ipl-logo

Morality In Mark Twain's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

1949 Words8 Pages

Throughout Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck’s struggle with moral alignment is continuously present. Huck faces the emotional implications of acting against the beliefs of the times as he aids Jim in escaping slavery. Though he offers assistance to Jim, Huck constantly battles with the idea of turning him in. Through this constant struggle Twain creates a contrast between morality – one’s own set of individual moral values, and moralism – the sets of moral values enforced by others. Raised in the Jim Crow south by the slave-owning Ms. Watson, Huck has been brought up on a very specific set of moral values. As those around him believe strongly in slavery and have racist ideals, these values have been rooted in Huck’s psyche. However, when Huck and Jim are isolated from the conservative population of the south during their travels, Huck’s own morality emerges. It is Huck’s sense of …show more content…

Twain shows how easy it is for the young mind to be controlled by moralism – yet in this case, Huck still holds on to a semblance of his morality. While the intention to help Jim is still underlying, Huck quickly throws away his implicitly safer and more sensible plan in favor of Tom’s. Twain includes this moral confusion to show that Huck is still not fully able to understand his friendship with Jim. Huck sees freeing Jim as a positive thing, yet his is unable to explicitly comprehend its positivity being “a reaction to the injustice of slavery and to his friendship. In being implicitly aware of these reasons through his emotion, Huck is implicitly aware of the rightness of his action, although (…) he does not conceive of these reasons as moral” (Goldman 4-5). Twain shows that moralism is always present in Huck’s mind, however Huck’s morality is now stronger than ever before, even if he is not aware of

Show More
Related
2304 Words | 10 Pages

When one reads The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain, themes involving morality and conscience become heavily prevalent. The protagonist, Huckleberry Finn, portrays a manifest dynamic character. His actions and statements ranging from the outset of the novel through its ending show Huck’s development of a more concise sense of morality and conscience prevailing over the societal influences of “right and wrong”. In the nineteenth century American South, the inescapable system of slavery and social hierarchy would have discouraged an interracial bond. Yet Huck, while escaping his abusive father, chooses to befriend Jim, the runaway slave whom he encounters, and shares a pivotal stage in his life with his newfound companion, whereby contradicting

Read More
783 Words | 4 Pages

Thought out a person's childhood, they experience events that transform them to become who they are later in the life. People have to deal with the decision of what right and what's wrong. At a young age, Huck chooses to run away from his home because he was raised by a father who was an alcoholic and means towards Huck. He really did not care for him. Huck knows this is wrong, but does it anyway, he decides to help a slave name Jim escape and try to help him reunite with his family again, by doing this he knows he is going to get in trouble if he gets caught.

Read More
1233 Words | 5 Pages

Huck 's morality is the only educational thing I believe is in this book, because it 's something you have to piece together and isn 't clear all the time. On page 43, Hucks early morality is a typical southern 's, “‘Well, I b 'lieve you, Huck. I—I RUN OFF.” “Jim!’”. Huck basically states he 's better than Jim in a way, Huck is shocked and mad that Jim has run off but Huck is also a run away so you can see this early racial attitude Huck has.

Read More
1475 Words | 6 Pages

Huck’s lies vary from nearly immoral to decent and kind natured throughout the story, which constructs a large portion of the spectrum that Twain has so brilliantly defined. Jim, while also being used to combat the traditional belief of the time that black people are slaves rather than human beings, is also used to create the top end of the moral spectrum. Twain’s use of the moral spectrum blurred the line between right and wrong for people of the post-war era of the 1800’s, and changed the minds of many about the morality of lying. The use of this spectrum, along with the building blocks of modern morality, rewrote the way the world thinks about ethical

Read More
1266 Words | 6 Pages

Huck decides to act on his morals rather than be held captive by society; Huck believes that he has to act in the best interest of Jim and does not consider what society believes is acceptable behavior. By stating that he will “go to hell,” Huck reiterates what he promises Jim in the beginning- that he rather be a “low down abolitionist”; these statements combined supports his feelings to protect Jim from society. When Huck and Tom get back to the house, Huck states, “...it don’t make no difference whether you do right or wrong, a person’s conscience ain’t got no

