Moral Maturation of Huck Finn
Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel about an adolescent boy named Huckleberry Finn. In this early stage of his life, Huckleberry is taught many of life's lessons that will help him deal with events that may occur later on in his life:
1) Huck fakes his death in order to be freed by running away from his alcoholic father and his caretaker, Widow Douglas, and also to escape from being "sivilized"; 2) Huck learns the necessity of why and when to apologize; 3) He begins to understand the evil in slavery and he realizes that he must follow his own conscience in his actions towards Jim. His 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. Throughout the novel, Huck Finn becomes more self-reliant and mature.
The cover of the first edition of Adventures of Hu...
Illustration of Jim and Huckleberry Finn, by EW Ke...
English: Illustration from Adventures of Huckleber...At the beginning of the novel, Huck has grown tired of dealing with society and what society thinks is right and civilized. 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 and satisfied." Huck prefers living free and being able to think what he wants, rather than being "sivilized." To add, Huck is able to stay away from Pap, who is an alcoholic and an abusive father. Unfortunately, Pap kidnaps Huck from Widow Douglas and takes him to a cabin deep in the woods. Here, Huck enjoys the freedom. He can smoke, "laze around," swear, and, in general, do what he wants to do. However, as he did with the Widow, Huck begins to become dissatisfied with this life. Pap is "too handy with the hickory"...