Lack Of Freedom In Huck Finn

Mark Twain revealed both the weaknesses of the American Character and our ability to grow as human beings in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn through his exploration of Huck’s pursuits of freedom. Throughout the story, both Huckleberry and Jim seek to find their own versions of freedom. In the beginning, Huckleberry Finn wanted to be free from the attempts of the Widow Douglas and Mrs. Watson to civilize him with the social conventions of attending school, following rules and minding his manners. Huck found many of societies’ values illogical and frankly not useful to him. This lack of sense or usefulness gave Huck no plausible reason to adapt to societies conventions. For instance, Mrs. Watson refused to let Huckleberry smoke because she

Pap only wanted custody of Huck to meet his own economic ends. When a new Judge moved into town he stifled Huck’s freedom by awarding custody of Huck to Pap despite objections from the Widow Douglas and Judge Thatcher. The new Judge justified his ruling by claiming he didn’t want to separate a family by taking a son away from his father (Twain pg. 26). To this end, Twain applied societies definition of a white man’s property rights to deny blacks their freedom. Twain applied this simile to Huck’s Trial to show the hypocrisy of the argument. Huck was denied his freedom in order to prevent a white family from being separated. At the same time black families were denied their freedom and separated without a second thought. Huck 's trial shows the injustice and cruelty of the institution of American slavery. Huck’s lack of freedom was similar to a slaves lack of freedom which was further emphasized when Papa kidnaped Huck. Pap held Huck captive an brutally abused him on Jackson Island through out chapter six. Huck then escaped from Pap and went on the run with Jim in chapter eight. Here the two were both trying to escape civilizations attempt to restrain their freedom as someone’s else’s

When Huck joined Jim, he struggled to reconcile his actions as white person, with the goals of a runaway slave. Jim was set on reaching the free states along the Ohio river. Huck often found himself having to chose between following the rules of white society or his moral conscience to help Jim escape to freedom. In several instances Huck felt guilty like a low down abolitionist. He worried he was violating Mrs. Watson’s right to property by not turning in Jim. Huck’s guilt was further compounded when Jim told Huck his plans for freedom included eventually free his wife and children (Twain pg. 124,125). At first Huck reconciled these feelings by claiming that he had not turned Jim in yet, but he still could. So, Huck attempted to free himself from his guilt by deciding to turn Jim in at the next town. However, each time Huck was presented with the opportunity to turn Jim in he choose to protect Jim. One example that Jim took notice of was when Huck lied to the two slave catchers up stream. Huck told him his sick family was out on the raft to prevent them wandering out to discover Jim (Twain pg.