The Battle Between Heart and Conscience in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn

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The Battle Between Heart and Conscience in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn

Society can have a huge impact on an individual's moral growth. Sometimes the impact is positive but other times the learned habits and set morals of society have a negative effect. In Mark Twain's novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the main character, Huck, struggles with what society teaches him and with what he knows to be good and true. During different conflicts concerning either the king and duke, various women or Jim, Huck's sound heart wins the battle over his conscience, which the reader knows to be ill-formed.

Right from the first time Huck hears the story of the king and duke's amazing pasts Huck knows, "these liars warn't no kings nor dukes at all" (Twain 166). However, Huck also does not want to make any trouble so he goes along with the lie. Society may have taught Huck's conscience that lying is wrong but in this case the truth would have caused unnecessary danger and havoc. Another time that Huck sees right through the king and duke, is during the Wilks' inheritance situa...

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