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Why Is Huck Finn An Outcast

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In the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, it is recognized as an early American story because it represents all the aspects of the three themes. Individualism, which is shown by Huck's mentality towards several situations, shows independence and how the protagonist stands out as an outcast. Huck's community, represented as his friends and several others he meets along on his adventure, are those that the protagonist chooses to associate and be around with. Discovery/Exploration is shown by Huck's adventures throughout the entire story is when the protagonist goes on any type of adventure and encounter new places and people. Huckleberry Finn exemplifies the three early American literature themes because he stood up for what he believed in, his rational way of thinking gets him out of certain situations, develops a new way of thinking about people, and his community's influential actions. All throughout his life, Huckleberry Finn was considered to be an outcast because he always had a different view on situations. He was never one to …show more content…

While on the canoe, Huck decides to play a little trick on Jim and eventually hurt Jim's feelings. Huck felt bad and said, "It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I warn't ever sorry for it afterwards, neither. I didn't do him no more mean tricks, and I wouldn't done that one if I'd a knowed it would make him feel that way." (Twain.49) His apology towards a slave/black person signifies that he respects him and discovers that Jim/slaves are people too. Moreover, Huck finds out that people are mean and cruel. After Jim and Huck escape the duke and dauphin, Huck sees them getting tarred and feathered and says, "Human beings can be awful cruel to one another."(Twain.4) He knows that even though they are con artists, they don't deserve this type of

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Huck has always seen Jim as a slave until they crossed paths while going down the river. The two develop a friendship and Huck starts to care about Jim and his well being. Although Huck views Jim as someone he cares about, he still sees him as a slave as well. “ I would do the right thing and the clean thing, and go and write that nigger’s owner and tell where he was,” ( Document E). Huck is in a continuous battle with his inner self when it comes to his views on Jim.

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Angezah Fernandes Mr. Mattas Ap Language 30 Nov. 2015 Conformity As humans, our lives are revolved around the line that separates conformity and individuality. Conformity is a type of social influence that includes a change of belief or behavior to fit into a group. Many people can cross the line too far back or too far forward, thus being too much of a conformist or too much of an individual.

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979 Words | 4 Pages

Here, Huck clings to his own understanding of what is right, instead of accepting what others believe to be true. This is especially evident when he realizes, “But somehow I couldn’t seem to strike no places to harden me against him…” (Twain 215). Despite what he has been taught, Huck knows that Jim is a good person, and is just as human as a white person.

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1102 Words | 5 Pages

Mark Twain juxtaposes opposites in many ways and one of theses ways is through his belief on society. In the middle of the book Huck begins to second guess himself about if helping Jim is really a good idea or is it really a sin. Huck begins to explain,

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465 Words | 2 Pages

Mark Twain writes, "... he was so grateful, and said I was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the only one he's got now..." (Twain 204-205). This quote shows that Huck is realizing that slaves and white folks aren't much different.

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208 Words | 1 Pages

Huckleberry Finn was an outcast in the town of St. Petersburg that was the son of the town drunkard. He was hated by all the mothers with a passion. They hated him because he was wild, bad, and uncivilized. Huck did not have to answer to anyone and was free to do anything he choose to do. Another reason for despising him would be because all of their children wanted to be like him.

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821 Words | 4 Pages

I would like to thank you for taking the time to read my ideas regarding Huck Finn. Before reading this book, I thought it would be boring. I was surprised to find that I not only enjoyed the book, but also learned more about what was going on during this time period. I strongly urge you to continue allowing high school students to read and analyze this book during the sophomore year to align with the textbooks and

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1266 Words | 6 Pages

After lying to Jim and getting caught, Huck thinks on his actions. “It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I warn’t ever sorry for it afterwards, neither” (86). Huck knows that his actions are wrong but struggles to apologize to Jim because he is conditioned to believe that Jim has no real value. Huck tries to break free from the influence of society and in doing so, he realizes that his actions are not morally acceptable. With no interference from society, Huck is therefore able to humble himself to Jim and treat him in a way that opposes society’s expectations.

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440 Words | 2 Pages

Twain does his best to deal with the conflict between society and the individual. Huck does not want to abide by society’s laws and does not want to conform in Mark Twain’s, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Huck is forced to be civilized in the beginning, so he leaves society for freedom and lives by his own rules but even that does not make Huck’s life easy. Huck has trouble obeying society’s rules from the start of the book. The Widow Douglas takes Huck in to try to sivilize him says Huck in the quote, “The Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me”(Twain 2).

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1089 Words | 5 Pages

In this quote, Huck speaks of how he apologizes to Jim. It took him a while to do it, because he has been taught that black men were not worthy of an apology from a white man, but Huck comes to realize that this is not true. He continues to say he was not sorry for apologizing because he knows it was the right thing to do. This is a very good case of black and white men communication. In most instances, a white man (or child, for that matter) would never humble themselves to a black

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1071 Words | 5 Pages

Finn, we are given the quote, “It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I warn't ever sorry for it afterwards, neither. I didn't do him no more mean tricks, and I wouldn't done that one if I'd a knowed it would make him feel that way.” Throughout the book we see Huckleberry unlearning the ways of racism and slavery as he spends more time with Jim, but he obviously had trouble apologizing to him. He felt as if Jim wasn’t worthy of an apology even though it was Huck who had done something wrong, because Jim was a slave, therefore less of a person than him. After a while he realized he needed to apologize to Jim because it was the right thing to do, but we can clearly see the last of socially ingrained racism clinging to him.

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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

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1675 Words | 7 Pages

Among many individuals, acceptance is one of the most desired things. They crave the feeling of belonging and can take serious measures in order to achieve this. Changing hair color or clothing style are just two of the ways people succumb to conformity. Mark Twain, the author of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, covers conformity through Huck’s adventures and struggles while traveling the Mississippi. Author of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass addresses conformity using his experiences and misunderstandings society has about slavery.

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705 Words | 3 Pages

Hypocricy and Blind Faith Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn took place in the eighteen hundreds when religion and reputation were dominant in peoples everyday lives. It was very rare for someone to believe something different than everyone else. In Twain 's novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Tom Sawyer and Huck appear to be very different, but their actions, descriptions, and dialogue bring them together to symbolize society in order to show the blind conformity and hypocrisy that humans often display.

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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.

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