Huck A Moral Lesson example essay topic

In many ways, to understand the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, the reader must also know a little about the author. Mark Twain was one of the many pen names of Samuel Langhorne Clemens. He was born on November 30, 1835, and grew up in the Mississippi River town of Hannibal, Missouri (de Koster, 15). Mark Twain has deeply etched the image of Huck Finn and the runaway slave Jim on the raft into the American consciousness as the raft symbolizes freedom from the constraints of civilizations. While floating down the Mississippi River, he meets Jim, the runaway slave who is owned by Mrs. Watson. The reader sees for the last time in Chapter 15 that Huck becomes aware of the consequences that his childlike shenanigans actually end up hurting the one true friend, Jim.

Huck's life begins to change when he is faced with many moral struggles along the way. He has to fight against society's views, which conflict with his views. Mark Twain is able to show the reader through style and theme that Huck has become aware of his moral values even though he begins to understand the evil in slavery and he realizes that he must follow his own conscience in his actions towards Jim during the time when slavery was an important issue in the American Society. Twain is able to effectively show the reader that Huck has finally established a mature relationship with Jim. According to Lionel Trilling, "This incident is the beginning of the moral testing and development which a character so morally sensitive as Huck's must inevitable undergo", (Trilling, 14). The event that teaches Huck a moral lesson is when Jim and Huck's raft gets separated on the Mississippi River.

This event is the opportune time for Huck to play another trick on Jim. When they find each other, Huck tells Jim that he was dreaming and that they were never separated. Huck later tells Jim that they actually were separated, and expects Jim to laugh. The laughter does not come.

Instead, Jim tells him, "dat truck dah is trash; en trash is what people is dat puts dirt on de head er dey fren's en makes 'em ashamed (Twain, 272) ". Huck then realizes that he has made a mistake, and that Jim also has feelings. Ralph Cohen believes that, "Huck learns, too, through his relationship with Jim that there is a difference between considerate and inconsiderate pranks" (Cohen, 71). This is shown when Huck says, "It was 15 minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I wasn't ever sorry for it afterward, neither (Twain, 272)".

This event teaches Huck that when he makes a mistake, it is necessary to apologize to no matter who it is. Ironically, often Huck's own instincts hold him to a higher moral standard than those of society. However, it is important to realize that although Huckleberry Finn's decisions create the conflict between society and himself and that this conflict forms the theme of the novel. Mark Twain's theme in Chapter 15 of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is that the ideas of society can greatly influence the individual, and sometimes the individual must break off from the accepted values of society to determine the ultimate truth for himself.

Throughout Huck's life, society has taught him that slavery is a part of life. The accepted way of thinking during that era was that slaves were inhumane and pieces of property. Huck is told that slaves are just lesser people than people of the white race. Because it is what everyone believes, this prejudice is hard to erase and stays with Huck for a long time. Gradually, Huck begins to realize that this is not true. According to Eric Solomon, the reader is able to see that Huck "brings himself to understand that his own cruel tricks have hurt Jim, for Jim is a person, not a thing", (Soloman, 253).

Jim shows Huck that even though he is a slave, he is a real person, not a piece of property, and that Jim has feelings, just like Huck himself, who is white. Huck continually learns through each individual incident how Jim is a genuine, caring and good person. Slowly, Huck begins to rethink some of the prejudices that he has been taught his whole life. He becomes his own person by choosing what he thinks is right to do, instead of what society say is right. This is a difficult task that shows how Huck's maturity and his ability to think for himself have grown throughout this section of the novel. Twain's morals are clearly shown through this short, but hugely important passage.

Through theme Twain wants the reader to see how slavery ideology changed people, even those who didn't understand it fully. The author also wanted the audience to see how unfair slavery was in how it could even change Huck's thinking. Due to the fact, that in Huckleberry Finn's world, society has corrupted justice and morality to fit the needs of the people of the nation at that time. Basically, Americans were justifying slavery, through whatever social or religious ways that they deemed necessary during this time. Twain's morals were bold for his time and therefore the reader must respect him in the highest revere for his braveness at expressing them in a period when blacks in the south were still very much hated. This fact in itself should spur other Americans to do something against the grain of society and voice their true opinions.

It is a lesson that can be appreciated by all time periods.

Bibliography

Cohen, Ralph. "Games: A Key to Understanding Huckleberry Finn". Literary Companion to American Literature: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Ed. David Bender, Bruno Leone, Brenda Stalcup, Bonnie Szumski, and Katie de Koster. San Diego: Greenhaven, 1998.
71. De Koster, Katie. "Mark Twain: A Biography". Ed. San Diego: Greenhaven, 1998.
15. Soloman, Eric. "My Huckleberry Finn: Thirty Years in the Classroom with Huck and Jim". One Hundred Years of Huckleberry Finn, The Boy, His Book, and American Culture. Ed. Robert Sattelmeryer and J. Donald Crowley. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1985.
253. Trilling, Lionel. Huck Finn. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Viking Press, 1950.
14. Twain, Mark. "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". The Norton Anthology of American Literature 1865-1914.