Huck’s Transformation Huck Finn is an abused orphan that grew up with many bad influences, such as slavery. However, as Huck embarks on a journey with Jim, he has many adventures. Some of these are good and others bad, and as Toni Morrison, author of the article Introduction to Huck Finn puts it, “Unlike the treasure-island excursion of Tom Sawyer, at no point along Huck’s journey was a happy ending signaled or guaranteed” (Morrison 1). This meant that anything could have gone wrong at any point throughout the journey, which it did. In the end Huck Finn “comes of age”, despite having grown up with bad influences, like his Pap. Huck comes of age through his experiences with death, the Duke and King, and Jim. Huck Finn’s experiences with death lead him to “come of age” because at first, he used to not really care what death was like, or what killing other people would feel like, …show more content…
However, as Huck begins to see that the King and Duke lie, and sell the people out with their plays, he starts to realize that maybe the King and Duke weren’t really who they said they were. The final straw that makes Huck realize that they were going too far was when they pretended to be part of the family of Peter Wilk, who was a man that had just died and had left his family some money. The Duke and King thought of cheating the family out of their rightful inheritance, and were about to accomplish it too, if it weren’t for Huck deciding to speak up and expose them. Huck writes a note to Mary Jane saying, “I put it in the coffin. I was behind the door, and I was mighty sorry for you, Miss Mary Jane” (204). This shows that Huck realized that what the King and Duke were doing was wrong, and so he had decided to steal it back and give it to the real owner, making this a coming of age for
The book starts off telling us that you may know Huck from another book called the adventures of Tom Sawyer. Which was also written by Mark Twain. In the first chapter, we figured out the Tom and Huck found a stash of gold that some robbers stole and hid in a cave. They both got $6,000 a piece. After they both got their shares of the money they had Judge Thatcher put it into a trust, in the bank. Once Huck was known for finding the treasure Widow Douglass adopted Huck. Widow Douglass also tried to civilize Huck, but Huck didn't want to be with Douglass so he ran away. Huck took all of his belongings with him, but nothing that Douglass gave him. After Huck ran away he went to join up with Tom Sawyer and his new gang of robbers. The Widow tried to teach Huck about reading and writing before he ran away. But thats the reason why he left because he wasn't interested in any of that stuff. Huck left the Widow’s house when he heard something outside the house, it was Tom waiting for him in the yard. So Huck got up and left.
Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn begins his adventures immature. As he is released from the clutches of his father and the Widow, he is forced to make decisions on his own and actually becomes quite mature. What's interesting about Huck Finn is that Huck doesn't end up as an enlightened, mature, young lad. He actually matures throughout the story until Tom is reintroduced, at which point he regresses into a state of immaturity. Huck appears only able to mature when there are no authoritative figures looming above him.
So when Huck fakes his death and runs away to live on an island he is faced with yet another problem, which revolves around the controversial issue of the time of racism. While living on the island he meets Jim, who was a slave, but Huck soon learns that he has run off and now in the process of making his way up north to Canada. Here Huck is faced with his first tough decision, to go with Jim and help him, or just go and tell the officials of a runaway slave and get the reward. Huck reluctantly joins Jim and promises to get him to free land for the sake of a good adventure, but he still feels guilty to be conversing with a runaway slave, let alone help him escape. Along the way Huck has many challenges, which are just like this one.
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.
When the middle of the novel comes around Huck begins to distinguish what is right and wrong in life and begins to mature and do the right thing. He shows this when he chooses not to partake in the scam that the King and the Duke are playing on the Wilks family. Instead he takes the money back from the King and Duke to hide it because he believes it is only fair to the family. "I'm letting him rob her of her money...I feel so ornery and low...I got to steal that money somehow; and I got to steal it some way that they wont suspicion I done it" (Twain 133) This shows that Huck is starting to see the line between games and real life.
