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Essay On Morals In Huckleberry Finn And The Grapes Of Wrath

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Do the ends always justify the means? Many classic novels often try to convey this question to its readers. In both The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Grapes of Wrath, Mark Twain and John Steinbeck use flawed protagonists to help convey this message. Even though these protagonists do not necessarily follow the law, the reader is unable to stop supporting them in their quest for the American dream. Steinbeck and Twain both demonstrate a value of morals over the written law by creating sympathetic, yet "corrupted" protagonists. These authors have their characters break the law early on in the novels. This is demonstrated when Huckleberry Finn aids in the escape of Jim, a runaway slave. "I 's wuth eight hund 'd dollars" (Twain 58). In Huck 's society, slaves were seen as property. Making Huck a robber when it came down to the law. In The Grapes of Wrath, however, Tom Joad is a known murderer, and kills again later in the novel. If caught, both Tom and Huck could receive a death sentence for …show more content…

Many aspects of this case relate to the question of morality that Steinbeck and Twain are trying to answer. In both the real life case and in The Grapes of Wrath, the court lowers the punishment because of the situation the men where in. In both situations, thee men were backed into a corner. Tom Joad had been stabbed during a fight at the bar, and the men on the boat were faced with death. The young boy from the ship also lacks any family, just like Huckleberry Finn through much of the novel. Another alignment is between the boy 's and Huck 's age. They are both rather young and in the company of people much older than them. However, Huckleberry has much more life experiences than this boy, making him the stronger person. "The boy was lying at the bottom of the boat quite helpless and extremely weakened" (Natural Lawyer). Unlike Huck Finn, the boy in the real life case is weak and sickly. Throughout the novel, Huck is never displayed as weak, despite

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Society makes Huck believe that that is correct, and that is all he believes, until he travels along the river with a slave whom he has befriended named Jim. Initially, Huck sees Jim as only a slave, but that relationship builds until the overriding relationship is achieved, in which Jim is a father-figure in the eyes of Huck. " The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" made history because of its promoting of white people viewing African Americans as equal to themselves, which wasn't common in that day and age. Overall, Huck's outweighing view of Jim is as a patriarch, a sort of dad he never got to

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introduction As humans, we contain the ability to analyze, understand, remember and judge situations in ways that other species cannot. Societal constructs remain as ideas found only within human society, and they develop over time. The constructs often cause no adverse effects, yet in the form of objectification and discrimination these constructs possess the capability to degrade the quality of human lives. In the 19th century novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn author Mark Twain develops the relationship between Jim and Huck as they reject societal constructs and search for freedom, which defies cultural appropriations and beliefs at the time and encourages individuals to challenge rules society perpetuates. literary review Critics

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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an American classic, it was the starting point for all great American Literature. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been awarded all of these honorable titles because of its abnormal and controversial plot line. During the time period when the book was written, it was unacceptable to view African- American’s as anything other than slaves. They were viewed as inferior to whites and were treated like property, they had no rights. The main character of the book, Huck, disagrees and disobeys these norms and pushes the boundaries of society when he becomes friends with a slave from his childhood; Jim.

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When one reads The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain, themes involving morality and conscience become heavily prevalent. The protagonist, Huckleberry Finn, portrays a manifest dynamic character. His actions and statements ranging from the outset of the novel through its ending show Huck’s development of a more concise sense of morality and conscience prevailing over the societal influences of “right and wrong”. In the nineteenth century American South, the inescapable system of slavery and social hierarchy would have discouraged an interracial bond. Yet Huck, while escaping his abusive father, chooses to befriend Jim, the runaway slave whom he encounters, and shares a pivotal stage in his life with his newfound companion, whereby contradicting

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Throughout the novel, instances of rules trumping logic are prevalent. When Judge Thacher grants custody of Huck to Pap, he does so because Pap has the legal right, not the moral right and not considering the safety of Huck. Huck’s custody battle is aptly representative of slave treatment: slavery exists because that’s what the rules are in this civilized society, despite the inhumanity of the practice. Organized religion is often practiced for the wrong reasons. Taken under Widow Douglas’ wing, Huckleberry Finn is fed logistics about practicing Christianity and how helping people will send him to heaven.

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There was a couple of times where Huck realized that what he was doing was not only wrong, but illegal, and wondered if he should do the right thing, but decided against it. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck sees Jim as a slave, friend, and a father

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The progression of morality from the stark divide between right and wrong over the past twenty five hundred years into the highly variegated moral spectrum that is used today is the result of the division of ethics into seven moral prisms. The complexity of this moral spectrum deals with issues of duty, compassion, community, happiness, virtue, and self. This brings to light the moral permissibility of lying, when lying becomes the most intuitively moral option. Mark Twain, throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, blurs the lines between right and wrong; actively utilizing the moral spectrum that was not widely recognized until close to fifty years later. During Huck Finn’s adventures, he constantly runs into moral conflict; many of

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They are both thought of as having a lower intelligence by teachers and are being controlled by parental units. Also, their differences attract Kuusisto to this character. Huck is able to save Jim from slavery. Huck is able to hide his true identity from the world.

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Following Jim’s orders, Huck doesn’t even make a move towards the body. This shows a very big step toward maturation because in his old, adventurous ways, he wouldn't have listened to such a request with a dead body sitting right there -- like in a adventure movie or book. It also is the first time he listened to an adult, let alone a black slave in the pre-civil war era. This reveals that Huck isn’t conforming to societal norms and has good morals by listening to someone he has respect for whether he realizes it or

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