Examples Of Guilt In Huckleberry Finn

Guilt: The Moral Reset Button Guilt, more often than not, proves to be a main cause of reformation in people. Although possessing a negative feeling, the overall effect of guilt is reasonably beneficial. Such is the case with Charles Dickens’s novel Great Expectations, written in 1860, and Mark Twain’s novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written in 1884. In Dickens’s Great Expectations and Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the authors utilize the main characters’ sense of conscience to demonstrate that guilt can cause people to morally change for the better. Although originally ungrateful towards their central lifestyles and homes, both Huck and Pip eventually transform into morally enhanced characters. The two characters initiate

While Great Expectations covers the subject of social class (seen through Pip’s desire to be in the gentleman class rather than the common class), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn presents a novel mainly about racism and slavery, depicted when Huck asks why “would a runaway nigger run south?” (Twain 127). Therefore, Pip’s struggle revolves more around being common, in which he admits, “I wished Joe has been rather more genteelly brought up, and then I should have been so too” (Dickens 64). Yet, Huck struggles with how to accept–and how to get people to accept–Jim, a slave who “cared just as much for his people as white folks does for their’n” (Twain

By only choosing to save Jim from slavery despite the many other slaves at Silas and Sally’s farm, Huck shows his feelings towards Jim solely pertain to Jim. Through Pip’s experiences, though Pip is able to befriend Estella, continue to live frugally with Herbert and Clara, and visit Joe and Biddy often. This shows his morals have improved on a more universal level. By achieving so many benevolent acts, Pip is further proving that he has become a better person. Therefore, Huck and Pip are transformed into more morally improved characters through their own