The Development of the Theme Individual vs.Society: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The theme of individual vs. society is about a person (an individual) who has different ideas and opinions from a large group of people which we called the 'society'. These people usually judge an individual from their behavior and ideology and if the individual does not conform themselves to fit in with others, they will not be accepted as part of the community. What the majority said is not always right, it maybe right in the point of view in most people. The conflict between the individual and society is a consistent theme throughout "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". Huckleberry Finn was a boy who lived most of his life without his real parents, so he had to make most of the decisions using his own natural instincts which some of the decisions had more moral than people who tried to fit in with others. In "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", Mark Twain developed the theme of individual versus reality by creating situations where Huck had to face different characters that represent different aspects of the society such as civilization, unfairness of laws, slavery, and racism.

From the very beginning of the novel, Huck made it clear that he will not become civilized which means to be accepted as part of the society.

"The Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me... and so when I couldn't stand it no longer I lit out. I got into my old rags and my sugar hogshead again, and was free and satisfied." (Twain, p 1)

Widow Douglas and Miss Watson tried to make Huck become their stereotypical good boy by forcing him to go to school, wear nice clothes and pray before his meals. Wearing nice clothes and going to school doesn't change Huck's personality; he still wanted to smoke and curse. The boy was so used to being free that he saw Widow Douglas' protection solely in terms of confinement. She doesn't let Huck smoke when he wanted and she was always nagging.

"Miss Watson would say, "Don't put your feet up there, Huckleberry;" and "Don't scrunch up like that, Huckleberry -- set up straight;" and pretty soon she would say, "Don't gap and stretch like that, Huckleberry -- why don't you try to behave? The she told me all about the bad place, and I said I wished I was there. She got mad then, but I didn't mean no harm." (Twain, p 2)

Twain suggested that even though Widow Douglas and Miss Watson had change Huck's outer shell to a certain point, his inner self was always the same as before he was adopted. "All I wanted was to go somewhere; all I wanted was a change, I warn't particular." (Twain, p 2). He said this shortly after he began living with the Widow Douglas because it was hard for him to live with the restricted rules, Huck wanted to live his life free of complications.

When Pap returned to St. Petersburg, he wanted to take Huck back into his custody. The judged ruled that Huck belonged to Pap, even though Pap was an abusive and an irresponsible man.

"It was a new judge that had just come, and he didn't know the old man; so he said courts mustn't interfere and separate families if they could help it; said he'd druther not take a child away from its father." (Twain, p 21)

The people who don't know Pap would agree with the judge just because Pap is Huck's father and they would think that a child should live with their 'real' parents. This was an example of the society's irrationality; the judge doesn't even know that Huck would live with Widow Douglas rather than his father who always mistreated him. One day, Pap kidnapped Huck and settled in a cabin deep in the woods. "It was kind of lazy and jolly, laying off comfortable all day, smoking and fishing, and no books nor study." (Twain, p 24) and "I didn't want to go back no more...it was pretty good times up in the woods there." (Twain, p 24). Huck actually enjoyed living in the woods because there was no regulations for him to follow but he still struggled for freedom from the two families; he tried to stay away from becoming civilize by the Widow Douglas and tried to escape from his father's brutality. Later on, Huck was able to escape from Pap by faking a death scene using pig's blood to make it look like he was killed. From this example of the theme individual vs. society, Twain had come to the conclusion that the society can make mistakes, decisions made by the majority or its delegate is not always the best options for certain issues.

Huck went through a moral conflict of how wrong it was to be helping a slave escape to freedom. The society in the late 1830's mutually agreed that a black person, and even further, slaves, as inferior. They never thought of slaves as a human beings but only a property that was owned by the white person. After Huck had already ran away from home and started down the Mississippi River with Jim, Twain began to show us how Huck was questioning himself for being with a black person because Huck knew what society would think, for instance: "People would call me a Abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum--but that don't make no difference." (Twain, p 43). Huck was taught by the society that the white person is superior and it is wrong to be hanging around with the black person. As the novel progressed, Huck's opinion of Jim changes; "I was paddling off, all in a sweat to tell on him; but when he says this (that Huck is his one and only friend) it seemed to take the tuck all out of me." (Twain, p 89) and "It was Jim's voice--nothing ever sounded so good before. I run along the bank a piece and got aboard, and Jim he grabbed me and hugged me, he was so glad to see me." (Twain, p 116). Huck realized that he means something to Jim, he was a friend, and in turn he took a closer look for who Jim really is. The theme of individual vs. society was more obvious when Mr. Phelps got him.

"It was a close place. I took it up [the letter Huck wrote to Miss Watson], and held it in my hand. I was a-trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: "All right then, I'll go to hell" and tore it up. It was awful thoughts and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming." (Twain, p 214)

At this point, Huck completely ignored the society; he doesn't care what the society will think, Huck did what he thinks it was right even though it was totally wrong from the society's perspective. Twain suggested that the society is important to human beings because they are social animals, but in some circumstances they are willing to go beyond the society's limitations.

From the novel, Mark Twain had illustrated the idea of society as a symbol of majority but doing what the majority does is not always the right thing to do. Throughout the novel, we see how Huck distanced himself from society and created his own world in which he followed his own feelings of what was moral and honorable. "But I reckon I got to light out for the territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can't stand it. I been there before." (Twain, p 294). This was the last thing he said after all he'd been through; Huck knew how he wanted to live his life. In conclusion, the theme of individual vs. society presented in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn will always be relevant to the modern society.