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Huckleberry Finn Moral Development Essay

1133 Words5 Pages

Mark Twain’s piece on Huckleberry Finn is a masterpiece of irony painted on the backdrop of the dark days of slavery. The setting is in a time when America is easing out of the active practice of slavery, in St. Petersburg Missouri. Living On the banks of a river in Missouri and having a mischievous friend Tom, Huckleberry a boy in his thirteens, is presented with numerous opportunities for involvement in scandals. From a troubled childhood an affinity for trouble and guts for adventure Huck is put in a moral dilemma more than once as he tries to help an escapee slave to escape to the Free states. After failing spectacularly they land in a series of adventures that return Jim to slavery; sorry for this Huck and tom attempt to rescue him and fail miserably. Hucks aunt comes to rescue them and offers to adopt Huck but he has other plans. In this essay I will examine the moral development exhibited by Huck's character along the lines of race and identity. In the book Hucks reasoning on morality differs from the conventional definition of the southern lands. Huck is initially not very open about his …show more content…

They are suddenly confronted by the fact that their attitude towards stealing is all wrong. Huck is in a particularly tight spot in the wage of these events since in his time slaves are their masters’ property. He is thrown into turmoil, considering if he should go against his promise to Jim. They get separated, Jim misses hi route to freedom and when they re-unite, Jim rebukes Hucks intention in a well crafted speech (105). He refers to Huck as “…white trash.” As Huck deliberates on these words he realizes his moral stand is against racism and apologizes to his friend. “I done it and warn’t sorry for it afterwards, neither. I didn’t do him no more mean tricks and I wouldn’t done that if I’d a known it would make him feel that

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