Preview

Huck Finn Morals Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1359 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Huck Finn Morals Essay
Along the path of self-discovery, challenges constantly present themselves as opportunities to grow intellectually and as a chance to succeed. Often times, the use of personal judgment and self-understanding is necessary in order to overcome these challenges. In Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck experiences difficulties which compel him to use his moral judgment. Huck, a young boy in search of freedom, is accompanied by a runaway slave named Jim as he embarks on a treacherous journey down the Mississippi River. During his adventure, Huck must determine the fate of the runaway slave. However, as his relationship with the slave deepens, he comes to realize this task is far from simple. Huck faces this life-defining yet complicated situation as he must choose between society's pre-defined standards and his conscience. As demonstrated in the escape to freedom of the runaway slave Jim, Galileo's opposition to the Church's beliefs, and a soldier's animosity to fight, society influences individuals to the extent that they experience conflict between societal conformity and individuality.
Throughout Twain's Huckleberry Finn, Huck struggles to follow his moral conscience for fear of abandoning the societal values that he had been taught to abide by. When he first travels with Jim along the Mississippi River, he considers it a sin to help an escaped slave because he is breaking the laws of Southern society. While contemplating his ethical conflict he is reminded of Miss Watson, his pessimistic caretaker and Jim's owner. Huck asks himself, "What had poor Miss Watson done to you that you could see her nigger go off right under your eyes and never say one single word? What did that poor old woman do to you that you could treat her so mean?" (Twain 88). Even though Huck feels that Jim deserves to live freely, Huck is apprehensive toward assisting him because he fears violating societal principles and treating Miss Watson disrespectfully. Nevertheless, Huck

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Set in a pre-civil war time period, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is overall controversial and symbolic of a greater moral that is heavily present in this society. During this time was a large separation of North and South over the ethics of slavery and the morals of the enslaved population. During this story the protagonist, Huck Finn, makes a very important ethical decision upon whether he should or should not turn in Jim, a runaway slave. Huck has a moment of moral liberation and searches the social and religious principles of society. By having to think about these things when making a decision such as this, it can be said that this society is backwards. Mark Twain suggests that society is morally wrong with what they believe is right, their opinion of civilized and has a faulty logic.…

    • 634 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Censorship in Huck Finn

    • 1676 Words
    • 7 Pages

    In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a young boy named Huckleberry Finn runs away from his life and travels down the Mississippi River with his friend Jim, a runaway slave. The story follows Huck 's moral growth and maturity throughout his many adventures and experiences. The major turning point of the book is when Huck realizes that Jim cares about him, and that he cares about Jim in return. As a child, Huck is taught that Jim isn 't a person because of his skin color and that he does not deserve respect, but Huck discovers that Jim is a person and deserves more respect than most people Huckleberry met on his journeys. He comes to this decision because Jim cares for him and treats Huck better than his own father. Huck says “All right, then, I 'll go to hell.” when he decides to go against the racist teachings of his childhood and help Jim get his freedom (Twain 216-217). The book was written to show what life was like in the 1840s and successfully revealed the way people viewed each other and people of other races. In the beginning of the story, Huck treats Jim poorly because he is taught that…

    • 1676 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the main character Huck Finn undergoes many moral changes. In the beginning of the book, Huck is wild and carefree, playing jokes and tricks on people and believing them all to be hilarious. When Huck's adventures grow to involve more people and new moral questions never before raised, you can tell that he has started to change. By the time the book is almost over, people can see a drastic change in Huck's opinions, thoughts, and his views of "right and wrong".…

    • 1165 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jim then warns Huck not to look at the man's face, which allows Huck to have the motivation to continue his adventure thinking that his father is not dead. Jim continues to stay with Huck and provide him with moral support on the river, serving to develop Huck’s moral development along the way. An example of this moral support is where in Chapter 16, Huck makes up a story to preserve Jim's freedom and then Jim remarks he will never forget Huck's kindness. Huck later experiences a coming of age when he is faced with the ultimate moral dilemma of reporting Jim at the Phelps Farm to Miss Watson. Feeling conflicted about stealing “property” from Miss Watson, he writes a letter which he then crumples up after fully understanding that his letter would harm Jim, who he then realizes is a human being. This incident evokes feelings of regret in Huck, and shows that Huck is the one good person in the novel.…

