Throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, we can acknowledge that a significant theme within the book is the desire for freedom. This can be seen through Jim’s desire to be free from slavery and his wish to one day be reunited with his wife and children, and also Huck Finn’s desire to be independent and have the ability to choose the life he wants for himself. For instance, at the beginning of the book, Huck is trying to escape civilization and his abusive father, Pap, and Jim wants to escape his owner, Miss Watson. To tie these together, the raft that both Huck and Jim set out on, symbolizes freedom for both of them. The significance of this is that Mark Twain is using the two characters to show and compare their different outlooks …show more content…
At the beginning of the book, Huck is living with the Widow Douglass and her sister, Miss Watson. These two women are determined to civilize Huck. They expect him to obey the standards of the upper class, attend school, and go to church to become a Christian. However, Huck does not like the idea of civilization and would rather continue to live his way because it’s more comfortable for him. His father is very against education. In chapter 5 when Pap comes back, he finds out Huck is going to school and he gets very angry. He says to Huck “You’re educated, too, they say–can read and write. You think you’re better’n your father, now, don’t you, because he can’t? I’ll take it out of you.” After this Pap goes on about how his mother and the rest of his family couldn’t read or write either, so Huck shouldn’t be able to. Pap was an alcoholic and a very abusive father. In chapter 6, Huck says “Once he locked me in and was gone for three days. It was dreadful lonesome...I was scared. I made up my mind I would fix up some way to leave there.” This is very significant because it leads to a huge turning point when Huck finally decides he wants to escape. He did not want to go back to the Widow Douglas and be forced to be civilized, but he did not want to stay with Pap