Would you rather follow civilization, or reject it? In the old classic Huckleberry Finn we have Huck who opposed civilization. While others around him followed the rules like most of us to today, he opposed them. He also faced a lot of different challenges. What had civilization ever done for him besides hurt him time and time again? Huck would rather be an individual and dreads the rules and conformities of society which include school, religion, and anything else that would define him as civilized.
Huck didn’t want anything that involved school during his lifetime. He wanted to be adventurous and make something of his life. That is exactly what he did. To start off he did go to school even though he hated it. His reason for that was that his dad didn’t want him to go and
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become better than him. “I’ll lay for you, my smarty; and if I catch you about that school I’ll tan you good” (20). That is what encouraged him to go for a short time before running away. School was and still is a clear example of being civilized because a majority of people go. If Huck went he wouldn’t be as much as an individual. Being civilized can have more than one meaning. You can be civilized and follow the rules without being just like everyone else. Huck did decide to help Jim who is a runaway slave. Breaking the law to do that didn’t make him any more unique than others around him. “Then I thought a minute, and says to myself, hold on; s’pose you’d ‘a’ done right and give Jim up, would you felt better than what you do now? No, says I, I’d feel bad” (91). It’s good that he helped Jim out in a form of friendship since he didn’t have anyone before. Huck wanted to be different in the book and he did that, just not in a way we would do so today. Huckleberry also dreads the conformities of religion.
He doesn’t want to be apart of anything and that includes any type of religion. Being a part of something would mean being like others. Therefore if he doesn’t want religion, why follow rules or be a part of something? “Well, I couldn’t see no advantage in going where she was going, so I made up my mind I wouldn’t try for it” (3). There he claimed he didn’t care about going to heaven or hell, so following the rules wouldn’t matter. He didn’t think there was a difference in the place he went after he died. “Alright, then, I’ll go to hell” (214). Huck got to the point of being deathly afraid of hell. He never seemed to care but then the time came where he realized he would rather go heaven, but couldn’t. Helping Jim seemed a mistake towards those laws and religion even if he wouldn’t have made it without him. He wanted to write all of these letters to people like Miss Watson and Tom Sawyer but was sure they would think of him as a bad person. Nonetheless Miss Watson would more than likely sell Jim and Huck would be left with no one. Even though Huck never seemed to care much about religion, we all know that deep down it was affecting
him. The conformities given by society like school and religion would have given Huck too much of a civilized name, so he stayed away from them and lived by his own rules. Throughout Huckleberry Finn, Huck was recognized as an individual that broke the law and had nothing to do with school or religion. School was what everyone else did, so Huck refused. Having any type of religion would have made him too much like everyone else so he stayed away from that too. Knowing that helping a runaway slave was against the law, he helped one. The slave became the only person Huck had throughout the book so even if it was an advantage he was still in danger by not following rules. “I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever felt so in my life, and I knowed I could pray now” (213). Huck struggled while disobeying laws and God but finally came to his senses. Without going through everything he went through, Huck wouldn’t deserve the name Huckleberry Finn as it makes it who he was and always will be.
Huck Finn does not fully understand religion. The widow tells him he can ask God for whatever he wants so he thinks of religion as asking God for specific items. Religion is actually a more spiritual concept, and Huck is not mature enough to realize this. This is apparent when he mentions “Miss Watson she took me in the closet and prayed, but nothing come of it. She told me to pray every day, and whatever I asked for I would get it. But it warn't so. I tried it. Once I got a fish-line, but no hooks. It warn't any good to me without hooks. I tried for the hooks three or four times, but somehow I couldn't make it work. By and by, one day, I asked Miss Watson to try for me, but she said I was a fool. She never told me why, and I couldn't make it out no way.” This tells us that Huck is very confused about religion and takes things very literally. Huck was not brought up in church, so he knows little about God and religion. Another time when Huck took something too literally was when he went to Tom Sawyer's group to "rob and murder" people. Huck fully expected there to be real elephants and “A-rabs” at their destination. Tom Sawyer just wanted to pretend this was the case, when Huck actually was preparing himself to see elephants.
