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Analysis character essay of huckleberry finn
Analysis character essay of huckleberry finn
How are conformity and individuality the same
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Consequently, Mark Twain recognized the double standard and addresses it in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.Huck was not raised in accordance or the accepted ways of civilization at the time, in fact, he faces many aspects of society which end up making him choose his own individuality over civilization. In a sense, he raises himself. He relies on his instincts and skills he learns from other people to guide him throughout his life. Twain depicts a theme of how civilization and the ethics of a society can conflict with individuality. Huck is a social outcast because he has been out on his own and reared from a drunken father and no mother. Huck experiences that social conventions inhibit personal growth. As a general rule, society has accepted depravity and immorality from some of its members while rejecting others because of their brand of depravity and immorality.
Huckleberry Finn didn’t have a father to look after him, therefore he did not have all of the knowledge he was supposed to for the real world. Instead, he lived with the Widow Douglas. “The Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me. I got into my old rage and my sugar hogshead again, and was free and satisfied” (Twain 1) Huck feels like he does not fit in and that Widow Douglas is always trying to change him to make him just like everybody else. Huckleberry is more an independent person, “Don’t gap and stretch like that, Huckleberry…Why don’t you try to behave” (Twain 3). Huck didn’t know what to do or how to act. He was his own person and he had his own motives because he had no role model, nobody to look up to. “He was most free – and who was to blame for it? Why, me. I couldn’t get that out of my conscience, no how nor no way… it...
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...lity from some of its members while rejecting others because of their brand of depravity and immorality. Huck manifests how double standards did not phase him and that he was going to stand up for what he believed in. He tries his hardest to escape civilization because he did not want to be like everybody else. Huck is an independent person and he did not want to be anything like them.
Works Cited
Cohen, Ralph. "Games: A Key to Understanding Huckleberry Finn. “Games and Growing Up
(1965): Rpt. In Readings on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Ed. Katie de Koster.
San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1994: 95-104. Print.
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Sterling, 2006. Print.
Martin, Jay. “American Civilization Threatens to Destroy Huck.” Harvests of Change: American
Literature, 1865-1914. San Diego: Greenharen Press, 1994. Print .
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.
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.
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."
The book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn tell the tale of a young boy who embarks on an adventure, one that leads him to find himself. Throughout the novel Huck develops a sense of morality that was always there to begin with, but not nearly as developed as it is by the end of the novel. Through living on his own, independent of societal and peer pressures, Huck is able to identify his own morals in defining what is 'right ' or 'wrong '.
Huckleberry Finn, “Huck”, over the course of the novel, was faced with many obstacles that went into creating his moral compass. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn begins with Huck, a 12 year old boy heavily swayed by society and by Tom Sawyer, a fellow orphan. His opinions and depiction of right and wrong were so swindled to fit into society’s mold. Throughout the story Huck Finn’s moral compass undergoes a complete transformation in search of a new purpose in life. Huck was raised with very little guidance from an alcoholic father, of no mentorship. He was forced to live with Widow Douglas and with Miss Watson’s hypocritical values. Upon learning of God and Heaven from Widow Douglas, he remarks that he is unable to see the benefits of going
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.
Conformity and the causation thereof is a common theme Mark Twain uses in his novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Throughout the story the main character, Huck, enters different settings in which he is either taught how to think or left to his own devices to come to his own conclusions. He struggles to identify with the morals presented to him by society and as a result, cannot determine whether he should follow his own moralities. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain utilizes the characterization of Huck in and out of nature to demonstrate the psychological effects of nature versus nurture
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...
One of society's favorite figures of speech is that it takes an entire town to raise a child. Such is true in Mark Twain's, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Through Huck's journey down the Mississippi River, Twain illustrates the influence society has on the undeveloped morals. As Huckleberry travels he becomes "the impassive observer" and aware of the corruption in the values of society (330). Encountering these societies gives Huck a selective morality. No particular social class is left out of his observations. From the poor, lower class to the elite, upper class, Huck observes inconsistencies in morality. In the end, Huck realizes that society is imperfect and corrupt, which ultimately causes him to "light out for the Territory" (229). Huck Finn develops a selective morality from the corrupt social classes he encounters on the Mississippi River.
