Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is a story of a boy, Huck Finn, who runs away from home and travels down the Mississippi River with a “runaway nigger” named Jim. Huck’s father, Pap, is a drunken low life who doesn’t seem to care for his son. He comes from a poor, troubled family and isn’t very educated which is something he seems to embrace. “Huck Finn runs away not only from an abusive father but also from his good-intentioned guardian, Miss Watson, who tries to civilize Huck, educate him, and make him a Christian” (Sienkewicz). Whether he knows it or not his journey down the river isn’t just an escape, it is a learning experience. Huck learns a few life lessons from dealing with his conscience, to friendship and equality, to having trust and he realizes that he isn’t as alone as he thought he was.
Throughout the whole story Huck struggles with his conscience and choosingbetween what is right and what is wrong. He doesn’t always make the right decision but he gets pretty close. He learns to follow his heart instead of his conscience when necessary. For example, while traveling down the river in a storm, he and Jim come across a stuck steamboat and decide to go aboard to see what kind of stuff they can find. It turns out that there are three men on the boat, two of which are murderers who are going to kill the third guy. The murderers set up a little boat to leave the scene that Huck and Jim end up taking. Huck knows these guys are up to no good but still feels it in his heart to help them. He tells somebody that his family is on the boat and in trouble and to send some help (Twain 72-4). “Twain shows us that Huck’s sympathy for the suffering of others can act as a restraint on his own desires and as a fo…
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…a little “fun.” Tom got Huck’s only true friend killed and lied to him which is just proof that you can’t trust just anybody and everybody. People will go out of their way in order to please themselves without putting anyone else in mind.
Huck’s long and eventful journey started out as an escape but turned into a huge learning experience, whether he wants to believe it or not. Twain shows us, through Huck and the events in the story, that there is always a lesson to be learned. The youth is the most influential group, but Huck proves to us that it is possible to overcome struggles and learn something new everyday. The more time you spend with somebody and the more time you invest into something the more you will get out of it. It might be hard to believe that young boy could accomplish and experience so much but there is always something good that comes out of it.
