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How does huck mature over time
Huck finn character development
Trace huck's moral development throughout the novel
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One critic has said that Jim is Huck’s “true father.” Discuss what this means. Include what Jim taught Huck.
A “true father” can be described as one who displays paternal qualities, substituting an individual’s real, less nurturing father. This figure can be anyone that spends a lot of time with a younger individual, becoming a role model for him or her. In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain presents many leading figures that impact Huck’s life, including Pap, the Duke, the Dauphin, and Jim. Most of them serve as negative influences on Huck, taking advantage of him for their own selfish purposes. However, some of these figures teach Huck principles and morals to live by, and impart important values needed to make proper decisions. Jim, an African American slave, is one of Huck’s role models, allowing the reader can easily identify Jim as a father figure. He provides like a real father for Huck, caring for him, as well as listening to his ideas and teaching him, proving that Jim is Huck’s “true father.”
Jim serves as a paternal figure for Huck, contrasting with the actions of Pap, as he cares for Huck’s safety and wellbeing. The reader learns that Jim can properly fit the role of a “true father” for Huck because Jim has a family. Twain reveals that his “wife and his children” are away from him, causing him much sadness (Twain 225). Thus, he attempts to fill the gap by acting as a father towards Huck. Jim shows great love and care while constantly protecting Huck, even though Huck seems to be uncaring. He does not wish to see Huck in any pain or danger, and therefore keeps the truth away from Huck. When the pair finds the floating house with supplies, they also see a dead body. The reader notices that Jim is...
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...dult to serve as his father in order to guide him properly, which is the role Jim fulfills. Jim is one of the few positive influences that acts upon Huck, which makes him one of the most important guiding figures that Twain introduces to the novel. Many of Huck’s decisions and actions are influenced by Jim, and Huck grows to become a better person due to Jim’s impact. Jim’s actions to help Huck are father-like in nature, as he is humble and nurturing, allowing a powerful bond between the two to flourish. Although Huck has always followed his own conscience, Jim’s wisdom and guidance has helped Huck tred on the right path. Often times, one must receive the proper nurturing and guiding to make sensible, moral decisions in the future.
Works Cited
Twain, Mark, and Cynthia Johnson. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2009. Print.
...ke." Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. An Authoritative Text Backgrounds and Sources Criticism. Ed. Sculley Bradley, et al. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 1977. 421-22.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel written by Mark Twain during the late 1800’s (Mintz). The book brought major controversy over the plot, as well as the fact that it was a spin-off to his previous story, Adventures of Tom Sawyer. This book has remained a success due to Twain’s interesting techniques of keeping the audience’s attention. Chapters eleven and twelve of “Huckleberry Finn,” uses a first person limited point of view to take advantage of the use of dialogue while using many hyperboles to add drama to entertain the reader by creating description within the story without needing to pause and explain.
...ing out for Huck like a father would. "I went right along, not fixing up any particular plan, but just trusting to Providence to put the right words in my mouth when the time come" (Twain ). In this line Huck states that though he does not have a plan just yet, the first thing that he will do once he has one, is to carry it out and free Jim. This shows his loyalty to Jim as he will always come back to him which demonstrates how much he cares for him and their strong bond.
Huck has been raised in a high-class society where rules and morals are taught and enforced. He lives a very strict and proper life where honesty and adequacy is imposed. Huck being young minded and immature, often goes against these standards set for him, but are still very much a part of his decision-making ability and conscience. When faced to make a decision, Hucks head constantly runs through the morals he was taught. One of the major decisions Huck is faced with is keeping his word to Jim and accepting that Jim is a runaway. The society part of Hucks head automatically looks down upon it. Because Huck is shocked and surprised that Jim is a runaway and he is in his presence, reveals Hucks prejudice attitude that society has imposed on him. Huck is worried about what people will think of him and how society would react if they heard that Huck helped save a runaway slave. The unspoken rules th...
Jim's influence gave Huck something that he needed all of his life: a role model. Through this maternal role, he teaches Huck to value friendship, that society is not always right, the convenient way out may not always be right, and how to make moral decisions. These lessons are taught by example, not mere verbalization. Therefore, Jim was the best example of a parent Huck ever experienced. The exposure Huck received to Jim caused him to mature very quickly, especially for the small amount of time they were on the river. This growing maturity not only saved Huck's life during their adventures, but Jim's as well. This is the ultimate lesson Huck learned, that your actions effect others around you.
