Conscience In Mark Twain's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

When Twain wrote that Huck has a “sound heart and deformed conscience”, he was referring to both Huck’s failure to follow through with exposing Jim to the slave hunters and his inability to send a letter to Miss Watson explaining Jim’s location after running away. One of the first examples of Huck’s sound heart and deformed conscience occurs early on in his journey with Jim, when he decides at the last minute to save Jim from the slave hunters trying to search the raft. Before he interacts with the men, Huck’s conscience decides to turn Jim in to them. He rationalizes that because Miss Watson was always good to him, it is wrong to let her slave get away from her. This deformed conscience shown by Huck was caused by his upbringing to view slaves as property. Huck’s conscience begins to suffer defeat after Jim reveals that Huck is, “de bes’ fren’ Jim’s ever had; en you’s de only fren’ ole Jim’s got now” (Twain 81). After hearing this statement from Jim, Huck’s sound heart begins to take over his deformed conscience. Instead of admitting that he has a runaway slave, he tells the hunters that the person …show more content…
After Jim is captured as a runaway slave, Huck decides that it would be better for Jim to “be a slave at home where his family was” (Twain 189). Therefore, he decides to write a letter to Miss Watson explaining Jim’s location. After composing his letter, Huck’s feels guilty for telling Miss Watson about Jim and he decides to rips up the letter. “Somehow I couldn’t seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind” (Twain 191). Huck’s conscience led him to believe that slavery IS NOT wrong and that Jim belongs back with his family instead of being free. This shows that despite what he was raised to believe, his sound heart always prevails and leads him to act as an