Huckleberry Finn's Moral Development

Rohit Chopra
10.3
5.2.17

Discussion of Moral Development in Huckleberry Finn: An Analysis on the Social Factors and their Implications on Huck’s Development

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
Mark Twain
Mark Twain’s belief of stepping back and critically analyzing society is the basis for his novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is about an adolescent boy traversing the Mississippi river along with a runaway slave Jim. As they travel, Huck is thrust in a variety of positions, each challenging what he believes in and forcing him to redefine what is “right” and “wrong”. Being a “coming of age” novel, Huck’s journey allows him to realize who he truly is
and his place in society. Through the eyes of young boy, Twain is able to innocently question the founding principles of life in the 1800’s; slavery and sexism. Throughout the novel, Huck battles with difficult decisions to redefine his moral code, climaxing with his confrontation with the notorious institution of slavery, resulting a unique look into the social norms in the 1800’s challenged by Twain’s critical perspective. Huck’s moral development begins with his journey down the Mississippi river. He embarks on this adventure when he decides to fake his own death. Huck’s entire dilemma begins when his father shows up to take in order to collect the money that Huck recently acquired. Huck tries to delay his father by “selling” money to a judge he trusts. Unfortunately, Huck’s father is persistent and Huck sees no solution but to fake his death. With this instance, Huck is starting low moral level, as his only motivations are to escape his abusive father and to avoid the restraints of society, so he pretends to die. For the next few days, Huck stays on Jackson Island where he meets a runaway slave, Jim. Together, they decide to travel down the river. Huck’s loyalty towards the runaway is put to the test when a group of white men looking for Jim stop their raft and ask Huck if he has seen Jim. Huck recalls how he “was weakening” but finally tells them “he’s white” (84). Huck’s morals are advancing demonstrated by this decision as he was able to resist the temptations of getting money by turning Jim in. By deciding to lie for Jim, Huck also realizes an important truth. Huck sees that no matter which choice he makes, whether it be to turn Jim in or to protect him, he would feel regret. Thus, Huck makes the decision to do “whichever come handiest at the time” (85). Ultimately, this is Huck’s first step as he become less naive and travels down the river. As Huck and Jim continue along the Mississippi river, Huck develops his morals when they encounter two men who are escaping the locals which also shows Twain’s view on how society sees women. The two men claim to be a king and duke and initially both Huck and Jim believe them. However, Huck quickly sees through their disguise and understands that they are con men but does not say anything because he thinks that it will only cause conflict which may lead to them turning Jim in. So, to protect his friend, Huck sticks their unspoken agreement until they begin to con three orphaned sisters who are very innocent and naive. The con men pretend to be their uncles from England and try to take all the money that their father left for them before he passed away. Huck only reveals the con because he feels extremely guilty about conning the eldest daughter, Mary Jane. Mary Jane’s influence on Huck’s moral development is huge, as Mary Jane is one of the only truly honest and selfless people that Huck ever meets. Moreover, this may serve as one of Twain’s critical comments on the American society. In the novel, Mary Jane is described as “most awful beautiful” and this image is linked with a kindhearted woman(149). Yet, one of her sister, the one with a harelip is described to be always sarcastic and skeptical. Therefore, Twain is referencing how society uses appearances to judge women to point out the flaw that society has. Additionally, he is using the cliche “damsel in distress” character, Mary Jane, to show how society thinks that women are supposed to be saved. Mary Jane with her beauty and her purity, is the only one that Huck tells the truth. He even goes as far as to steal the money back from the con men and hides it so that he can give it to Mary Jane later. However, Huck stills cares more about himself and Jim because Huck only tells Mary Jane the truth with the condition that she leaves town for a couple days, giving him enough time to escape with Jim. This eventually leads to the undoing of his plan because the real uncles show up and challenge the con men. The con men are discovered and the townsfolk take Huck along with the two men but if Mary Jane was there, she could have told everyone how Huck was actually trying to help her. Luckily, Huck is able to escape the townsfolk but not the two men. Seeing that Huck tries to leave them and because they are running low on money, the two men “sell” Jim with a fake wanted ad that they make. With Jim sold, Huck faces the institution of slavery and its dehumanizing effects, and challenges these with his moral code.
