A Journey Toward Maturation

A detailed Summary of A Journey Toward Maturation

"Jim has a little while in him.."(chapter 41) This is what Huckleberry Finn concludes about Jim at the end of the novel. Thus, this quote singularly signifies the maturation and development of Huck Finn during this novel. In the beginning of the novel he was immature and easily swayed by society's thinking but, towards the end he decides that what he was taught wasn't right and makes up his own way of viewing the world. With this in mind, Huckleberry Finn grows and develops with the conflicts that he must overcome. The three main conflicts in the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, that show major maturation and development are the Grangerfords vs. the Shepardsons, the Boggs incident, and the Peter Wilks problem.

In the beginning of chapter XVII is where Huck learns to face his problems with the Grangerfords and the Shepardsons. He wanders onto shore (Jim is still on the raft down by the river) were he is startled by dogs barking at him, this is where he meets an old Grangerford and he invites Huck to come inside his home. After he is inside Huck soon meets Buck Grangerford and learns about their family feud between the Shepardsons and the Grangerfords. Buck has no idea how the feud was sparked but he was

some (Shepardson), I reckon I'd 'a' got one."(Pg. 97). Huck soon learns that the Grangerfords and Shepardsons use the same port, and go to the same church. Through this chapter there is a certain attitude that Huck has about the feud, he believes it is pointless. When Buck and Huck are in the woods a Shepardson is spotted and Buck takes out his gun and shoots at him and misses. Huck then asks Buck, "Did you want to kill him, Buck?" Buck then replies yes and Huck asks, "What did he do to you?" Buck replies, "Him? He never done nothing to me."(Pg. 104). This proves that Huck is now realizing that this fighting is pointless and that fighting without a purpose makes no sense at all. Then with Buck getting killed at the end of this area of the novel it just adds more emphasis on Huck's new hate for fighting. This just proves that Huck's maturity is growing with the problems that he faces throughout the novel.

The next problem in Huck's adventure that brings on growth and maturity, is the incident with Boggs. This problem happens in chapter XXI and starts on page 136. Huck is walking through a town in Arkansas and meets a man named Boggs. Boggs is the drunkard of the town, and he is completely harmless. The townspeople state, " He don't mean nothing...never hurt nobody, drunk nor sober." Huck notices that Boggs is very loud and that he continuously is making fun of a man named Sherburn. Sherburn hears the

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Approximate Word count = 952
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English