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Tom Sawyer as an outsider
Analysis essay character of huckleberry finn
Tom Sawyer as an outsider
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To begin, Twain illustrates Huck as especially immature and his moral values have yet to fully develop. He is raised by someone of equal maturity. In a conversation with his guardian, Miss Watson, Huck says, “I must help other people and do everything I could for other people and look out for them, and never think about myself… but I couldn’t see no advantage about it - except for the other people so at last I reckoned I wouldn’t worry about it any more, but just let it go” (Twain 15). Like most people of the time, Huck’s only concern was himself. The general consensus was if it did not benefit them, or suit their needs, then they would not think twice on it. Many children, including Huck, were raised this way, not knowing any better. Therefore, …show more content…
Because society has raised Huck to obey what is taught, Huck is scared to go against the community although he disagrees on what is truly just and what is truly immoral. Even today, this is something humans still struggle with; standing up for what one believes in, even if it means they are alone. Twain recognized this in humanity and used Huck’s naivety to show how senseless it seems to sit back and not take a stand against an unethical problem, and also to poke fun at how egotistical and blind mankind can be. Furthermore, Huck’s gradual growth spans out for the majority of the novel. Complementary to the fictional character, it is of likewise value that humans grow, develop, and thrive. A moral turnaround for Huck comes after the funeral; he says, “It made my eyes water a little to remember her crying there all by herself in the night, and them devils laying there right under her own roof, shaming her and robbing her…” (Twain 152). In this story, the King and the Duke represent the immoral side of humanity, and surprisingly, Huck is the righteous side. Huck has progressed so much since the beginning, he is now starting to make his own conscious decisions and determine what is right and what is wrong. …show more content…
He has eye-opening realizations about social ethics and humanity. Huck discovers these through multiple people, but one of the first experiences happens when Jim is sleeping. During a scene when Huck observes Jim, he realizes, “...because he hadn’t ever been away from home before in his life; and I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks does for their’n” (Twain 125). It is during this scene when Huck ultimately understands that Jim is a human, and is not just property. He realizes that every person, even if they are a slave, is human, and has feelings and emotions too. Although he has been brought up to believe that Jim is an inferior, it is now that Huck opens his eyes to the fact that society can be barbaric. In addition to the realization that slaves have feelings too, an article notes, “On their trip Huck confronts the ethics he has learned from society that tell him Jim is only property and not a human being” (The Adventures… 6). During the time period, there were around three million slaves in the United States. The country was built on freedom, yet people insisted slavery was an acceptable happening. They were not mature enough to comprehend what slavery honestly was, and how it contradicted everything they stood for. Huck noticed this, and wrestled with his mind on whether or not it is right, but ultimately decided that humans deserve respect,
When one is young they must learn from their parents how to behave. A child's parents impose society's unspoken rules in hope that one day their child will inuitivly decerne wrong from right and make decisions based on their own judgment. These moral and ethical decisions will affect one for their entire life. In Mark Twains, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck is faced with the decision of choosing to regard all he has been taught to save a friend, or listen and obey the morals that he has been raised with. In making his decision he is able to look at the situation maturely and grow to understand the moral imbalances society has. Hucks' decisions show his integrity and strength as a person to choose what his heart tells him to do, over his head.
In chapter 16, Huck goes through a moral conflict of whether he should turn Jim in or not. “I was paddling off, all in a sweat to tell on him; but when he says this, it seemed to kind of take the tuck all out of me (89).'; Right off from the beginning, Huck wanted to turn Jim in because it was against society’s rules to help a slave escape and Huck knew it. But when Jim said that “Huck; you’s de bes’ fren’ Jim’s ever had; en you’s de only fren’ ole Jim’s got now (89),'; made helped Huck to grasp the concept that there is a friendship in the making. Even though Huck didn’t turn Jim in, he is till troubled by his conscience when the slave catchers were leaving because he knows it is wrong to help a slave. Still Huck cannot bring himself forward to tell on Jim, thus showing that his innate sense of right exceeds that of society.