Read More
467 Words | 2 Pages

Twain uses this time to show how Huck has grown fond of Jim because Jim would “do everything he could think of for [Huck]...” (Chapter 31). Twain’s use of action and showing the reader Huck’s thoughts leading up to the action proves that he successfully conveyed Huck’s character

Read More
364 Words | 2 Pages

to demonstrate how societies standards and moral beliefs are not always accurate. Another incident Huck faces is when he believes it is right for Jim to return home and continue to be a slave. He composes a letter to Ms. Watson but begins to reflect on the friendship he developed with Jim and says, “ ‘ All right, then, I’ll go to hell’- and tore it up.” (Twain, pg.250) Huck decides to not advice Ms. Watson about her runaway slave because he realizes that Jim is a sympathetic man, who was always by his side and cares for him. He would rather go against society’s hypocritical norms on the “right” way of functioning and chooses to go by his own standards.

Read More
738 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout the rest of Huck 's journey he continues to meet people along the way that believe themselves to be good civilized people but they all contradict that in some way. The Grangerford 's are in a murdering feud with another family, the Phelps own slaves and are trying to get a reward for Jim, the townspeople that feather and tar the Duke and King without a trial, the execution of Boggs, even the Widow tells Huck not to smoke but takes snuff herself. Huck spends a large amount of time in the book pondering over how to be good and do the right things, and at the end of the book when he decides to go West and leave it all behind he has finally realized that he 's not the one that 's bad, society is. Huck heads back out into the world not for more adventure, but to get away from

Read More
795 Words | 4 Pages

Morality is defined as the principles for which people treat one another, respect for justice, and the welfare and rights of others. Moral development is gained from major experiences that can change viewpoints on life or cause people to make a difficult choice in a tough situation. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, one of Mark Twain’s major themes evident in the book is the moral development of Huck FInn, the main character. In the beginning of the book, Huck’s lack of morals and uncultured personality is a product of living with his abusive, demoralized father.

Read More
705 Words | 3 Pages

Through Huck’s fluctuating beliefs he shows how often humanity exhibits hypocrisy without even realizing it. When Miss Watson had taken Huck in she had wanted him to become more respectable, she wanted to make sure he knew what was right and

Read More
884 Words | 4 Pages

Mark Twain emphasizes the theme that a person's morals are more powerful than the corrupt influence of society in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Based on how Huck Finn views the world and forms his opinions, he does not know the difference between right and wrong. In the novel, Huck escapes civilized society. He encounters a runaway slave, Jim, and together they travel hopes of freedom. But along the way, Huck and Jim come across troubles that have Huck questioning his motives.

Read More
1438 Words | 6 Pages

The morality is shown through the actions of Huckleberry Finn. Huck makes right and wrong choices and it changes him morally because in the beginning he thought slavery was okay and slaves should be treated the way they were and through his experiences he now sees that slavery is wrong. These choices were made because his moral values were influenced by his own experiences, the family, the community/society, and the church. Mark Twain privileges Huckleberry Finn’s actions and the community/society as where he gets his moral values from. Mark Twain mocks the church by showing that Huck thinks he knows how it works but in reality

Read More
908 Words | 4 Pages

Twain includes this dilemma as part of Huck’s character because he is trying to make the point that morality isn’t always

Read More
1083 Words | 5 Pages

In the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the reader gauges morality through the misadventures of Huck and Jim. Notably, Huck morally matures as his perspective on society evolves into a spectrum of right and wrong. Though he is still a child, his growth yields the previous notions of immaturity and innocence. Likewise, Mark Twain emphasizes compelling matters and issues in society, such as religion, racism, and greed. During the span of Huck’s journey, he evolves morally and ethically through his critique of societal normalities.

Read More
1111 Words | 5 Pages

Huck moves towards being a conscientious and moral member of society as he progresses through the novel even though the odds are stacked against him; raised in a situation where he had no positive influences and faced with countless situations where acting out of self interest was the easier option, Huck became a righteous character who we should all wish to emulate. Though Huck’s father served as his main, and first, influence, he lacked a moral compass. He was against Huck attending school and often robbed other people and just called it ‘borrowing’. Huck’s dad was depicted “[laying] drunk with the hogs in yard” (8).

Read More

More about Morality In Mark Twain's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

Related Topics

Open Document