Huck Finn Character Analysis

Often times an individual is faced with making a decision that forces him or her to question morality. In these situations, the right decision is usually the one bearing the greatest consequence. Why is it that the honorable decision is the hardest to make? Society can warp the view of what is right into an act of evil, such as in The Crucible by Arthur Miller when John Proctor must choose to sacrifice his life for his friends. He ultimately decides to make the right decision according to his moral sense and faces the consequence, his death. A similar moral choice must be made by Huckleberry Finn, who struggles to choose between helping his friend, a runaway slave, on his journey to freedom, or conforming to his society by turning in his friend. In Mark Twain’s classic american novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck’s interactions with a runaway slave, greedy swindlers, and civilized …show more content…
They embark on their journey together up the Mississippi River, during which Huck plays a series of pranks on Jim. In one of his pranks, Huck manipulates Jim into believing that he “had been dreaming” that he was separated from the raft (Twain 88), an event that left Jim panicked and distraught. Seeing Jim’s dismay shows Huck that Jim cares for him, allowing him to see Jim as a friend and not piece of property. Recognizing their true friendship makes Huck “feel so mean” for hurting him (Twain 89), and for the first time, he apologizes to Jim. This feeling of friendship is what compels Huck to “go to hell” for refusing to return Jim to his owner (Twain 217). Even though society tells him otherwise, he knows that the moral thing to do is to help his companion, so he decides to accept the punishment. In this way, Twain uses Huck’s interactions with Jim to develop the idea of being punished by society for doing the right thing within