“She was going to live so as to go to the good place. Well, I couldn’t see no advantage in going where she was going, so I made up my mind I wouldn’t try for it.” (Finn, 12) From the moment Huckleberry Finn is introduced in Mark Twain’s text Tom Sawyer, it is beyond evident that he is a boy that is not like most in this society. Huck comes from one of the lowest levels of the white society in which he lives. The truth of the matter is that this is not at all Huck’s fault. His low place in society stems from the fact that his father is an excessive drunk, that disappears for large periods of time, and when he does surface, he spends almost all of that time alternating between being jailed and abusing Huck. Therefore, Huckleberry Finn has become a bit of a ruffian himself, spending a majority of his time homeless, floating along the river, smoking his pipe and running a small gang with one of his only friends, Tom Sawyer. Throughout the course of this text, we watch as Huck transforms from this mindset of very little capacity for competent judgment and a very narrow minded concept of what is right and what is wrong to one of very broad minded perspective with an incredibly complex idea of the differences between rights and wrong. Within Mark Twain’s text Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huckleberry undergoes a series of very intense events that ultimately lead to a complete change in the development of his character.
In the beginning of the novel, Huck is led solely by his conscience instead of his emotions. When Huck makes the oath with ‘Tom Sawyer’s Gang’, he doesn’t think of what this pledge really means due to the fact that he is so accustomed to blindly following. “‘Must we always kill the people?’ [Ben Rogers] ‘Oh, certainly. It’s best…’ [Tom Sawyer]” (Twain 9). Ben raises questions about some of the things that Tom says, but is quickly shot down. He is the only child that questions Tom, which shows how the others are used to being followers instead of thinking for themselves. In this situation, Tom symbolises society because he has everyone following him, doing what he says, and praising him without many questions. This among many other events in the book shows Twain trying to incorporate a deeper meaning, but some people refuse to see what is blatantly here. A good example of one of these ignorant white men that Twain is targeting is this
In order for one to truly appreciate Huck’s moral progress, one must first garner an understanding of Huck’s character as is introduced within the onset of the novel. It appears to be that Huck, although fairly pragmatic and disillusioned with - most of - the nonsensical schemes contrived by Tom Sawyer, is somewhat childish in that he is overly adventurous and apt to avoid the more serious aspects of life. For instance, while he is quite willing to partake in the creation of Sawyer’s gang of robbers, he ignores the Widow’s teachings about Moses because he, “didn’t take no stock in dead people.” (Twain, 2) However, it should be noted, as ...
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.
Mark Twain once described his novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, as “a struggle between a sound mind and a deformed conscience”. Throughout the novel, Huck wrestles with the disparity between his own developing morality and the twisted conscience of his society. In doing so, he becomes further distanced from society, both physically and mentally, eventually abandoning it in order to journey to the western frontier. By presenting the disgust of Huck, an outsider, at the state of society, Mark Twain is effectively able to critique the intolerance and hypocrisy of the Southern South. In doing so, Twain asserts that in order to exist as a truly moral being, one must escape from the chains of a diseased society.
On his many adventures, Huckleberry Finn encounters numerous situations in which his morality is tested or needs to be implemented. Huck has moral dilemmas to a degree, but he figures out the answer to his questions. He also figures out that sometimes, society has it all wrong, and that at times you just have to follow your heart. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Twain reveals that what is honorable is to follow your natural moral instincts, not what society and civilization say is moral.
Huck struggles with himself through his moral beliefs. Huck struggles with himself because he grows up in the lower class and when he moves in with the Widow it is hard for him to adjust to the life of the upper class. Huck is speaking to the reader at the beginning of the novel about events that have occurred in the previous novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Huck explains how he was adopted by The Widow Douglas and how she tried to civilize him. “The Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time … when I couldn’t stand it no longer I lit out … But Tom Sawyer he hunted me up and said he was going to start a band of robbers, and I might join if I would go back to the widow and be respectable. So I went back” (2). This passage shows how Huck is being civilized by the widow and since he is from the lower class ...
