Morality. What is morality? Webster dictionary defines it as beliefs of what is right behavior and what is wrong behavior. In the dictionary, the definition is succinct and comprehensible because a majority understand society’s definition of what is right or wrong. But there isn’t always a fine line between what is good or bad because life isn’t always so fixed and predictable. Sometimes life gives you tests and challenges to confront your morality which is not easy to distinguish with just a dictionary definition. In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain shows how Huck throws away the dictionary defined definition and makes up his own take on the word. As he throws away the dictionary that’s when he casts off the river and has also
…show more content…
Now that he has made this decision, Huck has to deal with the reality that he has no sense of morality. His father is a constantly drunk man who abuses Huck every chance he gets. Very few life lessons are learned through this relationship, and Huck as a child dealing with these circumstances won’t get any closer to understanding morality. “He chased me round and round the place, with a clasp-knife, calling me the Angel of Death and saying he would kill me…” (Twain, pg. 29). This incident convinced Huck to break away from his father’s control. “…I got to thinking that if I could fix up some way to keep pap and the widow from trying to follow me, it would be a certainer thing than trusting to luck to get far enough off before they missed me…” (Twain, pg. 31). Huck decides the moral thing to do is to leave his father because he no longer wants to be in danger and will only benefit from it. He is figuratively and literally running away from the immortality. Although Huck is taking the “right” action, society disapproves of a son leaving his father no matter the circumstances. Society has established that immoral Pap has complete rights over Huck even though Pap is an abusive ill-minded lunatic. This demonstrates that no matter how “civilized” society believes itself to be, it is far from it because a society that complies with slavery
Now that he has made this decision, Huck has to deal with the reality that he has no sense of morality. His father is a constantly drunk man who abuses Huck every chance he gets. Very few life lessons are learned through this relationship, and Huck as a child dealing with these circumstances won’t get any closer to understanding morality. “He chased me round and round the place, with a clasp-knife, calling me the Angel of Death and saying he would kill me…” (Twain, pg. 29). This incident convinced Huck to break away from his father’s control. “…I got to thinking that if I could fix up some way to keep pap and the widow from trying to follow me, it would be a certainer thing than trusting to luck to get far enough off before they missed me…” (Twain, pg. 31). Huck decides the moral thing to do is to leave his father because he no longer wants to be in danger and will only benefit from it. He is figuratively and literally running away from the immortality. Although Huck is taking the “right” action, society disapproves of a son leaving his father no matter the circumstances. Society has established that immoral Pap has complete rights over Huck even though Pap is an abusive ill-minded lunatic. This demonstrates that no matter how “civilized” society believes itself to be, it is far from it because a society that complies with slavery