Mark Twain once said of his great American novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, that the book was “...a book of mine where a sound heart and a deformed conscience come into collision and conscience suffers defeat.” The protagonist, Huck Finn, struggles with his feelings about slavery and the overall moral norms of society compared to his own beliefs. Throughout the novel Huck rejects the advice of his “conscience” as he has been taught and follows his own path to what he believes is right. Huck’s search for freedom from what society expects of him compares closely …show more content…
Both Huck Finn and Chris McCandless feel encumbered by the constraints of civilization and wish to live by their own rules. These two characters, one fictional and one real, are similar in many ways. Huck wishes to escape being “sivilized” by discovering real adventure out in the wild. He longs for, “laying off all day, smoking and fishing, and no books nor study.” (Twain 16) Chris disassociates himself from all of society and wants to survive in the wilderness on his own. Chris sees no need for material objects and even thinks that they are detrimental to people. Both Chris and Huck show ignorance and lack of maturity when it comes to knowing what life will be like on their own in the wilderness. Chris refuses to heed the advice of those trying to help him which many times leads him into life-threatening situations. Ultimately, Chris dies of starvation in an abandoned bus in the Alaskan wilderness because of his ignorance of the conditions and his stubbornness in preparing properly. Huck is not so unfortunate because luckily he has Jim to watch out for him and act as his father figure out in the