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What Does The River Symbolize In Huckleberry Finn

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In the book huckleberry finn the author uses lots of symbolism to create certain concepts to help the reader understand the importance of there journey. A large majority story takes place on the Mississippi river which symbolizes freedom. Another symbol used is the Widow Douglas, she represents a more civilized lifestyle which huck does not want to live. The Mississippi river turns into the home for Huck and Jim. The river symbolizes freedom in different ways. For Jim it is freedom from slavery, he wants to find and live in a free state. While for Huck he just wants to escape his abusive father and civilized land. “This second night we run between seven and eight hours, with a current that was making over four mile an hour. We catched fish …show more content…

She was a symbol because she wanted huck to be everything he did not want to be. Huck wanted to be a free kid able to do what he likes and explore nature, not having to follow any rules or be dressed up all fancy. Douglas wanted Huck to be a civilized kid, she wanted to take him from his dad and train him to be a “proper” man. “The Widow Douglas, she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn’t stand it no longer, I lit out.”(1) This was Hucks point of view on her. He did not like the way she was treating him or the rules she was putting in place. “Pretty soon I wanted to smoke, and asked the widow to let me. But she wouldn’t. She said it was a mean practice and wasn’t clean, and I must try to not do it anymore.”(2) This is another reason Huck did not want to stay with her, she wanted him to stop old habits and become a new man. Her symbolizing civilization shows what Huck does not want and runs away from, tying back into the river being his way of freedom from the life that was being forced upon …show more content…

Although they work together they both have different reasons for what they are doing. They realize that to achieve what they want it's best to work together. Jim wanting to escape from slavery and get to a free state was his goal, while Huck just wanted to be out in nature and enjoy his life. They are having the same adventure but they both feel a great difference while doing it. Jim being a runaway slave puts much more stress and anxiety on him because at any moment someone could turn him in especially for the great reward he has on his

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This river is the main setting because it was important for Jim and Huck and it was their escape to the world the left behind and to the new lives ahead. The river represents freedom for Huck and Jim and it also symbolizes time. Twain’s attitude against racism and slavery is that he is against it. The read could infer this when there were scenes that showed Huck feeling bad for Jim when Jim was in trouble.

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Once he runs away from his father, Huck lives on a river with Jim. The river symbolizes freedom, and it becomes symbolic of Huck's journey to discover his natural virtue. In Mark Twain's novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the author develops Huck's conscience and morality through the characters

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The old widow is happy that Huck is conforming to society and this transition portrays that Huck is transforming into the way the people on the land act. When Huck's dad kidnaps him, Huck realizes the ways he is changing, "I didn't want to go back to the widow's any more and be so cramped up and sivilized, as they call it" (39). He knows that the "sivilized" life is not for him, and runs off to the river. Huck acting "sivilized" would cause him to think like everyone around him, and that is not what he wants. Like Huck, Edna did not know who she was before she found water.

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The shores of the Mississippi River provides a good amount of backdrop for the story. Huck is running away because he doesn’t want to be civilized, while running away, Huck meets up with a man named Jim. “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is set along the Mississippi River along Missouri, Illinois, and Arkansas in the 1830-1840s, back in this time period slavery was legal. This setting relates to the story directly because slavery was legal in the south, and this was just a way of life back in this time period. Jim was a runaway slave who was worth $800, and Huck was

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