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Huck Finn Essay

    • 1762 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Most people often assume that the aim of civilizations is for humanity to function together, jointly and cooperatively, so that humans produce and experience the benefits of moral people who live and act together. However, in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the reverse is true. The swap in societal stereotypes is apparent in the king and the duke’s production of the Royal Nonesuch as well as Huck and Jim’s pleasant journey down the Mississippi after escaping the family feud between the Grangerfords and the Shepardsons. Leading up to the performance of the Royal Nonesuch, the king and the duke attract an all-male audience in a small town in Arkansas for a so-called “tragedy”, and make signs promising lewdness in the performance. Conversely, the protagonists of the novel, Huck and Jim, are depicted as noble characters on the outskirts of society, as they lead a carefree existence down the Mississippi River. The central irony in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is that in the midst of a “sivilized” society, uncivilized members abound, particularly those who are racist, conniving, and ill-mannered; whereas Huck and Jim, who have escaped society, are more righteous, sincere, and morally sound than any of the other “sivilized” characters who populate the traditional southern communities the novel depicts.…

    • 1762 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Huck Finn Essay

    • 680 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The conclusion of Mark Twain’s prominent novel The Adventure’s of Huckleberry Finn is a perplexing one. Many literary scholars and critics, such as Jane Smiley, argue that Mark Twain was not able to fully tie up the novel with its ending. They feel that Twain’s ending destroyed Huck’s moral progress and contradicted everything Huck Finn has gone through up until that point. For example, they point to Huck freeing Jim as being unnecessary because of Miss Watson freeing him in her will. On the other hand, many authors, such as Toni Morrison argue the contrary, that although Huck freeing Jim was unnecessary, it illustrates his newfound love for Jim. Huck matured from thinking of Jim as simply Miss Watson’s property to risking his own freedom and fate for his newest, closest friend. Despite the ending seeming a bit unresolved, it ultimately shows the reader just how different Huck views the world than the rest of society.…

    • 680 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Huck Finn Essay

    • 641 Words
    • 2 Pages

    uneducated slave, to realizing that Jim is an amazing friend. Huck was born and raised in a…

    • 641 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Huckleberry Finn: Racism

    • 702 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In Mark Twains' The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn the main character Huck, makes two very important decisions. The first one is how he treats Jim when he first meets him at Jackson's Island and the second is to tear up the letter to Miss Watson because he cares deeply for Jim. When Huck first runs away from Pap he goes to Jackson's Island and thinks that he is the only person there. He soon finds out that this is not true, and that "Miss Watsons Jim"1 , is taking crap there as well. Many people would hate to be alone on an island with a "nigger"2 , but Huck is happy to have someone to talk with. At first Jim thinks he sees Hucks ghost and is scared. Huck gets Jims feelings by changing the subject and saying "It's good daylight, le's get breakfast"3 , showing that Huck is not only real but he does not mind that Jim is black. Jim feels that Huck might tell on him for running away, but he then decides that it will be okay to tell him why he ran away from Miss Watson. Jim keeps asking Huck if he is going to tell anyone about his running away, and Huck say's "People would call me a low down abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum but that don't make no difference I aint gonna tell"4 . Hucks response truly shows that his ignorance has no showing over his kindness. When taken into consideration good decisions are much more important in the long run than being the smartest person. After traveling with Jim for quite some time Huck begins to feel bad about harboring a runaway slave. He decides to write a letter to Miss Watson explaining the whole story, because Jim had been sold and he does not know where he is. Huck was indeed confused about what he should do so he dropped he dropped to his knees and began to pray. He felt by helping Jim he was committing a sin, but he later realized "you can't pray a lie"5 . Huck saying this shows that he feels what he has done for Jim is not wrong; instead what others had done to Jim is wrong. Still not sure of what to do about the…

