Essay, Research Paper: Huck Finn Grows Up

The Adventures and Maturing of Huckleberry Finn

"My new clothes was all greased up and clayey, and I was dog-tired." Mark Twain uses these words to help create the character of Huckleberry Finn. Twain uses dialogue and dialects to show the reader the adventures of a young, rambunctious boy. Huck paints pictures for his readers with his southern dialect. The people and places Huck comes in contact with along the Mississippi are seen through his eyes. Twain's style shows the many relationships Huck forms along his journey. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain uses his unusual style to tell about the people and places that change a young boy as he travels down the Mississippi River with a runaway slave.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn begins with Huck introducing himself. He lives with the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson. They are kind old ladies who are trying to "sivilize" him by sending him to school and teaching him manners, even though Huck didn't want to be "sivilized." Huck's best friend is Tom Sawyer. The two found twelve-thousand dollars earlier and split the profits. The boys kept the money with Judge Thatcher for safe keeping while they continued their normal childhood. Tom and Huck liked to fool the Widow's slave, Jim, and make him believe witches were around. They also formed a gang whose only line of business was to rob and kill; of course the boys only pretended to rob and kill.
While out one night, Huck discovers that Pap is back and Huck knows he's after his six thousand dollars. Huck hurries to give his money to Judge Thatcher then asks Jim to tell his future. Jim tells Huck to leave, but it's too late. A drunken Pap takes Huck to his shack, where Huck is locked up like a captive. Huck enjoys the lazy days there, but has to escape before he gets killed in one of Pap's drunken rages.
One day, while Pap is gone, Huck devises a plan to make it look likes he's been murdered by robbers and escapes to Jackson's Island. On the island, he discovers Jim has also run away to avoid being sold down the river. The two start planning their adventure to freedom and discover a house floating down the river with a dead body in it. They steal all the supplies from the house for their journey. Huck decides to go into town dressed as a girl to see how people are reacting to his "murder." Huck learns that Jim is accused of his murder and people are after them, so the two leave Jackson's Island quickly.
Huck and Jim travel down the Mississippi, stealing food, and only traveling at night, until they find a grounded ship. They board it and find murderers and loot on board. They barely get away with some loot. The two continue down the river, searching for Cairo, Jim's path to the free states. Unfortunately, they miss Cairo in the fog and get run over by a steamship. Huck makes it to shore where he is found by the Grangerfords. Jim hides out until Huck returns. The Grangerfords are a well off family who are in a feud with the Shepherdsons. Huck stays with the family under the name George Jackson until the feud turns deadly. Huck and Jim leave after young Buck Grangerford is killed in the gruesome feud.
When the runaways make a stop, they are joined by two fugitives who call themselves a Duke and a King. The Duke and King are con artists who plan their next scam on the raft. They call their scam a Shakespearian Revival and plan to perform it in a small town in Arkansas. When they stop, they witness a murder and unusual events afterward. They perform their play and almost get cabbage thrown at them. As they head south, they hear of the death of Mr. Wilks and decide to play his brothers from England. They scam the Wilks family out of their inheritance until the real Wilks brothers come. They escape, but don't get any money out of the scam. The King and the Duke choose to go back to their Shakespearian Revival and head to a new town, where they eventually get tarred and feathered. The Duke and King turn Jim in without Huck's knowledge and continue their scam. As Huck searches for his friend, he learns that Jim is at Tom Sawyer's Uncle Silas and Aunt Sally Phelps' house. Huck pretends to be Tom and when Tom comes, he pretends to be his brother, Sid. The two teens plan Jim's escape, but Tom has to make it as complex as the novels he's read. They finally escape, but Tom gets shot and they all end up back at the farmhouse so Tom can recover. Tom's Aunt Polly comes to unravel everything. Jim learns that he is a free man and Huck learns that Pap is dead. Huck goes to live with Aunt Sally who wants to civilize him again.
All the people on Huck's journey changed his life and way of thinking. At the beginning of the book, Huck is a rowdy, young, southern boy who has very little respect for slaves and has an "immortality of youth" way of thinking. By the end of the book, Huck respects slaves because of his friendship with Jim, and he realizes how fragile life is because of his brushes with death. He also gains many moral values. Certainly the people and places he came in contact with through his adventures caused this change. The person who affected Huck the most was Jim. Jim was Huck's companion on the entire trip. Jim changed the way Huck treated blacks and how he thought about them. He is developed as a character through his dialogue. The reader finds Jim to be an uneducated, superstitious man. "We's doin' blame' well, en we better let blame' well alone, as de good book says," develops Jim as a religious man also. At one point in the book, Huck rattles off the many superstitions Jim believes in, "And Jim said you musn't count the things you are going to cook for dinner, because that would bring bad luck. The same if you shook the tablecloth after sundown." Jim may be superstitious, but he is also wise and that's how Huck learns to respect him and trust him. Jim could also be positive with his superstitions, "Ef you's got
hairy arms en a hairy breas', it's a sign dat you's a-gwyne to be rich. Yes; en I's rich now, come to look at it. I owns mysef, en I's wuth eight hund'd dollars. I wisht I had de money, I wouldn't want no mo'." This makes Huck think about life, freedom, and what it really means to be rich. By the end of the novel, Huck's friendship with Jim causes him to have a whole new outlook on slavery. He believes all people should be free.
