“You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.” Malcolm X. Dictionaries say freedom is the state of being free; exemption from the power and control of another; liberty; independence. Freedom means you have the power to do what you please and when you please. It gives you the power to in control of your own life and lives your life freely. The book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain revolves around two characters: Huck, a thirteen-year-old, rebellious teenager, and Jim, a runaway slave. Throughout Huck's and Finn's adventures they go through out of the ordinary problems, meet deceitful characters, and find out the true meaning of being free and the consequences of too much freedom.
Huck craved freedom because he wanted to escape his everyday life in society. In the beginning of the book, Huck is stuck with Ms. Watson. Ms. Watson orders Huck, “Don’t put your feet up there, Huckleberry Finn; and don’t scrunch up like that, Huckleberry, set up straight.” (Twain 2) He doesn't like to live life with rules and restrictions. Huck claimed, “...it was rough living in a house all the time...and so when I couldn't stand it no longer, I lit out. I got my old rags and my sugar-hogshead again, and was free and satisfied” (Twain 1). Huck's dad took him to a cabin in the woods. Huck liked the idea of being with his dad because he didn't have the widow yapping at him every chance she got. He turned into his old rebellious self with his dad.
“My clothes got to be all rags and dirt, and I didn’t see how I’d ever got to like it so well at the widow’s where you had to wash, and eat on a plate, and comb up, and go to bed and get up regular, and be forever bothering over a book and...
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...ng to some people, as long as it seems right to him, he is making the right decision. At the end of the book when he gets adopted by Aunt Sally, Huck still feels restricted. Huck explains, “But I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can’t stand it.” (Twain 295)
Freedom is an important theme to this book because it teaches lessons and brings people together. To Huck and Jim, freedom meant living an unrestricted, happy life. The type of life that so many slaves would risk their just to have a taste of what it would felt like. Other people during this time period may have felt oppressed, like Huck, longing to be something other then what society expects them to be. In society today, they're many people that still feel restricted in their everyday lives, just like Huck and Jim.
While living on the island he meets Jim who was a slave but Huck soon learns that he has ran off and now in the process of making his way up north to Canada. Here Huck is faced along 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 him 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. This is truly remarkable for a child to be able to break away from the influence of society and go with his heart and do what is right especially when it was considered wrong.
Mark Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of the greatest American novels ever written. The story is about Huck, a young boy who is coming of age and is escaping from his drunken father. Along the way he stumbles across Miss Watson's slave, Jim, who has run away because he overhead that he would be sold. Throughout the story, Huck is faced with the moral dilemma of whether or not to turn Jim in. Mark Twain has purposely placed these two polar opposites together in order to make a satire of the society's institution of slavery. Along the journey, Twain implies his values through Huck on slavery, the two-facedness of society, and represents ideas with the Mississippi River.
Huck would try and be a rebel because he had no male to tell him right from wrong. If Huck needed help the only real person that he could talk to would be Tom Sawyer, a very good friend also a thief, a rebel, and he lived on his own. Tom was not that great of a role model, for a young boy like Huck. His father was always away, and never there for him, and when he was around he was always drunk. It is hard enough to talk to a drunk man let alone when you have a problem and need advice. The childhood of a young boy is very crucial in what he will be like in his own life.
Life on land was filled with many difficulties. There were many rules that Huck had to follow set by both the widow and his father. The widow’s main goal was to “civilize” Huck into a member of society. She expected Huck to go to school, wear clean clothes, sleep in his bed, and go to church. She just wanted him to be like a normal child of his age. Even though Huck bends the rules a bit and tries to sneak a smoke here and there, he eventually grows to like living under the widow’s protection. He proves this point when he says, "Living in a house, and sleeping in a bed, pulled on me pretty tight, mostly, but before the cold weather I used to slide out and sleep in the woods, sometimes, and so that was a rest to me. I liked the old ways best, but I was getting so I liked the new ones, too, a littl...
From the beginning of the book, it is shown that Huck is forced to conform to what others think is best for him. Huckleberry was taken in by Widow Douglas because his dad wasn’t a part of his life anymore and he needed a parent figure. “The Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would civilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn’t stand it any longer I lit out” (11). By trying to civilize Huckleberry, Widow Douglas was imposing what she assumed was best for him and wasn’t listening to what he thought or wanted. Huck was a very opinionated person and often spoke his mind with no remorse, which Widow Douglas didn’t like. “All I wanted was to go somewheres; all I wanted was a change, I warn’t particular. She said it was wicked to say what I said; said she was going to live so as to go to the good place” (12). We see here Widow Douglas explaining to Huck how her way of life was the best and to get into “the good place”, or heaven, that he must live his life like hers. Twain portrays the widow as unpleasant and preachy to make it so the reader sympathizes with Huck as a young boy who needs to get out of ...
