Kevin McAdam
AP English 11/ Mr. George
8/24/09
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay- Describe how Huck Finn can be understood as a societal critique of the antebellum south. How does Twain use many characters along the journey to critique society itself?
Huckleberry Finn’s curious and exploratory characteristics in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” strongly exemplified society in the 1860s. However, these revolutionary characteristics held by many were overruled by traditionalists who still decided upon the same conventional lifestyle choices that their ancestors did, and discouraged the thought of strange new ideas. Throughout the course of this story, Huck dealt with all kinds of people who held different opinions on change in society, including himself. Some of these societal views included: Americans’ desire for change and exploration of the rest of the United States to satisfy their cravings for discovery, the belief that blacks are inferior to whites, and the lack of trust and honesty in others that is apparent in society, not just between whites and blacks, but between everyone.
The United States went through a drastic series of changes in the 1860s, both political and societal. Abolitionist theories were being recognized by the government, and slavery was starting to dissolve across the land. Tensions rose between the northern states which were free from slavery and the southern states which were thriving economically from the benefits of slavery. Also, many adventurous people on the hunt to explore the United States for gold set off away from home towards the west coast. All of these changes affected Huck’s journey in one way or another. Like much of the United States, Huck was stuck at a crossroads in his life. He had to make the difficult decision of whether to stick with his father’s traditional methods of living, or follow the new trend of bold and daring lifestyle that was starting up. In several ways, Huck chose to follow the untraditional lifestyle. He began to change his racial views towards blacks, especially when he met up with Jim after they both ran away. If Huck had followed his father’s traditional ways, he would have turned Jim in on the spot. However, if Huck had followed his father’s orders, he never would have run away. Huck was also much like those revolutionaries that decided to set off into the world as, although Huck did not go to California in search of gold, he did set off from his home to start a new life that was better than the one he had with his father. Huck devised a scheme to escape his father and set off on his own journey: “I judged I’d hide her good, and then, stead of taking to the woods when I run off, I’d go down the river about fifty mile and camp in one place for good, and not have such a rough time tramping on foot,” (Twain 41). Nothing could stop Huck from becoming his own free person and living his life the way he wanted. The revolutionary ideas that swept the nation had almost completely enveloped Huck, but there were just some traditional aspects of life passed down to him by his father and society that he could not change about himself.
There is one facet of society that separated much of the country in the 1860s, and was a pinnacle aspect that distinguished whether someone was a traditionalist or one of the revolutionaries. That facet of society was slavery. As stated earlier, Huck was much like the rest of the country in that he was confused about which was the correct way to think about black people and slavery. In fact, there were many instances throughout the story in which Huck displayed his confusion. In his mind, Huck thought slavery was acceptable because that is what he had always been told growing up. Huck thought God was mad at him and he was committing a sin for helping Jim. Huck believed he would feel better if he wrote a letter to Miss Watson turning Jim in to her, and so he did: “I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever felt so in my life, and I knowed I could pray now,” (227). His societal teachings that white people were better than black people had set in his mind so deep that they could never be erased. On the other hand, Huck’s actions presented to the readers another side of him that knew slavery was immoral. For example, after Huck wrote the letter to Miss Watson, he tore it up. Huck’s reasoning behind tearing up the letter was also important. Huck remembered all of the good times he and Jim had had together on their journey and he would feel very guilty betraying him at this point. This illustrate that Huck had not only shared a raft with Jim going down the river, but had developed a strong bond and friendship with him that broke the barrier between black and white, at least between the two of them: “And I got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me, all the time, in the day, and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a floating along, talking, and singing, and laughing,” (227). Huck’s view towards black people definitely lightened up a bit towards the end of the story, but nonetheless, the distrust between whites and blacks would never fully go away as it still exists today.
For all our lives, people will never forget the fact that black people were once enslaved and put through severe physical and mental anguish by white people. There will always be distrust between the white race and the black race in this world. This distrust is very apparent in the story. Being held as a slave by white people for such a long time, Jim taught himself to believe that all white people are bad and to never trust one of them. The same is true in Huck’s case. When the two of them met up with one another on Jackson’s Island, they tried to put away that distrust, or at least conceal it to make it look to the other that they meant no harm. However, when the duke, dauphin, and Huck went into the town and left Jim alone in the canoe, Jim ran off trying to get free of the other white men because he believed that they were not looking out for his best interests and thought they would turn him in: “Jim was gone! I set up a shout- and then another- and then another one; and run this way and that in the woods, whooping and screeching; but it warn’t no use- old Jim was gone,” (225). Jim ran away because he did not have trust in the men he was with. He may have been correct in his assumption because, after all, two of the men he was with, the duke and the dauphin, were trying to make a living by lying to people and scamming them out of their money. Jim had every right to not trust the men he was with because of the color of their skin compared to his, their backgrounds, and the fact that society at that time was full of liars and cheaters all after money, just as it is today.
Huck Finn played such an important role in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” as he displayed the many views of society at the time and the confusion surrounding them. These intricate views included: Americans’ desire for change and exploration of the rest of the United States to satisfy their cravings for discovery, the belief that blacks are inferior to whites, and the lack of trust and honesty in others that is apparent in society, not just between whites and blacks, but between everyone. At the time of this story, America was just arriving at a new era of change that affected everyone in one way or another. Huck Finn’s character simply displayed how this big change in the world affected societal views on the world from then on.