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The Moral Progression Of Huckleberry Finn Essay

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The Moral Progression of Huckleberry Finn


The main character of Mark Twain?s Huckleberry Finn undergoes a total moral


transformation upon having to make life defining decisions throughout his journey for a new


life. Huck emerges into the novel with an inferiority complex caused by living with a drunken


and abusive father, and with the absence of any direction. It is at this point where Huck is first


seen without any concept of morality. Fortunately, Huck is later assisted by the guidance of


Jim, a runaway slave who joins him on his journey and helps Huck gain his own sense of


morality. Throughout Huck?s adventures, he is put into numerous situations where he must


look within himself and use his own judgement to make fundamental decisions that will effect


the morals of which Huck will carry with him throughout his life.


Preceding the start of the novel, Miss Watson and the widow have been granted


custody of Huck, an uncivilized boy who possesses no morals. Huck looks up to a boy named


Tom Sawyer who has decided he is going to start a gang. In order for one to become a


member, they must consent to the murdering of their families if they break the rules of the


gang. It was at this time that one of the boys realized that Huck did not have a real family.


They talked it over, and they was going to rule me out, because they said every


boy must have a family or something to kill, or else it wouldn?t be fair and square


for the others. Well, nobody could think of anything to do? everybody was


stumped, and set still. I was most ready to cry; but all at once I thought of a


way, and so I offered them Miss Watson?they could kill her (17-18).


At this moment, Huck is at the peak of his immorality. A person with morals would not willingly


sacrifice the life of someone else just in order to be part of a gang. It is at this point where


Huck can now begin his journey of moral progression.


Huck encounters his first major dilemma when he comes across the wrecked


steamboat and three criminals. When Jim and Huck take the skiff for themselves, leaving the


three robbers stranded, Huck realizes that he has left them to die.


Now was the first time that I begun to worry about the men? I reckon I hadn?t


time to before. I begun to think how dreadful it was, even for murderers, to be

in


such a fix. I says to myself, there ain?t no telling but I might come to be a


murderer myself yet, and then how would I like it? (76).


This is the first time that Huck questions the effects of what he has done on other people.


After he realizes that he could now be considered a murderer, he makes a plan to get a


captain to go investigate the wreck in order to save the men?s lives. Even though the men he


would be saving are murderers and robbers, he can not justify being responsible for their


death, and makes it a point to correct what he has done wrong. This is the first major step in


Huck?s moral progression. At that point, he establishes a set of standards that considers


leaving the men to die as immoral.


Throughout the book there is the recurring theme of Friend v. Society. This is a main


moral decision that Huck is forced to make a few times in his journey. Upon arriving at Cairo,


Huck must decide if he should go along with society and turn Jim in as a runaway slave, or


keep his promise to his friend, and see him through to freedom. Huck feels guilty not turning


Jim in when he hears him talking about hiring an abolitionist to steal his family. He does not


think it is right to help take away slaves from people that he doesn?t even know. To turn Jim in


for these reasons would be the influence of society on Huck. Huck?s decision on this matter


marks another major step in Huck?s moral progression, because he decides not to turn in Jim


on his own. This is the first time he makes a decision all on his own based on his own


morality. Both this incident and the Wilkes Scheme represent Huck?s ultimate realization and


rejection of society. To encapsulate Huck?s total moral progression through his decision to


help Jim, Huck states, ?I?ll go to hell? (207) to see Jim into freedom.


Huck?s moral progression can be traced throughout the book beginning from his total


lack of morals to being able to make the right decisions on his own. It is only with the help of


Jim as a moral guide that Huck is able to undergo this moral transformation to use his own


judgement and truly progress. The situation that Huck is encountered with about choosing


friend over society is the main dilemma that pushes Huck to establish his own standards of


morality, rather than accepting those that society has set forth.

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