Huck Finn essays

Huck Finn essays Huckleberry Finn: The experiences of an endangered child Mark Twain created a character that expresses freedom within American society. Huckleberry Finn lives on the margins of society because he is the son of a town drunk. He sleeps where he pleases and eats where he pleases. No one requires him to attend school or church, bath or dress respectably. Years of having to fend for himself have invested Huck with solid common sense. Huckleberry Finns background is as important as his personality in this novel. He is only thirteen years old when he sets out on his own. He comes from the lowest levels of white society. His father was a drunk and he is often dirty and frequently homeless. Widow Douglass and Miss Watson reform him throughout the novel. The community failed to protect him from his father and he was denied schooling and religious training. He feels society and enters the natural world where he feels most at home. He and a friend, Tom Sawyer cross paths in the wilderness and decide to travel together. Both use a raft to escape the bondage of the land. Through Huck, Twain weighs the costs and benefits of living in society against those of living independently of society. Adult societies disapprove of Huck, but because he appears to be a likeable boy, the adults disapproval of Huck generally separates the readers from them and not from Huck himself. Throughout the novel, Huck becomes skeptical of the world around him and constantly looks to distance him from it. Since he is a child, Huck is always vulnerable; any adult he encounters has power over him. This allows Twain to compare Huck to Jim, who is a slave and also vulnerable to whites, even a poor white child such as Huck. Hucks childhood leads him to often distrust people. That same distrust and his experiences as he travels down the river force him to question the things he has been taught. Hucks sense of logic and fairn...