Argumentative Essay On Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is a fictional novel. The fictitious writing focuses on the institution of slavery and other aspects of life in the South. The story takes place before the Civil War in The Mississippi River town of St. Petersburg, Missouri, and in various locations along the river through Arkansas. The book can be considered as bildungsroman and is filled with morals. Mark Twain illustrates both the admirable and the disagreeable portions of human nature using, the Royal Nonesuch, Colonel Sherburn, and Tom Sawyer being shot in the leg. The Royal Nonesuch are selfish characters in the story. When the adept swindler, tried to scam a family to get the orphans’ money they inherited from their father,
Sherburn. A great example is when Col. Sherburn shot Boggs, and the townsfolk came after Sherburn to lynch him. After Sherburn with only a shotgun held off the mob, and made them disperse, it was obvious that no one in the mob had the courage to go through with the lynching. Col, Sherburn begins his verbal attack by emasculating the crowd and laughing as he explains, “The idea of you lynching anybody! It's amusing. The idea of you thinking you had pluck enough to lynch a man! Because you're brave enough to tar and feather poor friendless cast-out women that come along here, did that make you think you had grit enough to lay your hands on a man? Why, a man's safe in the hands of ten thousand of your kind—as long as it's daytime and you're not behind him’’ (146). Sherburn undermined the myth of southern bravery, and he explained that is not cowardly to kill someone if it is daytime and if the victim is able to see the attacker, just like he killed Boggs. However, Boggs was drunk and unarmed when he was killed, which makes Sherburn a coward for doing such an actions when Boggs was obviously in disadvantage. Although Col. Sherburn’s speech on society’s cowardice was accurate, it is also confusing by his
When Jim gave up his freedom to help the wounded Tom Sawyer, he manifested a tremendous act of valor in the novel. Even the doctor who treated Tom Sawyer in the end of the book stated, "I never see a nigger that was a better nuss or faithfuller, and yet he was risking his freedom to do it "(286). Although Mark Twain portrayed the natural strength in Jim through his courage, he also illustrated weakness through Jim’s irrationality. Furthermore, Jim displayed heroic qualities when he helped the doctor take care of Tom. His action was considered heroic because Jim could have escaped in look for freedom and let Tom suffer. The book states, “Out crawls this nigger….done it very well” (286). This demonstrates that what Jim did to help Tom was not only a great deed, but he did it well. Jim is depicted as heroic and loyal for being willing to help his friend out even if that meant his capture. Jim knew that helping Tom ment his capture, and he was still willing to do anything in order to save