“Mark Twain had a way of telling stories that shifts your consciousness away from labels.” Val Kilmer, an American actor said this about Mark Twain. Kilmer is saying that Twain could really make a reader think deeper about people and social issues, through his stories. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain portrays many ideas and themes through the characters and events. These themes are even still relevant in today’s society. The main themes in Huckleberry Finn are education, equality, and friendship. An education can be one of the most important things in life, and Twain expresses that in many ways in this book. One of the main things about education in Huck Finn is that it is harder for people to take advantage of a person who is …show more content…
educated. There is a lot of lying in this book and certain characters will believe it and even get ripped off simply because they are uneducated. The King and the Duke are the best example for this. The two men make up stories, twist their words, and lie just to get what they want, which is money. This is so easy for them, because the people they are cheating don’t know any better. The King says "H'aint we got all the fools in town on our side? And ain't that a big enough majority in any town?" (Twain 172). The King is saying that these people are foolish because they believe him and the Duke, and even if there were one person to know they were lying, as long as there was a group of people who didn’t know any better than to believe them they would be safe. The topic of education has always had controversy. What Twain is trying to point out in Huck Finn is that an education is important for a person’s well-being. An education isn’t just knowing simple facts or math problems, it is being able to take care of yourself. Being able to make smart decisions is something that can lead a person far in life. Nowadays people all over the world are willing to fight for their own education, which proves Twain’s point of how important it is. Equality is something that has been a struggle, and not everyone sees it the same way. Huck Finn is set in a time when African Americans were kept as slaves and treated badly. The majority of white people accepted this and didn’t mind. Twain shows Huck to be this innocent child who doesn’t seem to hate anyone. When he finds Jim on the island, he doesn’t run to turn him in or tell Jim to turn around; he accepts that he is there. Huck treats Jim as a normal human being, which most people do not do. Pap, Huck’s dad has some of the most racist and unequal views in the book, he says “but when they told me there was a State in this country where they'd let that nigger vote, I drawed out. I says I'll never vote agin.” (Twain 38). This also shows that treating people equal isn’t always learned, some people just know how. Issues with racism and equality have always been present, even today. Though slavery has been abolished and rights have been granted for most everyone, it is the views of people that still are not equal. Views against equality have often brought war and pain to different types of people. Twain is expressing how dangerous views against equality can be. Though there aren’t any serious laws like that anymore, people can still get hurt. Friendship is an important thing for humans to have.
Twain shows how important it is in Huck Finn, by showing the close bond between Huck and Jim. Though Huck and Jim could potentially survive on their own, they need each other. They need each other’s ideas and strength, even just the company. Before Huck finds Jim on the island he even says how he was glad he got away from Pap, but he was lonesome. This friendship keeps Huck and Jim loyal to each other, and helps them. Since the two care for one another so much, they are more aware of the danger around them and pay more attention. There is also the relationship between the King and the Duke. They are both con artists and selfish in many ways, though they stick together. They know that it is easier to take advantage of people if there are both of them. They team up to get the most out of these situations. The Duke starts off their friendship by saying, “’Old man,’ said the young one, ‘I reckon we might double-team it together; what do you think?’” (Twain 122). Twain is stressing an importance on friendship because it is healthy to have friendships. Although at times it is nice to be alone and have your own thoughts, having a friend to be able to be with helps. People need to hear the thoughts and ideas of other people around them to broaden their own views. Today, friendship is an important thing, for people of all ages. Just like Huck and Jim, a friendship can improve your own moral
values. Mark Twain expresses so many themes in Huckleberry Finn, though the main thing that they all have in common is being able to be a better person. Having an education, equality, and friendships all help to improve a person as a whole. Though Jim and Huck are vastly different people, an old, African American man, and a young white boy, they share so much in common. The three themes are not only evident in Huck and Jim, but in many of the other characters as well. Twain uses Huck and Jim with similar characteristics to prove that these things help people of different types and ages. Twain’s book worked to improve its readers and those around them.
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain paints the story of a developing friendship between two entirely different people which at the time society considered unacceptable and taboo. Huckleberry Finn is a white thirteen year old boy and Jim is a middle-aged black runaway slave. They meet by coincidence while they are both hiding out on Jackson’s Island located in the middle of the Mississippi River, Huck is hiding from the townspeople who think he is dead, and Jim has runaway and is hiding from his owner. Throughout their journey together, Huck and Jim’s relationship goes from them being mere acquaintances, then to friends, then to them having a father and son relationship.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain includes characters that have varying views on the importance of education. Both Huck and Jim seem to value learning through experience, rather than learning from books and school. Also Jim cannot read or write so that inhibits Jim from going to school. Jim is a slave which means he is not allowed to get an education. Tom also enjoys learning from experience rather than books, but he reads more than Huck and it seems that he sometimes values learning from books rather than learning from experience.
Mark Twain, a famous American writer-satirist wrote many books highly acclaimed throughout the world. For his masterpiece, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the literary establishment recognized him as one of the greatest writers America would ever produce. This novel is about a teenage boy by the name of Huck Finn whose father is an alcoholic. Because of his violence, Huck runs away and finds a runaway slave Jim. Instead of turning Jim in, Huck goes against society and makes a decision to help Jim break free from slavery. As they travel together, Huck learns more and more about Jim and starts to understand that the common stereotype of black people is wrong. Huck sees there is no difference between Jim and any white man he knows except for skin color. Risking his life and overcoming many difficulties on the way, Huck succeeds in freeing Jim. Focusing on racism, alcoholism and mob mentality, Mark Twain uses his enthusiastic style of writing and satirizes the three traits throughout the novel.