Since Jim is being sold down south, he has three options, either to let Jim be sold, to go Jim’s owner, Miss.Watson, and tell her where Jim is or to somehow free Jim. Immediately, Huck rules out letting Jim go to the South because Huck think, “it would be a thousand times better for Jim to be a slave at home where his family was, as long as he’d got to be a slave”(193). However, Huck also recognizes that the reason Jim ran away in the first place was to escape Miss. Watson who was thinking about selling him in the South. Moreover, Huck is afraid that what other people might think about him helping a slave to freedom. Huck is worried that people might think that he is a “low down Abolitionist”(42). Thus, in this first stage of this problem, Huck’s moral standard is still somewhat low are he is very much influenced by extrinsic motivation and cannot decide what to do. In the next part, Huck thinks that God is punishing him for helping Jim escape. He believes that God was doing this because he is “stealing a poor old woman’s nigger that hadn't ever done me no harm”(193) Huck regrets doing it tries to pray as he was taught the widow and Miss.Watson. Huck feels that something is not right and he sees that it is because he is not truly believing that Jim should be returned to Miss. Watson, which he is praying for. He quickly grabs some paper and pencil and write a letter to Miss. Watson telling her where Jim is. Then sudden he feels “good and washed clean of sin for the first time”(194). However, Huck still has a nagging doubt and not everything feels completely right and he is baffled. He wonders why he feels incomplete when he followed all of the religious principles and the laws of society. He found stolen property, Jim, and was simply returning it, what was wrong? Huck soon understands that society's views may not always be right. Society
viewed slaves as property of their owners, but Huck’s time with Jim revealed the truth, that slaves are actually human too; they love, they hate, they cry, they laugh. In fact, Huck remembers a very specific instance when Jim was missing his family and lamenting out loud. At that moment, Huck realizes, that slaves cared “just as much for his people as white folks does for their’n”(142). Therefore, Huck realizes that he cannot treat Jim like property as the rest of society treats him, so he gives up societies standards and says, “all right, then, I’ll go to hell”(195). This is Huck’s most crucial line in his whole narrative, as he decides to forsake societies “right” ideas that lead to heaven and he chooses his friends even if he goes against everyone else and ends up in hell. At this moment, Huck has reached the final stage of moral development as he is able to make decisions on his own, without extrinsic motivations influencing him. Unfortunately, this stage does not last long as Huck soon reverts to old ways. When he goes to save Jim, Huck meets Tom Sawyer, his best friend, and they figure out that Jim is being kept by Tom’s uncle, Mr. Phelps. So, Huck pretends to be Tom and Tom pretends to be his half-brother Sid. Together they plan to break Jim out of where he is being kept. Huck creates simple and effective plans yet Tom likes to make elaborate and ornate plans. In the end, they go with Tom’s plans. Huck is forgetting his own moral code Unknowingly, Huck may be endangering Jim’s life because each day that passes with them planning, the closer Jim is to being sold. However, Huck never acknowledges this and just continues with their fun and games. They fill Jim’s cabin with spiders and snakes after they dig hole right up under his bed. They even make him a coat of arms and make him send secret messages in blood and write sad messages on the wall. When they finally escape, Tom gets shot in the calf and they must return to save him. They are saved by Tom’s other Aunt who reveals that Jim was freed in Miss.Watson’s will. Overall, as in real life, Huck’s moral development wasn’t a straight line. He has his ups and downs. At the start, he only cares about himself and protecting himself and as he progresses, he learns how important it is to care for others. But this is used against him when he decides to help the con men, who take advantage of his generosity and sell Jim. With his epiphany, Huck is able defy the dehumanizing nature of slavery and is able to make his own moral code to guide him only to lose it when he meets his friends from the past. Huck then makes up for it by attempting to free Jim