Huck Finn's Maturity...
Can you imagine getting beaten to a bloody pulp? Probably not, in fact, you are most likely disgusted by the image that this question has put into your head. However, in the Confederate South of the United States, many blacks were beaten daily. Samuel Clemens, known as Mark Twain under his pen name, is known today as an abolitionist. This is because of his novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In this novel, a young boy named Huckleberry Finn learns a valuable lesson. As the novel progresses, and Huck adventures with a runaway slave, Jim, Huck slowly begins to understand the evil in slavery and realizes that society is wrong in its treatment of slaves. He finally decides to follow his heart when dealing with Jim. Even at the beginning of the novel, before he has gotten a chance to explore what he believes is right, Huck has grown tired of dealing with society and what society thinks is right and civilized. This is significant because it helps make the idea that a fourteen-year-old boy could cast away the beliefs of his society much more believable. For example, he says, "The Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me...I got into my old rags and my sugar hogshead again, and was free
Huck learns many lessons even before he gets on the Mississippi. For example, when Huck escapes from society, he runs into Jim at Jackson Island and is very happy to see him. Later Huck plays a mean trick on Jim. He kills a rattlesnake and puts it on the foot of Jim's blankets. Huck expects that Jim will react like any stereotypically, foolish, black person. Huck thinks that, "[Jim's] eyes will bug out; his teeth will chatter; his knees will knock together..." (Page 63) etc; and Huck will have a good laugh. But Jim is not a stereotype, and the joke turns bad when the snake's mate bites Jim. This tests Huck morality. Huck feels ashamed for what he did, but does not blame himself for not understanding that Jim is a human being. This shows his immaturity in the early stage of the novel. In the climax of the novel, Huck fights with two different and distinct voices. One is the voice of society, which says that Huck should turn Jim in as a runaway slave because he is property and belongs to Miss Watson. The other voice is Huck's own, and it sees the wrong of turning in his friend. This voice does not view Jim as a slave, but as an equal and a friend. Huck, who is influenced by that which society has taught him, says, "Well, I can tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish, too, to hear him, because I begun to get it through my head that he was most free-and who was to blame for it? Why, me. I could get that out of my conscience, no how nor no way (Page 161)," when talking about helping Jim run away. Out of guilt, he starts to write a letter to Mrs. Watson telling her that Jim has run away. Then Huck realizes that he would fe
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Approximate Word count = 1106
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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