Mark Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of the greatest American novels ever written. The story is about Huck, a young boy who is coming of age and is escaping from his drunken father. Along the way he stumbles across Miss Watson's slave, Jim, who has run away because he overhead that he would be sold. Throughout the story, Huck is faced with the moral dilemma of whether or not to turn Jim in. Mark Twain has purposely placed these two polar opposites together in order to make a satire of the society's institution of slavery. Along the journey, Twain implies his values through Huck on slavery, the two-facedness of society, and represents ideas with the Mississippi River.
Mark Twain throughout the book showed Huckleberry Finns personal growth on how he started from the bottom as a lonely, racist, immature kid who knew nothing to where he is now, by finally breaking away from society’s values he was taught in the beginning. He has alienated himself from the from that society and revealed how in fact these values were hypocritical. He realized that he can choose his own morals and that the one he chooses is the correct one.
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."
In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain illustrates several traits that are common in mankind. Among these traits are those that are listed in this essay. Through characters in the story Twain shows humanity's innate courageousness. He demonstrates that individuals many times lack the ability to reason well. Also, Twain displays the selfishness pervasive in society. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, many aspects of the human race are depicted, and it is for this reason that this story has been, and will remain, a classic for the ages.
Mark Twain’s masterpiece The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn through much criticism and denunciation has become a well-respected novel. Through the eyes of a thirteen-year-old boy, Huckleberry Finn, Twain illustrates the controversy of racism and slavery during the aftermath of the Civil War. Since Huck is an adolescent, he is vulnerable and greatly influenced by the adults he meets during his coming of age. His expedition down the Mississippi steers him into the lives of a diverse group of inhabitants who have conflicting morals. Though he lacks valid morals, Huck demonstrates the potential of humanity as a pensive, sensitive individual rather than conforming to a repressive society. In these modes, the novel places Jim and Huck on pedestals where their views on morality, learning, and society are compared.
Mark Twain, who is a realistic fiction writer, incorporates satire and humor in his writing, including Archetypal elements to modify how the reader interprets the story. He uses many archetypal characters like Huck and Jim who both can be argued as the heroes. They both have good intentions and help others. Mark Twain portrays Jim as a deeply caring and loyal friend. Jim becomes a father figure to Huck, helping him realize the human face of slavery. Twain Portrays Huck as a young and naive boy who has been under the wrong influence for a long time. Another archetypal element that Mark Twain uses is Jims Quest for freedom. This was a quest for most all African Americans, to run away north so you could be free. But Jim was one of the few who was brave enough to do so; that’s he can be classified as the hero in the story. But Jim’s life is not too bad compared to historical records about the lives of slaves. Even though he had to struggle for his freedom, he didn’t have any good reason to leave. His life contested of helping round and not doing hard enduring work like some of the other slaves. The way Jim’s life is portrayed in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Mark Twain criticizes the life of African Americans at the time.
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.
In the novel by Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the two main characters, Huck and Jim, are strongly linked. Their relation is portrayed by various sides, some of them good and some others bad. But the essential interest of that relation is the way that uses the author to describe it. Even if he had often been misunderstood, Twain always implied a message behind the themes developed around Huck and Jim.
Another theme that is dealt with in this book is slavery. In fact, slavery is one of the main topics that has been frequently debated in regards to Huckleberry Finn since it was first published. Twain himself was vehemently anti-slavery and Huckleberry Finn can in many ways be seen as an allegory for why slavery is wrong. Twain uses Jim, a slave who is one of the main characters, as a way of showing the human side of a slave. Everything about Jim is presented through emotions: Jim runs away because Miss Watson was going to sell him South and separate him from his family; Jim is trying to become free so he can buy his family's freedom; and Jim takes care of Huck and protects him on their journey downriver in a very materialistic manner.
Throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain tells the story of Huck Finn who constantly finds himself surrounded by morally strong people and others who go without morals.After Living with widow Douglas and then leaving with Jim, he feels that superstition provides proof where as christianity does not. Living on the river with Jim influences him. He looks up to Jim and feels that he is his true friend. Cohen Ralph said, “… in their relationship, a love and respect for persons regardless of color or knowledge or beliefs.” In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain illuminates the shortcomings of organized religion.
The Adventure’s of Huckleberry Finn’s unique ability to incorporate moral lessons through satire and simmilar literary techniques prove it to be vital for High school students, especially at Rye, to read. The vast nature of things it teaches is something very rare for one book to do. It not only provides the reader with important life themes like other great novels do but it also shocks the reader to show the power of racism which makes it one of the greatest pieces of literature of all time. Just think of how different things would be if no one had read such an important book.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, is an immensely realistic novel, revealing how a child's morals and actions clash with those of the society around him. Twain shows realism in almost every aspect of his writing; the description of the setting, that of the characters, and even the way characters speak. Twain also satirizes many of the foundations of that society. Showing the hypocrisy of people involved in education, religion, and romanticism through absurd, yet very real examples. Most importantly, Twain shows the way Huckleberry's moral beliefs form amidst a time of uncertainty in his life.