Mark Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - The Problem with Huck Finn :: Adventures Huckleberry Huck Finn Essays

The Problem with Huck Finn A person is a product of his or her society and environment. A person grows up learning skills and traits from the people around him. These traits influence and affect the person unconsciously for the rest of his life. For instance if a person grows up with an abusive father chances are he will grow up to be abusive to people around him. But what we learn may not necessarily be right (like what is mentioned above), but the person doesn't know that. What would happen to a person who spent this whole life living a certain way and then came to the conclusion that something different was actually correct. This would totally rock his world. Huck Finn has this exact problem. Huck was brought up in a world where slavery was normal. Heck even the local priest said the Bible said it was okay. What greater authority to have than Gods. But Huck is faced with a challenging decision. As he becomes more and more of a friend to a runaway slave and helps him in escape his entire moral standards are challenged. But this leaves him with an invaluable lesson. Huck meets Jim as they both are running away from their lives, for different reasons. Huck and Jim head down the Mississippi. But Jim is a runaway slave and Huck is faced with a decision to help or turn Jim in. Huck comes very close to turning Jim in as he struggles to determine what is correct and what is not correct. Huck throughout the story struggles within him to find out for himself what is right and wrong. He sees Jim's compassionate nature and Good-Will and realizes the institution that is slavery is not moral and is in fact the opposite. Huck even in one triumphant moment comes over his doubts about the morality of slavery. Huck stats "Alright then I'll go to hell". Huck in this one simple statement defines his opinion. No matter what the consequence of his actions, if it be Hell, or jail or whatever, he will not betray Jim. Huck in his struggle inside of himself comes to realize the right thing to do and in doing so becomes a man.