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The adventures of huckleberry finn analysis
Huckleberry Finn as a social novel
Huckleberry Finn as a social novel
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The book Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, has many themes that appear throughout the text. One such theme is that people must live outside of society to be truly free. If one lives outside of society, then they do not have to follow all of its laws and try to please everyone. They would not be held back by the fact that if they do something wrong, they would be punished for doing it.
This theme relates to Huck Finn in a major way. When Huck is with the widow and is learning how to be civilized, he is always feeling uncomfortable. He doesn't like it much and wishes to go back to his normal life out in the wilderness. However, when he thinks about not doing something that the widow is trying to make him do, he remembers where he is, in society. If he doesn't do these things he will be an outsider and society will not accept him as much. As he is on the river, he lays back and relaxes all the time. Whenever he goes back into society, he finds that he can not live within its limits so he always denies who he really is and makes up some false identity all the time. When he finally runs from society at the end, one last time, it was clear that he believed that society was too much for him. Also that they would try to make him civilized again, which he didn't want, so he goes off alone to finally be truly free of his troubles and restraints.
This is also seen in the character Jim. While Jim is with Miss Watson, he is a slave. She isn't the one who made him that way, it was society. She was good to him and never did him any harm, but the fact is that no matter how good she was to him, he still was only a slave. When Jim runs away, he finally sees that there was a way to be truly free and that was to not live within society. When Jim is in the woods on the island, he just starts to realize what it is to be free and what it is like to live on his own. After he meets Huck in the woods he also realizes what it is like to have a friend. Society kept him from having both of these, freedom and friends.
In the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, the ignorance of society becomes extremely evident at many parts of the book. Society forms ideals for all walks of life and then lets them become like stone in their minds. Thus, once a person has been put into a group they will remain there forever. The ignorance of society is clearly seen when one looks at Huck Finn, Jim the Slave, Pap, and the senseless violence of the Grangerfords and the Shepardsons.
The novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, has many intriguing characters. One of those characters is their slave, Jim. He has many diverse qualities that portrayed through his actions, speech and appearance. These qualities include loyalty, compassion and superstition. These qualities show us how Jim is a good person.
In the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the main character, Huck, struggles to develop his own set of beliefs and values despite the very powerful social structure of his environment. The people he encounters and the situations he experiences while traveling down the Mississippi River help him become an independent thinker in the very conformist society of 19th century Missouri.
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.
In the novel The Adventures Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, a theme of freedom is portrayed. Freedom takes on a different perspective for each character in the novel. In Jim, the runaway slave, and Huck's, the mischievous boy, journey, they obtain freedom. Jim's hunt for freedom is an escape from the clutches of slavery, while Huck's is a flight from the civilized world. Their hunting for freedom is for one reason, for their happiness. This is shown throughout the novel in Jim's desire of escaping slavery and Huck's wish for being uncivilized.
The river is Huck’s escape route from the rules of society, and represents not only a new life for him but also for Jim, an escaped slave. Both Huck and Jim are trying to leave behind the tight grip society has on them. As neither Huck nor Jim were free to do what they wanted back “home”, the river and raft become their independence. Jim and Huck use the raft and each other to create a home and realize that “there wasn’t home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft doesn’t. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft”(Twain,128). While on the raft, Huck begins to relate with his surroundings, nature, which gives him time and space to think for himself. On the raft there is no discrimination. Huck and Jim are equals. Even though Huck is still young in age, he knows it is time to start forming his own opinions and not follow the lead of others. It is here, that Huck truly understands the cruelty of slavery and how brutal society can be to other human beings simply because of the color of their skin. This realization strengthens Huck’s ability to stand behind his values and reject society’s
In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain the main character, Huck Finn, grows and learns many lessons. Throughout my life I have learned many similar lessons. In addition, I have discovered that there is a relationship between Huck's life lessons and my life lessons. Also I have learned many different lessons that Huck was dispossessed from learning. Twain's character, Huckleberry Finn, and I can be compared and contrasted through lessons we both have learned and lessons that only I have learned. During my life I have learned that lessons are hard, complex, and above all else are universal. One lesson that Huck and I have shared in learning is that a person can choose to escape an unfair situation. Huck escaped his abusive father and was taken in by the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson. I too escaped an abusive father. When I was six years old my mother divorced my father and I decided to live with her. Another lesson that Huck learns is to be his own person. He learns this when he left Tom Sawyer and his gang for his own adventures. I learned this same lesson when some friends wanted to go to a concert on a night that I had school and a project due the next day. I did not go with them and even though my friends had fun, I was proud to be an individual. Additionally, Huck learns that friends are very important because they are always there for you. He and Jim become very close over their long trip down the river. They do things for each other that shows that they are friends. Tom helps Huck rescue their friend Jim from slavery. Huck and Tom free Jim because he is a good friend to them. I have also learned that friends are a tremendous part of my life. On various occasions, friends have helped me study for important tests. Consequently, Huck and I have learned similar important life lessons though the experiences were different. On the contrary, there are also a few lessons that I have learned that Huck has not learned. I have learned that you must deal with your problems instead of running away 12/19/98 from them.
