Deformed conscience can be defined as having a misshaped moral sense. This phrase became widely popularised by Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The main character of this novel, Huckleberry Finn, has a deformed conscience. Also with his deformed conscience, Huck also demonstrates a sound heart and a crisis of conscience. Twain uses the theme of conscience in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to demonstrate how one can explore conscience to figure out what is right.
Huckleberry Finn has a sound heart; he tries to be a good person. Although Huck believes himself to be evil, he is actually good. This is seen when Huck first finds the slave Jim on Jackson Island. Huck, since he has constantly been exposed to slavery and sees Jim as a runaway slave, struggles between wanting to help Jim escape and wanting to turn Jim in to the authorities. If Huckleberry helps Jim escape, then he is an abolitionist, which he has grown to see as evil, but helping Jim escape is a good thing for Huck to do.
Huck has a deformed …show more content…
Because Jim is escaped property, Huckleberry Finn believes that Jim should be returned to his owner; thus he intended to write a letter to Tom Sawyer, saying to tell Miss Watson, Jim’s owner, where the escaped slave could be found (Twain 189). In the 11th chapter, entitled “They’re after us!”, Huck, disguised as Sarah Mary Williams, finds that men are in search for Jim on Jackson Island. Huck quickly returns to the Island to help Jim escape (50-56). Huck, despite what he would see as better judgement, helps Jim to escape. Shortly thereafter, after Huck and Jim escape to a raft floating down the Ohio River, two men searching for Jim, pass by Huck. Huck lies to the men saying that Jim is white, but the people on the raft are very sick with the smallpox (pg 81-82). These actions of Huckleberry Finn demonstrate how the deformed conscience is defeated by the sound heart of
Huckleberry Finn has a sound heart; he tries to be a good person. Although Huck believes himself to be evil, he is actually good. This is seen when Huck first finds the slave Jim on Jackson Island. Huck, since he has constantly been exposed to slavery and sees Jim as a runaway slave, struggles between wanting to help Jim escape and wanting to turn Jim in to the authorities. If Huckleberry helps Jim escape, then he is an abolitionist, which he has grown to see as evil, but helping Jim escape is a good thing for Huck to do.
Huck has a deformed …show more content…
Because Jim is escaped property, Huckleberry Finn believes that Jim should be returned to his owner; thus he intended to write a letter to Tom Sawyer, saying to tell Miss Watson, Jim’s owner, where the escaped slave could be found (Twain 189). In the 11th chapter, entitled “They’re after us!”, Huck, disguised as Sarah Mary Williams, finds that men are in search for Jim on Jackson Island. Huck quickly returns to the Island to help Jim escape (50-56). Huck, despite what he would see as better judgement, helps Jim to escape. Shortly thereafter, after Huck and Jim escape to a raft floating down the Ohio River, two men searching for Jim, pass by Huck. Huck lies to the men saying that Jim is white, but the people on the raft are very sick with the smallpox (pg 81-82). These actions of Huckleberry Finn demonstrate how the deformed conscience is defeated by the sound heart of