-
Essay / The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: book review
As humans grow up, they become more intelligent, learn to find their place in their world, and discover the foundations of their beliefs. These three things are fulfilled when a person looks to their physical, cultural, and geographic environment to shape their psychological or moral traits. In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, this is exactly what Huck did. He was shaped by his trip down the Mississippi River, his good friend Jim, the foul-mouthed Miss Watson, and his father “Pap.” These surrounding aspects help illuminate the meaning of the work as a whole, making Huck the person he was. the end of the novel. The Mississippi River, the important setting of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is where Huck discovered his own logic. The Mississippi River was calm and gentle. Huck especially liked it because it was away from society. “Not a sound, anywhere – perfectly still – as if the whole world was asleep, only sometimes the bullfrogs get in the way perhaps.” (Douain 108). While traveling down the river, Huck met unlikely companions who taught him life lessons. The first is when they meet the two thieves in the Walter Scott painting, Huck and Finn, without expecting to see them there. They escape by jumping into the thieves' boat and leave as discreetly as possible. When they are six hundred meters away, Huck feels bad for the thieves left stranded on the ship. This is an important aspect of Huck's character development because it demonstrates that although the thieves were bad men who did not deserve his compassion, they were also people in need of help. So he sends them help. Huck reaches the point on the river where he meets the Grangerford family, pleasant and respectable people. However, in the middle of the paper and at the end of the book, Huck even feels compassion for people who don't deserve it. He sees the duke and the king tarred and feathered. Despite the fact that these men played dirty tricks on him, Huck still feels sorry for them. “It was a terrible thing to see. Human beings can be terribly cruel to each other. (208) Mark Twain essentially questions the reader to examine his set of beliefs and decide which ones he actually believes and which ones should be abandoned, just as Huck did with Miss Watson's beliefs and Pap's beliefs. Huck's own psychological and moral traits are shaped by the cultural, physical, and geographical environment in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Huck has learned to take what he knows from society and apply it to his own set of values and moral code. He is now able to distinguish between right, wrong, right, wrong, threat and friend..