Huck Finn Essay Research Paper Moral Development

Huck Finn Essay, Research Paper

Moral Development and Dilemmas of Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is based on a young boy.s coming of age in Missouri of the mid-1800s. This story depicts many serious issues that occur on the .dry land of civilization. better known as society. As these somber events following the Civil War are told through the young eyes of Huckleberry Finn, he unknowingly develops morally from both the conforming and non-conforming influences surrounding him on his journey to freedom. Huck.s moral evolution begins before he ever sets foot on the raft down the Mississippi. His mother has died, and his father is constantly in a drunken state. Huck grows up following his own rules until he moves in with the Widow Douglas and her sister, Miss Watson. Together, the women attempt to civilize Huck by making him attend school, study religion, and act in a way the women find socially acceptable. However, Huck.s free-spirited soul keeps him from joining the constraining and lonely life the two women have in store for him. The freedom Huck seeks in Tom Sawyer.s gang is nothing more than romantic child.s-play. Raiding a caravan of Arabs really means terrorizing young children on a Sunday school picnic, and the stolen .joolry. is nothing more than turnips or rocks. Huck is disappointed that the adventures Tom promises are not real and so, along with the other members, he resigns from the gang. Still, he ignorantly assumes that Tom is superior to him because of his more suitable family background and fascination with Romantic literature (Twain).

Pap and .the kidnapping. play another big role in Huck.s moral development. Pap is completely antisocial and wishes to undo all of the civilizing effects that the Widow and Miss Watson have attempted to instill in him. However, Pap does not symbolize freedom; he promotes drunkenness, prejudice, and abuse. Huck escapes the cabin to search for the freedom he yearns for. It is after he escapes to Jackson Island that he meets the most influential character of the novel, Jim. After conversing, Huck learns things about the runaway slave that he had never been aware of. Jim has a family, dreams, and talents such as knowing .all kinds of signs about the future,. people.s personalities, and weather forecasting (Twain 69).

However, Huck sees Jim as a gullible slave. He plays tricks on him like the .rattlesnake event. that nearly gets Jim killed. At this point in the novel, Huck still holds the belief that blacks are essentially different from whites. In addition, his conscience reminds him that he.s a .low-down and dirty abolitionist. for helping Jim run away from his owner. Huck does not see that Jim is looking for freedom just as he is (Master Plots).

The first adventure Huck and Jim take part in while searching for freedom is the steamboat situation. Huck shows development of character in tricking the watchman into going back to the boat to save the criminals. Even though they are thieves, and plan to murder another man, Huck still feels that the forfeit of their lives would be too great a punishment. Some may see Huck.s reaction to the event as crooked but, unlike most of society, Huck Finn sees the good in people and attempts to help them with sincerity and compassion. Getting lost in the fog while floating down the Mississippi River leads to a major turning point in the development of Huck Finn.s character. Up to this event, he has seen Jim as a lesser person than himself. After trying to deny the fog event to Jim, he says, .It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a slave; but I done it, and I warn.t ever sorry for it afterward, neither (Twain 92).. He continues by explaining how he could never do such a thing again. Huck has clearly gained respect for Jim here, which explains the risks he is willing to take for Jim later in the book. A short yet significant scene is when the men on shore want to check Huck.s raft for runaway slaves. He escapes by tricking them into thinking that his dad is onboard with smallpox. This scene shows a negative view of human nature. The men had helped Huck until they realized that they were in danger themselves. They put their own safety above that of others, and while this is sometimes acceptable, it is by no means a noble trait (Gerber).

On the other hand, Huck risks his own freedom to see that Jim finds his. The feud between the Grangerfords and the Shepardsons adds to Huck.s distaste for society and it.s teachings. In this adventure, Huck learns what a feud is and also witnesses the horrid aftermath the hostility brought upon the two families. Another part of Huck.s moral metamorphosis in this event is that he has come to miss the one man that has given him fatherly love throughout the excursion. The Duke and the King join Huck and Jim in the middle of the novel. The two con men use Huck and Jim to fulfill their greed and desires. Like the two men from the steamboat occurrence, Huck knows that their schemes are wrong. The con men.s attempt to masquerade as the brothers of the late Peter Wilks is an important part of Huck.s development. Later on the Duke and King try to take Peter.s estate, however, Huck decides to return the money to Peter.s three daughters. This action demonstrates further moral growth, as does his choice to abandon the two con men. Huck also learns how conniving people can be while a