Over the 129 years for which the book has been in print, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been regarded with much controversy, for many different reasons. As it has progressed, the subject of this controversy has been almost constantly changing. This essay will explore some of the claims and explanations of the controversy, as well as a discussion on whether the book is even that controversial. While everyone is entitled to their own opinion about this novel, The main complaints seem to revolve around three core topics: Twain’s portrayal of Jim and other blacks, The extensive use of the racial slurs and racism, and the final chapters of the book itself.
When his dad came to see him when he was staying with the widow, he blew up at Huck, saying that Huck was trying to be better than him and mock him by going to school. That could have been an underlying factor of why Huck might have rejected the idea of structured education. “ You’re educated, too, they say- can read and write,. You think you’re better’n your father, now, don’t you, because he can’t?”.
It seems like a never-ending question. When will we ever let it rest? You know the question I'm talking about; should the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn be banned from American Literature courses? It's been argued from so many different standpoints, but it has never been settled. Is Huckleberry Finn really a controversial book?
In the book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck rejects "sivilized" life. He dreads the rules and conformities of society such as religion, school, and anything else that will eventually make him civilized. He feels cramped in his new surroundings at the Widow Douglas's house. He would rather be in his old rags and sugar-hogshead because he was free and satisfied. He felt out of place when he tried being "sivilized" because he grew up fending for himself and to him it felt really lonely. Huck Finn grew up living in the woods and pretty much raised himself because his pap was a drunk. He never had a civilized lifestyle and he believed that his way of living was good enough for him. He was free to do what ever he liked and that is how he learned to live. He did not believe in school because all you need to know to live is not found in a book that you read at school. He believed that you learned by living out in the wild. Huck would rather be an individual than conform to society. Huck would rather follow his heart then his head and because of this Huck is ruled as a bad person because in society your suppose to use your head. Huck is being penalized for his beliefs and he does not want to be apart of a lifestyle that does not support his ways. For instance his choice not to turn in Jim shows that Huck understands why Jim is escaping. Huck sees Jim as a friend not as a slave and so he truly is able to see that society's way of treaty Jim is wrong. Huck is portrayed as a boy who sees life at face value and not by the set "standards" of the "sivilized" society. The rejection of the "sivilized" lifestyles shows that Huck does not agree with it rules. Because of this, he is able to see life from different perspectives. He can sympathize with all the class in society. He learns to figure out what is morally correct and wrong. Through out his journey down the river, Huck is able to learn more about himself and others.
Rejection of Civilization in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn & nbsp; In the novel Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Huck decides to reject civilization. The sand is a sand. At the end of the story, Aunt Sally wants to civilize him. but he refuses. He says "I reckon I got to light out for the territory. ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally, she's going to adopt me, civilize me.
Ransomed? Whats that???.. it means that we keep them till they're dead (10). This dialogue reflects Twains witty personality. Mark Twain, a great American novelist, exploits his humor, realism, and satire in his unique writing style in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain, born in 1835, wrote numerous books throughout his lifetime. Many of his books include humor; they also contain deep cynicism and satire on society. Mark Twain, the author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, exemplifies his aspects of writing humor, realism, and satire throughout the characters and situations in his great American novel.
Throughout the entire novel of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the only seemingly civilized place there is, is away from civilization itself, on the raft. In fact, every time to raft touches the shore, Huck Finn finds himself in a place that's even more corrupt and less civilized then the last. On the raft things seemed to be always quiet, and sometimes foggy, but on land Huck could see everything, including the awful reality of what is known as civilization. People are brutal beings who kill each other for no good reason, and they torture each other in cruel and unusual ways. Huck is faced with one of these realities when he gets caught in between a feud between two families; the Grangerfords and the Shepardsons. These two families seem to mindlessly hate each other. Their only reason for this boiling
... I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: “All right, then, I’ll go to hell”—and tore it up” (Twain 317). At this point in the novel, Huck realizes that he would rather go to Hell for doing what he believed to be right even if it is wrong in others’ eyes, including God’s. Although Huck knew it was wrong to help a runaway slave, he also knew it was what he had to do, it felt right to him. The inner turmoil that Huck experienced within his conscience was a constant battle, but Huck made the decision to follow his heart. Huck learns, from his own life experiences of befriending Jim and his own moral conscience and intuition, that standing up for what seems “right” isn’t always easy to do, but it’s the right thing to do. Huck made the moral decision to go against what he had been taught was “right” and do what he knew was “right”.
