Huckleberry Finn Society Analysis

Words: 464
Pages: 2

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain develops the time period of the 1840s, in order to illustrate the effects society has on Huck's moral conscience. Huck, the main character, is brought up in this 1840s society, which is when people of the South were accustomed to the institution of slavery. Huck was taught in the white southern culture, which said that slaves were not real men and did anything in their power to either dehumanize these people or to make them seem more of an inferior species. Despite these teachings, Huck ends up on a journey with a slave named Jim. Twain illustrates the effects of society by conveying a conversation between Huck and Jim. Jim starts by stating, "'But mind, you said you wouldn't tell - you know you …show more content…
People would call me a low-down Abolitionist and despite me for keeping mum - but that don't make no difference..." (Twain 43). This conversation illustrates Huck going against the white southern morals that he was taught by Huck helping in embedding the escaped slave and not revealing Jim to the authorities. Huck is showing that he is a man of his word no matter what he was taught by the white southern culture. He doesn't know if he is doing the right thing in aiding Jim escape the institution of slavery, which then creates internal conflicts within Huck. Debating whether or not he should turn Jim in. "Well, I can tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish, too, to hear him, because I begun to get it through my head that he was most free - and who was to blame for it? Why, me. I couldn't get that out of my conscience, no how nor no way. It got to troubling me so I couldn't rest... I tried to make out to myself that I warn' t to blame, because I didn't run Jim off from his rightful owner... conscience up and says... 'But you know Ed he was running for his freedom, and you could'a' paddled ashore and told somebody'" (Twain 87). Illustrating the internal conflicts in Huck's self-conscience right