The Physical Journey of Freedom Have you ever taken a spontaneous road trip just to feel free from the weight of the world? In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, main character Janie grows up with her grandmother ingraining in her mind that her goals in life should revolve around getting married and becoming wealthy. Comparatively, Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn follows the journey of main character Huck who is partially raised by an old widow who forces him to think and behave one way, while his father who raised him the other part of his life controls him and forces him to behave in a radically different manner. At a young age both characters risk their fortunes to flee their homes in hopes of finding self acceptance rather than social acceptance. Hurston and Twain both utilize a physical journey to show their characters’ realization that material comforts do not equate to personal freedom. Characters Huck and Janie both begin their journey with an acute sense of financial security through a stable home. Not only do they have money, but Janie is also very fortunate and has the only “...organ in town, amongst colored folks” (Hurston 23) as well as a “...house bought and …show more content…
Janie finds the freedom she longs for in the Everglades where her and Tea Cake make their home. For Huck, this revelation of serenity is found traveling the open river on his raft. Huck declares that: “...there warn’t no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don’t. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft” (Twain 88). Both Janie and Huck find that by throwing away their physical luxuries and living in a much more crude and much less elaborate dwelling, they are better able to appreciate the freedoms that the open road brings to their
“Make the best o’ things the way you find ‘em, says I-that’s my motto. This ain’t no bad thing that we’ve struck here-plenty grub and an easy life-come, give us your hand, duke, and let’s all be friends” (Twain 124). Although this excerpt was taken from a con man in the story, it is an important quotation that is not to be overlooked. Twain wrote characters that have all faced oppression, such as Huck growing up with a complicated family life, or Jim who isn’t even treated as a human. But they all overcame their adversity, had remarkable attitudes, and found their personal freedom within the raft. Huck has had a childhood that has been anything but ordinary. He starts out in the home of the Widow Douglas and her sister who both try to civilize
In the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Jim is now believing in Huck to help and free him. With all of the author’s craft techniques used by Twain shows how the adventure between Huck and Jim is getting somewhere where he can be free. Huck is looking out for Jim and wants the best for him by going out and getting the canoe, to head to Cairo. Feeling the pressure of becoming the people that they have always wanted to be is now happening, Jim becoming free and Huck escaping his father. The author’s craft that Twain uses help express the new lives the Huck and Jim are creating on their journey. The different ways that represent the journey help depict the passion for this change, the homebound feeling of escaping all
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain is about the great adventures that Huck finn has with his slave Jim on the Missouri River. The story tells not only about the adventures Huck has, but more of a deeper understanding of the society he lives in. Twain had Huck born into a low class society of white people; his father was a drunken bum and his mother was dead. He was adopted by the widow Douglas who tried to teach him morals, ethics, and manners that she thought fit in a civilized society. Huck never cared for these values and ran away to be free of them. During Huck’s adventure with Jim he unknowingly realized that he didn't agree with society’s values and could have his own assumptions and moral values. Twain uses this realization to show how the civilized and morally correct social values that was introduced to Huck was now the civilized and morally contradicting values.
Since the beginning of time people have been living on their own. They have been relying on themselves to survive for centuries. In many books the characters also must rely on themselves, as Huck Finn does in Mark Twain’s book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Huck Finn is a book about a boy growing up , and his flight down the Mississippi River. Through his actions and thoughts Huck is able to survive the dangers of the river and in doing so develops self reliance and independence as well as non-conformity to what is acceptable to society.
Escape in “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin and Huck in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Both the narrator in “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin and Huck in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain feel the urge to escape from their reality as a means of attaining happiness and finding their way in life. However, their reasons for escaping are completely different, and so are the ways in which they manage to do so. The aim of this essay is, therefore, to discuss the how and why the Narrator in “Sonny’s Blues” and Huck escape.
Growing up, humans get smarter, learn to find their place in their world, and discover their basis of beliefs. Those three things are met when a person looks towards physical, cultural, and geographical surroundings to shape their psychological or moral traits. In the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Huck did just that. He was shaped by his journey down the The Mississippi River, his good friend Jim, the crude Miss Watson and his father “Pap”, these surrounding aspects help illuminate the meaning of the work as a whole, developing Huck into the person he was at the end of the novel.
