Huckleberry Finn Essay

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Writing Assignment The author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain, developed a protagonist, Huckleberry Finn, with past and present complexity as well as a unique innocence often correlated to his ignorance of societal doctrines. Huckleberry Finn, hereafter as Huck, was able to expose himself to different environments, including a range of towns and homes, as well as people with varying statuses in social hierarchy, ultimately shaping his new standards for morality and racial relations. Huck's prior relations with his father and exposure to new people among a multitude both blacks and whites allows him to progress effectively as an individual, as it forces him to deviate further from society and their oblivious perspectives due to his new definition of morality and personal integrity through inner disputes with his conscience. Prior to his journey along the river, Huck was living with Widow Douglas and Miss Watson who were given custody for Huck due to his father's negligence and poor influence. The two sisters and Pap represented Huck's lack of morality because they were his influences as a child, in respect to society's ignorance and lack of education for racial perspectives. Huck was eventually able to break away from society and begin his journey as it symbolized Huck's progression as a person while being educated on racial perspectives in reference to Jim, a runaway slave. Throughout Huck's journey on the river, he was exposed to an innumerable amount of towns and people of varying statuses, and he able to progress as an individual by gaining personal experience and refining his definition of morality. An instance where he was able to correlate an experience back to his prior life in the town was when he met the duke and king and exclaimed, "If I never learnt nothing else out of pap, I learnt that the best way to get along with his kind of people is to let them have their own way (Twain 194)". Up until his journey with Jim, Huck was almost traumatized from his experiences with his father and greatly despised him. However, he was able to progress as an individual by using his experience with his father to his advantage by correlating the duke and king to his father and behaving accordingly. Furthermore, relating to his exposure with towns differing to his, he progressed behaviorally such as when he thought, “There was considerable jawing back, so I slid out, thinking maybe there was going to be trouble,” (Twain 222). Due to characters such as Tom Sawyer, whom Huck respected greatly, Huck developed a sense of constantly seeking adventure, however in this instance he left to avoid confliction rather than staying and seeking excitement. An important aspect of moral progression in this novel is the racial perspective of many of the characters due to many people having conflicting opinions during the nineteenth century in which this novel was set. Along the journey, Huck is able to deviate from his original beliefs of slaves from which he learned in his home environment, and is able construct his own opinion and perspective on slavery with the aid of Jim. Before Huck and Jim truly befriended each other and were able to understand the differing lives of each other, Huck viewed slaves as property and not as true human beings. Huck and Tom Sawyer frequently sought excitement and often enjoyed teasing slaves such as when Huck almost got caught by Jim while sneaking out of the house and thought, “When we was ten foot off, Tom whispered to me and wanted to tie Jim to the tree for fun; but I said no; he might wake and make a disturbance, and then they’d find out I warn’t in” (Twain 8). Although Huck refused to engage with Jim, he had done so not because of moral reasons but in order to escape efficiently. Despite Huck's ignorant view of slavery in the beginning of the novel, he progresses, dramatically, particularly when he is conflicted as to if he should turn in Jim and

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Satire In Huckleberry Finn