Theme Of Morality In The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

Register to read the introduction… 13) and takes prayer lightheartedly until faced with another moral problem later into the book. His carefree and wild ways are expressed with his superstitions as well. This is shown with his throwing salt over his shoulder (Pg. 18) and his other superstitions such as burning the spider, about the snakeskin, and talking about the dead (Pg. 61). Another way Mark Twain expresses Huck's wildness and confused morals is that he never tells the truth. One of his bloated lies is the one about being a girl (Pg. 68) that he keeps bloating and bloating to cover up his old lies. His seriousness later changes as the book progresses. By the middle of the book, Huck has shown certain sines of improvement. He now realizes that Jim is more human than he was led to believe. Huck's view of "right and wrong" have changed. He still lies and plays jokes, but now he feels some guilt whenever he does this. An example of this is when he tricks Jim into believing he was dreaming about the fog. When Jim says "en trash is what people is dat puts dirt on de head er dey fren's en makes 'em feel ashamed", (Pg. 105) which in more correct spelling means "trash is what people are who put dirt on their friend's heads". This makes Huck feel bad enough to apologize and he finally realizes that tricking Jim is wrong and that he has feelings. He also before that, had lied to save Jim from getting caught by saying that Jim was white and had a disease so that people wouldn't look for Jim and probably catch him. His seriousness grows after he sees Buck die, and Buck had been somewhat of a friend to him (Pg. 153). Later, when they encounter the "King" and the "Duke" (Pg. 159), and even later when he finds out that the King and the Duke are frauds, he does not tell Jim, but for a good reason. This reason is so he does not make Jim feel ignorant or gullible. This shows an improvement in Huck, that he still keeps the truth away, but he does it for the good of others now. By the late part of the book (or of what we read), Huck shows more seriousness to religion and actually thinks of how religion and his morals are contradicting. He stops to think of which should overrule. (Pg. 268) Religion, as he understands it, tells him stealing is wrong, and combined with what he was taught, it makes helping a slave escape appear as stealing. On the other hand, Huck see's Jim as a human and wants to help him. Jim is his friend, and Huck now holds staying with your friends as one of his values. So after thinking seriously about it and even writing a note to Miss Watson, he eventually decides that his values overrule religion (by then ripping up the note), even though religion is still a force that should be thought about. In his eyes, he is going to go to hell and suffer eternally because of helping Jim escape and not returning him back to his "owner". This later shows that Huck is an "all the way" kind of person (meaning if he does something wrong and is going to have to suffer consequences for it, he might as well enjoy doing it). When he figures out that the "King" has sold Jim, he goes out to find Jim (Pg. 273). We can now see that Huck is caring over his …show more content…
He is shocked by the fact that people have a tendency to do incredibly kind things (like when he helps Jim) and the fact that people can do terrible things to hurt others emotionally (as shown by the King and the Duke's heartless ways to get money, which even include disrespect to the dead). Huck talks to his conscience in many of the previous statements. He talks with his conscience to find what choice is better, turn in Jim or help Jim, and when he decides to help Mary Jane. As a general whole, the human race is generally good and kind, but there are always some exceptions. Huck Finn undergoes many moral changes in this