Huck Finn

A detailed Summary of Huck Finn

Struggle Between Heart and Conscience

When Robert Frost writes of "two roads diverged in a wood, and I-/ I took the one less traveled by/And that has made all the difference" ("The Road Not Taken"), he demonstrates the realization of both writers and the hoi-polloi that following the accepted path of society not always directs an individual in the proper direction. While few people would disagree with the principle, most do not concede to the action. Since such moral conflicts continuously plague the lives of common people, writers commonly portray such simple problems in their novels. But just as not all moral decisions allow for an obvious solution, not all writers choose to portray such one-dimensional conflicts. Often a person's intuition conflicts with pervading conventions in solving an obscure problem, as demonstrated by the Mark Twain in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The main character of the novel, the youthful Huckleberry Finn, uses his intuition throughout the novel to guide him in the correct path. Employing various episodes involving not only the runaway slave Jim but also other characters, Twain efectively conveys to the reader a complex moral problem that the young Huck must face in the nineteenth

Reverting to the dilemna of slavery in the end of the novel, Huck reaches the highest moral peaks as he acknowledges Jim as an actual friend who he decides to protect out of the goodness of his heart. Perhaps the most famous line of the novel is, "All right then, I'll go to hell!" When Mark Twain allows his main character to utter these self-damning words, he forces the reader to face the irony of benevolent Huck's accepance that "whoso would save his soul must lose it" (A, p79). By offering to sacrifice himself to the devil for Jim, Huck wins his moral struggle as innate goodness triumphs over evil. However, his justification for saving Jim must be an alarm. Twain repeatedly demonstrates how absurdly immoral the larger world was, and to a certain extent currently is. Since so little is to be hoped for from such a world, a moral theory of individual expediency acquires plausibility. Huck declares that he will go to hell to save Jim, but in actuality the whole world will go to hell for not wanting to save him. The intensity of this moral struggle suggests his deep involvement in the society, which he now rejects. This decision ends Huck's moral quest, his commitment to a human community. He resolves each conflict in the same way: without repudiating the authority of his conscience, he will disobey it and come to Jim's rescue. (D, p412) But when Huck finally rejects the authority of his conscience by not writing to Miss Watson, he reaches this true community.

In order to impart on the reader the true moral standing which he wishes him to uphold through the rest of the book, Twain extrapolates on the subject of slavery in the nineteenth century in the first few chapters of the novel. Up to Huck and Jim's confrontation in the woods, Twain only allows Huck to view Jim as a ridiculously ignorant slave who converses with hairballs and boasts of being kidnapped by witches (16-26). But when the culture of the time period is researched, one encounters such plethora of evidence of these magical practices that Jim's behavior becomes valid. In an essay entitled "Conjure,"

Because of the onslaught of brainwasing by the slaveholdi

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Approximate Word count = 1451
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Politics