Huckleberry Finn Archetypes Analysis

At the foundation of every good storyline, as well as the characters it contains, are archetypes. There is no better novel then The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, to help show how archetypes are like a building. Where the more the story progresses the more layers are added on. At the beginning of the book, Huck is nothing but a trickster, who lies and does whatever he wants. Twain has Huck go through the maze of life, facing different challenges and facing many dead ends where Huck seems to give up his quest, but in the end Huck finds the hero in himself and using his powers of wit and trickery helps the outcast mother figure, Jim get to freedom.

In the beginning of the story, Huck does not care about anyone except himself;

An archetype is “an inherited idea or mode of thought in the psychology of C. G. Jung that is derived from the experience of the race and is present in the unconscious of the individual” there are three different types of archetypes, setting, symbolic, and character. Archetypes are in every story, they are a universal concept describing what a character’s role is and what challenges they face. The maze archetype is usually described as “A puzzling dilemma or great uncertainty, search for the dangerous monster inside of oneself, or a journey into the heart of Darkness” (D2). Huck’s journey throughout the book is the maze, as such Huck faces many different challenges throughout the story. From being taken by his father from the woman who has been caring from him, to Tom Sawyer being shot in the leg and them needing to find a way to get the bullet out. Throughout the story, as Huck faces these challenges, meeting dead-ends and having to turn around and try a new approach or come up with a new plan. The ultimate goal is to get Jim to freedom, though this goal is unclear to Huck at first, but as Huck gets closer to the end of the maze, he comes to this realization and is determined to