Huckleberry Finn, “Huck”, over the course of the novel, was faced with many obstacles that went into creating his moral compass. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn begins with Huck, a 12 year old boy heavily swayed by society and by Tom Sawyer, a fellow orphan. His opinions and depiction of right and wrong were so swindled to fit into society’s mold. Throughout the story Huck Finn’s moral compass undergoes a complete transformation in search of a new purpose in life. Huck was raised with very little guidance from an alcoholic father, of no mentorship. He was forced to live with Widow Douglas and with Miss Watson’s hypocritical values. Upon learning of God and Heaven from Widow Douglas, he remarks that he is unable to see the benefits of going
In Mark Twain’s book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the character Huck is trying to figure out the struggles of adulthood while also trying to maintain his childlike wonders. Huck experiences many eye opening events, forcing him to grow up and start his adult life at a young age. From having an abusive father, floating down the river with an unlikely friend, and breaking away from society norms, his life was far from childlike dreams. In Twain’s novel, Huck’s experience with honesty, trickery, and perspective help develop the coming of age theme.
While Huck is traveling down the river with Jim, he must lie and often disguise himself to survive on his own to conceal his identity. Huck rebels because he does not want to follow his aunts house rules or live up to her expectations which are to conform to social norms. This means he has to dress cleanly and neatly, use manners, go to school, and be polite to everyone. Huck also is confused because he wants to get away from his abusive father who excessively drinks. Huck is afraid of his father who has beaten him and verbally abused him repeatedly therefore, his only solution is to run away. He does this by faking his own death. Curiousity overwhelms him and he wants to know how society has taken to the news of his death. In order to get some information Huck disguises himself as a girl. He meets with Judy Lawson, a local woman, and asks about the disappearance of Huck Finn. Although his disguise works well, Judy Loftus starts to test him to disguise whether Huck is really a girl. As soon as Judy says, "What's your real name? Is it Bill, or Tom, or Bob? -or what is it?"(Twain 70) Huck realizes he has no chance in pulling such pranks. When confronted with his lie Huck tells the truth and ends up making a friend who says he can count on her. Huck also tries to protect Jim from being captured by lying about himself and his situation.
As a result, Twain utilizes Huck to depict an evolving character in the novel. This is made prominent by Huck’s changes in morals against racism and maturity by being able to understand what is right and what is wrong. Which is displayed through the experiences that Huck goes through in the novel. Just as a child gets older and starts to break away from the environment that was given to him and the morals bestowed upon him. When the child begins to create it’s own morals and starts to realize what is right from wrong the child is no longer a child it becomes a mature adult of it’s own in a society. Paralleling to Huck going from an immature child to a mature young adult in the end of the novel.
In the beginning of the novel, Huck Finn is a very unruly, uncivilized boy that heeds more to Tom Sawyer, a dreamer/adventurer, than to the polite, civilized manner of Widow Douglas and Miss Watson. Pap was an influential adult in Huck's life. Pap controlled Huck not with security, but with fear. A short time after Huck escapes from Pap's cabin, Huck realizes that the correct action would be to turn Jim into the authorities. Instead, Huck follows his heart, and many pleas by Jim, and concludes that he wants his best friend to be free. Huck's maturity is in full form when he derives many scandles to save he and Jim from almost certain capture. This is almost parallel in time frame to Huck's growing fondness of Jim. Huck now sees Jim as his best friend, not a 'nigger'; or a slave.
The passage then goes on to Huck deciding to steal the gold, hide it, and return the gold to the rightful owners: the daughters of Peter Wilks. The basic function of the passage in relationship with the plot is to show Huck and the development of his moral compass. This in turn helps him decide on what he has to do to protect the innocent orphans of Peter Wilks, whom have been nothing but courteous to the three of them imposters. The passage shows a growth in Huck’s intellectual capacity and the maturing of his moral code. Instead of only thinking of himself, Huck starts feeling bad by “letting that old reptle rob her of her money” (Twain 244).
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...
-The man vs. man conflict is brought up many times throughout this story. The first that is posed is the conflict between Huckleberry and Pap. Pap is Huckleberry’s abusive biological father, and an alcoholic to boot. He first comes in and tries to steal his son’s fortune, just so he can get drunk. Huckleberry is kidnapped by his father for a short time, and during this is beaten many times. Huckleberry eventually escapes as he saws his way out of a shed with an old saw he finds. He then kills a pig to fake his own death and smears blood all over the shed so the story is more believable.
Maturity is all about taking action on a person’s wise thoughts. Through the book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the readers can see Huck matures mostly on his tough, brave adventure. Huck’s adventure matures him showing that the river is a passage to manhood and teaches him many lessons in life. The three major parts where Huck got more mature was when he finally got away from pap, when he decided to help Jim, and when Huck helps the Wilks family.
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.