Huckleberry Finn Title Analysis

The argument can be made that the title of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is not an appropriate title for the novel because the word “adventures” does not capture how truly centered the novel is around the development of the character of Huckleberry Finn into a man. Huck’s trip down the river is a prominent example of his development into manhood because of his experiences throughout it. Additionally, for the first time in his life, Huck gets a positive male influence in his life with Jim accompanying him on this trip.

Huck’s learns a lot about himself during his trip down the river. Most importantly, Huck learns the there is a sense of responsibility to do what is morally right within him. Evidence of this comes when Huck says to Jim,

Take the part of the novel when the duke and the king pose as Peter Wilks’s long lost brothers, in hopes to gain the right to sell his slaves and land for example. The duke and the king even have the audacity to pray over Peter Wilks’s coffin as they cried fake tears and expressed fake distraught; to this, Huck responds, “I never seen anything so disgusting.” (p. 193). Huck is disgusted at how shameless the the conmen are when it comes to swindling others out of their money, yet earlier in the book he saw it as fun to pretended to be in a robber’s gang. These two different versions of Huck are a testament to how he really grows up throughout the novel; the Huck at the beginning of the piece glamorizes the life of a criminal, and the Huck later in the piece who cannot bare witnessing the actions that his own former self once

This is evident when Huck says, “But I reckon I got to light out for the territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can’t stand it. I been there before.” (p. 338). Huck is saying that he has already gone through with with someone who fells that he needs to change and he did not like it, so he is not going to put himself through that again. It is even possible that what Twain is getting at is that Huck knows that Tom’s Aunt Sally will not give him credit for how much maturity he has gained through living life on his own and will treat him like a troubled teen who needs strict supervising. So, Huck’s solution is to simply continue living the way that was actually effective in helping him become a man—venturing the world on his