In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn written by Mark Twain, Huck Finn’s moral maturation develops throughout the novel and his character as a whole transitions. “Twain explores these ideas as Huck deals with issues of right and wrong and wrestles his conscience several times over helping Jim escape in the book”(Literary Themes for Students: The American Dream, Hacht). Huck’s help for Jim to escape from slavery was only the beginning to the most impactful relationship is Huck’s life. His little maturity is clearly shown when he said Jim is “white inside”(Twain 221). He realizes that just because Jim is of a different race, he is still human. At first, Jim is seen as a stereotypical black individual, but it is revealed that his true self …show more content…
Jim provides the moral rule against which different situations are measured. Jim's integrity stands in sharp contrast with the corruption of the outside world. His remorse over hitting his deaf and dumb child occurs right before the Duke poses as a deaf mute to get the Wilks' money. The reality of his daughter's plight makes the duplicity and greediness of the two men even more despicable. It is "through Jim's sensitivity [that] the entire Wilks episode is thrown into much more precise focus" (Cox 73). Also, Twain portrays Jim's judgment of situations as the correct moral view. It is Jim that exposes the meanness of Huck's joke after the night of the fog. It is once again Jim that sees that the Duke and the King "reglar rapscallions" (116). Jim also provides the moral motivation for Huck to make the right decisions. Adams argues that "Jim's function . . . has been to test . . . Huck's growing moral strength and mature independence" (Adams 92). But a closer look at the novel reveals that Jim himself provides Huck's moral strength. When Huck mockingly asks him to interpret the meaning of the trash on the raft, "rather than taking each item of debris and divining its meaning as Huck requests, Jim takes each act of kindness and concern he has shown Huck Finn over the course of their journey and defines for the boy, perhaps for the first time in Huck's life, the meaning of friendship, loyalty, and filial or family responsibility." (Chadwick-Joshua 56). By apologizing to the slave, Huck was not only accepting Jim as his friend, but he was also accepting his moral values. It is Huck's friendship with Jim that "makes possible his moral growth" (Cox 73). Jim's comment, "you's de only fren' ole Jim's got now" (67), when Huck is paddling off to turn him in, stops Huck and forces him to decide in favor of Jim. The memory of Jim's friendship keeps Huck on the right track. When Huck remembers
He risks his freedom to help the doctor save Tom’s life and help Huck successfully escape the Shepherdsons’. Jim shows his appreciation for Huck bringing him on this journey toward freedom by telling him he will never forget him for helping him and lying to protect his hope. On the other hand, Jim can be considered intelligent due to his belief in ghosts. But, he also posses great common sense in situations where he must protect others such as Huck. Just as Jesus Christ shed light on all things human, Jim put important aspects of his life on the line and when others so that for him, he shows how thankful he is through
Maturity is not a fickle expression such as happiness or frustration, but rather an inherent quality one gains over time, such as courage or integrity. Before maturity can be expressed, the one who expresses it must have significant confidence in himself, since self-confidence is the root of maturity. Being flexible and formulating one's own opinions or ideas are aspects of maturity, but neither is possible without self-confidence. The greatest aspect of maturity is the ability to make decisions which society does not agree with. Whether or not one follows through with these ideas is not important. What is important is the ability to make the decision. These decisions represent the greatest measure of maturity.
	Huck’s attitude for Jim is racist which is seen when he decides to play a trick on Jim during their voyage. After Huck plays his trick his attitude toward Jim begins to change, "It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I warn't ever sorry for it afterward, neither" (Twain 72). The dialogue throughout the book between Huck and Jim illustrates that Jim is more than property and that he is a human being with feelings, and hopes for a better future.
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...
Mark Twain tells the story of Huckleberry Finn, and his maturity that is developed through a series of events. This maturity is encouraged through the developing relationship between Huck and Jim, as well as the strong influence Jim has on Huck. Jim's influence not only effects Huck's maturity, but his moral reasoning; and the influence society has on Huck. Jim is Huck's role model; even though Huck would not admit it. At first Jim seems to portray a Black stereotypical role with his superstitions and ignorance, although his true identity and maternal role begins to shine through as his interactions with Huck progress.
