Huck Finn essay- morals and society
Samuel Clemens tells us in his novel Huckleberry Finn that morality and moral values can be derived from common sense about right and wrong that comes from the conscience. He developed three characters, Huck, Jim, and Tom, with different moral values. While each of these three character's moral outlook and beliefs are different, they all intertwine around a main focus, doing the right thing verses doing the wrong thing. Due to their different backgrounds, they all viewed society differently. During the era in which this novel takes place, just before the Civil War, society had reached a point where morality and doing the right thing seemed unimportant. Drunkenness, selfishness, cruelty, lying, stealing, discrimination and slavery were almost accepted behavior. Immorality could be accepted as normal for society. In contrast, good moral behavior, judgment and beliefs often stood in contrast to the norm for society. As the novel Huckleberry Finn unfolds, the reader sees the contrasting moral values evolve from the characters' words and actions.Tom Sawyer derived his moral values based upon what he read in adventure novels. The adventure heroes and the good and evil represented in the fantasy books captiva
ted him. Tom had an impulsive train of thought and shallow moral values. His concern over Jim's problem with slavery was insincere even though he used the subject as his rationale for why he risked helping Jim escape from the Phelpe's. Tom spent many days focusing precisely on how to free Jim by studying the adventure novels. They wasted days following ridiculous ideas when it would have been much easier to just open the door. Tom plotted to drag Jim out from under the cabin, build a moat, and even suggested to Huck that he amputate Jim's leg. The actions show Tom's immaturity, selfishness, and superficial understanding of right and wrong. He represents a bad moral character because he doesn't think about others feelings or the consequences of his actions. Huck questioned the logic of Tom's plan. Tom's response was to rationalize, "well, some of the best authorities had done it..." (Clemens 1420). Tom also did not tell Jim and Huck that Jim was already a freedman. Tom avoided doing the right thing because he wanted to have an adventure. He treated Jim as an object rather than a human being, which in society's view may have been acceptable but in truth was deeply immoral. Jim, Huck, and Tom were representative of the norm at that time in their views about society and morality. Jim represent
Some common words found in the essay are:
Huck Jim, Phelpe's Tom, Jim Huck, Huck Run, Huck Tom, Tom Sawyer, Civil War, Huckleberry Finn, Jim Tom, Jim Jim's, huck jim, moral values, jim huck, huck tom, moral character, novel huckleberry finn, sense wrong, tom moral, society's view, society huck, jim huck jim, adventure novels,
Approximate Word count = 884
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