Before the two runaways get to Cairo, Huck starts to doubt his morals and thinks about turning Jim in. He realized he was doing the right thing by helping Jim escape when Jim says, "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." It's obvious that Huck's feelings for Jim change from the beginning to the end. At the beginning, Tom and Huck fool Jim to get a laugh and when the two were on the raft, Huck says,"It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger," but, by the end, Huck is prepared to do anything to save Jim, "And for a starter, I would go to work and steal Jim out of slavery again." Huck has a lot of trust in Jim's wise words, but other people on the journey also helped the rebellious boy grow up.
The Duke and the King also changed Huck's way of thinking. They made him realize the life of thieves was not a way to live because it hurt other people. While they were trying to scam the Wilks' money, Huck chose to help the innocent Wilks girls, instead of the Duke and King. Huck's morals kicked in and he learned to think of others instead of himself. The Duke and King were very ungrateful to Huck and Jim for all their help, "So Jim and me set to majestying him, and doing this and that and t'other for him, and standing up till he told us we might set down," while
the Wilks girls were very grateful for Huck's help in getting their money back, "I'm going to do everything just as you've told me; and if I don't ever see you again, I shan't ever forget you, and I'll think of you a many and a many time, and I'll pray for you, too!" Those lying rapscallions and the kindhearted girls taught Huck a lesson of right and wrong and showed him that you can't cheat your way through life. Another man that taught Huck about cheating through life was Pap.
Pap was a drunk old man who was only after his son's money. He was abusive toward Huck when he was drunk, but he taught the boy some things when he wasn't. He was as good at telling lies as Huck was in getting his way. Pap taught Huck many things during his childhood, most of which were bad. "Pap always said, take a chicken when you get a chance, because if you don't want him yourself you can easy find somebody that does, and a good deed ain't ever forgot." Huck respected his father, even if he didn't always like him. "It was kind of lazy and jolly, laying off comfortable all day, smoking and fishing, and no books nor study." It's easy to see that Huck enjoyed his father's way of life better than the civilized life of the widow, but he later learned that the widow's way was better.
"The Widow Douglas, she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilze me." Huck didn't like the civilized ways of the widow, but, throughout the book it's clear that he learned moral values while living with the widow. "..., but the widow said it warn't anything but a soft name for stealing, and no decent body would do it." The widow was very gentle with Huck and always believed the boy was innocent, "The widow she cried over me, and called me a poor lost lamb, and she called me a lot of other names, too, but she never meant no harm by it," while Miss Watson was very strict with the boy, "Don't put your feet up there, Huckleberry. Don't scrunch up like that Huckleberry - set up straight." Miss Watson's constant pecking at Huck made him dislike
civilized life, so he snuck out at night to have fun with Tom and his friends.
Tom is a dreamer and a leader, while Huck is a realist, but he's more submissive. Tom has to do everything book-like and is very pushy when it comes to planning. Tom made everything more complicated and this frustrated Huck, but he was too submissive to his peer to do anything about it. Tom also believed he was always right, and wasn't open to new suggestions. When Huck suggested his plan to help Jim escape, Tom's reply was, "But it's too blame' simple; there ain't nothing to it. What's the good of the plan that ain't no more trouble than that?" All Huck wanted to do was save his friend, but Tom made it very complicated. When the boys are together at the beginning of the book, they pretend to rob and steal and do other childish things, but by the end, Huck seems more grown-up than Tom. It's apparent that Huck's adventures helped him to grow up faster than his peer. Huck did a lot of growing up while he stayed with the Grangerfords.
The Grangerfords were a well off family in a feud with the Shepherdsons. During Huck's short stay with the family, he experienced the cruelty of humans through fighting and death. The family was good to him, especially their young son, Buck. Buck's death made Huck realize how fragile life is and how awful war is. He found the feud made a boy his own age yearn to kill when he asked Buck what a Shepherdson had done to him to make him want to kill him and Buck's reply was, " Him? He never done nothing to me." Huck also felt sad when he learned of the death of an innocent Grangerford girl long ago. Through all the fighting, Huck discovered there could still be love, as young Sophia Grangerford ran off with Harney Shepherdson, despite their family's differences. Certainly the Grangerfords taught Huck the most about the strong emotions of love, hate, and sorrow.
