Preview

Huckleberry Finn Themes

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
795 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Huckleberry Finn Themes
Throughout his novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain discusses many themes. The most important theme with in this novel is Huck's struggle between society and his own conscience. Twain shows us what is going on inside of the young boy's head many times within this novel. Although Huck battles with society for long periods of time; and on most occasions, his conscience seems to win the fight, helping Huck choose the right thing.

The primary theme of the novel is the conflict between civilization and "natural life." Huck represents natural life through his freedom of spirit, uncivilized ways, and desire to escape from civilization. He was raised without any rules or discipline and has a strong resistance to anything that might "sivilize" him. This conflict is introduced in the first chapter through the efforts of the Widow Douglas: she tries to force Huck to wear new clothes, give up smoking, and learn the Bible. Throughout the novel, Twain seems to suggest that the uncivilized way of life is more desirable and morally superior. Drawing on the ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Twain suggests that civilization corrupts, rather than improves, human beings.
The theme of honor permeates the novel after first being introduced in the second chapter, where Tom Sawyer expresses his belief that there is a great deal of honor associated with thieving. Robbery appears throughout the novel, specifically when Huck and Jim encounter robbers on the shipwrecked boat and are forced to put up with the King and Dauphin, both of whom "rob" everyone they meet. Tom's original robber band is paralleled later in the novel when Tom and Huck become true thieves, but honorable ones, at the end of the novel. They resolve to steal Jim, freeing him from the bonds of slavery, which is an honorable act. Thus, the concept of honor and acting to earn it becomes a central theme in Huck's adventures.
Food plays a prominent role in the novel. In Huck's childhood, he often fights pigs

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    What does Huck’s father criticize about the “govment”? What does Twain want the reader to feel about these issues?…

    • 839 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Satire in Huck Finn

    • 983 Words
    • 4 Pages

    During the mid-1800’s there was many “imperfections” in the world, and Samuel Clemens better known as Mark Twain decided to write a book to ridicule some problems concerning religion, greed, civilization, romantic literature, and Melodramatic art. Huckleberry Finn goes on a very complex and intense journey which helps him build a perspective on life as opposed to the ones dictated by those older than him. Throughout Huck encounters situations with problems that mimic actual problems in Twain’s world. Twain makes them look extremely pointless and senseless.…

    • 983 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The conflict between society as well as religion against the individuals ability to see past the mold that we live in, is a theme that is portrayed throughout the Huckleberry Finn. The book begins by creating a scenario in which a young boy, brought up in a regular South American society in the early 1800's and goes on to have him fight his way through a complex, internal, moral struggle caused by his love and friendship for a runaway slave. He had to figure out at a weather “right” was defined by what is correct in the eyes of society, or by what he felt was “right” in his heart, and then make a major decision. Huck Finn's inner struggles included; differentiating between religious, governmental, and societal rules which taught to him what is acceptable and what is not from the day of birth,and his own moral instincts. When it came time for huckleberry to make up his mind he took all that he was taught by society and his own ideology in to account and then he declared “Alright then, I’ll go to hell”. This indicated that Huck believed that following his own moral compass was more important than following the moral compass of others, or even G-d for that matter.…

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Huckleberry Finn

    • 1338 Words
    • 6 Pages

    When Reading the book, it is obvious to the readers that Huck is a very young; and has a very boyish nature. In the beginning of the book, Huck explains his childish memories and experiences, further showing his young and boyish nature. This is an important trait because this ultimately builds up excitement and climax of the story.…

    • 1338 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • 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
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Initially Huck is influenced by his very well known friend Tom Sawyer who seems to only bring bad qualities and morals from Huck. Tom used books and his society views on the world to create fantasy and romanticism like situations. Creating a gang for , using only his words “Nothing but robbery and murder.”Ch2. The Tom Sawyer Gang was what they called themselves and while creating this gang there many claims that they were going to attempt murder, rob people of their valuables, and just brag about how many people they killed or who they killed and who and how many they marked. Huck shows very poor morals to even join this group. The worst part of hm joining this group was how he was allowed to get in. Everyone had claim they would let their…

