Huckleberry Finn Moral Development

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain tells a story of a young boy and his adventures he encounters with a slave Jim. Throughout the book race is put into play due to the racism in the towns and characters that Huck the protagonist encounters. The main character Huck experiences his growth in moral development throughout the story due to him becoming closer to the runaway slave Jim. By the end of the story the last couple chapters begin to let down the audience due to the author swaying away from actual development of the story and its relationship to treatment of race. With Mark twain adding multiple occasions of humor in the last chapters of the book we see the characters and their moral development go right back to their original

In the final chapters we see Jim being held captive in the Phelps Farm and Tom Sawyer and Huck are finding a solution and need to help Jim escape. Tom being a racist and immature child that has no feelings towards the helping of Jim; shows the dip in moral development almost drastically. In chapter 35 we see the two boys making a plan to help Jim escape. With elaborate ideas like, diggi him out, ringing animals into his cell, and making him follow a direct list due to having books and criminals do the same Tom says “There ain't necessity enough in this case; and besides, Jims and nigger, he wouldn't understand the reasons for it.” (page 234). We see that Tom has no feelings at all toward the wellbeing of Jim. This is a let down in the last chapters. Mark Twain's build up the moral development of the characters and the treatment of race but instantly ends all development of the book and creates humor and racist remarks instead. When Jim is put into this situation we see him falling back into his original state of being held under control of white people. He realizes that the two white boys, Huck and Tom are the ones that in control of his life at the

The people going against this ideal feel the book has an overall message that needs to be heard by the world. With treatment of Race being a big deal in society today and in history it is important for us to understand and read a novel that tells us a story but has a true meaning behind it. In Mark Twain, Updated Edition, Bloom's Modern Critical Views, Eliot explains how Mark Twain's humor in harsh situations actually gives us a feeling of discomfort so we can really feel the dark message he is trying to explain. He says “Hence he became the humorist and even clown: with his gifts, a certain way to success, for everyone could enjoy his writings without the slightest feeling of discomfort, self-consciousness or self criticism “(Eliot). We see this with the involvement in Jim in the novel for example huck says “ It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger” (page 49) With harsh use of racial slurs we can feel discomfort. But with that discomfort comes deep thinking. We can see the feelings people have had back then and now without the harsh use of racial slurs and uncomfortable events we see a true meaning and lesson from the book. With that comes the delivery of the language. Due to it being based in earlier years we can assume their language would be