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Huckleberry Finn's Lessons

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Everyday provides countless interactions and events that can bring forth profound lessons. Each lesson helps define one’s person and shape his or her future decisions. In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn undergoes a series of adventures off of his raft which provide him with new identities. The crucial lessons Huck learns from his journeys cause him to mature and understand his abilities as a human. He learns from being a bystander, being reactive and stepping in to correct a wrong, and ultimately being proactive and taking immediate action. Through experiencing the results of inaction and taking action, Huck learns the power within himself to make a change. Through Huck’s encounter with the Grangerfords, Huck …show more content…

Despite Huck’s internal racism, he realizes how much he cares about Jim and concludes “all right, then, I’ll go to hell” as he chooses to save captured Jim (Twain 304). In this moment, Huck is choosing to not take the easy path as a bystander but immediately save his friend in need. He experienced guilt from the Grangerfords and the results of being reactive from the Wilks, so now he will use these lessons to be proactive in rescuing Jim. Huck pretends to be Tom Sawyer to fool the Wilks; but, being proactive, he recognizes and predicts the issues that will arise when the real Tom arrives. Demonstrating his forward thinking, he “[goes] up the road and waylay him” before the Phelps can see Tom (Twain 316). Huck is demonstrating forward thinking and planning to properly save Jim by predicting problems and taking course to prevent them from occurring. Next, Huck and Tom “study out a plan to steal Jim” that, although absurd, clearly indicates that the boys are taking matters into their own hands (Twain 327). While Tom seems to be running the show, Huck, being thoughtful, knows that he must play by Tom’s rules in order to prevent any pressing issues that would happen, such as Tom potentially revealing Huck’s plans, if he were to act on his own. In addition to helping Jim, Huck steps up to save Tom Sawyer when he is injured. Huck immediately understood the gravity of Tom’s wound and acted by “a-going for a doctor” to help him (Twain 383). Although risky and could lead to Jim’s capture, Huck could not lose another friend. Huck taking immediate action indicates substantial personal growth and maturity as he is valuing his friends more and gaining confidence within

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After finishing the book, I feel like Huckleberry Finn, while still keeping his adventurous spirit, seems to have grown much more mature and logical. Huck demonstrates this when he and Tom Sawyer are discussing how to free Jim. Tom suggests they give Jim items such as a shirt for him to write on, despite the fact that Jim can’t write, and case-knives for him to dig through the foundation, even though Huck and Tom could easily get shovels and picks for them to use. Tom suggests these ideas in order for Jim to escape in a more elaborate, but flashy, way, but Huck knows this would be the worst way to help him, since it would take much more time and put Jim in danger. He even goes as far as to tell him, “Confound it, it’s foolish, Tom.”

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Huck had multiple chances to turn Jim in or not to help him when he was in trouble, but he could never bring himself to turn his back on Jim. From the time they first saw each other on the river, Huck felt a certain loyalty toward Jim. They both agreed not to give away the other’s location, this agreement brought a loyalty between them. “ Well I did. I said I wouldn’t

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Twain foreshadows that Huck may go to other extreme measures to help Jim to freedom in the future, and indicates that the novel will take another twist in its closing. This also contributes to the sense that Huck is nearing desperation to help get Jim out of his

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2438 Words | 10 Pages

Jim then ends up in New Orleans on a farm owned by Silas Phelps. Huck, trying to be the helpful, brainstorms a plan to better Jim’s life. As Huck goes through this process, he becomes the epiphany of Confucius’s character quote; “Earnest in practicing the ordinary virtues, and careful in speaking about them, if, in his practice, he has anything defective, the superior man dares not but exert himself; and if, in his words, he has any excess, he dares not allow himself such license” (ReligFacts.com). At first Huck delineates a plan to write a letter to Jim’s former slave owner, Miss Watson, and tell her where Jim was. But he concluded that Miss Watson would probably have been angry with Jim and sell him off into slavery, so he decided not to.

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626 Words | 3 Pages

Huck details the way he and Jim “set to majestying him, and doing this and that and t’other for him” to show the king how much they respected him (Twain 94). Also, while journeying down the river with Jim, Huck’s curiosity is shown when he describes his yearning to explore the “place right about the middle of the island” (Twain 36).Huck convinces Jim to let him explore and see what resources the island had. Tom’s character is reckless,

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684 Words | 3 Pages

Huck has a moral crisis when he thinks, “Well, I can tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish, too, to hear him, because I begun to get it through my head that he WAS most free—and who was to blame for it?” and because of the effect Jim has on his and the lessons he’s taught, Huck realizes that helping him

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752 Words | 4 Pages

The incongruity displayed through Tom Sawyer and the Grangerford family creates schemes that showed their character's immaturity. Huck followed Tom’s plan to save Jim and if Huck didn’t follow through with the plan, it saved Jim from a lot of pain. Tom’s irrational thoughts concluded "[the plan] was for us to run him down the river, on the raft, and have adventures plumb to the mouth of the river, and tell him about his being free, and take him back home on a steamboat, in style, and pay him for his lost time... and then he would be a hero, and so would we". This reveals how immature and greedy Tom is and how he would risk a black man’s life you prove he is a hero.

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1266 Words | 6 Pages

After Huck finds out that Jim is captive, Huck “set down and cried. [He] couldn’t help it” (210). After returning to the raft and not finding Jim there, Huck is overcome with emotion. The fear of Jim not being around causes Huck to realize how important Jim is to him. The friendship they developed on the river and through their adventure causes Huck to be more concerned for Jim’s safety than society’s need to keep Jim captive.

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“All I can give you is dreams… But one good dream is worth a thousand flashlight batteries.” The short story Ashes by Beth Pfeffer is about a girl named Ashleigh who is a normal girl but Ashleigh’s parents are divorced and she is given the decision to pick which parent is better. Her mom has $200 in a pot at her apartment and her dad needs $200 to pay someone he owes money to. If he got the money from Ashleigh’s mom he would be able to get out of the bad situation of not having a lot of money.

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821 Words | 4 Pages

Huckleberry Finn is a story about a rambunctious young boy who adventures off down the Mississippi River. “The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain demonstrates a situation where a Huck tries to find the balance between what is right and what is wrong. Huck faces many challenges in which his maturity will play a part in making the correct decision for himself and his friend Jim. Huck becomes more mature by the end of the novel by showing that he can make the correct decisions to lead Jim to the freedom he deserves. One major factor where Huck matures throughout the novel is through his experience.

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884 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout their journey, Huck is aware that Jim has escaped but does not know whether or not to turn him into the authorities. Huck’s mentality about society matures and he realizes his need to protect Jim from dangers. As the novel progresses, Huck begins to realize the flaws in society. Huck ultimately chooses to follow his own

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1141 Words | 5 Pages

Although there are numerous instances where Huck’s moral growth can be seen, the individuals around such as Jim, will influence his moral growth greatly. Jim, a runaway slave, is the most influential individual when it comes to Huck’s moral development. During the beginning of the novel, Huck’s morals are primarily based on what he has learned from Miss Watson. Huck begins to become wary of such ideals that Miss Watson has imposed on him, and decided all he wanted “…was a change” (Twain 10).

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1202 Words | 5 Pages

Huck thinks about Miss Watson and how he is betraying her by helping Jim escape. Huck encounters slave catchers and he is internally whether to tell about Jim but decides not to and says, “They went and I got aboard the raft, feeling bad and low, because I knowed very well I had done wrong, and I see it warn’t no use for me to try to learn to do right; a body that don’t get started right when he’s little ain’t got no show -- when the pinch comes there ain’t nothing to back him up and keep him to his work, and so he gets beat” (Twain 102). Then later in the novel Jim is sold by some con men for $40 which upsets Huck and causes him to realize he cares about Jim and says, “All right, then I’ll GO to hell” (Twain 225). Huck is defying society’s laws by deciding to help captured Jim. Huck is maturing significantly because his perception of Jim has changed.

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1086 Words | 5 Pages

While the legal drinking age is 21, that does not stop underage drinking in the United States. On July 17, 1984, President Reagan signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. This was a law that required states to raise the drinking age to 21 or face a 10 percent cut to their federal highway funding. All of the states fulfilled the requirement and accepted the higher drinking age(Tietjen). One of the biggest that contributes to underage drinking is mainly because it is “off limits.”

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1083 Words | 5 Pages

Naturally, as his bond with Jim cultivates, Huck unknowingly treats him as a human. Through Huck’s sensibility, he states, “It didn’t take me long to make up my mind that these liars warn’t no kings nor dukes at all … I hadn’t no objections, ‘long as it would keep peace in the family; and it warn’t no use to tell Jim, so I didn’t tell him” (Twain 125). Correspondingly, Huck gains a consideration for Jim and his personal feelings, which he expresses nonchalantly through motley aspects of their journey.

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