Why Is Huck Finn Wrong

It is easy to fall under the influence of others, especially when one is a child. Mark Twain points this out through the use of his fictional character, Huck, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Huck is exposed to two characters, Jim and Tom, who play a huge impact in shaping his perspective of write and wrong. Throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Jim helps Huck attain better morals in regards to thievery and ownership; whereas Tom Sawyer serves as an obstacle to Huck’s moral progression. Tom Sawyer misleads Huck by creating his inner desire to steal. At the beginning of the novel, Tom is ecstatic about his intention to “ start [a] band of robbers and call it Tom Sawyer’s Gang" (Twain 20). Through his overemphasis of robbery in literature, Tom’s fantasies garner the interest of Huck. Initially, Huck is just as excited as Tom to join the group, however, over time, Huck becomes unsatisfied with fake robberies and begins to yearn for the real thing. This is evident in Huck’s disappointment with childish behavior of the gang. In Huck the Thief, Carl Link argues that the imaginary treasures stolen by Tom’s pretend gang influence Huck’s acts of thievery later on. Huck begins to idolize the thieves and bandits of literature in a very similar manner to Tom. As a result, …show more content…
Under Jim’s supervision, Huck begins to question his willingness to steal while rethinking about the importance of friendship, trust, and honesty. This is countered by Tom’s way of thinking which encourages theft, disregards honesty, and holds the bond between two friends as something trivial. Due to a lack of experience, Huck, along with most children in general, is easily impressionable by the beliefs of those around him. Huck’s moral conflict with the positive and negative influences of society is an accurate depiction of the struggle that faces children of the modern