A Personal Growth in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain is a story of a young boy who goes on a life-changing adventure and ends the adventure a young man. Along his adventure, he able to meet many new people and learn many valuable lessons. From these lessons, he is able to experience brand new things that will shape his life forever. From the beginning of the journey, all the way to the end, he is constantly maturing into a more mature person. In the novel, Huck has coming of age experiences during his travels that make him a better person.
At the beginning of the novel, Huck is a character who is raised by racism. Although he is taken in by two generous women who try to raise him with religion, one of them still own a slave. In addition to this, the general consensus in the south at the time was that blacks were inferior to whites. Since it was the norm, Huck generally accepted it. But throughout his travels, through his openness to the world, Huck is forced to go against the norm and accept Jim as an equal. “Both Huck and Lily have to overcome what they have been taught about the place of African Americans, using their own human intuition and moral judgement” (“Secret Life” 240). Mark Twain is able to use Huckleberry as a character to symbolize the change needed in society. For example, once Huck escapes from captivity and realizes he is all on his own, he is more than delighted to see Jim. Upon seeing Jim, Huck says “It was Miss Watson’s Jim! I bet I was glad to see him” (Twain 41). Since Huck has been alone, he now feels better and safer since he has a friend. Although he now has a friend to accompany him, he still views him as being lower than him. For example, one night when it is foggy, Huck decides to pull a prank on Jim. When they are split up, they yell to know where one another are located. But Jim falls asleep on Huck. When Huck gets to the boat, he awakes Jim and claims he is there all along, when in actuality he is just fooling around with Jim. Jim catches him on the lie and makes Huck feel guilty about himself. In the end, Huck views Jim as an equal friend. He now loves Jim so much that he helps Jim escape from imprisonment. Huck and Jim formed a bond over their time together that they viewed each other deeper than skin color, they viewed each other as actual people.
Along with developing his own view on racism, Huck is able to develop responsibility. Every child reaches a point in their life when they start taking responsibility for their life. For Huck, this was when he ran away from Pap. From this point forward, Huck lives according own rules and his own morals. Along the way, he slowly becomes more conscience about his actions and thinks them through a lot more. For example, when the King and Duke are again robbing people of their money, Huck has a pivotal turning point in terms of responsibility in the novel. “I says to myself, this is another one that I’m letting him rob her of her money… I felt so ornery and low down and mean that I says to myself, my mind’s made up; I’ll hive that money for them or bust.” (Twain 169). Huck has finally taken responsibility for what has happened. He allowed the King and Duke aboard the raft and con many people out of their money. Finally, Huck realizes how real life has become and decides to take a stand against them.
Lastly, over the course of the novel, Huck develops a sense of morals. Huck starts out by doing things out of spite. For example, Huck tells us that he goes to school just to annoy his Pap. Eventually, he fakes his own death to get away from his life. While this is an absolutely terrible thing to do, Huck does not realize this. In fact, even as he witnesses the gunboat floating past him and sees everyone crying, he still does not realize the severity of his actions. As the novel continues, Huck realizes that he cannot go through this adventure alone. He learns that he cannot be selfish and requires help from other people. If he did not need help, he would never need Jim or need to get off the river. However, Huck is thankfully able to realize what is right and wrong. He has lived his whole life being given commands, but now he can just follow his heart. For example, even though Jim is an outlaw and it is illegal to shelter a runaway slave, Huck does it anyways because it is what is right. Even as the novel ends, Huck references how he did not like civilization. Huck does not perform well in a society where you have to follow a law regardless of what is right or wrong. This in one of the main contributing factors that causes Huck to go out on his adventure.
In conclusion, Mark Twain used Huckleberry Finn as a Bildungsroman to show the overall growth needed in society at the time. The coming of age experiences Huck has transformed him into more than just a young boy being rebellious, it turns him into a young man making life decisions. Mark Twain takes advantage of this transformation by using it as a way to express his opinion on the world and society. Overall, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are told from the point of view of a character who embarks on a life changing journey that make him a better person.
