Huckleberry Finn's Influence On Society

Society has an unrelenting influence of what is wrong or right for an individual. Every society has their own set values of what is seen as morally good or bad and the members of that society are continuously supposed to follow them or else they would be labeled as different or even immoral from their actions. In Huckleberry Finn written by Mark Twain, there is a hypocrisy of how the society Huck was raised in prides themselves on being “civilized” yet as a whole the majority house slaves. Huck grew up having a deformed conscience from this society yet he did not realize that he was capable of having a sound heart until he met an escaped slave, Jim. This deformed conscience and sound heart Huck has, was expressed by Mark Twain through other characters in the novel and dialogue. Huck’s deformed conscience had been with him his whole life since as he was immersed within the society and had adopted their morals to his conscience. After Huck’s escape from society and his finding of Jim, the reader can see that he struggles with the idea of whether or not he is truly doing the right thing. As he …show more content…
He appreciates that Jim has treated him better than anyone else in his entire life and because of that, Huck sees Jim just as another human being. As Jim was held captive on his way to being sold, Huck decides to write a letter to Miss Watson who was his previous owner. When he realizes that the consequence of telling Miss Watson where Jim is would conclude in his enslavement once again, he decides to break the social norm. Instead of striving towards society’s idea of heaven, Huck tears up the letter and says, “All right, then, I’ll go to hell” (Twain 191). He couldn’t let all the good times that he and Jim had be thrown away over the fact that Jim is a slave and society’s views towards them lack the humanity Huck has