Hucks Transformation Essay, Research Paper

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, shows the transformations a

teenage boy goes through to find himself. The main character, a boy by the name of Huck

Finn finds himself in many situations, all very different and complex. These situations give

him new perspectives on life and living throughout the book. His adventures include

getting away from his money-grubbing drunkard father all the way to living with an upper

class southern family involved with slavery. As a teenage boy, he faces an identity crisis

that further draws him into his adventures; understandably, he’s curious about himself and

his capabilities, and most importantly.. his independence. Unfortunately, he must go

through different masks that do not belong to his persona first before he truly finds

himself.

At the beginning of the story, we meet a boy named Huck who’s under the care of

Widow Douglas since his alcoholic father is unable to care for him. Although he’s

adjusted, life has not always been like this for Huck. He’s known his life for the most part

as an adventure where he can be free of concerns and being tied down, and feels the

difference between that lifestyle and a more “safe” lifestyle immensely. His father comes

back to town to find Huck for money. His father places him in the deep of the woods, in

confinement, where he must watch his father booze up. Huck’s escape and the changing

of his identity are his only release from being in the log cabin. After escaping the hell that

was the log cabin and his father, Huck is left free to roam with his freedom at last.

The raft that Huck and Jim – the runaway slave – travels on demonstrates a symbol

of freedom in this story. To Huck, the raft is a secure device for him to live and figure

things out on but when King and Duke enters his life, it’s as if someone is taking away the

isolation from the world that he loved so much. His entire plan to rid himself of his father

was to “die,” because he assumed that if he basically faked his own death, and no one

cared that much anyway, people wouldn’t look for his body for very long. He saw himself,

in their eyes, not worthy of being found and in a way hoped that and encouraged that

because then he could rid himself of his name and try himself with different identities.

Huckleberry Finn met many people in this story that he could learn moral decisions

from. King and Duke were liars; Jim was his inspiration; his father was the epitome of

what Huck didn’t want to be. Huck had learned enough in life that he could measure the

balance between society and what’s morally sound. He knew that society would want him

to return Jim back to the person who owned him, but he also knew that in his heart and in

God’s mind, it would be a terrible thing to send Jim back to what’s not right.

By the end of the story, Huckleberry Finn really did find himself. To much of the

mainstream of the society back in slavery times, he would be considered an Abolitionist,

but to freedom and morals, he was a young man who had found himself as a non-

conformist to society.