Huck Finn Final Essay In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a central theme of escape from “sivilization” arose. Throughout the novel, two main characters, Huck and Jim, both explored being uncivilized. Huck chose to reject civilization for many reasons. The main reason, however, was that he simply grew up relying on no one but himself and conforming to society just makes him feel lonely. He has no reason for being “sivilized”! In the first chapters of the novel, Huck Finn is staying with Widow Douglas because his drunken and abusive father has disappeared again. He often complains while living here because the Widow and her sister, Miss Watson enforce school, religion, and manners onto Huck. “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. I got into my old rags and my sugar-hogshead again, and was free and satisfied.” (Twain 1). This …show more content…
Both of these people were on the run and often found themselves traveling on the river to pass the time. On the river there was no civilization, there was no society, there was only them, and the current they were riding. The river played as their escape; it was their path to freedom more or less. “So in two seconds away we went a-sliding down the river, and it did seem so good to be free again and all by ourselves on the big river, and nobody to bother us.” (Twain 183). This quote shows Huck’s feelings of how the river is his escape from society, or rather his freedom train. Twain is trying to show that freedom is being in an environment where you can be you; it’s where you can be happy, and not be ridiculed for who you are. On the river, Huck isn’t being forced to use manners or be proper, nor does he have to do what his father says, or get