What Is The Conflict In Huck Finn

As seen in the Duke and Dauphin, it is the personalities of the aristocrats that personify poor qualities and allow readers to understand them more easily. One day, Huck and Buck walk in the forest, and are forced to quickly dive into the trees or be shot; this is Huck’s first time hearing about the feud. Later, he asks Buck about the feud, but Buck’s explanation only further confuses him. In Huck’s opinion, there isn't any reason to be fighting with the Sheperdsons for seemingly no reason, and Buck just doesn't comprehend why he doesn't understand the feud (Twain 128). In Sloane’s opinion, “Its violence, explained by Buck to Huck, appears as craziness through the medium of Huck’s supposedly naive questions. As with the battles on the flatboat, …show more content…
It is by the river that Huck and Jim leave the town of the Wilks’ family. Huck is so glad to leave that when they are finally alone and free on their way, he skips around and clicks his heels. Unfortunately, the King and the Duke find them and board the raft once again, and he is so disappointed he can hardly stop himself from crying (Twain 215). Eliot realizes the river is so powerful that it controls where it Huck and Jim go, which consequently directs the entire text. He believes that Twain is able to give the river so much clout since he grew up on the banks and, “earned his living matching his wits against its currents” (353). Throughout the text, Twain uses the power of the river in many different ways. It provides a method of escape, not only from the Wilks’ but from Pap, Bricksville, and the Grangerfords as well. The river is a source of immense happiness for Huck, as seen in his skipping and heel clicking, which is generally frowned upon for young men to do. It is due to the river that he and Jim are reunited with the Duke and the King, leaving him with a feeling of betrayal from his greatest source of happiness. However, each of the few times that Huck cannot compete with the river’s power, he overcomes the challenges that it brings him. Again and again, Twain makes a strong character even stronger by matching his willpower and identity to …show more content…
Many of the lessons Twain attempts to teach are done so by Huck’s keen observations and high morals, which he learns from being a disciple of the mighty river. Indeed, Twain writes it to have such power that it can compete with the oppressive force of human greed, for, “Against the money-god stands the river-god, whose comments are silent — sunlight, space, uncrowded time, stillness, and danger” (Trilling