Morality In The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn By Mark Twain

In “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain morality is often questioned. The main character Huck is in a constant battle of right and wrong. Huck’s journey throughout the book shows how morality can come from anything, things like church, family, and society, but most importantly, from one’s self. The community in the novel states that slavery and the conditions that follow it are acceptable and that African Americans are not equal to its white counterpart. Towards the beginning half, specifically chapter Ten, Huck shows a little of the society’s values when he puts a dead Rattlesnake on Jim’s bed as a prank which attracted other Rattlesnakes to bite Jim. When the snake bites Jim, he becomes ill and his leg starts to swell. Feeling bad, Huck learns that Jim is a human with feelings and emotions, just like everyone else. Following that scene Huck states “I
Many of Huck’s preconceptions are from his forced attendance at church and from Miss Watson. Churches obviously preach about good, and things such as the Ten Commandments, which Huck obviously breaks. However, Huck ends up being the most moral character in the novel, at least towards the end. He lies his way through to save a slave, and he even attempted to save a couple of burglars lying by saying that there is a group of men on a steamboat in need of help. All these situations included lying in one form or another, but are they right or wrong? In one hand, you are helping someone but in the other you are either breaking the law or you are lying which is against one of the Ten Commandments. The line “All right then, I’ll go to hell” (Twain Pg 217) shows that Huck disregards what religion states as right or wrong, he accepts that he is committing a crime and is aware of the consequences that await him, but he doesn’t care. Instead, he goes with his conscience and what he thinks is