim’s freedom is almost compromised as he tries to sacrifice himself for Tom as Huck once did to
In the beginning of the book Twain has Huck understand and accept the characters and the ideas they represent. Hucks reaction, however, to these same characters changes as he starts to symbolize the transcendentalism movement. Twain shows this with the development of Hucks opinion of the romantic movement, Tom Sawyer. In the earlier chapters of Huckleberry
The ending of the book was something that I felt was executed well by Twain. If I was to have the option to change it I would not. This is due to how Twain was able to make the book as a whole interlink and flow spectacularly, with the ending having readers gain insights into other parts of the book. For example, the development of Huck throughout the book was steadily increasing, as he began to feel bad about the tricks that he was pulling on people and told them the truth. This is seen with Mary Jane, when Huck told her the truth about the duke and dauphin. This maturity is lastly exhibited when Huck begins to realize that Tom is not someone that he should look up to, at the end of the book it is even like Huck looks down on Tom for his attitude.