Because he is still a child, his thoughts are not yet clouded by the verses of southern slaveholders. Huckleberry was “glad to see [Jim],” (Twain 64) which would be irregular for anyone living in the Deep South. Meeting a slave would not arouse joy in a white person due to the societies corrupt standards. However, Huck Finn is not a run of the mill white boy; he has complex and passionate feelings about black people, especially those he calls friends. Huck is able to possess these feelings because he is “so earnest and truthful with himself” ("Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Narrator Point of View"). In addition to his independence from the standard southerner, Huck has more of a conscious than the town of the Wilks family in it’s entirety. Although “Huck do[es] some questionable things,” ("Huckleberry Finn in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn") he reflects that he is glad that he “hadn’t done the niggers no harm” (Twain 286) by his actions. This simple thought unveils Huck’s deepest condolences for people that are less fortunate. He may be living on a raft, but he is not held accountable by his actions by anyone but himself. As he is already shunned by his family, Huck can see the point of view of slaves with more ease than others. He “can’t stand” (Twain 451) others telling him what to do and therefore is able to relate to the feelings of southern serfs. Huck’s “youthful voice” ("Adventures of
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...
People adopt such ideals because they learn to do so, regardless of whether they truly consider them ethical or even necessary. However, sometimes the standards of society oppose the inner feelings and beliefs of individuals, and they can slowly renounce outer influences and trust themselves instead. In the case of Huck Finn, society teaches him ideas that limit the scope of his judgement and principles. Therefore Huck, just like any other Southerner of the time, sees blacks as an inferior race. The critic Chad Kleist identifies Huck and his trained attitude towards blacks: “...a young boy who has known only one belief growing up, that is, racism” (Kleist 261). Kleist asserts that Huck accepts slavery and racial division because society teaches him so. Twain conveys the influencing effects social standards have on the beliefs of individuals. Outside influences, Twain communicates, can condition the thoughts and actions of individuals and bring disorder into their lives. Upon embarking on his journey down the river, Huck begins gaining a shift in perspective about concepts he previously considers invariable; as a result, he begins to doubt much of what he knows as acceptable. As time progresses Huck starts to identify with Jim and treat the former slave as more of an equal than he normally would. To demonstrate Huck’s changing attitude towards Jim, even
In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain a young boy by the name of Huckleberry Finn learns what life is like growing up in Missouri. The story follows young Huckleberry as he floats down the Mississippi River on his raft. On his journey he is accompanied by his friend Jim, a runaway slave. Throughout this novel Huckleberry Finn is influenced by a number of people he meets along the way. Huckleberry Finn was brought up in an interesting household. His father was rarely ever home and if he was, he was drunk, his mother had passed away so Huck had no one to really look out for him or take care of him. Huckleberry had the life that many teenagers dream of, no parents to watch you or tell you what to do, but when Huckleberry finds himself in the care of Widow Douglas and Miss Watson things start to drastically change. Widow Douglas and Miss Watson are two relatively old women and think that raising a child means turning him into an adult. In order for Huckleberry to become a young man, he was required to attend school, religion was forced upon him, and a behavior that was highly unlike Huck became what was expected of him by the older ladies. Not to long after moving in, Huckleberry ran away. When he finally came home he respected the ladies wishes and did what they wanted, but was never happy with it. When Tom Sawyer enters the picture, he is the immediate apple of Huckleberry's eye. Huckleberry sees Tom as the person that he used to be and was envious of Tom's life. Huckleberry saw freedom and adventure in this young man and soon became very close friends with him. Huck then joins Tom's little "group" to feel that sense of belonging and adventure that he misses out on due to living with the two older ladies. Soon enough Huck realizes that all of Tom's stories are a little exagerated and that his promises of adventure really are not that adventurous. Tom gives Huckleberry a false sense of excitement and eventually Huck leaves Tom's gang. Later on Huckleberry 's father, Pap, enters the story and tries to change everything about Huckleberry that the two women have taught him.
In Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn you meet a rebellious young teen named Huck Finn. Huck is not your everyday hero especially in the beginning of the novel but slowly through the story his mature, responsible side comes out and he shows that he truly is the epitome of a hero. Huck is forced to make many crucial decisions, which could get him in serious trouble if not get him killed. Huck has natural intelligence, has street smarts, which are helpful along his adventure, and is assertive. Huck has always had to rely on himself to get through things because he is from the lowest levels of white society and his dad is known more or less as the `town drunk." 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.
Huck and Jim form a strong friendship and mutual respect for each other created from their joint experiences absconding from different forms of imprisonment and resulting from the innumerable adventures they encounter along their journeys down the Mississippi River. Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the story of Huck’s personal growth and maturation as he escapes from the oppressing environment of the Widow Douglas and her sister, Miss Watson, and soon after he is forced to care of himself while assisting an escaped slave, Jim, elude capture from the constabularies. Huck is characteristically ingenuous in his comprehension of his life in the novel’s beginning. Restrictive as his environment may be, he is too young