Huck Finn Key Themes

Mark Twain displays several key themes in his famous American classic, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The themes show the lifestyle and mindset of the region at the time. Many consider this novel Twain’s greatest work as it captures countless memories throughout Huck Finn’s life. Throughout the novel, the reader follows Huck’s unique outdoor experiences as he leaves home to live a life on the river. Mark Twain demonstrates three particular themes that express how people lived at the time the story was written, but all of which have improved significantly through the years: abuse, escape, and racism. Twain’s first theme of abuse is what causes Huck Finn to leave home. Huck lives in a household with an abusive alcoholic father who causes

Huck and Jim escape civilization to go live in a new world called the Natural life. Huck is the type of kid that is sly and not well mannered at all. He basically acts like a mischievous kid during the story. Huck Finn is “the natural boy, resistant to civilization and hungry for adventure, morally right and often legally wrong” (5). As said, “An adolescent America might recognize its mythical self-image in a book for boys, telling the story of a boy’s escape from ‘sivilization’” (3). This quote gives the perfect explanation as to why Huck runs away from civilization into the new world called Natural life. After entering into this new world, “The story changes direction after Huck flees from pap and joins with the runaway slave Jim” (6). Through Huck’s escape, he is able to live an adventurous lifestyle with his friend. Both Huck and Jim “learn ‘to value the hardships of an unsheltered life over the privileges’” of civilization (3). Huck and Jim enjoy “trying to evade the clamp of civilization” (3). They no longer need to worry about good manners or doing the right thing. The two runaways “seek total freedom and enjoy the liberty they have along the way” (5). Huck leaves a life of civilization “seared by the ranting of Pap and … resorts to a fantasy of escape” (6). His fantasy is fun; however, he always manages to get into trouble. In today’s world, teenagers have much more responsibility and cannot escape

Whites did not get along very well with blacks as we can tell clearly throughout the story. Slaves are given the highest level of beatings, and slaves of African-American descent are given work that is worse than what the whites are told to do. As noted, “Twain makes use of both southern and northern arguments against Slavery, the southern that it degrades the slave owners and the northern that slavery is cruel, indefensible, and abomination” (1). Twain expresses that “there is, it seems to me, a problem in the effort of some blacks to banish “nigger” from the English language” (4). Although a theme of racism is seen throughout the novel, Twain himself is not a racist person. In fact, “Twain’s letters and notebooks show a continuous commitment to the well-being of blacks” (4). He feels when certain words are used, “it is not their denotative content that is communicated but rather an attitude toward the hearer or the reader” (4). He says, “I understand the bid for respect and the role of ethnic pride in this effort to control what whites call blacks” (4). Twain’s Huckleberry Finn “reflects the impact of these events on black-white relation in the region” (7). He writes his story “the way various Southern people talked, in dialects that both added realism and exposed prejudices” (7). Like Twain, Huck Finn is not racist, and his time alone with Jim “has allowed the white boy to see beyond the black