Huck Finn Voice Analysis

The voice in Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is unique because it is from the perspective of a 13-14 year old, white trash boy. Huck lives in St. Petersburg, Missouri before faking his death and going on an adventure down the Mississippi with a runaway slave named Jim. During their trip, Huck interacts with many different people, never revealing his true identities. Huck is able to grow as he faces different mental challenges and different people. Huck shows he is a nobler person when not exposed to the hypocrisy of civilization by helping Jim despite the consequences, telling Mary Jane about her uncles’ real identities, and by not turning Jim in to the slave hunters. Living in Missouri in the 1840s, Huck knew the

Huck is not too upset with the King and Duke’s scams until they target the Wilks family. Jim Wilks died leaving an inheritance to his three orphaned daughters, and his two brothers. When the King and Duke learn that Wilks brothers have not arrived, they plan their next scheme. Their plan to steal the inheritance from the girls does not sit well with Huck, so he tells one of the daughters, Mary Jane, the truth about her “uncles”. Huck has told many lies in his life, and ponders telling Mary Jane the truth: “I says to myself, I reckon abody that ups and tells the truth when he is in a tight place is taking considerable many resks … and yet here’s a case where I’m blest if it don’t look to me like the truth is better and actuly safer than a lie.” (Twain 167). Huck’s habit of lying was disregarded by his conscience and he chooses to do the right thing by telling Mary Jane the

Huck has a crisis of conscience after hearing Jim talk about stealing his children back. Jim sees it as reuniting his family, but Huck sees it as stealing another man’s property. Aiding in Jim’s freedom would make him an accomplice to this crime, and Huck does not want to steal from a man who has done nothing wrong to him. He decides to paddle ashore and tell someone that Jim is a runaway slave. However, when Huck comes in contact with two slave hunters who ask if there’s a runaway slave on the raft, Huck does not give Jim up. “I knowed very well I had done wrong … s’pose you’d ‘a’ done right and give Jim up, would you felt better than what you do now? No, says I, I’d feel bad-I’d feel just the same way I do now.” (Twain 83). Although Huck still does not realize Jim’s worth as a person, he has grown enough to do the noble thing and not turn his friend over.
Huck grows as a nobler person when he’s not exposed to civilization by helping Jim, telling Mary Jane the truth, and by not turning Jim over to the slave hunters. Throughout the novel, Huck is faced with a lot of decisions that shape him as a person. Huck is beginning to learn morals better than the Widow could have ever taught him. He shows that he is better off not in the confinements of St. Petersburg, but rather out learning through