In summary, the society in which Huckleberry Finn lives continually confuses him, as the things people say contrast with their actions. He sees this with characters such as the judge in St. Petersburg, the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons, and Sherburn, and he finds them to be hypocrites. These incidences lead him to not know what set of beliefs to follow, and this impact on Huck is what the author sets out to display in the novel. His commentary on society through this reflection shows that the morals a society focuses on are many times not practiced by the people that make it up, and do not result in the progress forward that these morals are meant to provide.
In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, society and human nature are portrayed as violent and cruel, promoting an environment where ethics and morality are seemingly thrown out the window. This can be seen in a multitude of instances, including the promotion of slavery, as well as examples of violence in parenting. To counter this violence, Jim and Huck look for an escape, running away and taking to the water for refuge. While it may seem that Huck and Jim are oppressed by their escape, isolating themselves from society and living in bad conditions, their escape is shown to be the ultimate source of freedom. While on land, Huck and Jim’s freedom seems to waver. They meet cruel people like the King and Duke, as well as face the realities
Through his experiences, Huck has learned to be his own person. Huck forms his own ideas about Jim, who is a slave. It is civil in Huck’s society to see one’s self above a black man. But by Huck saying “I knowed he was white inside” (Twain 283). Marcia Lusted who wrote “Mark Twain … activist!” agrees with this point by saying that “Huck comes to see Jim not as a runaway slave, but as his equal and his friend”. These statements conclude that Huck has a moral center, and that he does not see race, but the person themself. When Hucks learns of Pap’s death, he realizes he can not be independent. Kravits agrees with this claim by saying “Huck finds himself trapped once again in the grasp of civilization”. Huck once again is in society. Richard Jr. Ernsberger who wrote “Andrew Levy: have we misread Huckleberry Finn?” said “Huck [would] like to break the cycle, but is fairly locked into it”. BY the cycle he means society. Huck wants to get out of society in a whole At the end of his adventures, Huck understands that he does not want to be in society. Aunt Sally wants to adopt Huck, but he does not want to be adopted, by saying “...Aunt sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me and I can’t stand it” (Twain 293). At the beginning of the novel, Huck returns to the widow’s house, only learning she wanted to civilize him. So Huck finding out that now Aunt Sally wants to adopt him, Huck cannot stand it.
Mark Twain exposes the corruptions of the society in contrast to the setting on the Mississippi River in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The novel begins with Widow Douglas attempting to “sivilize” Huck in the proper, etiquette manner fit for the sophisticated society. During Huck’s escape on the river, he actually experiences the true freedom where he is able to make his own decisions, such as the moral choice to go to hell in return for Jim’s freedom. Twain emphasizes that the “uncivilized” way Huck lives on the river proves to be more desirable and morally superior, contradicting the “civilized” society.
n this novel, the author chose to write the story from Huckleberry Finn's point of view. Huck was born into the lowest level of white society and is often homeless and dirty. Some of the adults in his town try to help him and teach him the social values that are learned by a middle-class boy, but because he is distant from mainstream society, he is skeptical of the world around him. Huck is able to escape society by faking his own death and running away. On his adventure with the runaway slave, Jim, Huck is constantly questioning the things society has taught him, and he finds himself conflicted between doing what is considered right in society or doing what he thinks is right.
While adventuring in the wild, Huck feels free from societal expectations, but his encounters with other people along the river remind him that humanity is deeply flawed. On the river, Huck’s encounter with slave-catchers irreversibly sets him on a path to seeing slavery’s hypocrisy. After realizing he is technically helping a runaway slave escape, he says,“I got to feeling so mean and miserable I most wished I was dead” (Twain 89). Clearly, society’s ideals have a strong hold on his moral core. Although he may not understand their opinions, the people around him still affect his values. This is seen as Huck struggles between his own moral conscience and societal expectations. Influenced by the behavior of people around him, he even looks down
Huckleberry Finn, a realistic fiction novel written by Mark Twain, contains many levels of symbolism. The novel attempts to describe the journey of a runaway slave and a young boy who accompanies him. Both Jim, the runaway slave, and Huck, the young boy, are from the South and are trying to travel to the North in seek of freedom. Geographically, the North and the South were separated by the Mississippi river. Thus, all of Huck and Jim’s travels take place on the river, and Huck and Jim are forced to spend a lot of time together. While on the river, as Huck and Jim’s relationship grows, Huck discovers new truths about life and ultimately matures on the river. Mark Twain brilliantly uses the river to symbolize both freedom and growing up for
Authors, such as Mark Twain, challenge characters throughout their novels to illustrate themes. Society displays different aspects on how a character should be or should act. Twain shows this within his story to show readers the difficulties a character goes through. In, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain uses loneliness, confusion, and maturity through the character of Huck, in his struggle to figure out what is right or wrong to illustrate the theme, man’s own decisions v.s. society’s rules. Huck Finn is an example of a victim controlled by society’s demands, but learns to think for himself.