Adventures of Huck in Mark Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn :: Adventures Huckleberry Huck Finn Essays

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is based on a young boy's coming of age in Missouri of the mid-1800s. This story depicts many serious issues that occur on the "dry land of civilization" better known as society. As these somber events following the Civil War are told through the young eyes of Huckleberry Finn, he unknowingly develops morally from both the conforming and non-conforming influences surrounding him on his journey to freedom. Huck's moral evolution begins before he ever sets foot on the raft down the Mississippi. His mother has died, and his father is constantly in a drunken state. Huck grows up following his own rules until he moves in with the Widow Douglas and her sister, Miss Watson. Together, the women attempt to civilize Huck by making him attend school, study religion, and act in a way the women find socially acceptable. However, Huck's free-spirited soul keeps him from joining the constraining and lonely life the two women have in store for him. The freedom Huck seeks in Tom Sawyer's gang is nothing more than romantic child's-play. Raiding a caravan of Arabs really means terrorizing young children on a Sunday school picnic, and the stolen "joolry" is nothing more than turnips or rocks. Huck is disappointed that the adventures Tom promises are not real and so, along with the other members, he resigns from the gang. Still, he ignorantly assumes that Tom is superior to him because of his more suitable family background and fascination with Romantic literature (Twain). Pap and "the kidnapping" play another big role in Huck's moral development. Pap is completely antisocial and wishes to undo all of the civilizing effects that the Widow and Miss Watson have attempted to instill in him. However, Pap does not symbolize freedom; he promotes drunkenness, prejudice, and abuse. Huck escapes the cabin to search for the freedom he yearns for. It is after he escapes to Jackson Island that he meets the most i nfluential character of the novel, Jim. After conversing, Huck learns things about the runaway slave that he had never been aware of. Jim has a family, dreams, and talents such as knowing "all kinds of signs about the future," people's personalities, and weather forecasting (Twain 69).