“You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft.” (Twain, 181). In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn written by Mark Twain. Huck is a young boy in the 1840s; he runs away from home and floats down the Mississippi River. He meets a runaway slave named Jim and the two go on a series of adventures leading to Jim’s freedom. Throughout the novel, Huck slowly changes his views of racism. As Huck begins to have a change of heart, he gradually begins to decide between right and wrong. As a result, Huck faces moral dilemma of being between the world's prejudice that he learned growing up, and the lessons Jim has taught him throughout the story about the evils of racism. Huck’s struggles are revealed through the conflicts with his moral beliefs and cultural dilemmas. This is shown through his conflicts with himself, with other characters and society.
Throughout time, it has been socially dangerous for someone to move against the norm of society. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Huck is considered an outcast for these very reasons. The values of American society in the nineteenth century are illuminated by the character of Huck Finn by his refusal to conform to those expectations.
In the beginning of the story, Huck seems to feel at ease to be with his father instead of being with the widow, "It was kind of lazy and jolly, lying off comfortable all day, smoking and fishing, and no book nor study." (Twain 24) Yet, Hucks' father is not exactly the father figure a child would want. He's an abusive, "But by and by Pap got to handy with his hick'ry and I couldn't stand it. I was all over welts." (Twain 24) and he's not thoughtful of Huck. Once Huck figures his father is crazed and is an alcoholic, Twain, through Huck's eyes, gives readers a feeling of fear towards Huck's father. "There was Pap looking wild, and skipping around every which way and yelling about snakes. He said they was crawling up his legs." (Twain 28) "Then he went down on all fours and crawled off, begging them to let him alone, and he rolled imself up in his blanket and wallowed in under the old pine table, still a-begging; and then he went to crying." (29)
When one hears the word freedom, one associates it with the words independence and liberty. It means that a person is able to exist freely without any limits, as it is their god-given right to do so. While this is true, the definition of freedom changes based on the context of the situation. During the time of slavery, freedom had a unique meaning to each person who was subjected to slavery. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass explores what the unique and complex meaning of freedom based off his experiences and knowledge of slavery.
Another theme that is dealt with in this book is slavery. In fact, slavery is one of the main topics that has been frequently debated in regards to Huckleberry Finn since it was first published. Twain himself was vehemently anti-slavery and Huckleberry Finn can in many ways be seen as an allegory for why slavery is wrong. Twain uses Jim, a slave who is one of the main characters, as a way of showing the human side of a slave. Everything about Jim is presented through emotions: Jim runs away because Miss Watson was going to sell him South and separate him from his family; Jim is trying to become free so he can buy his family's freedom; and Jim takes care of Huck and protects him on their journey downriver in a very materialistic manner.
When the story begins, Huck is running away to enjoy a life of solitude on the river, but finds himself in a whirlwind adventure to help Jim, a runaway slave, to freedom. Huck begins the adventure caught up in the moment, and without much thought of what he is really doing. All this changes at one moment in the story when Huck realizes that he is breaking the law. Huck is taking Jim away from his owner who did nothing to him. Why should he help Jim escape? What is in it for him except trouble? At a suspenseful turning point in the story, Huck is prepared to report Him to two men on the river when he has change of heart. "True Blue Huck Finn" backs down and realizes that there's more to helping Him escape than trouble: there's a special kind of friendship that Huck's never known before.
Before he runs away,The widow wanted Huck to have good manners and etiquette,but revolts by not listening to them. Huck’s father forbids him from going to school because he didn’t want Huck to be better than him,but Huck goes to school anyway. Huck’s need for freedom,in my opinion,seemed to be trivial in comparison to Jim’s need for freedom considerin...
Life, change, identity, they are all a big part of this book as well as life in general. Huck is a person who the author Mark Twain tries to portray as lost in himself as well as in society. Huck throughout the book is looking for an identity that he believes he will find on his journey down the Mississippi river. "I'd go down the river fifty mile and camp in one place for good, and not have such a rough time tramping on foot."(pg31) Why does he want to get away from his life? I think Huck's character is very independent and he has his own thoughts on where he wants to end up in life. In his old life everybody was always telling him what to do where to go how to eat and he was getting sick of it. On page 4 he says "All I wanted was to go somewheres; all I wanted was change , I warn't particular." He was looking to get out of his old life and into the life that he thought was right for him. Where there was no boundaries or limits, he wanted to be free from the shackles of Christian home life.
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...
All things considered, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, suggests that people are subject to various enslavements and attempt to pursue freedom from these enslavements. The reason I selected this theme as the most important is due to its real world application. This theme is relevant to real life due to the fact that numerous people are deprived of freedom and are attempting to obtain the freedom that they desire. People throughout history and even today seek their freedom. In this novel, one of the freedoms sought after was the end to racial discrimination, this was achieved in the 1960s by the Civil Rights Movement and famous American hero’s we now admire such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr..