Moral Transformation In Huck Finn

As Richard Rohr once stated, “Transformation is often more about unlearning then learning.” Today people learn from the world around them especially in their society. Society is a place where people live and breathe the same values and this was particularly true during pre-Civil War. During these time societies made their own rules of what it meant to be white and what it meant to be black and these rules stuck with everyone, but novelist, Mark Twain, wanted to change that. Since Mark Twain feels society needs a reforming, in his novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, he uses an innocent point of view to prove the need for a moral transformation in civilization. Upon closer examination into Huck’s moral transformation, certain aspects of his life have lead him to new outlooks on life and society. These ideas created tension between a new found friendship with Jim and still following the commands of Southern ethics which Huck still holds on to. Even though these perspectives were instilled on him at birth, Huck makes an exception for Jim due to the value Huck has for him as a human but also as friend. Despite Huck’s inability to reject

An example of this is shown after Huck comes upon the duke and the king. Huck feels that they are only “low-down frauds”, but yet he does not disclose this information in order to “it would keep peace in the family”(Twain 84). Huck also learns that after years of having to sustain to Pap’s abusive and drunken ways, he learned “the best way to get along with this kind of people is to let them have their own way.” (Twain 84). As Laurel Bollinger said in her essay, “Huck’s silence reveals an alternate moral code that has, in fact, driven him through the novel, a code based on maintenance of relationships, not on an abstract hierarchy of values” (Bollinger 33). This shows another key moment of Huck’s moral