More handpicked essays just for you.
Civilization of the adventures of huckleberry finn
Civilization of the adventures of huckleberry finn
Civilization of the adventures of huckleberry finn
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the author Mark Twain, points out the various flaws of civilization of that time period. It is corrupt, enslaving, hypocritical, and prejudiced. These various traits are seen through different sections of the book. The qualities of civilization being confining and too orderly are directly seen with how nature is placed to juxtapose civilization through the narration of the main character, Huckleberry Finn. Life under the control of Miss. Watson and the Widow Douglas was dictated by religion and a copious amount of rules. Huck had to eat properly, be religious, wear neat clothes, all of which confined his life into the boundaries set by them. This ultimately made Huck lonely and uncomfortable. By Huck becoming …show more content…
Firstly, Huck sees hypocrisy in the case of his custody. The new judge fails to look deeper into the situation and instead sticks to societal norms by allowing Pap to abusively take Huck. In this stance, civilization fails to go beyond the typical rules. The Widow Douglas, someone who is stringent on following rules, makes Huck not smoke even though he wants to. She then later goes on to smoke herself. This shows how those in power in civilization do not follow the rules they set themselves. Twain ultimately shows hypocrisy through the example of race. The novel is set in America in which the qualities of freedom, justice, and equality are seen as rights of all. Yet, this is a country that continues to enslave innocent people, disregarding their value as a human being, and taking away their basic rights that are said to be for all. Therefore, Twain is showing via Jim’s innocent, humane, and amiable nature, that it is flawed for civilization to be based on equality when people like Jim do not receive that basic right. For Twain, civilization promised to advance the livelihoods of all the people, yet for people like Jim and countless other slaves, their life was suppressed by the same institution that supposedly is meant to free …show more content…
Under the control of the Widow Douglas and Miss. Watson, Huck is taught how to interpret the world around him. He is not allowed to explore and understand for himself, but rather must follow the path of civilization. His inner conscience is confined to what society wants him to believe. His identity is molded by the principles instilled in civilization, not what he himself believes. He is told to believe that slaves do not care for their family or that they do not have basic human principles. Huck then tunes his outlook on life to match these perspectives, which are not true. Twain reveals that flaw by introducing the character of Jim. Jim is one who cares for his family and has a kind, generous, and caring human nature, which contradicts with what society told Huck. These differences in interpretations and the final culmination of Huck declaring that he will go to hell establishes the idea that civilization wrongly confined his perspective of the world. Him wanting to go to hell confirms the idea that what civilization taught him about slaves is wrong, since he willing to risk his soul for Jim. After the adventure, Huck sees the world for what it truly is, which mostly is different than what the Widow Douglas, and in a civilization in a larger sense, taught him. Twain shows by this change in outlook, that civilization is wrong to limit the freedom of people and that it is flawed to incorrectly
Upon arriving at Cairo, Huck must decide if he should go along with society and turn Jim in as a runaway slave, or keep his promise to his friend, and see him through to freedom. Huck feels guilty not turning Jim in when he hears him talking about hiring an abolitionist to steal his family. He does not think it is right to help take away slaves from people that he doesn 't even know. To turn Jim in for these reasons would be the influence of society on Huck. Huck 's decision on this matter marks another major step in Huck 's moral progression, because he decides not to turn in Jim on his own. This is the first time he makes a decision all on his own based on his own morality. They stop at Grangerford’s Farm, in Tennessee, after the raft is temporality destroyed. With Huck busy with the Grangerford family, Jim was able to rebuild the raft. Huck just met the Grangerfords, but fits right in immediately. He later feels that someone should take the time to write poetry about Emmeline Grangerford, recently deceased, since she always took the time to write about other people who died. He even tries to write the poetry himself, but it doesn 't turn out right. Then he also sees people shooting at each other makes him sick to his stomach. He sees it as an act against humanity and he simply cannot relate or understand how humans can treat each other in such an uncivil
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...
-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.
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.
In the book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck rejects "sivilized" life. He dreads the rules and conformities of society such as religion, school, and anything else that will eventually make him civilized. He feels cramped in his new surroundings at the Widow Douglas's house. He would rather be in his old rags and sugar-hogshead because he was free and satisfied. He felt out of place when he tried being "sivilized" because he grew up fending for himself and to him it felt really lonely. Huck Finn grew up living in the woods and pretty much raised himself because his pap was a drunk. He never had a civilized lifestyle and he believed that his way of living was good enough for him. He was free to do what ever he liked and that is how he learned to live. He did not believe in school because all you need to know to live is not found in a book that you read at school. He believed that you learned by living out in the wild. Huck would rather be an individual than conform to society. Huck would rather follow his heart then his head and because of this Huck is ruled as a bad person because in society your suppose to use your head. Huck is being penalized for his beliefs and he does not want to be apart of a lifestyle that does not support his ways. For instance his choice not to turn in Jim shows that Huck understands why Jim is escaping. Huck sees Jim as a friend not as a slave and so he truly is able to see that society's way of treaty Jim is wrong. Huck is portrayed as a boy who sees life at face value and not by the set "standards" of the "sivilized" society. The rejection of the "sivilized" lifestyles shows that Huck does not agree with it rules. Because of this, he is able to see life from different perspectives. He can sympathize with all the class in society. He learns to figure out what is morally correct and wrong. Through out his journey down the river, Huck is able to learn more about himself and others.
	Throughout the book hypocrisy of society is brought out by Huck's dealings with people. Miss Watson, the first character, is displayed as a hypocrite by Huck "Pretty soon I wanted to smoke, and asked the widow to let me. But she wouldn’t. …And she took snuff too; of course that was all right, because she done it herself" (Twain 8). Huck did not understand why she does not want him to smoke, "That is just the way with some people. They get down on a thing when they don't know nothing about it" (Twain 8).
