Essay On The Moral Of Huckleberry Finn

In the introduction of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain, the author of the novel, added a cautionary message that states that “...persons attempting to find a moral in [the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn] will be banished…” (Twain “Notice”). Despite this message’s superficial implication, the message has a deeper significance. Twain also uses this notice to bring attention to the morals that exist within the novel. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn contains morals such as the novel promoting anti-slavery and racial equality despite critics that the novel has no morals often citing the fact that many of the character’s actions encourage the act of lying. The anti-slavery message exists prominently throughout the entirety of
On a superficial level, the concern is legitimate with characters such as the king and duke notable con artists with them often being rewarded for tricking others. An example of this occurs when the king fabricates a story about him being a pirate and how religion has reformed him, and how he needs money to reform his fellow pirates. Afterward, a group of worshipers gave him money for the trip, and in total, the king “...collected eighty-seven dollars and seventy-five cents,” (Twain 100). This being an obvious example of when the act of lying remains unpunished, and, instead, actively rewarded. However, only in the short term do the king and duke benefit from their fabrications, in the long run, by contrast, the king and duke become actively punished for their actions. Victims of the king and duke’s previous schemes soon begin to search for them and eventually find them, soon afterward the king and duke “...was [covered with] tar and feathers…” (Twain 174). With this action later on the message, it now becomes how lying only works in the short term which goes in stark contrast with the critic's
All of this makes it that Twain bringing attention to the morals in the novel becomes unnecessary with the sizable morals within the novel. Techniques such as the use of pathos creating sympathetic sentiment while simultaneously creating disdain towards slavery. Twain also creates a pro-equality message by Huck, an endearing character, recognize that he and Jim are equals, and using Pap as satire to portray racists as contemptible people. However, critics argue that actions such as the king being paid for his lies encourage deceiving others, despite the fact that in the long run they end up tarred and feathered and actively punished for their fabrications. With all of this, it becomes obvious that the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn does contain