Huckleberry Finn: A Father Figure &nb Mark Twain, the author of Huckleberry Finn, has written a story that all will enjoy. Huck is a young boy with not much love in his life, his mother died when he was very young, and he had drunk for a father. Huck lives with the widow and she tried to raise him right. While at the widow's, Huck went to school and learned to read and write. The widow also tried to civilize him.
You Can’t Pray A Lie is a pivotal excerpt taken from Mark Twain’s classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Like Twain’s other works, this example of moral truth and consequence undermines the basic sense of human values. Set in the 1880’s on a raft upon the Mississippi River, Huck is caught in a battle of personal conflicting views. It is through his interactions with Jim, a runaway black slave, that he faces the realization that being ultimately true to himself means that he cannot “pray a lie.”
Throughout the novel, Twain builds up the father-son relationship Huck and Jim have. When Huck and Jim first escape, Huck is running from his extremely abusive father. Pap Finn
Huck Finn learns from the actions of people around him, what kind of a person he is going to be. He is both part of the society and an outlier of society, and as such he is given the opportunity to make his own decisions about what is right and what is wrong. There are two main groups of characters that help Huck on his journey to moral maturation. The first group consists of Widow Douglas, Miss Watson, and the judge. They portray society and strict adherence to rules laid out by authority. The second group consists of Pap, the King, and the Duke. They represent outliers of society who have chosen to alienate themselves from civilized life and follow no rules. While these characters all extremely important in Huck’s moral development, perhaps the most significant character is Jim, who is both a fatherly figure to Huck as well as his parallel as far as limited power and desire to escape. Even though by the end of the novel, Huck still does not want to be a part of society, he has made a many choices for himself concerning morality. Because Huck is allowed to live a civilized life with the Widow Douglas, he is not alienated like his father, who effectively hates civilization because he cannot be a part of it. He is not treated like a total outsider and does not feel ignorant or left behind. On the other hand, because he does not start out being a true member of the society, he is able to think for himself and dismiss the rules authority figures say are correct. By the end of the novel, Huck is no longer a slave to the rules of authority, nor is he an ignorant outsider who looks out only for himself. This shows Huck’s moral and psychological development, rendering the description of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” as a picaresq...
Jim's relationship to Huck endows devotion, sensitivity, and brotherhood. Jim cherishes Huck as if he was his offspring, and presents Huck with the possibility of seeing him as a guardian. Throughout the novel Jim proves to be protective and caring as a father would be. Jim and Huck come upon a floating house boat, where they inspect the findings of a decease man on board, "Come in, Huck, but doan' look at his face" (Twain 50). Jim doesn't want Huck to stare at the dead man's face, which is a clear example of Jim shielding Huck from the ghastly sight. This also indicates Jim is concerned about Huck's response to the dead body and he uses a protective father portrayal to indicate this. One more significant illustration of the sprouting relationship between Jim and Huck is the amount of emotion Jim shows when he believes that Huck is gone forever. Huck performs a horrible prank on Jim, by pretending that he never was separated from him which contrasts with Jim's parental disposition , "Heart wuz mos' broke bekase you wuz los' en I didn' k' yer no mo' what become er me en de raf" (twain 86). Jim is overcome with joy at the site of Huck, he begins to weep. Jim feels that Huck has taken advantages of his trust and friendship and Jim decides to confess to Huck that he would give anything up for him including his life, despite the fact that Huck is on opposing sides of society.
...ot about his character. Jim trusts Huck more and more, and Huck is thinking of Jim more as his friend.
Mark Twain’s masterpiece The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn through much criticism and denunciation has become a well-respected novel. Through the eyes of a thirteen-year-old boy, Huckleberry Finn, Twain illustrates the controversy of racism and slavery during the aftermath of the Civil War. Since Huck is an adolescent, he is vulnerable and greatly influenced by the adults he meets during his coming of age. His expedition down the Mississippi steers him into the lives of a diverse group of inhabitants who have conflicting morals. Though he lacks valid morals, Huck demonstrates the potential of humanity as a pensive, sensitive individual rather than conforming to a repressive society. In these modes, the novel places Jim and Huck on pedestals where their views on morality, learning, and society are compared.
...cal Edition, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, An Authoritative Text Backgrounds and Sources Criticism. Ed. and Trans. Sculley Bradley, Richmond Croom Beaty, E. Hudson Long, and Thomas Cooley. New York: Norton, 1977. 328-335.
Twain , Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2003.