What Is Morality In The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

Superior Essays
In “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain, Huck experiences many situations that makes him examine his conscience. In the society that Huckleberry is living in, slavery is a common thing. Huck has to listen to his conscience and do what he thinks is right even when it 's not the society norm. Huckleberry also used lying in his favor. He uses lying to get out of dilemmas and lying becomes a habit for him. He realizes on one of his adventures that lying and conning is not always a good thing. Miss Watson and the Widow Douglas, the women that take care of Huck, are trying to civilize him. They want him to be a good young man who has morals. No matter what they do Huck stayed the adventurous and outgoing boy that he is. Huck became …show more content…
On one of Huckleberry’s adventures he sees how stealing and conning is not always a good thing. While Huck and Jim are on their way to Cairo, they run into two con men who claim they are the Duke of Bridgewater and the despaired heir of the French throne. Huck knows that the two men are lying, but he does not say anything so that there will not be any conflict. Huck and Jim go onto land with the Duke and the King and they hear of Peter Wilks’ death and of how he left money to his two brothers William and Harvey. The Duke and the King take advantage of the Wilks’ family by pretending to be the brothers of Peter Wilks’. When Huck meets the daughters of Peter, he begins to feel bad about conning the women and taking their money. Huck examines his conscience and does what is right. He sneaks into the Duke and the King’s room and he steals the money back and hides it in Peter Wilks’ coffin so that the Duke and the King cannot take it from the nice Wilks’ daughters. The following quote is important because at this time in the novel, Huck realizes that what the Duke and the King are doing is wrong and Huck wants to make things right for the Wilks’ …show more content…
Lying has become a common thing for Huck and he becomes very good at it. When Huck and Jim are on the river in the night it is very foggy. They get separated and Jim becomes worried about where Huck went. Huck decides that it would be funny to pull a trick on Jim and to tell him that he was on the raft the whole time and that he must have been dreaming. ““Huck—Huck Finn, you look me in de eye; look me in de eye. hain’t you ben gone away?” “Gone away? Why, what in the nation do you mean? I hain’t been gone anywheres. Where would I go to?”” (Twain, 87) Jim becomes very disgruntled about this and is very confused. When Jim figures out that Huck was tricking him, he becomes upset. He thought that Huck was his friend and he does not understand why he would lie to him. After thinking it over, Huck apologizes to Jim about lying. He does not apologize to Jim because he truly feels bad, but he apologizes because he sees how the lie that he told hurt Jim. Huck also sees how lying is not always the right thing to do when he gets caught in his lies. Huck goes on shore and tries out one of his new disguises. He tells Mrs. Loftus that his name is Sarah Williams. After talking for a while he mixes up his “name” and tells her that she is Sarah Williams. Mrs. Loftus questions him and he becomes nervous and he realizes that he is mixing up his lies. In this scenario, Huck and the reader see that lying about one thing, will lead to

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