Many would say that Huck Finn is a very troubled young boy. He was brought up by his
father deep in the woods just off the Mississippi River. His father strongly disliked society
therefore he lived as far as possible from it. Huck's dad brought Huck up the hard way without
a mother and instilled many of his beliefs into Huck. His dad lied constantly and was always
drunk, his favorite saying was 'I'm not stealing it I'm just borrowing it'. Huck's dad borrowed
many things and lied his way out of many situations. He passed some of these bad habits onto
Huck which leads to my thesis that, Huck often finds himself in tight predicaments and being
brought up the way he was, taught that lying and stealing aren't wrong, proved very useful in
getting him out of many of these predicaments.
Because Huck's father brought him up to be such a great liar and a stealer Huck has been
able to escape from many close calls.
Illustration of Jim and Huckleberry Finn, by EW Ke...
Traditional raft, from 1884 edition of Adventures ...
The Adventures of Huck Finn (1993 film)One instance in which Huck wriggles himself out of
trouble is when he and Jim, the runaway slave are traveling down river on the raft. Huck while
off on a little excursion in his canoe runs into two men running away from some angry villagers
and their dogs. When they plead and beg for Huck to save him and he finally accepts they are
very gracious. When they arrive on the raft and notice that Jim is a black slave they inquire
about him. They ask Huck if he's a runaway slave and they seem interested in selling him for a
good price. Huck being the great thinker he is argues, 'why would a slave be going south?'.
That really stumps the two men and they leave it at that. It is...