The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn: Book Analysis

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Growing up, humans get smarter, learn to find their place in their world, and discover their basis of beliefs. Those three things are met when a person looks towards physical, cultural, and geographical surroundings to shape their psychological or moral traits. In the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Huck did just that. He was shaped by his journey down the The Mississippi River, his good friend Jim, the crude Miss Watson and his father “Pap”, these surrounding aspects help illuminate the meaning of the work as a whole, developing Huck into the person he was at the end of the novel.
The Mississippi River, the prominent setting in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was the place that Huck discovered his own logic. The Mississippi River was calm and sweet. Huck especially liked it because it was away from society. “Not a sound, anywheres—perfectly still—just like the whole world was asleep, only sometimes the bullfrogs a-cluttering maybe.” (Twain 108). Traveling on the river, Huck encountered some unlikely companions that taught him lessons about life. The first is when they encounter the two robbers on the Walter Scott, Huck and Finn board not expecting to see them there. They escape by jumping into the robbers’ boat and heading off as quietly as possible. When they are six hundred yards away, Huck feels bad for the robbers that were left stranded on the ship. It is an important aspect of Huck’s character development because he demonstrates that even though the robbers were bad men that did not deserve his compassion, they were also people in need of help. So he sends help for them. Huck reaches the point on the river where he meets the Grangerford family who are pleasant and respectable people. However, ...

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...t the end of the book Huck even feels compassion for people that do not deserve it. He witnesses the duke and king being tarred and feathered. Despite the fact that these men played dirty tricks on him Huck still feels pity for them. “It was a dreadful thing to see. Humans beings can be awful cruel to one another.” (208) Mark Twain is essentially questioning the reader to examine their set of beliefs and decide which ones they actually believe, and which ones should be abandoned just as Huck did with Miss Watson’s beliefs and Pap’s beliefs.
Huck’s own psychological and moral traits are shaped by cultural, physical and geographical surroundings in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Huck has learned to take what he knows from society and apply it to his own set of values and own moral code. He is now able to distinguish good, bad, right, wrong, menace, and friend.

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