Huck Finn

A detailed Summary of Huck Finn

Throughout the great American novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, there is a great controversy about "natural goodness" and the definition society provides for us. Many feel that Huck helping Jim escape is the "right" thing to do. Yet, at this time, what he did was very wrong and unaccepted. Although society tells him he is wrong, Huck's natural goodness wins the battle against "conscience" every time.

Jocelyn Chadwick-Joshua stated "that Huckleberry Finn has a great transformation into self-esteem" (Chadwick-Joshua 62). "Twain's work was significant in that it brought the ideas of African Americans to a wide audience they could not hope to reach" (62). "As Huck could not, neither can we jump arbitrarily from his discovery of Jim as a regular, visible human being in the novel's first section to his truly profound assertion at the conclusion of the midsection when he decides to continue to protect Jim. 'All right, then, I'll go to hell' (Twain 272). How does Huck come to consciously yield up his soul for his changed belief? To grow with Huck, we must understand his affection and his nineteenth-century sense of loyalty and moral rightness and, more importantly, his unwavering, consistent, indomitable

Norris W. Yates writes, "Huck's struggle with his decision 'to go to hell' rather than to assist in returning Jim to servitude. The manner in which Huck's inner conflict dramatizes the specifically religious elements in that society has been little more than mentioned"(quoted in Bloom 44). Many scholars have said that Huck is in a moral crisis because he may be a sinner struggling for conversion. "Conscience says to me, 'What had poor Miss Watson dome to you that you could see her nigger go off right under your eyes and never say one single word?"(Twain 80). At times Huck did doubt his actions. He thought about how kindly Miss Watson had always treated him and about how hurtful his actions could be. Huck wondered what had caused him to try and help Jim and what caused him to keep this a secret. He thought many times about letting people know about Jim but every time, his conscience ended up winning the battle inside of him.

"Huck's humble apology is striking evidence of growth in moral insight. It leads naturally to the next chapter in which Mark Twain causes Huck to face up for the first time to the fact that he is helping a slave to escape"(Devoto 77). When Huck apologized to Jim about the joke, it shows that he is beginning to have respect for Jim as a person, despite the color of his skin. This is a major part of the novel because it shows Huck's point of view changing. Before he began his journey down the river, Huck was just like the rest of his town. A black person is a slave and nothing more, nothing less, just a slave. Once Huck began his journey with Jim, he began to change his train of thought. Huck began to see Jim as an equal individual. Therefore, this is an important part of the novel.

In conclusion, Tw

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Approximate Word count = 1172
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English