Huck Finn Essay

Submitted By emilyrr
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In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain Huck Finn’s innocent is set against the distrust of human integrity as well as the hypocritical world. Huck changes in the course of the novel because of the people he meets and has known through out his life while retaining a degree of innocence. Huck shows the growth of all people, from childhood through the loss of his innocence to searching for his own identity but Huck still carries some innocence that sets him apart and that becomes his identity by the end of the novel.
The land, in Huck Finn largely represents the bondage and cruelty of American civil society. To Jim (Miss Watson and Widow Douglas’s slave) the land means captivity in slavery while to Huck the land come to symbolize bondage of thought and behavior exuded by the religious-minded Miss Watson and Widow Douglas. Huck Finn began as an immature boy. He would follow Tom and never think for himself or of his actions. Even when disagreeing with Tom he ignored is conscious and obeyed Tom even when knowing it was wrong even if it happened to be harmless. Huck shows his immaturity when he and Tom played a prank on Jim, it was harmless but it did show Huck’s childish nature. “Then 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.” Huck is a child at heart and did not see the significance of the “good place” or the “bad place “. Huck pronounces “All right, then, I’ll go to hell.” He decides that he will reject conventional wisdom and free Jim on his own. It shows he is now taking responsibility for another man and that he has matured to a point where he can make his very own decisions without being influenced by what others say or have taught him. Huck has matured which also shows how society has or will overcome their old traditions.
While Tom represented white people at a “higher level” since he is from an honorable, civilized family and due to the lack of interest of a stable living arrangement, he must invent adventures to keep his mind occupied the adventures are from books Tom has read. Tom and Huck are considered friends even though they have different social status. Tom shows how the middle class read books and apply them to real life weather it applies or not.
Widow Douglas and Miss Watson represent religious women in America. Miss Watson and Widow Douglas had taken Huckleberry Finn as well as taken care of him while trying to give him an education. “After supper she got our her book and learned me about Moses and the Bulrushers”. Moses and the Bulrushers are a reference to the bible. “Then 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.” The bad place represents hell which is also another reference to the bible while showing how Miss Watson felt about the “bad place”. Miss Watson and Widow Douglas revealed the hypocritical religious values, since they believed in the bible yet owned a slave named Jim as well as when she told hackberry Finn he could not smoke but she did snuff which to a childish mind is the same thing “Pretty soon I wanted to smoke and asked the widow to let me. But she wouldn’t”,” And she snuff too; of
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