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Huck Finn's moral journey Essay Example

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Huck Finn's moral journey Essay Example
Huck’s moral journey

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is about the journey Huck goes through, facing the challenges of living on a raft and constantly looking for food and money. However as Huck makes his journey down the river he makes a moral one as well. In the beginning of the novel Huck’s way of thinking is childish and heavily influenced by the widow and Pap, by the middle of his journey his own morals start to change and he is able to identify right and wrong despite what society thinks, and finally by the end Huck see’s how corrupt civilization is. In the beginning of the novel Huck has an immature way of thinking, and is affected by the widow who tries to civilize him and pap, who tries to bring Huck down to his level. Pap does not want Huck to become educated and civilized, because he dislikes the idea of his own son being better than him. “I’ll learn people to bring up a boy to put on airs over his own father and let on to be better ‘n what he is.” (p.20) Pap’s decision affects Huck, because he can’t decide for himself what he wants. His father constantly holds huck back, and therefore Huck can’t establish what’s right and wrong. Because Huck is so restricted, that is why he is childish in his thinking, meaning he can’t see deeply into matters, and always interprets them in at a basic level. “…but by and by she let it out that Moses had been dead a considerable long time; so then I didn’t care no more about him.” (p.4) The Widow is trying to civilize Huck in this scene through religion; however Huck stops caring about the story once he finds out that Moses is dead. Huck’s reaction to the story is childish because he cannot see the moral of the story, and he cannot move past the fact that Moses is dead. Huck’s immaturity is a part of Huck in the beginning of the novel, but it slowly

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