In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn is a preteen running away from his abusive father who discovers his inner morals throughout the book. In this essay, I will be discussing how he set sail on finding a new life and purpose for himself. How he developed new social skills by traveling along side of a runaway slave on the Mississippi River. I have highlighted some of the main events that pushed him to leave and what occurred during their travels that developed his true identity.
When the story starts Huckleberry was a young boy from a low income society. His father was a drunk and often disappeared , but when he was around he would take his anger out on Finn. In the absence of his father, the Widow Douglas attempts to make Huck more civilized , but he resisted Because he’s used to taking care and providing for himself. Since Huckleberry came from this small community with a lack of parental guidance which made him “skeptical of the world around him and the ideas it passes on to him”.(Sparknotes) Eventually, Widow does give Huckleberry some of the schooling and religious training that he hasn’t received . Unfortunately, Pap Finn (huckleberry's father) wasn’t happy that Finn was getting an education , and starts to feel challenged by his new found knowledge and tries to take school from him. He fears that one day his son will surpass him, so he tries to physically harm Huckleberry to make him quit. While having a conversation with his son he admits his jealousy by saying “Looky here--you drop that school, you hear? I'll learn people to bring up a boy to put on airs over his own father and let on to be better'n what he is. You lemme catch you fooling around that school again you hear?” (19) In this time period education was a high status thing to have and pap felt as though people would look down on him if his son was smarter than he was. For the sake of his pride the only thing he could do to stop that was to make his son as ignorant as he was.
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His father's brutality was the reason he ended up alone on Jackson Island. To escape paps Huckleberry faked his own death. So, he takes advantage of Pap's absence and kills a pig inside of the cabin and takes a couple of things to make it seem like it was a robbery and that he was killed during the process. To make sure they knew that it was him that was murdered he left a couple strands of hair on the bloody axe . Then he left a trail of flour leading to the lake. After he finishes his own death bed , he sails off on his canoe. He had it all planned out that “they'll follow that meal track to the lake and go browsing down the creek that leads out of it to find the robbers that killed (him) and took the things. They won't ever hunt the river for anything but (a) dead carcass. They'll soon get tired of that, and won't bother no more about (him).”(chapter 7) Planning to have them looking in a different direction and by time they get to his , they’d just give up. When he sails off and gets to Jackson island is where he met Miss Watson’s slave Jim.
Although, when the pair first met Finn didn’t trust him, but his experiences as they travel down the river forces him to question what society has taught him. According to the law, Jim is Miss Watson’s property, but the kindness in Huck’s heart thought the right thing to do was to help Jim. When Huck thought through the situation it led him to come to conclusions that would shock his white roots. They may have been separated by age and color ,but they were what each other needed to find who they really were. The pair both desired freedom and on the journey on the Mississippi River they discovered who they’d be when they reach their goal. Given the time period it was frowned upon for blacks and whites to enter mingle. So, huckleberry wasn’t open to sharing his travels with someone of color , because of his white background. On the inside Finn knows that Jim is an honest guy who deserves his respect but society persuaded him to look down on Jim. This was an identity crisis for Huck struggling between his skin color and being a morally good human being. “It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I warn't ever sorry for it afterwards, neither. I didn't do him no more mean tricks, and I wouldn't done that one if I'd a knowed it would make him feel that way.”(49) Being a good, caring person was one thing that made up huckleberry, and this small decision created a huge shift in his self image. After Huck found out that Jim was a harmless person unlike other heroic figures he is used to seeing and was worth saving. “For example when he and Jim meet a group of slave-hunters, that telling a lie is sometimes the right course of action.” (Sparknotes) Finn realizes he doesn't want to be seen as a hateful and ugly person , instead he wants to be empathetic and care like Jim which he did develop in the end freeing Jim figuratively and literally.
Throughout the book it's a tale of a young boy maturing into a man with the guidance of a new found friend on the river. I feel as though huckleberry sees Jim as a father figure, because although he doesn’t know as much as Finn he is willing to listen. He might not have followed every word , but he gave huckleberry that support and presence that was absent from him and his father's relationship. Pap chased him away and made him feel unwanted, but Jim stuck around and gave him that acceptance he craved. This acceptance gave Finn the ability to decipher right from wrong and in the end figuring out his own identity.
Work Cited
- Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Intl Business Pubns Usa, 2009.
- SparkNotes, SparkNotes, www.sparknotes.com/lit/huckfinn/.
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