Moral Growth In Mark Twain's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

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From the beginning of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn the reader tracks Huckleberry Finn’s moral growth and development over the course of the novel. Huck is a twelve year old boy who has ran away from home in the search of freedom. On his way he meets Jim, an escaped slave, who is also searching for freedom. Many conflicts arise when Huck has to decide whether to use his conscience or do what society tells him is right. Huck’s moral growth throughout the novel allows him to use his personal conscience to challenge the ideals that society has taught him. Our first moment of Huck’s morals were in the beginning of the story when he was with Widow Douglass and often acted immature and silly. Huck did not care about anything, he just went “with the flow of things.” As he leaves Pap and goes to fend for himself in the real world Huck learns that he needs to mature in order to succeed and survive. His moral growth throughout the novel allows him to do things…show more content…
In this scene he decides to challenge society’s ideals and “works himself up to go and humble himself to a nigger.” Huck uses his conscience and does what he thinks is right not what society thinks is right. The reader sees that Huck matures by realizing the dependency and valuing the trust he has with Jim by apologizing for his immature actions. He also feels remorse for what he does and acknowledges that. He begins to see the effect that his actions have on people, “I didn’t do him no more mean tricks, and I wouldn’t done that one if I’d a knowed it would make him feel that way” (65). Huck realizes that he has misused the trust that has formed between them and begins to see Jim, like himself, has feelings. This evidence is seen as the beginning of growth in Huck’s personal conscience; he begins to take action and does what he thinks is right even if it goes against society’s

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