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Essay On Social Norm In The Adventures Of Huck Finn

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Social Norms in comparison to Honest Morality of Huck Finn
Nelson Mandela once said, “No one is born hating another person because of the color of shin, or his background or his religion. People learn to hate, and if they learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than opposite.” Nelson Mandela criticizes society by saying that it is the society’s own fault that people are being discriminated and not strong enough to speak up for their thoughts. He also says that it is possible for society to change but it takes brave challenges to realise it. In the novel the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck escapes society and civilization by fleeing onto the Mississippi river with a slave who becomes his best friend over this adventure in which Huck learns a lot about racism and human behaviors. In the novel, Mark Twain demonstrates …show more content…

In the novel, Twain assets that religion in the 1840’s was practiced in the wrong way and was completely dismissed. When Huck went to church with the Grangerfords, he describes his visit with, “Next Sunday we all went to church … The men took their guns along, so did Buck and kept them between their knees or stood them handy against the wall. The Shepherdsons done the same. It was pretty ornery preaching-All about brotherly love, and such-like tiresomeness” (Twain 110). These families are breaking the rules of society and bring negativity into church. Bringing the guns builds a contrast to the preaching about brotherly love. Church is supposed to be a place of peace and freedom in opinion. Twain uses this scene to criticize how people practice religion and to change Huck’s view on religion. People just follow religion without thinking. Twain describes religion as shallow and hypocritical because the people go to church and act like good people but they do not do what religion wants them to

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This becomes clear when Huck struggles to pray after being conflicted as to whether or not he should call upon Miss Watson to free Jim from the Duke and King, which he believed would risk Jim’s life. Originally, Huck acted as if Jim wasn’t a runaway slave and prayed for his friend to be saved. Eventually, he realized that he had to honest with God, and that “You can’t pray a lie” (Twain 213). Huckleberry discerns through the use of his conscience that he has to be open with the deity from whom he seeks help. Huck has now been honest with himself and accepted his morality, as well as religion, which he had never wholeheartedly embraced.

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Angezah Fernandes Mr. Mattas Ap Language 30 Nov. 2015 Conformity As humans, our lives are revolved around the line that separates conformity and individuality. Conformity is a type of social influence that includes a change of belief or behavior to fit into a group. Many people can cross the line too far back or too far forward, thus being too much of a conformist or too much of an individual.

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Living in the 1800s was a very confusing time for a thirteen-year-old American white boy named Huckleberry Finn. African people were faced with inhuman acts of slavery, prejudice, and discrimination. Choosing between what was right and wrong was a challenge, especially for Huckleberry Finn. Huck’s peers tried to corrupt him into believing that slavery was the norm and black people were to be shunned. Mrs. Watson, for example, was Huck’s adoptive mother whom consistently told Huck to not associate with people of the African culture.

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Twain does his best to deal with the conflict between society and the individual. Huck does not want to abide by society’s laws and does not want to conform in Mark Twain’s, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Huck is forced to be civilized in the beginning, so he leaves society for freedom and lives by his own rules but even that does not make Huck’s life easy. Huck has trouble obeying society’s rules from the start of the book. The Widow Douglas takes Huck in to try to sivilize him says Huck in the quote, “The Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me”(Twain 2).

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A prominent example of this is shown when Huck visits the Grangerford family. The Grangerfords have been locked in a decades long “feud” with a nearby family, the Shepherdsons. The two families are willing to kill each other on sight and don’t even know how the feud started. However, the families attend church together with their guns between their knees. On page 171 the text states; “Next Sunday we all went to church, about three mile, everybody ahorseback.

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Children don’t generally understand the bible and how to believe in the bible. Huck may have been a lot like Twain as a child. There is so many differences in religion in this book, like Tom knows that Jim is free at the end of the story but still tries to torture him and be cruel towards him. Twain may have some deep issues and that 's why he uses so many different religions, he may not know what he believes. Religion in this story is a huge part of what happens and how others react to what happen.

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Morality is defined as the principles for which people treat one another, respect for justice, and the welfare and rights of others. Moral development is gained from major experiences that can change viewpoints on life or cause people to make a difficult choice in a tough situation. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, one of Mark Twain’s major themes evident in the book is the moral development of Huck FInn, the main character. In the beginning of the book, Huck’s lack of morals and uncultured personality is a product of living with his abusive, demoralized father.

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This demonstrates how Miss Watson is trying to stain religion on huck even though she does not fully understand it herself. Huck and Tom clearly demonstrate some of humanitys fault in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain uses diction, dialouge, and characterization to symbolize society through Tom and Huck in order to show the Hypocricy and Blind comformity in an everyday society.

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Twain is showing that we as a society tend to disapprove of anything that goes against what we believe is right. I believe that Twain does an excellent job at pointing out this fault in society. Very often minorities will try to speak out, but be silenced because they go against the majority. In Twain's story, the preacher is unable to see the stranger as he approaches. In a literal sense the preacher cannot see him because

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Mark Twain emphasizes the theme that a person's morals are more powerful than the corrupt influence of society in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Based on how Huck Finn views the world and forms his opinions, he does not know the difference between right and wrong. In the novel, Huck escapes civilized society. He encounters a runaway slave, Jim, and together they travel hopes of freedom. But along the way, Huck and Jim come across troubles that have Huck questioning his motives.

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Individuals often say that the right way may not necessarily be the popular way, but standing up for the right thing, despite it being frowned upon, will be the true test of one’s moral character. This relates to the moral growth that Huck Finn experiences throughout his journey. Mark Twain’s controversial novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, can be said to be a compelling story about how one individual, Huck Finn, goes against society’s ideals. Huck’s moral development can be said to be based primarily on those around him, especially Jim. Many instances also influence Huck’s morals, particularly during the raft journey that will change his beliefs and morals.

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Furthermore, Twain criticizes many other things regarding Christianity and coming at religious people’s

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For instance, religion proves to be a prominent component to these issues in Huck’s environment. As stated, “I asked her if she reckoned Tom Sawyer would go there [Heaven], and she said not by a considerable sight” (Twain 3). The preset disposition of religion leads to these fraudulent assumptions of whether one’s actions are right or wrong. Subsequently, Mark Twain is subtly hinting that there are flaws in the teachings of any religions that become misleading to the entire population. Next, the most urgent topic he implies, is racism.

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The only time that they are civil with one another is on Sundays for church. Again this instance of Christian morals and contradictory behavior pushes Huck away from civilization since they are only at peace during church, but do not apply what is preached to their own lives. In this manner, they strive themselves on being good Christian people, but cannot see the wrongness of trying to kill one another. When Huck asks the youngest son Buck why he meant to kill the other son he replied “Him? He never done nothing to me” (127) but it was an account of tradition that continued the practice.

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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was wrote by Mark Twain in February, 1885, 20 years after the Civil War. However, the setting of the book takes place before the civil war in various locations as Huckleberry Finn, a boy about 10 years old, tries to race up the Mississippi river to escort Jim, a runaway slave, to freedom. Over the course of Huck and Jim’s adventures, they both become reliant on each other, as Huck develops what he feels is a moral obligation to see Jim to freedom, and Jim comes to respect and nearly worship Jim because of his efforts to free Jim. Throughout the book, the cultural attitudes and imposition of cultural norms at the time are very evident, and when reading it is plain to see that The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn’s

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