Maturity in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn "To live with fear and not be afraid is the greatest sign of maturity.". If this is true, then Mark Twain's Huck Finn is the greatest. example of a maturity of the. Huck is the narrator of Twain's book, The Adventures. of Huckleberry Finn.
characters. The use of the word "nigger" is also a point raised by some critics, who feel that Twain uses the word too often and too loosely. Mark Twain never presents Jim in a negative light. He does not show Jim as a drunkard, as a mean person, or as a cheat. This is in contrast to the way Huck's (white) father is depicted where Twain describes using all of the above characterizations and more. In Mark Twain's novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain develops the plot into Huck and Jim's
According to Laurence Sterne, “Nobody, but he who has felt it, can conceive what a plaguing thing it is to have a man’s mind torn asunder by two projects of equal strength, but obstinately pulling in a contrary direction at the same time”. In Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the character Huckleberry Finn, also known as Huck, is one who can conceive this plague. Huck Finn’s ‘two projects of equal strength’ was the difficult decision whether to turn Jim, a black slave, over to his rightful “property” owner or to continue helping Jim escape to freedom. This inner conflict took place in Jim’s conscience of trying to decide what the right thing to do was. These two conflicting forces were the basis of how the story was told. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is told from Huck’s viewpoint, and it illuminated the quandary that Huck faces as he befriends Jim and helps him to freedom, as well as convincing himself talkimg himself into believing feeling . A part of Huck thought helping Jim was wrong because helping a black man escape to freedom was against society’s rules and went against everything that he had been taught and raised to believe. The other part of Huck saw Jim as a good person, a friend, and believed Jim should be free from slavery. It was a war between Huck’s conscience of not following society’s conventional laws and following his heart in what seemed right.
Huck Finn, an adventurous boy from Missouri, is forced to experience a man’s trouble at the tender age of thirteen. His conflicting conscience struggles with what society has deemed the norm, and as the book progresses, we watch Huck develop from an inexperienced child to the vanguard of new ideals.
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...
Maturity is all about taking action on a person’s wise thoughts. Through the book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the readers can see Huck matures mostly on his tough, brave adventure. Huck’s adventure matures him showing that the river is a passage to manhood and teaches him many lessons in life. The three major parts where Huck got more mature was when he finally got away from pap, when he decided to help Jim, and when Huck helps the Wilks family.
...He often done that.” (Huck Finn page 225) It was in chapter that Huck had assessed that Jim was white on the inside, despite the color of his skin. It was an easy excuse for Huck to do so, because Jim had become a father figure to Huck and that was difficult for Huck to grasp at his current age. Twain had meant for Jim and Huck to become as close as father and son, or close enough, because parents influence their children more than anyone else. Twain used that idea because Huck depended on Jim the way a son would a father, and that made it easier for Twain to get his ideas in. So in a way Twain made a representation of himself in his own novel, making his novel even more complex. By doing so Twain made Jim stream all of the beliefs, thoughts, and emotions of Twain strait to Huck through kind fatherly words of wisdom.
In the beginning, Huckleberry Finn hasn?t fully formed opinions on topics such as slavery. He is quite immature and content to just have ?adventures? with his friends. During his journey on the raft, he learns much more about himself through his dealings with others. He establishes his very own standards of right and wrong. Huck?s most important lessons are learned through Jim. He learns to see Jim as a person rather than as a slave: ?I knowed he was white inside? (263). More than any other character in the book, Jim is a catalyst for Huck?s maturity. Through Jim as well as other people he meets along the way, Huck becomes a more defined person who?s more fully himself. His development through the course of the novel proves The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to be a gradual journey toward growth and maturity.
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
My definition of maturity is when you acquire a better understanding of consequences and the outside world. You grow in knowledge, wisdom, responsibility, and selflessness. It also means to grow both physically and mentally while having the ability to include others. Now does Tom actually mature throughout the whole book or is he still the child that he was once before? Although Tom has shown many immaturities while he was a young boy, there are many ways that he has gained his maturity as he gets older. These facts are portrayed throughout the whole book. As a young boy, Tom is very unaware, and holds only little responsibility. There is also the fact Tom constantly lies to everyone in order to get out of the situation. That is showing no