The Evolution of Huckleberry Finn

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The Evolution of Huckleberry Finn "It was easier to recognize the traits that Twain was contemptuous of, since the entire book was supposed to satirize society. But there were certain traits that Twain admired, too." (3) Twain showed that he admired morality in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn personified through Huck. "We have no real morals, but only artificial ones—morals created and preserved by the forced suppression of natural and healthy instinct."(4) Such instances include his not telling on Jim when he ran away, Huck returning the stolen money to the girls and Huck trying to escape from the King and the Duke after the burial. Twain chooses to have Huck evolve morally in the novel instead of giving him an outstanding sense of morals throughout the novel. There are three distinct phases of Huck's maturing process that can be found in the beginning, middle and end of the novel. Huckleberry Finn was raised in an environment in which he developed a deformed conscience. He was a fostered in an unpleasant atmosphere. "His traditions and environment pull him one way…"(1) His father known only as Pap was a drunk and would beat him constantly, when Pap was around. And since his father was not around for the majority of the time he didn't have a strong influence to tell him what was right and wrong. He did not care for his guardian, the Widow, very much. When she was telling Huck about heaven and hell he "couldn't see no advantage in going where she was going (heaven), so" he "made up" his "mind that" he "wouldn't try for it." Which again shows Huck's naïveté of the concepts of heaven and hell. His only real idol was Tom who shared the same deformed conscience and sense of immaturity that Huck did. Huck also had this sensation of immaturity and corrupt morals plainly because he didn't know any better. Where he was raised, slavery was not only accepted, it was condoned. Since he had no real morally upstanding role model, he never learned otherwise. Due to the numerous jeopardizing events that Huck was exposed to on both the river and on land he was forced to grow up very quickly. He was a very cunning boy. He constantly made up lies in order to get out of trouble. For example, when Huck met up with the men who were searching for runaway slaves, he made up a story about his father being on the raft with a severe case of smallpox.

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