Huckleberry Finn Compare And Contrast Essay

My primary source comes from a chapter out of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a story that was written by Mark Twain in 1884. The story is one that still resonates with readers today, as Twain used a plethora of different writing techniques in order to grasp the reader’s attention. In fact, the story’s meaning goes beneath the surface. The adventure that Huckleberry Finn took us on was one that was able to be connected to current events that we see today. With that being said, I decided to take a political connection with my writing, comparing the character development of Huckleberry Finn to the character development that a vast amount of the nation would like to see President Donald Trump endure.

Even though the story of Huckleberry Finn

was written in 1884, the plot of the book was one that is very relevant today. In the book, Finn plays the role of a conniving thief, who is in other words, simply selfish. However, in Chapter 8, Finn’s immorality begins to unravel when he meets a runaway slave named Jim. After being so negatively influenced by the cunning Tom Sawyer, Finn is now able to develop morals through the guidance of Jim. In Chapter 8, when Finn and Jim first encounter each other, Huckleberry is outraged to find that Jim has run away. (We know from prior in the story it’s due to the way that Huckleberry has been brought up). Jim says something that comes as an eye opener to Huckleberry, "Well, I b'lieve you, Huck. I—I RUN OFF."
"Jim!" (Chapter 8) Huck realizes that he’s not the only one that has a bad situation going that needs to be a ran away from. The pathos used by Jim starts the character development of Huckleberry Finn.
Finn’s character isn’t completely unraveled until Chapter 26 when he warns Mary Jane Wilks of an ongoing con of their family being done by a couple of his peers. After her loving personality wears off on Finn, he confesses to the scam. “I got to tell you the truth..these uncles of yourn ain’t no uncles at all: they’re a couple of frauds”. (Chapter 26) This completes Finn’s character development, as we see a complete 180 degree change by his character. If we revert back to earlier in the story, we could make an educated assumption that Finn would’ve had no problem taking her inheritance. But through his development that was inspired by Jim and Mary Jane, we begin to see Huckleberry display morals that were nonexistent earlier.
What I find compelling Mark Twain’s ability to develop Huckleberry Finn as a person throughout the plot of the story.

I was able to make a political connection to the 2016 Presidential Election and began to run with it. Huckleberry Finn and Donald Trump shared similar traits that I was able to make a connection to. Although both started off doing things that could be considered devious and hurtful to people, one of them was able to get back on to the right track. This led me to go in depth with my analysis on President’s Trump development as a person. During his presidential run, Trump said all types of questionable things. For example, when discussing the founder of the Huffington Post he says, “Ariana Huffington is unattractive, both inside and out. I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man – he made a good decision.” (Marie Claire). Trump even goes to an even more controversial landscape when he says, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending the best. They’re not sending you, they’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bring crime. They’re rapists… And some, I assume, are good people.” (Marie Claire). The same way Huckleberry Finn hurt the people through his actions, Trump hurt through his

words.

Nevertheless, Finn’s ability to change through time gives a sense of hope that the same could be said for Trump. Through my analysis I was able to gather two questions, one which led to a more widespread one. My first question being, does the ability to change come from external factors or does it require internal motivation? In the case of Huckleberry Finn, external factors influenced him to have an internal transformation for the next he was faced with a task that tested his morality. This leads to my widespread question, do people even have the ability to change over time? Given the development of Huckleberry Finn, we see that it can happen in the literature form, but we are yet to see if that same development can be made in the reality form.