Huckleberry Finn Essay

The Conflict between civilization and natural life In Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, one of the major themes posed is the conflict between civilization and natural life. Throughout the novel, Huck represents this natural life through his independence, his rebel-like ways, and his desire to escape from anything that was holding him back from freedom. Huckleberry Finn was brought up to be a civilized young man with strong religious ties, but strayed away from his roots to live a life of adventure. Huck represents what it is to be someone to stand up against society and exposes it for what it truly is. He experiences situations of forceful conformation, unruly laws and judgment, and the overall corruption of government in society. This conflict is introduced in chapter one through the efforts of the Widow Douglas. She tries to force Huck to wear newer and nicer clothes, give up smoking, and learn to love reading the bible; basically her efforts to try and form him into what society wants and not who he truly is. Huckleberry is not interested in any of these things, and he does a great job of showing it. Huck states, "It was rough living in the house all the time... she put me in them new clothes again, and I couldn't do nothing but sweat and sweat, and fell all cramped up" (Twain 20). The Widow Douglas tries to civilize Huck beyond belief, and he avoided this to the best of his abilities. Huck is self-reliant and does not want people telling him what to do. He exemplifies what it means to go out into the world and explore, not knowing what will happen, but finding out the answers on his own, not through the efforts society forces. School and church happen to be some of the many things he does not like and he will not put up with it. Huck shows great opposition throughout the story by focusing on independency and being open minded. Throughout his life, he has learned to value the trait of being completely self-regulating: solely relying on himself, and not anyone else. Huck’s father, Pap, was never a good role model because of his drinking problem and lack of good parenting. Since his father was never there for him, Huck had to fend for himself and figure life out on his own. Huck is very intelligent and is always open-minded about things. Because of the incorrect verdict that the judge gives to Pap, allowing him to take care of his son, even though he was a drunk and abusive father, just because society said that the parents were always the first and foremost guardian for the child, Huck fakes his own death by smudging pig’s blood all over the cabin making it seem like he was murdered. By faking his death, Huck escapes civilization. Since Pap now thinks Huck is dead, he can be free and fend for himself; another response in the rebuttal of society’s ways. Twain suggests that civilization corrupts, rather than improves, human beings, and exemplifies this through Huckleberry and his escapades. In chapter 43, Huckleberry concludes his mindset by saying, “But I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can't stand it. I been there before.” Throughout the entire novel Twain mentions at numerous occasion that the natural world, where everything has its place and everything has a role in their “society”, and how it trumps what actual civilization is like, where people are hung for drunk remarks and not for abuse of slaves and children, something widely accepted in society. Huckleberry Finn and Jim encounter endless adventures throughout their experiences in the novel, each giving them an insight into society’s ways and motives and exposing how they want to shape the citizens involved. Mark Twain illustrates the true colors of society and forces the reader to look into society from a different perspective, uncovering the corruption of the way things have been, allowing us to see how it is important to be an individual and go against the rules and regulations of society, and not just to conform because of what they say is “right”, and Mark Twain taught each reader this idea through Huck Finn and his incredible adventures.