In Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck was seen in the beginning being brought up by his father, the widow, and Miss Watson, who had all had an effect on Huck’s mind-set or conscience. He grew up thinking it was normal for people to own slaves, for people to treat them like a different species – unless his heart told him differently. Huckleberry Finn is the personification of Mark Twain’s idea of a good human being, with his heart and feelings always overcoming how he was brought up, as in Mark Twain’s description of his book: “A sound heart is a surer guide than an ill-trained conscience.”
Huck Finn has feelings and a deep heart for anyone and anything. His sound heart even goes to the length of, at seeing the sight of “those poor girls and them niggers would break their hearts for grief,” on page 167, almost betraying his ‘gang’ that had caused this distressed separation. His heart and feelings even stretched through to murderers: “I begun to think how dreadful it was, even for murderers, to be in such a fix,” (page 67) for his sympathy and empathy had no borders. While having a sounder heart than most, Huck Finn is outwardly representing all that’s disapproved of in “good” society.
Huck Finn’s conscience is largely a product of his culture and era. Early in the book, Huck’s father goes on one of his seemingly frequent rants against the government pertaining to his views: “but when they told me there was a State in this country where they’d let that, nigger vote, I drawed out. I says I’ll never vote again” (page 27). Huck has seemingly been susceptible to his father’s and these kinds of views since birth. His culture led him to believe that these views were true. He says, “People would call me a low down Abilitionist and despise me…” (page 42). Those were his thoughts, from Huck who was led to believe that helping a slave was a serious crime and despicable. While Huck has been brought up with the bad views of his pap, Miss Watson, and his society, Huck still has his heart and feelings, which were not affected by how he grew up.
Huck’s horrible childhood has deformed his conscience, but not his heart and feelings – which are stronger. When his deformed conscience told him to turn Jim in, his heart stood against it and he just couldn’t get the words out to betray Jim – “Is your man white or black [Jim]?...I tried to, but the words wouldn’t come…just gave up trying, and up and says – He’s white” (page 83 and 84). Huck’s conscience just couldn’t overcome his moral feelings for Jim or any of his strong feelings. Jim is about his only friend, and even with his deformed, society-caused conscience, his heart and feelings prevail. Huck even would rather go to hell than give Jim up: “All right, then, I’ll go to hell – and tore it up…and steal Jim out of slavery again…” (page 195). Huck’s sound heart has no boundaries and infinite depths. In this book, Huck Finn’s sound heart and deformed heart come into collision, and his heart comes out as victor.
In the beginning, Huck Finn was seen with his ill-trained conscience in the process of being ill-trained. Even though those people had a great effect on Huck’s conscience, inside he still had his sound heart which remained untouched by his childhood conditions. Whenever his conscience and sound heart came into collision, his heart always triumphed.
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