When Huckleberry Finn is separated to the side of the river, he comes upon the house of the Grangerfords. Twain satirizes this concept of fearfulness that often leads to the inhumanity of man and hypocrisy. Huck shows confusion while describing his experience with the Grangerfords. He sees that they want to be good people; however, they would do anything to anyone if it is in their own interest.
One of society's favorite figures of speech is that it takes an entire town to raise a child. Such is true in Mark Twain's, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Through Huck's journey down the Mississippi River, Twain illustrates the influence society has on the undeveloped morals. As Huckleberry travels he becomes "the impassive observer" and aware of the corruption in the values of society (330). Encountering these societies gives Huck a selective morality.
...ion. Twain ends his novel by setting Huck up for a new experience and personal growth. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn taught an important lesson, one that showed the importance of the self in the maturing process. We saw Huck grow up by having the river as a place of solitude and thought, where he was able to participate in society at times, and also sit back and observe society. Through the child's eye we see how ignorant and mob-like we can all be. Then nature, peace, and logic are presented in the form of the river where Huck goes to think. Though no concise answer is given, the literature forces the reader to examine their surroundings, and question their leaders.
In the novel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain, the characters all value some things specific to his character. Jim and Tom are peculiar characters because they have distinct ways of looking at things. In that Jim values family and friendship, Tom values following the rules, and Huck values the natural world.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is a classic novel about a young boy who struggles to save and free himself from captivity, responsibility, and social injustice. Along his river to freedom, he aids and befriends a runaway slave named Jim. The two travel down the Mississippi, hoping to reach Cairo successfully. However, along the way they run into many obstacles that interrupt their journey. By solving these difficult tasks, they learn life lessons important to survival.
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.
Throughout history freedom has had many different meanings and definitions; based on race, gender, and ethnicity. According to the dictionary freedom means the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint (“freedom” def. 1). Freedom may seem like something given to everyone however it was something workers had to fight for. Not everyone believed that workers’ rights needed to be changed, which led to a long battle between workers, employers and the government. To the working class people freedom meant making higher wages, having regulated hours, workable conditions and the right to free speech.
Mark Twain’s picaresque novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (hereafter Huck Finn) gives a realistic portrayal of Southern life before the American Civil War and depicts the way companionship enables the journeyers to learn from diverse perspectives enriching the journeys power to prompt inner growth and development. This is clearly depicted through the use of first person persona, where Twain employs the uneducated vernacular voice of Huck Finn. This technique contributes to the authenticity of Huck Finn’s Southern characterisation emphasising his transformation from racial prejudice and small mindedness to a more moral and tolerant perspective. Together Huck and Jim embark on their personal quests for freedom; Huck for freedom from “sivilisation” and Jim for freedom from slavery. Together they travel down the river a motif that symbolises their desire for liberation and security. “ I never felt easy till the raft was…out in the middle of the Mississippi…we was free and safe once more”. As they travel they are not merely moving down the river but discovering who they are as they learn and grow along the way.
A novel structured on the theme of morality, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain focuses on Huck Finn’s multifaceted growing up process. Huck, through his escapades and misfortunes is obliged to endure the agonizing process from childhood to adulthood where he attains self-knowledge and discovers his own identity. Throughout the journey down the Mississippi River, Jim, Ms. Watson’s runaway slave, accompanies Huck, and is later joined by two con men. It is during this journey that a great moral crisis in Huck’s life occurs where he must make a painful decision as to whether he is going to give Jim up to the slave hunters or notify Ms. Watson about Jim’s whereabouts and assist him to remain a free man. This is the turning point in his character where through deep introspection, he learned to think and reason morally for himself. He comes to his own conclusions, unaffected by the accepted, and often hypocritical, perceptions of Southern culture. Huck also deciphers the truth in the face of lies held by the antagonistic society with its evil nature.