The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Huck discovers himself by shifting perspectives and meeting communities that allow him to investigate his identity. Huck explores the waters and the shores of the Mississippi Rivers while interacting with all parts of society. The immense distinctions between the river and the shore permit Huck and his friend Jim to neglect social standards and evoke feelings of both freedom and fraud, allowing a strong theme of pursuing an identity to develop. 

A social standard is defined as the norm or requirement of a society. To Huck and Jim the shore represents a place of racism, sexism, and overbearing religious principles. However, the river authorizes them to neglect all standards and value freedom. The story begins with Huck feeling unsatisfied and fed up with society, followed by his escape because of the obligations he is presented with. Jim also abandons his slave life for a chance to be free. By committing these actions, Huck and Jim are discarding the social standards, such as racism, of their community and fighting towards understanding the independence in their time spent on the river. For instance, when Aunt Sally, an old southern woman, heard that an African American was killed she said, “Well, it’s lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt.” Conversely, describing river life Huck says, “We said there warn’t no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don’t. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft.” Huck Finn feels like a different person on the river compared to who he is on the shore. He is able to consider himself as an individual. 

Mark Twain makes use of setting to support most of his symbolism, two primary examples being the river and the shore. The calm, spiritually refreshing river, in the story, flows peacefully winking in the sunlight and enlightens Huck of what hope and freedom are all about. While the shore generates a discouraging vibe that embraces Huck’s struggles amongst the Fraud induced environment. To Huck the shore means the thought of behaving, acting civilized with religion, and being confined. To Jim the shore means slavery and captivity. “What’s the use you learning to do right, when it’s troublesome to do right and ain’t no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same?” (Twain chapter 16). The river, to both Huck and Jim, symbolizes security and freedom. “It was kind of solemn, drifting down the big, still river, laying on our backs looking up at the stars, and we didn’t ever feel like talking loud, and it warn’t often that we laughed—only a little kind of a low chuckle. We had mighty good weather as a general thing, and nothing ever happened to us at all—that night, nor the next, nor the next.”

Life presents different situations for everyone that alters their opinions. Huck starts his journey with innocence and conformity; however, as he is exposed to various societies, he recognizes the corruption proceeding on the shore. He contrasts this with the freedom he experiences while on the river and Huck begins to develop into an individual. “All I wanted was to go somewheres; all I wanted was a change” (Twain 33).

The knowledge gained from Huck Finn judging the south contributes to the idea that Huck transforms his purity into his own identity. The contrasting elements of the river and the shore provide the foundation for constructing Huck’s education of societies traits. “I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can’t stand it. I been there before.”