The novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain has been called many things, over the years, by critics and scholars. Along with the plethora of criticism about its’ depiction of slavery and its’ use of the word “nigger”, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is considered by many to be the father of all American Literature. This high praise is puzzling, considering all its’ faults coupled with its’ unsatisfying ending. However upon a deeper examination of the text itself a parallel emerges among The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the classic Greek epics. In both novels an epic journey is employed by the author to provide a moral education to the main character, as well as shaping the plot and adding meaning to the story as a whole. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn the physical journey is what makes the book a classic, it not only provides a moral schooling for Huck, and it is a safe sanctuary for Huck and Jim against the ills of 18th century America.
While playing many roles in the story the physical journey provides a moral education for Huck. Essentially, it shows Huck from the beginning of the novel, who hunted A-rabs and played a distasteful practical joke on Jim, the consequences of immorality by showing the damaging repercussions of immoral behavior. One of the greatest examples of the negative effects of immoral behavior on others is demonstrated by the actions of the King and the Duke. Their schemes caused irreparable damage to individuals and the towns they visited. When the King and the Duke pose as missionaries and collect donations from church-goers Huck sees the damage inflicted upon the townspeople because of this scheme. He, for the first time, empathizes with a group of people and realizes that ...
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... he now realizes that stealing property is bad. Since Huck and Tom, although in a drawn-out manner, free Jim it is implied that he regards Jim as a fellow human being, not a slave. Showing Huck this equality and fostering a friendship between him and Jim could only be done by this kind of physical journey, as the idea of equality was only in its infancy at the time and had not taken root with any southerner.
In conclusion, the physical journey in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the central focus of the novel and serves many purposes; ranging from plot development to teaching Huck multiple lessons about equality and treating people for what they are, rather than what they appear to be. In this novel the beginning and the end are not significant, only the middle because this is where Huck learns things by experience that the rest of the country is ignorant to.
Why would anyone in his or her right mind even think about freeing a slave? Everyone in the society was telling Huck that slaves were no more than ones property, but Huck began to question this belief when he got to know the property for who it really was. During the story there are many times when Huck feels an obligation to turn Jim in to the authorities and just get on with his life, but his conscience kept telling him that this man is a real person. Near the end of the story, Jim was stuck in a holding cell, since he had run away. After much consideration of the situation, Huck decides that he wants to free Jim because he believes that he shouldn't be treated that way. Even though the entire town believes that Jim should be contained and treated like property, Huck still sticks to his morals and goes along with the plan that could get him in trouble or even killed. At the end of the story we find out that Jim had always been free, and we now find Huck's actions to be heroic and noble.
A hero puts other people before themselves and is admired for their qualities, courage, and achievements. A hero obtains knowledge throughout their journey of helping and healing. From Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huckleberry begins his journey with his first dilemma to save a slave, Jim. Huckleberry Finn begins to transform into a courageous hero when he learns the value of a human being.
	Huck’s attitude for Jim is racist which is seen when he decides to play a trick on Jim during their voyage. After Huck plays his trick his attitude toward Jim begins to change, "It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I warn't ever sorry for it afterward, neither" (Twain 72). The dialogue throughout the book between Huck and Jim illustrates that Jim is more than property and that he is a human being with feelings, and hopes for a better future.
Throughout Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck learns a variety of life lessons and improves as a person. Huck goes through a maturing process much different than most, he betters a conscience and begins to feel for humanity versus society. His trip down the river can be seen as a passage into manhood, where his character changes as he can relate with the river and nature.
Jim's character traits are easy to over look because of his seeming ignorance, but in reality Jim possessed some qualities that created a positive influence on Huck. He began by demonstrating to Huck how friends teach friends. His honest compassion also eventually causes Huck to resist the ideas society has placed upon him, and see Jim as an equal-- rather than property that can be owned. Huck knew he was going against society, and of the consequences that he could receive for freeing a slave. "It would get all around, that Huck Finn helped a nigger to get his freedom; and if I was to ever see anybody from that town again, I'd be ready to get down and lick his boots for shame", (269-270). Huck then claims, "All right, then, I'll go to hell…"(272) This shows that Huck was willing to put himself on the line for a slave, because he ceased to view Jim as property and recognized him as a friend. At the beginning of the story Huck would have never done this, but after the many adventures that occur, Jims unconditional love for Huck pierces the shell society placed ar...
