What Is The Balance Between The Rules In Huckleberry Finn

Finding The Balance Of Rules

No matter the location in the world; there is always a set of rules that should be followed to behave appropriately in society. In Mark Twain’s novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, this idea remains true. This piece of literature follows a young boy named Huckleberry Finn who is living near the Mississippi river around the 1840 's. There are many rules Huck has to follow in the novel including using his manners, praying, not swearing, not smoking, and not helping runaway slaves. Throughout the novel, Huck struggles to find a balance between the rules he has in different areas in his life. When he is living with the Widow Douglas, he experiences strict rules. Pap, on the other hand, has very few rules, and he lets

In the beginning of the book, Huck is used to living on his own outside of civilization. When he decides to go back to the Widow Douglas to live, he does not like it because there are too many new rules to follow. However, the longer he lives with the widow the closer he gets to finding the balance between the two sets of rules he knows: “I was getting sort of used to the widow’s ways, too, and they warn’t so raspy on me. Living in a house, and sleeping in a bed, pulled on me pretty tight, mostly, but before the cold weather I used to slide out and sleep in the woods, sometimes, and so that was a rest to me. I liked the old ways best, but I was getting so I liked the new ones, too, a little bit” (Twain 1). This quote showcases how Huck only wanted to create his own rules and not have to answer to anyone else before he starting living with Widow Douglas. He eventually learned the new strict rules of the Widow and followed them most of the time. He also started to like the idea that the rules did not change all the time. However, when Mark Twain stated that Huck still sleeps in the woods at times, it indicates that he still went back to the rules he used to live by at times. Possibly Twain himself struggled with switching between two locations in his life that had completely different rules than what he was familiar with. Later in the book, Huck tries to adjust to the lack of rules he had to follow when living with his father. Huckleberry Finn states, “... and it warn’t long after that till I was used to being where I was, and liked it, all but the cowhide part. It was kind of lazy and jolly, laying off comfortable all day, smoking and fishing, and no books nor study. Two months or more run along, and my clothes got to be all rags and dirt, and I didn’t see how I’d ever got to like it so well at the widow’s, where you had to wash, and eat on a