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Huck arrives at the Phelps house he becomes to feel lonesome, because the droning of bugs and quivering of leaves make it feel “like everybody’s dead and gone.” He says that, generally, such a feeling makes a person wish he were dead too., as he approaches the house, dogs swarm around Huck, but soon a slave comes out and yells at the dogs to scram. The slave is followed by two black children, a white woman, Aunt Sally, and two white children. The white woman welcomes Huck, thinking that he is her nephew Huck. Aunt Sally then calls Huck into the house and asks questions about his journey, and because of this Huck is forced to lie, but when Aunt Sally starts to ask about his family Huck finds himself stuck.
Throughout the novel, Huck symbolizes the eternal struggle between pre-established communal expectations and moral consciences. Jim: A runaway slave with a mission to avoid eternal separation from his family,
Huck’s character is one of kindness, naivete, and curiosity. Huck exemplifies being kind by knowing wrong and right. Huck sees the Duke and the King conning innocent townspeople and cannot stand to see the townspeople be hurt, so he tells Mary Jane, a young girl, that the town is being conned (Twain 132). Huck displays his naivete when he accepts the two men he meets as a duke and a king without questioning their story.
Along with meeting so-called “civilized” society, Huck’s experience with the King and the Duke causes Huck to go against society’s narrow-minded beliefs. In an effort for the King and the Duke to get some cash, they sold Nigger Jim to Silas Phelps’ farm. After Jim was sold for forty dollars, Huck determines what happened to him. Nonetheless, while saving Jim, Huckleberry begins to meet conflicts about society, freedom, and religion. He starts to contemplate his motives and figure out whether saving Jim is the correct thing to do.
At the end of his adventure, Huck Finn is a hero when he saves Jim from slavery. The book does not have an entirely happy ending. Huck Finn does save Jim from slavery, but Jim’s family is still enslaved. However, Huck is celebrated as a hero for defending his friend even though Jim’s ethnicity is different than Huck’s. Jim is incredibly thankful for Huck doing this and thanks Huck with all of his energy.
In Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn the reader can see that the protagonist Huck Finn go through the hero’s journey, you can also see through this journey Huck Finn’s character build and changes throughout his adventures. In the beginning of the book Huckleberry Finn is in the town of St. Petersburg on the banks of the Mississippi River. Huck lives with the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson who both take care of him and try to “sivilize” him. His father is the town drunk, and is not a reliable father, he only wants Huck because of the large amount of money he previously found with Tom Sawyer.
When they first discover the fake background of the duke, Huck and Jim “...bow, when [they speak] to him, and say ‘Your Grace’…one of [them] ought to wait on him at dinner… [they] done it.” Similarly, with the king, Jim and Huck “... [get] down on one knee to speak to him, and always [call] him ‘Your Majesty,’ and [wait] on him first at meals… Jim and [him]... doing this and that and t’other for him…” Upon first meeting the duke and king, and hearing their backstories, Huck believes and acts respectfully toward both men.
The value of morality in the traditional sense is challenged directly by including lies and tall tales in contrast with the current situation of the characters. The immorality of lying is still defined, but the blatant division between right and wrong is challenged and rewritten by Twain. The use of the Duke and King, along with Miss Watson and the widow, was to create the lower end of the spectrum that closely related to traditional views. This brought about the first instances that Twain was building a spectrum of morality. Huck, who represents the escape from tradition and what is considered in society to be decency, is used to create the middle of the spectrum.
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck Finn goes threw the hero’s journey which is the epic structure where they receive the transformation, atonement, and separation. Firstly, Huck undergoes the Separation step of his journey by faking his death. Prior to the planning of his own death, Huck had nothing to lose, pushing him over the edge. This is demonstrated when he thinks to himself about Providence. He thought “All I wanted was to go somewheres; all I wanted was a change, I warn’t particular” (Twain 2).
Jim wants Huck to keep running, but Huck’s having a good time with his new friends and refuses to go, until he sees Jim getting whipped by the overseer. Huck tells him he’s sorry and that he wants to help him, just before the family is attacked by the Shepardson’s. Huck’s newfound friends are killed in battle over their daughter running off with a Shepardson boy. So Huck escapes with Jim during the confusion. They meet some swindlers who want to turn Jim in for ransome.
Through his adventure, Huck is able to shed his previous life and is able to be whomever he wants while he is on his adventure. At points during his journey it is crucial for Huck to pretend to be other people at times. For instance, there is a scene where Tom pretends to be a girl in order for no to recognize him as Huck Finn. Ultimately, this disguise does not work with the person he is trying to fool, but later in the book he often changes his identity to ensure his safety. When the king and the duke attempt to steal a fortune from the girls who recently lost their father, Huck pretended to be a British boy.
Everybody has someone in his or her life who teaches him or her how to be a better person. Throughout the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain uses Jim, a slave, as a source of symbolism for Huck’s maturity. First, Jim teaches Huck about what it truly means to be civilized. Next, Jim shows Huck about the value of family. Lastly, Jim teaches Huck about racial inequality and how to accept people.
Throughout the rest of Huck 's journey he continues to meet people along the way that believe themselves to be good civilized people but they all contradict that in some way. The Grangerford 's are in a murdering feud with another family, the Phelps own slaves and are trying to get a reward for Jim, the townspeople that feather and tar the Duke and King without a trial, the execution of Boggs, even the Widow tells Huck not to smoke but takes snuff herself. Huck spends a large amount of time in the book pondering over how to be good and do the right things, and at the end of the book when he decides to go West and leave it all behind he has finally realized that he 's not the one that 's bad, society is. Huck heads back out into the world not for more adventure, but to get away from
Although there are numerous instances where Huck’s moral growth can be seen, the individuals around such as Jim, will influence his moral growth greatly. Jim, a runaway slave, is the most influential individual when it comes to Huck’s moral development. During the beginning of the novel, Huck’s morals are primarily based on what he has learned from Miss Watson. Huck begins to become wary of such ideals that Miss Watson has imposed on him, and decided all he wanted “…was a change” (Twain 10).
Naturally, as his bond with Jim cultivates, Huck unknowingly treats him as a human. Through Huck’s sensibility, he states, “It didn’t take me long to make up my mind that these liars warn’t no kings nor dukes at all … I hadn’t no objections, ‘long as it would keep peace in the family; and it warn’t no use to tell Jim, so I didn’t tell him” (Twain 125). Correspondingly, Huck gains a consideration for Jim and his personal feelings, which he expresses nonchalantly through motley aspects of their journey.
