Mark Twains Huck Finn Essay Research Paper

Mark Twains Huck Finn Essay, Research Paper

In the novel, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” Mark Twain takes us on an adventure, and it is through the eyes of Huck and Jim that Twain is able to make statements on social traits found in America, particularly the South. Whether these traits were virtuous or contemptuous Twain made himself understood. Specifically, we see virtuous traits displayed in, through Huck ingenuity freewill through both Huck and Jim’s adventure on the raft; and morality displayed through the characters in this novel. Furthermore, Twain criticizes social traits which he finds contemptuous such as racism, greed, trickery, cruelty, hypocrisy, and drinking. It is through the adventure which Huck and Jim take, and more specifically, through the eyes of Huck, that we see all these societal statements.

Twain liked to display the trait if ingenuity in Huck. This should not surprise the reader, the whole book is through the eyes of Huck, but let me explain further. We learn that when Huck is kidnapped by his father he was able to escape on a canoe and while doing so was able to make his escape appear as though he had been kidnapped and murdered. Eventually, even more evidence of ingenuity is displayed when Huck and Jim wanted to get some information from the town. For expamle, Huck cleverly dressed as a girl so that his identity would not be discovered. Huck’s plans were successful, however, he was eventually found out to be a boy. Similarly, the quick whitted Huck, while on the river, Huck went ashore and was captured by the Gangerfords. While on shore he pretends to be ‘George Jackson’ in order to further keep his identity a secret. His memory almost gave him away, however, once again a fast thinking Huck was able to get one of the Gangerford children to remind him of his name. Similarly, The Duke and the King, I believe, showed a level of ingenuity with there many moneymaking escapades. Twain must have taken some delight in displaying the gullibility of the town’s people as well.

The trait of freedom which Huck and Jim experience on the river can be fodder for an entire paper in and of itself. Certainly on land, both Huck and Jim had to conform to roles which society had placed on them. Because Jim was black, it made sense for him to play the part of a slave, whether it was with Ms. Watson, or with the Duke and the King as they traveled from town to town. Moreover, Huck, while in the care of Widow Douglas, was forced to be educated, ’sicilvized’, and had to wear heavy, constraining clothing. Similarly, when Huck was on the Phelps’ farm he was no longer free to be Huck, but was Tom. On the other hand, the river was the only place that Huck and Jim found true freedom. “You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft” (109). The reason Huck and Jim felt free and easy on the raft was because they were out of reach of society.

Hear we find Twain showing trait of morality, once more, through Huck, who has to make several choices, and does so with a moral edge during the course of his adventure. Clearly, these choices show the reader that Huck a very moral person. Huck lived in the South and was taught that slaves are the property of the slave owner, however, when faced with the option of whether to tell anyone Jim is a run away slave he did not. This is another example of a topic in the book that could stand-up to a great deal of literary analysis, Twain gives the reader much to consider throughout his story. Huck was at the Phelps’ home and the societal roles were back in place. Inherently, Huck knew the right thing to do, and that was to see that Jim returned to his owner, Ms. Watson:

“It made me shiver. And I about made up my mind to pray, and see if I couldn’t try to quit being the kind of a boy I was and be better. So I kneeled down. But the words wouldn’t come. Why wouldn’t they. It warn’t no use to try and hide it from Him. Nor from ME, neither. I knowed very well why they wouldn’t come. It was because my heart warn’t right; it was because I warn’t square; it was because I was playing double. I

was letting ON to give up sin, but away inside of me I was holding on to the biggest one of all. I was trying to make my mouth SAY I would do the right thing and the clean thing, . . . but deep down in me I knowed it was a lie, and He knowed it. You can’t pray a lie – I found that out.

So I was full of trouble, full as I could be; and didn’t know what to do. At last I had an idea; and I says, I’ll go and write the letter — and then see if I can pray. Why, it was astonishing, the way I felt as light as a feather right straight off, and my troubles all gone. So I got a piece of paper and a pencil, all glad and excited, and set down and wrote:

Miss Watson, your runaway nigger Jim is down here two mile below Pikesville, and Mr. Phelps has got him and he will give him up for the reward if you send.

HUCK FINN.” (168)

As a result, this passage depicts that Huck was in an agony of his very soul when he learned what society had said was, indeed, true, and what his own conscious told him was right, were concepts that were in direct conflict with one another. Ultimately, Huck does side with his conscious, “All right, then, I’ll go to hell and he tore it up” (168).

The reader is shown many times that Huck is indeed an honorable man. For example, Huck, while in the custody of the