Huck Throughout The Book example essay topic

3/08/01 Huck's Identity That The danger of not knowing who you are, this could lead to disastrous effects in your future life. Throughout the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn the main character Huck is having adventures and trying to find out who he is. Through each step of the book, Huck tries to disguise himself as somebody else to see if maybe he's the character that he is playing. Finally at the end of the book he realizes he is the person who started out in the beginning of the book but with maturity and self identity.

This whole book is about a character named Huckleberry Finn trying to find himself in the world, this should be more closely examined, why does he want to be someone else.? , and what do his adventures teach him. Life, change, identity, they are all a big part of this book as well as life in general. Huck is a person who the author Mark Twain tries to portray as lost in himself as well as in society. Huck throughout the book is looking for an identity that he believes he will find on his journey down the Mississippi river. 'I'd go down the river fifty mile and camp in one place for good, and not have such a rough time tramping on foot. ' (pg 31) Why does he want to get away from his life? I think Huck's character is very independent and he has his own thoughts on where he wants to end up in life.

In his old life everybody was always telling him what to do where to go how to eat and he was getting sick of it. On page 4 he says 'All I wanted was to go somewhere's; all I wanted was change, I warn't particular. ' He was looking to get out of his old life and into the life that he thought was right for him. Where there was no boundaries or limits, he wanted to be free from the shackles of Christian home life.

What did his adventures on the river teach him about his own personality and character? They taught him what he already knew in the beginning of the book that he is himself. If he tries to hard be somebody else he is never going to achieve that self-fulfillment that he so desires in the beginning of the book. I also believe that his companionship with the black slave Jim helped to shape his character as a human being.

'I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: All right then I'll go to hell- and tore it up. ' (pg 206) I believe this is the exact quote that shaped Huckleberry Finn's entire character, he now rejected everything he was taught in the past and made his own judgement's on people and things based on what they did for him. His love for Jim made him tear up that letter and it took a lot of courage and guts on his part to do it. 'I shoved the whole thing out of my head, and said I would take up wickedness again' (pg 206) he was putting everything that was the norm behind him, he was making hi own rules. As Huck's character develops throughout the novel he comes to realize that his efforts on being someone else's character and not his own are asinine. His realization to reality is very sudden in that when he comes back home to where his adventure started he understands that he belongs there. Not in some town playing someone else but in his own town but on his terms.

'We had Jim out of chains in no time. ' His own terms is where the book ended off. He had Jim freed, he was living where he wanted to. It seemed that Mark was trying to tell people that if what you think is not in the norm it doesn't mean its wrong. Follow your dream and maybe someday you will have your dream and you will be respected for it.

Why would someone want to be someone else? Maybe they are going through a mi-life crisis or maybe as in Huck's case he wasn't mature enough to know he was yet. As he went on his journey down the river it seemed every stop he made every person he talked to he matured just a little more. When his thoughts became outside the norm and then acting on those thoughts I think that's when he truly found himself and matured to the person that we knew at the end of the book. Maturity is something you develop through time don't push it or it will push you.