Huck Finn

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorHigh School, 11th grade February 2008

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In every individuals mind, there lies a conscience that directs that person through life by aiding in decisions. These decisions are reasoned until the individual feels that the right one has been made. When our consciences are introduced to these assessments of life we must use experience and moral correctness to predict the most beneficial result. In Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck is faced with such a difficult decision that he struggles with his conscience. According to Andrew Lang, a contemporary of Mark Twain, Huck Finn is a genuine individual who experiences original, natural and tangible encounters along the Mississippi River. Lang feels that it is true and humorous that Huck had, "…a conscious torn between the teaching of his world about slavery and the promptings of his nature." However, while reading Huck Finn, more remorse and truth to Huck's actions is felt. Throughout the novel, truth appears apparent in the relationship between Huck and Jim, as they spend time together and become best friends.

In the passage from Lang truth is evident in the effect that Huck and Jim never have conclusions to their relationships with the people they meet as they travel down the river and how the setting of the novel is so realistic and natural; such as that they never know that the murder they met goes to jail or if the lovers get married.

Huck and Jim's relationship is the structure that carries that novel. Huck and Jim develop a friendship early in the novel when Jim runs away and Huck fakes his own death. They converge on an island together where they began to bond as friends. They set sail down the Mississippi River once the raft was found. The association between Huck and Jim is unique in that Huck...