The Adventurers of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain

Published 1884-85

American Novel

The Well-Educated Mind Novels

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First Level of Inquiry: Grammar-Stage Reading

1. Who is the central character?
2. What is the book’s most important event?

The main character is Huckleberry Finn.

The most important event is actually a process.  Huck has grown disgusted with the duke and dauphin because of how they mistreat people, especially the daughters of the deceased Mr. Wilkes; but he fails to escape the pair.  When they are again plotting and planning to scam the townspeople, Huck attempts another escape, but finds Jim missing from the raft.  He learns that Jim was sold to a temporary owner.

Huck is frustrated; all of his efforts to get Jim to freedom have been wasted.  Then he begins to question his conscience.  He knows that Jim is Miss Watson’s property, and he is harboring stolen property by keeping Jim, which is considered disgraceful. He is confused about what the right thing to do is.  He tried to pray about doing what society says is right: to turn Jim in; but he knew he was lying.  But he wrote the letter anyway and set it aside to think about how Jim had treated him: with dignity and loyalty.  Jim called Huck his only friend.  That’s when Huck ripped up that paper and declared that if going against what society said was right meant going to hell, then he would go to hell.   He would “go to work and steal Jim out of slavery again.”

This process and final pronouncement is the culmination of Huck’s continuous battle between doing what society says is right or doing what his conscience knows is truly moral and good.  Keep in mind: Huck is surrounded by a culture that continuously demonstrates it is not interested in doing right but rather doing what benefits [them] most at the expense of others.  Society has been unfair and without common sense; those who should be protected are taken advantage of or ignored, and there is no law and order or justice.  

Huck chooses to use common sense and follow his heart to tell him what is right.  Frankly, in a culture that is as corrupt and lacking as Huck’s, one can always rely on his God-given moral compass; for God put it on the hearts of men, even unbelievers like Huck, to know what is right and wrong.

Second Level of Inquiry: Logic Stage Reading

Overall, Huck wants to be free from the constraints of his civilization.  He wants to live by his own rules.  If he does not want to wear clean clothes, go to school, or pray over his food, he shouldn’t have to.  Of course, Huck is a teenage boy; he doesn’t always know what is best for him. Miss Watson is a temporary obstacle because she wants to “sivilize” him.

Overall, some societal norms and expectations are standing in his way.  For example, his father is granted custody of Huck on the grounds that children should not be removed from their parents even though we know how abusive Huck’s father proves to be.  The law does not protect Huck.  His father forces him away and keeps him locked in a cabin.

One other example: Huck’s idea of Jim is based on what Huck’s culture says Jim is, but Huck learns first hand that Jim has feelings, too, and deserves to be treated fully human.  Yet even Huck’s ignorance, thanks to what civilization has taught him, can only consider this evidence for Jim having “white blood in him” as if a black man is not capable of human feelings.  

Later, a second thing that Huck wants is to free Jim.  Again, the obstacle is a society that says slaves are property.

The strategy that Jim uses to overcome these obstacles is to rise to the occasion and resolve to go against societal norms and to free Jim once and for all.  With the help of Tom Sawyer, Huck goes along with Tom’s unnecessary convoluted plan to free Jim.  Tom withheld the truth that Jim was free after Miss Douglass died because he selfishly wanted to enjoy the adventure of it all.  He did not care about Jim’s life as Huck did.  Contrast Tom’s immaturity with Jim’s patient revelation that Huck’s father has been dead for a while.

Now, Huck is free; but, when Aunt Sally desires to “sivilize” Huck, he declares enough of civilization and vows to go out West.  And one has to believe he does because nothing is going to hold him back now.  

Third Level of Inquiry: Rhetoric Stage Reading

Mark Twain demonstrates how uncivilized civilization can truly be.  Does that make sense?   For example, in Huck’s time, pre-American Civil War, slavery was acceptable by a portion of the nation, even by Christians and educated people.  The prevailing notion was that blacks were not capable of raising a family, being educated, or even loving or feeling.  They were compared to animals, and, in many cases, they were treated as such.  

The idea is confounding that a “civilized” society could hold such ignorant ideas.  Huck figured out through personal experience that Jim was a good friend, kind, loyal, and capable of feeling; therefore, Huck questioned what society had taught about blacks, or more particularly, Jim.   Huck may have been uneducated and only a poor boy, but he was full of common sense and had a conscience tender toward human feelings; yet, the “civilized” portion of the culture could not see what Huck saw.

I am easily convinced of Twain’s argument, even though he claims he does not have one.  Here is just one example of today’s so-called civilization behaving uncivilized: abortion.  I know it is a difficult subject to discuss, but frankly, I do not understand how a civilized society can accept the murder of babies in the womb for the sake of convenience.  To mirror Twain’s thoughts on society: abortion is practiced to benefit others, while the vulnerable are always taken advantage of.  I won’t get into it here, but it is totally uncivilized, and like slavery, it is totally evil.