    • 702 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Huck Finn Essay

    • 1613 Words
    • 7 Pages

    “Change means movement. Movement means friction. Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world can movement or change occur without that abrasive friction of conflict” (Saul Alinsky). In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Twain explores many different conflicts. He captures man versus self, man versus man, and man versus society. Huck, the main character, experiences each type of conflict first-hand. These conflicts cause Huck to change throughout the story as Twain illustrates his dynamic character.…

    • 1613 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is about the journey Huck goes through, facing the challenges of living on a raft and constantly looking for food and money. However as Huck makes his journey down the river he makes a moral one as well. In the beginning of the novel Huck’s way of thinking is childish and heavily influenced by the widow and Pap, by the middle of his journey his own morals start to change and he is able to identify right and wrong despite what society thinks, and finally by the end Huck see’s how corrupt civilization is.…

    • 964 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Huckleberry Finn Morality

    • 491 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The book The Adventures of Huckleberry finn written by Mark Twain focuses on the character Huck and he had to fake his death and now hm and jim are run a ways.…

    • 491 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Huck Finn

    • 671 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The story takes place while Huck and Jim are traveling down the Mississippi River, heading toward "free territory". Jim tells Huck his plans of working hard in the north and then eventually coming back, to buy his wife and kids. Meanwhile, Huck has a guilty conscience. Huck feels bad that he is helping Jim escape to freedom, when Miss Watson (who was the lady that owned Jim), never did anything bad to him. In Huck's eyes, what he is doing is wrong, and that is why he feels so guilty. People at this time, did not realize that slavery was a cruel thing, because they thought of slaves more as objects. Huck is going against his society because he feels that Jim is rightfully Miss Watsons "property".…

    • 671 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Dynamic Duo

    • 1341 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Mark Twain shows the reader how the institution of slavery is morally wrong by using racism, human inequality, and the encroaching on personal freedom. In the beginning, Huck treats Jim like nothing but property in the novel. Later throughout the story he treats Jim with care. Huck helps show his love for Jim when he lies to Jim about being lost in the fog and telling Jim that he had ‘“dreamt it, because there didn’t any of that happen” (Twain 86). Because Huck cares for Jim, he eventually tells the truth and sets it right between them. Another example is when Huck is trying to explain the Solemn and The Baby story to Jim, but he “see it weren’t no use wasting words, you can’t learn a nigger to argue. So I quit” (Twain 104). Even though Huck likes Jim as a friend, Twain still makes him use his stereotypical southern morals to express his frustration for Jim. Twain shows that Huck wants to help Jim, but he is struggling because he is not sure if he should listen to his conscience or the law. Eventually Huck decides to help Jim. Twain uses Jim to show the theft of the most basic human right, freedom. Jim is the perfect example of how slavery can steal or take away the human ownership of a life. It also strips them of human rights. Miss.Watson and all of southern society is satirized as the racist, strict, and crude ideal that “sees her nigger go right off and under her eyes and…

    • 1341 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Huck Finn Racism

    • 587 Words
    • 3 Pages

    This shows how Huck feels bad for what he thinks is stealing Jim from Miss Watson which shows how Huck feels morally bad about slaves being free. “. . .my wickedness was being watched all the time from up there in heaven whilst I was stealing a poor old woman’s nigger that hadn’t ever done me no harm. . .”(p. 212). Huck feels so strongly about him aiding Jim that he believes that by helping he will down-right face eternal damnation for his actions; Huck’s strong moral standpoints show a favor of the statement that Huck is racist because he believes that abolition is wrong.…

    • 587 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Huck bases his decisions upon his experiences rather than following what he is being taught by the societal norms and regulations. When he is on the raft and away from the society, Huck knows that he can make his own decisions rather than following what the society is teaching its inhabitants. He disregards the social norms and values.…

    • 292 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays