Most books read in high school end up being stories of the coming of age time for the main character. For Huck Finn this is no exception. Throughout his journey along the river he changes as a person from being a boy to a man. He starts out as a carefree and uncivilized boy attempting to break free from the constrains of civilization. He takes nothing seriously and everything is a temporary pleasure for him. This attitude was clearly expressed when Huck and a few of the other boys meet with Tom Sawyer to discuss creating a band of robbers. Huck readily offers up Miss Watson, one of his guardians, as a sacrifice if he broke the rules. This earlier version of Huck didn’t think twice about killing off one of his loved ones. Later however, Huck’s morality develops and he matures into a thoughtful and loyal young man who understands such things such as “…it don’t make no difference whether you do right or wrong, a person’s conscience aint got no sense,” (175). It was a few moments like that in the book that show that Huck really came of age and that he had grown up and his character had really changed. The book is yet another coming of age phenomena that young adults can relate with and should read about. Huck’s very different lifestyle may…
As the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, progresses, Huck becomes more mature. The reader can see this change in maturity by the level of his thinking and the changes it undergoes. The maturation of Huck is also evident in pranks that he plays, which progressively change his attitude and the way he thinks. The book starts off with a Huck that has a wild nature, and is not civilized. He is in Tom Sawyer’s “gang” that plays pranks of people. The prank that Tom and Huck play on Jim, Miss Watson’s slave, really stands out. Huck and Tom take Jim’s hat and hide it up on a tree branch above him while he is sleeping. Huck later realizes that Jim “was most ruined for a servant, because he got stuck up on account of having seen the devil and been rode by witches” (Twain 16). His prank set Jim up for a bad image, which had a negative repercussion which Huck did not see, showing his immaturity. Another prank Huck plays in which he doesn’t judge the consequences before hand, is when he places the dead snake in Jim’s bed. Unaware that the snake’s mate would come after the body, Huck causes Jim to be bit by a snake, which is very dangerous. Later on in the novel, Huck plays another prank on Jim, in which he pretends that nothing happened, when in reality, Huck and Jim are separated in the fog. He convinces Jim that Jim is crazy, and this concerns Jim. Huck feels “so mean [that he] could [have] almost kissed his foot to get him to take it back” after Jim insults Huck for making fun of Jim (Twain 75). He later apologizes, and regains the trust, but he realizes that not all of his pranks are good. Finally, Huck shows that he is much more mature when the “Duke” and the “Dauphin” come on the ship. Huck realizes that these two conmen are just bluffing their status. However he “never [says] nothing, never let on; kept it to [himself]” because then “you don’t have quarrels, and don’t get into no trouble” (Twain 104). He didn’t mind calling them what they wanted…
Huck's mindset towards Jim shifts from him believing that Jim is just property and an…
Huck’s need for an authority figure is also satisfied when he encounters Jim. They meet on Jackson Island after Huck fakes his own death and Jim runs away from Miss Watson, both doing those things in order to achieve freedom. Their coalition can be seen as the catalyst for Huck’s moral growth, as Huck begins to change his perspective towards Jim from that point on. Right when the two meet, Jim asks Huck to not tell others about him being a runaway slave. Without hesitation, Huck honors Jim and says “I’ll stick to it. Honest injun I will. People would call me a low down Ablitionist and despise me for keeping mum, but that don’t make no difference” (32). This shows that Huck is willing to take criticism for Jim despite it not benefiting him in any way. More importantly, this is the first time that Huck shows indifference towards societal standards. Then, Huck feels concern for Jim for the first time when Huck causes Jim to get bit by a snake by placing a dead rattlesnake on Jim’s bed. Huck acknowledges that the bite was all his fault, and makes up his mind to not play tricks like that again, knowing what he did was wrong. One of the most significant escalations in Huck’s view of Jim occurs when he lies to Jim about his disappearance. When Jim finds out that Huck was lying to him, Jim expresses his disappointment in Huck. Seeing that Jim cares for him engenders Huck to feel sympathetic towards Jim and put himself down to apologize to Jim. This is also the first time that Huck sees Jim as an equal human being, proving that Huck and Jim have a mutually respecting relationship. As T.S. Eliot said, “Huck in fact would be incomplete without Jim, who is almost as notable a creation as Huck himself. Huck is the passive observer of men and events, Jim the submissive sufferer from them; and they are equal in dignity”. In this way, Huck experiences significant growth to his…
After reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, I have learned this book is a great example of a coming-of-age novel. The main character, also known as the narrorator, Huck Finn faces many challenges throughout the course of the novel. A major challenge Huck faces is that his father, Pap is an alcoholic lowlife and he doesn’t care for him as a son should care for his father. In the beginning of the novel, Huck thought he would be better off without his father even though he lived with Miss. Watson. He didn’t care if his father died because Huck had never experienced death and how it felt. Later in the novel Huck abandons his father and left on the raft to Jackson island. When Huck and Jim find a house flooded down the river, Jim sees Pap and doesn’t let Huck see him for Huck’s sake. Throughout the novel, Huck experiences death at many occasions and now knows how it feels. Later in the novel, Jim tells Huck that his father won’t be coming back to St. Petersburg anymore. Huck wonders why, and Jim tells him his father was the one who died in the house. This shows Huck has seen death and actually cares what happened to his father.…
To Huck, for a majority of the novel, Jim was seen as Mrs. Watson’s property and Jim was incapable of emotions and it would be fine if he was sold away from his family. It was not until the last half of the novel did Huck see humanity in Jim. Huck recalled that Jim “was thinking about his wife and his children, away up yonder, and he was low and homesick; because he hadn't ever been away from home before in his life; and I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks does for their'n. It don't seem natural, but I reckon it's so. He was often moaning and mourning that way nights, when he judged I was asleep, and saying, "Po' little '! po' little Johnny! it's mighty hard; I spec' I ain't ever gwyne to see you no mo', no mo'!" He was a mighty good nigger, Jim was” (Twain 152). Twain hoped that his would provide seeds for an equality movement between African-American and the white Southerners. Twain wanted peace after years of fighting, so by adding human qualities to Jim and creating a strong relationship between Huck and Jim, the peace would possibly come through The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.…
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of the most loved novels in American literature. Due to its popularity, there are a lot critiques and analyses of the work, especially of Huck and his development. But in all the analyses of Huck, people have neglected to appreciate one of the most important protagonists in American literature, Jim. Without Jim's guidance for Huck, Huck's journey would have failed. In Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Jim plays the role of a father to Huck by providing for his physical, emotional, and moral well-being.…
In the middle of the novel, as it progresses Huck gains maturity. Firstly, Huck is now questioning between right and wrong. This shows how he is gaining maturity because he starts doubting his own immature ways. Secondly, he is questioning himself on what to do on the condition of Jim being a slave. Huck is becoming more mature because now he is looking into reality and finding the…
Hucks realization that everyone is equal even if there color is different from him or her is a huge change in a person’s character and out look on life. Jim in shock and excitement finally found Huck after thinking he was dead saying “Goodness gracious, is dat you, Huck? En you ain’ dead- you ain’ drowned you’s back again? It’s too good for true, honey, its too good for true” (pg.84). This proves that Huck and Jim have a strong relationship caring for each other just like family. It’s the moment Huck realizes the color of Jim doesn’t effect Hucks feelings for Jim. Huck cries out of love for Jim wanting his forgiveness more then anything “It made me feel so mean I could almost kissed his foot to get him to take it back” (pg.87). This shows that Huck doesn’t want to loose Jim he’s family to Huck. This is a big change to Hucks life because he was scolded from his tricks and childish behavior. Learning lessons…
While all this is happening, while Huck is playing these tricks on Jim, we have to remember Huck is still a kid. He’s only around 13 years old, and that’s what kids do. They don’t think before they do things, and they like to play pranks and tricks on people. Huck was just trying to have fun with Jim, not be mean to him and be racist to him. In the novel Huck and Jim have a good relationship, they become friends and Huck starts seeing him as a person rather than a slave. They form a bond, a friendship.…
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck, a young thirteen-year-old boy, meets a runaway slave named, Jim. The two create such a unique friendship in the literary world. As these two characters build their relationship they learn much about respect, selflessness, and family, Huck most of all.…
Throughout the novel the adventure of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Huck, and the main character of the story makes many decisions on his adventure that could affect him and his adventures of running away from home. However, his decisions lead him to being a mature person at the end; he has making decisions that could lead to the end on his adventure. There are many things and decision that he makes as a mature person and make him different from the beginning of the story.…
Huck and Jim’s relationship is present throughout the novel. It is first seen when Jim risks being seen as a runaway slave when he goes to Jackson Island searching for Huck. This tells us that Jim cares about Huck and is risking his own life for him. Huck promises to help Jim escape the south and become a free man. Even though Huck is raised with racist views on the black part of society he is still willing to help Jim head towards freedom. Their relationship is based on friendship, but as time passes Jim becomes a father figure to Huck. On Jackson Island Jim helps Huck survive in the wild. For example Jim tells Huck “You mustn’t count the things you are going to cook for dinner, because it would bring bad luck.” When some birds come…
Of course Huck Finn begins immature in nature, but he obviously encounters situations in the novel that do indeed call for a certain level of maturity. It is interesting to follow this change in his nature; this is due to the fact that it does not begin in this novel but a previously written novel by Twain entitled Tom Sawyer. In Tom Sawyer, Huck’s Character is developed as a follower and not that of a leader or sophisticated person. The interesting part of this is that the person that Huck most admires is a boy much younger than he and not only that; he chooses to idolize this boy. This, by all means, is the highest level of immaturity. This is no different in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In the beginning of the novel, Huck Finn joins a gang under the leadership of Tom Sawyer. They not only ambush children that are attending a church picnic for food, but Huck finds this fun and worth the trouble it causes. Had it not been for the separation of Huck and Tom through the near entirety of the novel, it very well could have been a novel based on Tom rather than Huck. The separation of these two allowed for Huck to undergo adventures that built his independence and maturity, which is typical for a romantic hero. Just as in other romantic works of literature, the hero retains some level of immaturity which is represented at the end of…
Huck became someone that Jim could talk to, someone he could consider family. We see Jim tell Huck of how excited he is because of Huck’s bravery. “Pooty soon I'll be a-shout'n' for joy, en I'll say, it's all on accounts o' Huck; I's a free man, en I couldn't ever ben free ef it hadn' ben for Huck; Huck done it. Jim won't ever forgit you, Huck; you's de bes' fren' Jim's ever had; en you's de ONLY fren' ole Jim's got now. (16.14)” We can see Jim cares deeply about Huck because he relies heavily on Huck to get him out of the horrors he had to deal with each day in his life of slavery.…