Huckleberry Finn Vs Society

Theodore Roosevelt once said, “ To educate a man in mind and not morals is to educate a menace to society.” Through The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain depicts the oppression of the lower socioeconomic class and blacks in society during the post-civil war era. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is about a young uncivilized wayward boy and his desire to escape from society. Huck is not well-educated or behaved which is evident in his dialect and grammar as well as his flippant attitude toward rules and cultured society. Although Huck is uncultured, he still has a good heart and good morals which is evident as the story evolves and Huck struggles with his own beliefs and sense of morality. In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry

Pap is a drunk and is considered the lowest white class in society. He is very resentful to Huck and belittles him for learning to read and being cleaned up. Pap’s attitude and behavior displays another negative component of society and the differences in the social classes. Huck loves his freedom and not having to conform to society and what is considered proper, but he is continually abused by his father and he knows he has to leave. He fakes his death in order to be free of his father and leaves one night when his father goes off to get drunk. Huck hides out on an island nearby. He discovers he isn’t alone but that Miss Watson’s slave Jim is also there. They become companions and Jim reveals that he is hiding because she was going to sell him. Huck battles his own conscience of being with Jim. He feels he should turn him in yet he likes the company. The book continues to show Huck’s struggle with society and their restrictions on certain classes and the more serious issue of race and slavery. Jim is treated and looked at by society as lower class society than Huck. His dialect and manner of talking is hard to understand and reiterates societies view of blacks as being uneducated along with the low white class. Huck makes the comment, "people would call me a low-down Abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum" (Twain 45). This comment emphasizes societies view of slavery in that part of the country as well as his standing in society. When the town learns Huck is dead, they of course think it is his father, but when they realize Jim ran away, they automatically assume it is him. This assumption is another demonstration of his social standing in society and an example of how he is treated. As low as Pap is considered in society, because of Jim’s skin color, he is considered a lower person on the social ladder. Huck learns of the reward on Jim’s head and immediately goes to warn him and is