At the beginning of the tale, Huck struggles between becoming ?sivilized? and doing what he pleases. He doesn?t want to listen to the rules that the Widow Douglas and her sister force upon him, even though he knows the widow only wants what is best for him. Miss Watson pushes Huck away from society even more through the way she treats him. She teaches him religion in such a dreary way that when she speaks of heaven and hell, Huck would rather go to hell than be in heaven with her: ?And she told all about the bad place, and I said I wished I was there?I couldn?t see no advantage in going where she was going, so I made up my mind I wouldn?t try for it? (12-13). Huck is taught a very different kind of morality by his father who believes ?it warn?t no harm to borrow things, if you was meaning to pay them back?? (70). He likes his father?s idea of morality better because he is not yet mature enough to fully understand right and wrong, although living with the widow...
Huck Finn, a narcissistic and unreliable young boy, slowly morphs into a courteous figure of respect and selflessness. After Pap abducts the young and civilized Huck, Huck descends into his old habits of lies and half-truths. However, upon helping a runaway slave escape, Huck regains morality and a sense of purpose. Throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Huck lies to characters, casting the authenticity of the story into doubt but illustrating Huck’s gradual rejection of lying for himself and a shift towards lying for others.
Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn compares and contrasts the benefits and consequences of living in civilization versus living in the natural world, in the absence of a structured society (Gaither par.9). Twain portrays his preference for the natural world through its beneficial effects on the main character, Huckleberry Finn. Twain uses his story Huckleberry Finn to portray the simplicity of a life led without the constraining rules, regulations, and customs of modern society. He does this by allowing Huck’s life to face less difficulty, and gain moral and practical understanding when he is free from the strains of society and its backward ideals. Twain allows the natural world to foster Huck’s moral and ethical development by allowing him to learn his own code of ethics and ideals by his own experience and not by the influence of others.
In the very beginning of the novel, Huck is forced into learning the religious ideals of what is right from wrong according to Miss Watson and the Widow Douglas. Religion in all standards is clearly one of the major influences when it comes to teaching morality. It provides the general opposition of good versus evil and even the distinction of heaven and hell. For example, Huck takes no pleasure in these teachings by saying “Then she [Miss Watson] told me all about the bad place and I said I wish I was there... S...
The novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an extremely important work of literature that addresses many world problems such as: poverty, race relations, and our role in society. Although some of these issues are not as prevalent today as they were in the 1880s, the novel still sends an important satirical message to anyone who is willing hear this story. This essay will analyze Huckleberry Finn and its relation to society today; the main issues that are addressed include: Huckleberry’s growth as a moral and upstanding person, race relations between African-Americans and Caucasian-Americans including Huck’s relation to Jim and the issue of slavery, the role of society and an analysis of Huck’s role in society and society’s role in Huckleberry’s personality.
Like previously mentioned, he wants to be free. "What's the use you learning to do right, when it's troublesome to do right and ain't no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same?" (Ch. 16). He doesn’t see the purpose in learning how to be an upstanding citizen in society, he rather do wrong and be left alone than to do right and get no recognition. Money and success isn’t a necessity for Huck and Jim. It means more to them to be free of sterotypes and being held back, than to have large amounts of money. Although it seems as if the American Dream today is all about money and power, when it comes to racism and even discrimination of gender, many people would rather be free from mockery than to be the most successful person in the world. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is able to depict the disillusions of American ideals versus the actually political and social realities. Even though slavery has technically been abolished, Jim was still being held back by Jim Crow Laws and the prejudices of the South. And Huck cannot seem to escape the wrath of his drunk father, who seems to do nothing but burden him. It is sad to see that their dream of freedom is being blocked by miniscule, yet overriding,