Identity in Huckleberry Finn

Reasons for Huck’s Lack of Identity in Mark Twains Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

In Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the main character embarks on a journey of self awareness and discovery. This character, Huckleberry Finn, faces many situations in which he is forced to make decisions that advance his establishment of an identity. This series of decisions do not always foster this growth however, but sometimes force Huck to take steps backwards in his development. In establishing his own sense of self, Huck possesses inconsistencies in his life that make it difficult to create an identity. Huck’s creation of aliases and lies about his personality, his failure to establish a life in one place, and constant internal debate are hindrances in his ability to form his self image. These rejections of society overshadow Huck’s progress towards developing his own sense of self, as by the end of the novel he fails to fully establish his own individuality. Huckleberry Finn struggles to find his identity because he spends much of his time assuming identities of others and does not allow for time to develop himself. He is Huckleberry Finn, dead, alive, Sarah Williams, George Peters, George Jaxon, from England, not from England, and Tom Sawyer; he becomes a boy of multiple personalities and spends the majority of the novel assuming one of these identities. While some of these foils are necessary in situations where it is imperative for Huck to conceal his identity, Huck also lies unnecessarily and it is this pointless lying that shows his discomfort with who his true identity. While on his adventures with the king and the duke, Huck is in territory where it is not necessary to conceal his identity as Huckleberry Finn, but instead he chooses to create an alias. He assumes the roles of people who he is not because he does not know who he is or who he wants to be. Huck’s failure to tell the truth, also seen as compulsive lying, is a clear indicator that he