Though the people along the Mississippi changed Huck the most, the setting itself also had
an effect on the boy. The adventures take place in the early 1800's on and along the Mississippi River. The scenes are seen through Huck's eyes, so it's very descriptive. The many places Huck stays along his excursion have different meanings to him. The most important place to Huck was probably the river itself.
The river is a path to freedom for Jim and a way of escaping everything and having a great adventure for Huck. Huck feels comfortable on the river because he grew up there. Huck spent the many hours floating down the river talking with Jim and thinking about life. "It was kind of solemn, drifting down the big, still river, laying on our backs looking up at the stars, and we didn't ever feel like talking loud, and it warn't often that we laughed - only a little kind of a low chuckle." He enjoyed the freedom of the raft, instead of the cramped, civilized life. "We said there warn't no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don't. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft." The time Huck spent on the raft gave him a feeling of safety and adventure, while he didn't feel so safe in other places.
Other places had different meanings to Huck. Jackson's Island was Huck's safety from Pap and the beginning of his great adventure, but it was also seclusion because Huck was concerned that someone would find him. Pap's cabin was loneliness and pain for Huck, "I was all over in welts. He got to going away so much, too, and locking me in. It was dreadful lonesome.",but the cabin was also an escape from the civilized, stuffiness of the widow's house. Fear is also associated with the cabin because Huck never knew what Pap would do in a drunken rage. At the Grangerfords, the Wilks', and the Phelps', Huck is living lies as he pretends to be someone he's not. This is all part of the adventure for Huck. Huck would definitely think of sorrow when he thinks of the Grangerford home. He also felt terror during the feuds and says, "I was powerful glad to get away from the feuds." He'd think of grief when he thinks of the place where young Buck was
shot,"I cried a little when I was covering up Buck's face, for he was mighty good to me." The Wilks home meant deceit because Huck was going against his new found morals while helping the Duke and the King. The Phelps farm was a place for more adventure, safety, fun, and freedom. All the people and places along the river may have changed Huck, but they wouldn't have been truly expressed without the style of Mark Twain.
Mark Twain's style is unique because he uses many things to create a picture in the mind of his reader. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is written in first person, so everything is seen through Huck's eyes. Twain helps create his characters with their dialects. The main dialects he uses are the Missouri negro dialect, the extremest form of the backwoods Southwestern dialect, and the ordinary "Pike County" dialect. These dialects, plus the dialogue of the character, help the reader to determine if the character is sophisticated, unsophisticated, educated, uneducated and so on. Twain's style is hard to read because of the dialects until you get a feel for the story. If you can imagine the character saying the words, it's much easier to understand. Twain also uses a conversational tone with the reader. This tone makes the reader feel like they are friends with Huck and really understand what Huck is going through. The novel begins with the phrase "You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter." The incorrect grammar of a juvenile, southern boy begins to introduce the reader to Huck and it develops his character right away. Twain also uses imagery, metaphors, and similes to paint pictures. "The stars were shining, and the leaves rustled in the woods ever so mournful; and I heard an owl, away off, who-whooing about somebody that was dead."
Mark Twain wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to show the life and adventures of
a young boy and how these adventures changed him. He wanted everyone to see a piece of childhood through Huck. He also showed the things Huck learned about himself and others through his journey. Huck deals with many problems along his voyage with himself, other people, and nature, but in the end he pulls through. The main theme of the novel is about the growth of Huck. From the beginning to the end, Huck gained more respect for life and freedom. He also gains a great amount of trust in people because people have been friendly toward him. He values friendship and morals. Mark Twain was trying to get all his readers to grow like Huck through his great novel.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a book of great adventures. It's exciting, though some parts seem to drag on. When you analyze the book a bit, you find much more than what you read. The novel makes you think about your own morals and it also helps find a rebellious side. Readers can relate to Huck because of the conversational tone. Though the dialects seem hard to understand at first, with a little visualization of the character, they really make the reader feel like part of the story. The humor in the story keeps it from being boring and rambling. Overall, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a wonderful book to read to analyze your own life with the help of a rebellious, young boy.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel about the people and places that change a young boy as he travels down the Mississippi, written with the unusual style of Mark Twain. Twain not only tells Huck's stories, but he shows how Huck grows through his story. Huck tells of his many escapades through his innocent, child-like vernacular and tells how he escaped many dangers and had the adventure of his life. He only wanted freedom and escaping to the river was his way of being free. Huck's innocent view on life adds to the irony in the story as he critisizes the evils of "sivilization". Huck may have grown up, but can he ever be "sivilized"?