At the beginning of the book, he explains how the Widow Douglas decided to take him in and civilize him. Huck, who has been raised to do whatever he wanted without worrying about consequences, has now been thrust into a life of monitoring everything he does. “Miss Watson would say, ‘Don’t put your feet up there, Huckleberry’; and ‘Don’t scrunch up like that, Huckleberry - set up straight’” (2). Huck is not quite sure why these rules are in place; he just knows that he will be scolded if he does not follow them. Even though his father is a dangerous drunk, Huck still prefers to live with him because he has the freedom to do what he likes without having to worry about whether he is following the rules. Twain is making a point that it is a bit strange that one is required to follow so many rules to be accepted into society, which contributes why Huck is an outcast. He prefers to follow the beat of his own drum, even though that means he is not a respected member of society. Huck, however, is okay with that because he feels that American society is not
In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain presents the problem of slavery in America in the 19th Century. Twain poses this problem in the form of a character named Huckleberry Finn, a white boy raised in the antebellum South. Huck starts to question his view regarding slavery when he acquaints himself more intimately with a runaway slave while he himself tries to run away. Huck’s development as a character is affected by society’s influence on his experiences while growing up in the South, running away with Jim, and trying to save Jim. Although Huck decides to free Jim, Huck’s deformed conscience convinces him that he is doing the wrong thing.
One action that shows what Huck thinks of Jim is when Huck apologized to Jim for lying to him. The two were heading down the river and the fog rolled in. Huck got separated from Jim in the fog. Huck got in the canoe and tried to paddle to Jim who was in the raft. After a long time adrift, Huck finally finds Jim. Huck fools Jim into thinking the entire thing was a dream. Jim, despite society’s idea of slaves being “less” than white people, is pretty smart. Jim notices all the debris, dirt, and branches that were collected on the raft while it was adrift. He got mad at Huck for making him look like a fool and worrying him so much. In a famous quote from the book, “It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I warn’t ever sorry for it afterwards” (Twain 131). This quote demonstrates the beginni...
The book introduces Huck as the first person narrator which is important because it establishes clearly that this book is written from the point of view of a young, less than civilized character. His character emerges as a very literal and logical thinker who only believes what he can see with his own eyes. In this section Huck’s life with the Widow Douglas and her attempts to raise him as a civilized child sets up the main theme of this book which is the struggle or quest for freedom. Huck’s struggle for freedom from civilized society is paralleled by Jim’s struggle to escape from slavery. Irony as a key literary element in this novel is apparent in this chapter and is primarily expressed through Huck’s sarcasm. A major element of superstition is introduced and continues throughout the entire book. This superstition is used to give insight into Huck’s character, which is very naive and gullible, as well as foreshadow events. For example the killing of the spider in chapter 1 and, in a later chapter, the spilling of the salt does result in bad luck in the form of Pa coming home. Twain puts together an interesting juxtaposition of theft with honor when Tom Sawyer establishes his robber band with Huck and the other boys and they swear to their code of ethics. Interestingly, this is also paralleled at the end of the book when Tom is able to help steal Jim “honorably” because Jim is already a free man. Throughout this section, Huck’s character and personality is established. He is revealed as humble in that he constantly underplays his own intelligence. An example is when he plans his own death and then whi...
... he now realizes that stealing property is bad. Since Huck and Tom, although in a drawn-out manner, free Jim it is implied that he regards Jim as a fellow human being, not a slave. Showing Huck this equality and fostering a friendship between him and Jim could only be done by this kind of physical journey, as the idea of equality was only in its infancy at the time and had not taken root with any southerner.
At the beginning of the tale, Huck struggles between becoming ?sivilized? and doing what he pleases. He doesn?t want to listen to the rules that the Widow Douglas and her sister force upon him, even though he knows the widow only wants what is best for him. Miss Watson pushes Huck away from society even more through the way she treats him. She teaches him religion in such a dreary way that when she speaks of heaven and hell, Huck would rather go to hell than be in heaven with her: ?And she told all about the bad place, and I said I wished I was there?I couldn?t see no advantage in going where she was going, so I made up my mind I wouldn?t try for it? (12-13). Huck is taught a very different kind of morality by his father who believes ?it warn?t no harm to borrow things, if you was meaning to pay them back?? (70). He likes his father?s idea of morality better because he is not yet mature enough to fully understand right and wrong, although living with the widow...