    • 205 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Twain shows Jim’s experiences of suffering for Huck in this novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to demonstrate Jim’s humanity even as a slave. During this time period, African Americans were regarded as property in accordance with text in the Old Testament. In this novel, the equality was only apparent on the Mississippi river. The river represents equality wherein Huck and Jim treat each other as equals. It is not until they reach land that they are bound by societal norms that limit their interactions. Even then, Jim and Huck still have a caring relationship, with Twain’s use of the novel as his medium showing his contempt for society.…

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Huck starts off as an immature boy who joins a gang with Tom Sawyer and other kids. the gang wants to steal from innocent people and kill them because they didn’t see killing as a problem. Once Huck met the duke and the dauphin, everything changed. The duke and dauphin lied to Huck to earn his trust and think they’re good people. Later in the novel, Huck discovers that the duke and dauphin are no-good con artists that steal and lie and this helps the maturing process of Huck. Huck realized stealing is wrong so he steals what the Duke and Dauphin stole, hid it and told Mary Jane where she could find it so it could go to the rightful…

    • 446 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nature helps Huck become the person he is because the way your treated is the way you treat other people at times. Huck is thirteen whose place in society is second to a slave, like Jim. Huck's father is a drunk who takes care of Huck from time to time. Repeatedly Huck is filthy and left homeless. The nurturing society has failed to protect Huck from his father, because they didn't care for him, and nurture him. That doesn't go for everyone though, Widow Douglas took Huck in and tried to ameliorate Huck. Huck starts church and proper schooling. Even though Huck is a child the nurturing that he receives pushes him away from the cynicism of the world around him, which brings about another way nurturing has made who Huck is. At this time of age, African Americans were still in bondage as slaves, which brings about Jim in the story. Society does not nurture Jim; instead they treat him as an object of property. Huck doesn't agree with this though, according to Huck's sense of dialectic and fairness it's not only acceptable but conscientiously good to help Jim. Huck's natural reasoning and his acquiescence to think through a situation on its own entitlement is what leads him to some conclusions that are right in their appurtenance but would clash society. An example is when he meets a group of slave-hunters, that telling a lie is sometimes the right course of action, in other words that sometimes lying is the right thing to do.…

    • 652 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good 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
  • Powerful Essays

    Why Is Huck Finn Wrong

    • 1477 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Use of this extremely racist character juxtaposes Huck’s ideas of slavery and and emphasis to the great extent of racism during this time. The systematic racism that is universally accepted by everyone in the community, Huck sees as immoral and as an ideology that is designed to hold back and oppress a whole race, so he tries to change this by intervening and acting as a Marxist instrument to remove this widely accepted oppressive…

    • 1477 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Twain immediately makes a point that Huck does not enjoy being a civilized member of society. Huck almost instantly states his annoyances with living in a humane matter “and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn’t stand it no longer I lit out” (pg.2). Huck feels like he is cramped when he is with the Widow Douglas and he would rather be in tatted up clothing, running free from the stress of wondering when his father is coming back, and becoming someone he doesn’t want to be.…

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    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…

    • 1536 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Huck Finn

    • 671 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel which displays a young boy named Huck's dilemma on whether he should turn in a run away slave named Jim, that he has been helping escape to freedom. Huck must decide upon what he feels is the right thing to do, even if that means going against society and changing his own morals. Huck exemplifies how his opinion of society's beliefs changes throughout this novel.…

    • 671 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Orientalism, simply put, is the perception the West has of the East. The concept was mapped out by Edward Said in his book Orientalism, where he explores the concept, its origin, and how it functions. Said states that Orientalism is "the corporate institution for dealing with the Orient - dealing with it by making statements about it, authorizing views of it, describing it, by teaching it, settling it, [and] ruling over it" (3). However, Said points out that even if Orientalism from the beginning was not "a creation with no corresponding reality" the concept he studies in the book is that of "the internal consistency of Orientalism and its ideas about the Orient ... despite or beyond any correspondence" with the "real" Orient (5). What Said is saying is that the characteristics drawn up about the Orient within Orientalism ar not necessarily compatible with reality. The Western eagerness to characterize the Oriental came from the desire to put a face to the unknown, becoming "a political vision of reality whose structure promoted the difference between" East and West, them and us, "the familiar and the strange" (43). Orientalism became a dictionary displaying the characteristics of the Oriental subject, characteristics that were fixed and unchangeable (42, 70).…

    • 842 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays