What Is The Effect Of Punishment And Punishment In Huck Finn

1161 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Adventure of huckleberry finn analysis book

Post Civil War novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain, begins in Hannibal, Missouri, and continues south down the Mississippi river; throughout this American fiction adventure story the reader develops a sense of the Justice system and early punishments during the late 1800’s, which in comparison to present day have changed considerably. “[Rules created for] the infliction… of a penalty as retribution for an offence... established by the government to control crime and impose penalties for those who violate laws” (???). As a civilization begins to develop and evolve the rules, standards, and punishments of each specific society adapt to fit the needs of the people; the early American punishments of the justice system …show more content…

The different views and punishments of the men born and raised in the South compared to men from up North is depicted through the confrontation of the Arkansaw townspeople along with Sherburn, who was raised it the Northern states. “Colonel Sherburn… was standing… in the street… a pistol raised it his right hand… Bang! (Sherburn shoots the first and second bullet, then Boggs)... tumbles backwards onto the ground… (Later the townspeople confront Sherburn, who responds by saying) The average man is a coward… he lets anybody walk over him… you didn’t bring a man with you… You brought part of a man with you” (Twain 143, 146). The townspeople back down after confronting Sherburn because his confident attitude breaks down the cowardly courage of the townspeople, which it turn allows Sherburn to get away with murder without any consequences as a result of the lack of a Justice system. Similarly, the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons have committed countless murders throughout the course of the continuous feud between the two families, without a justice system intervening and convicting members …show more content…

“Sometimes I [Huck] lifted a chicken… and took him along. Pap always said, take a chicken when you get a chance [he also said this about fruits and vegetables]… it was no harm to borrow things if you was meaning to pay them back… the widow said it… [was] stealing… Jim said… the widow was partly right and Pap was partly right… [Tom says] stealing cattle and such… [is] robbery… that ain’t no sort of style” (Twain 65, 8). Huck has irresolute feelings about stealing, because of the differing opinions of each role model (positive and negative), who influence his life. Although Huck is never caught and disciplined by the authorities for theft, the early American justice system had precise punishments for thieves. “Burglary was punished in all the colonies… a capital B [was branded] it the right hand for the first offense… left hand for the second… if either [was] committed on the Lord’s Day [he was branded] on his forehead as a mark of infamy.” (Article 2 page 8). Stealing was one of the few actions in early America, which had clear-cut retributions according to the justice system, and were required to be obeyed by each colony.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, delineated numerous crimes and retributions that

Show More
Related

  • Why Should Huck Finn Be Banned

    1274 Words  | 3 Pages

    While staying with a farming family, Huck’s partner, known as “The King,” sold off some slaves that he swindled away from the family. While the slaves were crying and saying goodbye to each other, Huck thinks that “I couldn’t a stood it all but would a had to bust...if I hadn’t knowed the sale warn’t no account and the niggers would be back home in a week or two”(Clemens, 234-235). While traveling with Jim down the Mississippi, Huck’s transformation on his outlook on slaves is drastic. He no longer sees Jim as “Miss Watson’s big nigger,”(Clemens, 22) but as a

    Read More

  • Adversity In Huck Finn's Life

    483 Words  | 1 Pages

    “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

    Read More

  • The Integrity and Strength of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

    1379 Words  | 3 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • How Does Society Influence Huck Finn

    1486 Words  | 3 Pages

    Upon arriving at Cairo, Huck must decide if he should go along with society and turn Jim in as a runaway slave, or keep his promise to his friend, and see him through to freedom. Huck feels guilty not turning Jim in when he hears him talking about hiring an abolitionist to steal his family. He does not think it is right to help take away slaves from people that he doesn 't even know. To turn Jim in for these reasons would be the influence of society on Huck. Huck 's decision on this matter marks another major step in Huck 's moral progression, because he decides not to turn in Jim on his own. This is the first time he makes a decision all on his own based on his own morality. They stop at Grangerford’s Farm, in Tennessee, after the raft is temporality destroyed. With Huck busy with the Grangerford family, Jim was able to rebuild the raft. Huck just met the Grangerfords, but fits right in immediately. He later feels that someone should take the time to write poetry about Emmeline Grangerford, recently deceased, since she always took the time to write about other people who died. He even tries to write the poetry himself, but it doesn 't turn out right. Then he also sees people shooting at each other makes him sick to his stomach. He sees it as an act against humanity and he simply cannot relate or understand how humans can treat each other in such an uncivil

    Read More

  • Morality In Huck Finn's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

    1240 Words  | 3 Pages

    The book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn tell the tale of a young boy who embarks on an adventure, one that leads him to find himself. Throughout the novel Huck develops a sense of morality that was always there to begin with, but not nearly as developed as it is by the end of the novel. Through living on his own, independent of societal and peer pressures, Huck is able to identify his own morals in defining what is 'right ' or 'wrong '.

    Read More

  • Huck Finn Morality

    942 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Huck's Conflicted Nature in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

    1455 Words  | 3 Pages

    Continuing what he had started in the first eleven chapters, Twain further develops Huck Finn's character through a series of events where Huck's decisions indicate his moral struggle. Adventures shows the dynamic movement of Huck's internal difficulty, illustrating his conflicted nature.

    Read More

  • Inhumanity In Huck Finn Analysis

    1248 Words  | 3 Pages

    Marion Anderson once said, “Fear is a disease that eats away at logic and makes man inhuman.” Fear and insecurity fuels the prejudice that is used in man’s inhumanity toward others. Even if not for the sake of being inhumane, man criticizes man for lack of compassion; however, it is in nature that men are inhumane to others especially in times of fear and insecurity. As Mark Twain exemplifies in his work, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, man’s inhumanity to man, is due to the fear, prejudice, insecurity, and selfishness that every man has experienced in society. The family feud between the Grangerford and Shepherdson families is an example of how fear and prejudice influence man’s unfair treatment of man.

    Read More

  • Huckleberry Finn Essay 'Parental Relations'

    1426 Words  | 3 Pages

    Together with Pap, the King and the Duke do their share to put putrid moral ideas into the immature mind of Huck. The King and the Duke earn their living pulling scams on their fellow Americans. For instance, they advertised the "Royal Nonesuch" as a "thrilling tragedy" and charged the farmers in the area fifty cents to come and see it (121). But, the entire production consisted of the King walking around on all fours naked. They had promised a good show to the crowd, the King and the Duke did not think it was wrong to give the crowd nothing except for an empty pocket. The message they sent to Huck is that it is acceptable to cheat and lie.

    Read More

  • Huck Finn Passage Analysis

    1327 Words  | 3 Pages

    Toward the beginning of the novel, Huck has no problem robbing caravans, kidnapping wealthy people for money, and even killing the families of the gang formed by him and his friends if they became turncoats and told of this gang. He was even disappointed when all the gang did was cause trouble at a Sunday school meeting. Later on in the novel, Huck is also faced with a moral dilemma when he comes across Jim, Miss Watson’s runaway slave. As they travel down the river, huck mentions, “I begun to get it through my head that he was most free—and who was to blame for it? Why, me. I couldn’t get that out of my conscience, no how nor no way. It got to troubling me so I couldn’t rest” (Twain 153). Back in that time, it most certainly would not be a moral dilemma; instead, it would be very simple: bring the slave back to his owner. However, when Jim asked Huck to promise that he wouldn’t tell, Huck replied with, “Well, I did. I said I wouldn’t, and I’ll stick to it. Honest injun I will. People would call me a low down Ablitionist and despise me for keeping mum—but that don’t make no difference. I ain’t agoing to tell” (Twain 103). In the chosen passage, it is very clear that Huck realizes what is happening there, and believes it to be wrong. Huck thinks to himself, “this is another one that I’m letting him rob her of her money. And when she got through, they all just laid

    Read More

  • Crimes in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

    1764 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn there are numerous crimes. The violence of these crimes is described vividly by Huck, the narrator, which shows their impact upon him. By showing Huck's shock over these events, Twain is showing that there is no real justice in the South, except for the hollow and often inappropriate excess found attempts to obtain personal justice. During these scenes Huck's turmoil reflects what Twain wants the reader to feel. Ultimately, this novel is a sharp criticism of a Southern lifestyle where justice is unobtainable.

    Read More

  • Huck Finn Analysis

    1013 Words  | 3 Pages

    -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.

    Read More

  • Violence in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

    1052 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mohandas Gandhi once stated these words, "I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary, the evil it does is permanent." The same can be said about many things in life. However, when thought about, few people may consider the violence brought up in literature. In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, there are many scenes that illustrate the blind, violent nature that most humans tend to share. Mark Twain has used violence throughout his novel to enhance his beliefs on the injustices of slavery and any other form of senseless violence known to mankind. From the beginning with Pap's continuous abuse towards Huck, till the end with Emmiline Grangerfords poetry, is filled with violent sections that magnify the hypocrisy and stupidity of people.

    Read More

  • The Significance of the Physical Journey in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

    1530 Words  | 4 Pages

    ... 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.

    Read More

  • Parental Influence on Huck Finn

    1596 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Mark Twain's novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the adults in Huck's life play an important role in the development of the plot. Pap, Huck's father, constantly abuses the boy, never allowing him to become an intelligent or decent human being. He beats and attacks Huck whenever they meet up, and tries to destroy Huck's chances of having a normal life. This situation is balanced by several good role models and parent figures for Huck. Jim, the runaway slave, embraces Huck like a son, and shares his wide ranging knowledge with him. He also protects Huck on the journey down the river. Widow Douglas is another good role model for Huck. She tries to civilize him and make him respectable to society, while also being caring and compassionate. There is a stark contrast in the ways Huck is treated by adults, and all have an affect on him.

    Read More

More about What Is The Effect Of Punishment And Punishment In Huck Finn

Open Document