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain is about the great adventures that Huck finn has with his slave Jim on the Missouri River. The story tells not only about the adventures Huck has, but more of a deeper understanding of the society he lives in. Twain had Huck born into a low class society of white people; his father was a drunken bum and his mother was dead. He was adopted by the widow Douglas who tried to teach him morals, ethics, and manners that she thought fit in a civilized society. Huck never cared for these values and ran away to be free of them. During Huck’s adventure with Jim he unknowingly realized that he didn't agree with society’s values and could have his own assumptions and moral values. Twain uses this realization to show how the civilized and morally correct social values that was introduced to Huck was now the civilized and morally contradicting values.
In chapter 16, Huck goes through a moral conflict of whether he should turn Jim in or not. “I was paddling off, all in a sweat to tell on him; but when he says this, it seemed to kind of take the tuck all out of me (89).'; Right off from the beginning, Huck wanted to turn Jim in because it was against society’s rules to help a slave escape and Huck knew it. But when Jim said that “Huck; you’s de bes’ fren’ Jim’s ever had; en you’s de only fren’ ole Jim’s got now (89),'; made helped Huck to grasp the concept that there is a friendship in the making. Even though Huck didn’t turn Jim in, he is till troubled by his conscience when the slave catchers were leaving because he knows it is wrong to help a slave. Still Huck cannot bring himself forward to tell on Jim, thus showing that his innate sense of right exceeds that of society.
In lieu of his escape, Jim emphasized his feelings of becoming a free man. Jim said it made him all over trembly and feverish to be so close to freedom (p. 238). Huck came to the realization that Jim was escaping for a far different reason than he, and began to see this “nigger’s” freedom as his own fault; he was an accomplice. Huck’s conscience became plagued by the fact that Jim was escaping the custody of his rightful owner, and he was doing nothing to stop this. In Huck’s eyes, Jim was essentially the property of poor old Ms. Watson, who didn’t do anything less than teach Jim his manners and his books. Altogether, Huck felt that he was doing wrong by concealing this, and felt miserable to say the least.
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.
Set in pre-civil war America, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn takes place along the Mississippi river. As Huckleberry travels along it he learns lessons about life, society and most importantly; himself. Surrounded by a world of prejudice and racism, Huck is forced to learn to make decisions on his own. He is able to learn from the imperfections in the rest of the world as he views them. While on the river, Huck and Jim are at peace. The river symbolizes freedom for both Jim and Huck. The river is Jim’s path to freedom from slavery, and it is Huck’s freedom from society. When Jim and Huck journey onto the banks of the river they see the inhumanity to man that goes on in the world. This juxtaposition of the river and the land help emphasize the peacefulness of the river in comparison to the crazy society on land. Huck learns to think for himself, and tries not to conform to the ways of the people on the land. Although the world that he lives in teaches him to be a racist, his journey down the river teaches him to use his own mind, and find out what he really believes in.
Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is considered the great American Novel with its unorthodox writing style and controversial topics. In the selected passage, Huck struggles with his self-sense of morality. This paper will analyze a passage from Adventures of huckleberry Finn and will touch on the basic function of the passage, the connection between the passage from the rest of the book, and the interaction between form and content.
...ore closely related to a bildungsroman than to a simple picaresque novel. Huck shows considerable development, both morally and psychologically. Through the people he meets, he gets a taste of many spectrums of society and morals. This is the very last line of the novel: “But I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me and I can’t stand it. I been there before.” (AHF, 220). The last line clearly shows he is not the same little boy that he was at the beginning of the book. Because he has been there before, he is no longer ignorant of “there”. By choosing to make his own choices, Huck makes a steady path towards maturity not only of his morals, but of himself as well.
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. In the book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the protagonist is faced with many moral dilemmas. Huckleberry Finn is barely an adolescent who is used to skipping school and horsing around with his friends.
Life, change, identity, they are all a big part of this book as well as life in general. Huck is a person who the author Mark Twain tries to portray as lost in himself as well as in society. Huck throughout the book is looking for an identity that he believes he will find on his journey down the Mississippi river. "I'd go down the river fifty mile and camp in one place for good, and not have such a rough time tramping on foot."(pg31) Why does he want to get away from his life? I think Huck's character is very independent and he has his own thoughts on where he wants to end up in life. In his old life everybody was always telling him what to do where to go how to eat and he was getting sick of it. On page 4 he says "All I wanted was to go somewheres; all I wanted was change , I warn't particular." He was looking to get out of his old life and into the life that he thought was right for him. Where there was no boundaries or limits, he wanted to be free from the shackles of Christian home life.
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.