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Huck Finn Freedom Analysis

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Huck Finn Freedom Analysis
In the novel The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain freedom plays a huge role through the novel. Twain utilizes real life examples of depriving a human being from the concept of freedom. The main characters of the novel, Huck and Jim, raft away from civilization seeking freedom. Huck is an adventurous boy who wants freedom from society standards and Jim is the runaway slave yearning liberation from the chains of slavery.

From the beginning, we notice that Huck was not the kind of boy who wanted to live a life full of high standards. He expresses this when he was living in the Widow’s house, “but it was rough living in the house considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her way; and when I couldn’t
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Watson, he gets a sense of what it feels like to be a freeman and begins to yearn for it. This is demonstrated when Huck indicates, “Jim said it made him all over trembly and feverish to be so close to freedom”. Evidently, Jim is showing his excitement and desire for freedom. Not only does it deprive him from his natural rights to be a slave, but also from being happy. Living in the chains of slavery restrains him from being truly free.

It is evident that Huck and Jim are running away from one thing, society. There was several instances in which Ms. Watson attempts to civilize Huck, “don’t put your feet up there, Huckleberry; and don’t scrunch up like that, Huckleberry, set up straight” (4). This certainly caused Huck to abominate and run away from society. In Jim’s case, he was being treated unequally in a time period where society considered African American people to be inferior. Both Huck and Jim do not feel free being in the hands of society.

Twain uses two perspectives of freedom. To be deprived from freedom doesn't necessarily mean to be enslaved, your freedom can also be taken away by the binds of society standards. This concept is emphasized when huck escapes from society and Jim from slavery. Once they were away from society they felt as if they were truly free. Freedom was something they strived to obtain for their own

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