Huck Finn Coming Of Age Analysis

Mark Twain’s novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is a coming of age story in which Twain manipulates his own ideas through to condemn the traditions that the South practiced and enforced during the time of the book’s publication. The viewpoint of the novel is narrated by the protagonist, Huckleberry Finn, through first-person narrator-participant point of view. Through Huck’s eyes, readers understand and judge the South as a whole, the faults within its systems, and the fortunate saving qualities. At the start of the novel, Huck immediately introduces himself to the audience, and he displays his character and voice through his viewpoint. Huck says, “You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom
Although he understands the laws of society, he struggles to understand the reason behind the laws. This is obviously portrayed through Huck’s continuous friendship with Jim, a runaway slave. He knows that society would expect him to turn Jim into the authorities, but his own moral code stands in the way of what society views as “right”. While speaking with Jim, he talks to him as if were his equal. After Jim confides in Huck, Huck promises that he will not tell anyone about his whereabouts. Huck says, “Honest injun, I will. People would call me a low-down Abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum – but that don’t make no difference. I ain’t a-going to tell, and I ain’t a-going back there, anyways” (Twain 53-54). Huck displays his maturity through this by making a moral decision concerning another equal human being’s life. Huck’s morality is portrayed through his involvement in helping Jim to freedom and racist tendencies of society. Although Huck helps Jim escape, he feels that he is doing something that the society he grew up in would view as wrong. In Huck’s mind, he believes that he has stolen someone’s property. He even has an inner debate with himself while questioning what he has done. Huck conscience speaks to him and asks, “What had poor Miss Watson done to you that you could see her nigger go off right under your eyes and never say a single word? What did that poor old woman do to you that you could treat her so mean?” (Twain 98-99). Henry Nash Smith states in his essay, “A Sound Heart and a Deformed Conscience”, that it is “the memory of Jim’s kindness and goodness” that “impels Huck to defy his conscience” (Smith 370). Through this, Huck’s sound heart is reinforced. Huck is also conflicted with society’s Christianity. Huck is aware of the standards of the society that he was brought up in, but he ultimately does not agree with these views. Therefore, he