In nature, on the journey down the river, Huck decides to help Jim obtain freedom from slavery. In that time period, it was frowned upon to think of blacks as more than slaves, but Huck does not conform to that idea, befriending Jim, a slave. As soon as the bond between the two sparks, Huck wants to help him escape slavery. Huck thinks to himself that he should write a letter to Miss Watson explaining how the Phelps family is keeping Jim, but then he quickly decides against it. Thinking about the repercussions of what would happen to Jim and himself he ponders, “And then think of me! It would get all around that Huck Finn helped a nigger to get his freedom; and if I was ever to see anybody from that town again I’d be ready to get down and lick his boots for shame” (223). If word got around that Huck helped Jim, he would receive negative remarks for going against the common belief. With the use of Huck’s inner dialogue, Twain is able to express his opinion of how society causes conformity. Huck has knowledge that his going against the beliefs of society would have great consequences and Twain emphasizes its impact with Huck’s indecisiveness towards this situation concerning Jim. At the end of the novel, once Jim gains freedom for risking his own freedom to help nurse Tom back to health, the discussion over who Huck is going to live
Growing up, humans get smarter, learn to find their place in their world, and discover their basis of beliefs. Those three things are met when a person looks towards physical, cultural, and geographical surroundings to shape their psychological or moral traits. In the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Huck did just that. He was shaped by his journey down the The Mississippi River, his good friend Jim, the crude Miss Watson and his father “Pap”, these surrounding aspects help illuminate the meaning of the work as a whole, developing Huck into the person he was at the end of the novel.
Throughout the entire novel of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the only seemingly civilized place there is, is away from civilization itself, on the raft. In fact, every time to raft touches the shore, Huck Finn finds himself in a place that's even more corrupt and less civilized then the last. On the raft things seemed to be always quiet, and sometimes foggy, but on land Huck could see everything, including the awful reality of what is known as civilization. People are brutal beings who kill each other for no good reason, and they torture each other in cruel and unusual ways. Huck is faced with one of these realities when he gets caught in between a feud between two families; the Grangerfords and the Shepardsons. These two families seem to mindlessly hate each other. Their only reason for this boiling
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...
Throughout time, it has been socially dangerous for someone to move against the norm of society. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Huck is considered an outcast for these very reasons. The values of American society in the nineteenth century are illuminated by the character of Huck Finn by his refusal to conform to those expectations.
...uck’s struggles are revealed through his conflicts with his morals and beliefs. This is shown through the conflicts with himself, other characters and society. Huck struggles with himself when he is trying to send a letter to the Widow Douglas about Jim where being. Huck contemplates but can only think of reason to tear the letter up. Also, Huck struggles with others because many characters influence Huck’s morals and beliefs. Jim has a big effect on Huck’s life because he changes Huck’s belief of Africans. Lastly, Huck struggles with the expectations that society has put on him. As Huck begins to have a change of heart, he gradually begins to decide between his morals and beliefs. Therefore, Huck faces moral dilemmas of being between the world's prejudice that he learned growing up, and the lessons Jim has taught him throughout the story about the evils of racism.
Huck Finn learns from the actions of people around him, what kind of a person he is going to be. He is both part of the society and an outlier of society, and as such he is given the opportunity to make his own decisions about what is right and what is wrong. There are two main groups of characters that help Huck on his journey to moral maturation. The first group consists of Widow Douglas, Miss Watson, and the judge. They portray society and strict adherence to rules laid out by authority. The second group consists of Pap, the King, and the Duke. They represent outliers of society who have chosen to alienate themselves from civilized life and follow no rules. While these characters all extremely important in Huck’s moral development, perhaps the most significant character is Jim, who is both a fatherly figure to Huck as well as his parallel as far as limited power and desire to escape. Even though by the end of the novel, Huck still does not want to be a part of society, he has made a many choices for himself concerning morality. Because Huck is allowed to live a civilized life with the Widow Douglas, he is not alienated like his father, who effectively hates civilization because he cannot be a part of it. He is not treated like a total outsider and does not feel ignorant or left behind. On the other hand, because he does not start out being a true member of the society, he is able to think for himself and dismiss the rules authority figures say are correct. By the end of the novel, Huck is no longer a slave to the rules of authority, nor is he an ignorant outsider who looks out only for himself. This shows Huck’s moral and psychological development, rendering the description of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” as a picaresq...
The way Huck and Jim encounter each other on the island, draws parallels in their similar backgrounds. Huck is torn between a life of manners and etiquette and a dangerous life a freedom, and while Jim at an impasse because he is being sold into slavery farther away from his home and away from his family. Each choice, for both characters comes with a cost so they both decide to runaway, in an attempt to assert some control over their lives. After spending much time together, the pair establish a connection which at times Huck feels guilty about since it violates everything he was raised to believe. At a certain point, Huck considers turning Jim in by, writing a letter, but after recalling the goods times they shared, Huck exclaims, "All right, then, I 'll go to hell!” (Twain) and quickly tears up the letter. Twain depicts Huck and Jim 's eventually friendship as a source of emotional strife for Huck and Huck constantly has to decide whether to abandon Jim and turn him in or abandon his religious beliefs and stay with Jim. The ripping up of the letter that would have turned Jim in symbolizes the choice Huck 's has selected. For this moment onward, Huck is dedicated to keeping Jim from being sold back into slavery and has no intent on going back on his choice. While there are times, Huck pays attention to the color of Jim 's skin he believes that
...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