Andy Medina
AP English
Mr. George
Huckleberry Finn Essay
3/23/09
Huck’s upbringing and how it helped him to act outside of the normal in his society
Huckleberry Finn is unlike many boys. He is twelve years old and lives a different life than many would expect. Huck Finn is more independent and has a different view on life. He acts differently because of his upbringing which is different to say the least. Huck is raised with different ideas and in different places. Due to his unique upbringing Huck has different characteristics. He is brought up with contradicting ideas about what he should be, and how he should act in society.
Huckleberry Finn is raised and develops in a few different settings. He lived in the woods with his father, in a house with the Widow Douglass and Miss Watson, and on the raft with Jim. All three areas a much different, and what Huck experiences in each settings defines him as a person. His views about life are different because of his rearing. With Pap Huck’s life was much different from what people would consider the norm. Huck’s time with the Widow Douglass and Miss Watson is quite contrary to his time with Pap. He is more “civilized” in the sense that he sleeps in a bed, wears clean clothes, and goes to school. This is a very different experience for Huck since when he was with Pap he had a lot of freedom. He was not used to this life style and was not very sure if he liked it: “I had stopped cussing, because the widow didn’t like it; but now I took to it again because pap hadn’t no objections. It was pretty good times up in the woods there, take it all around” (Twain 34). With Pap Huck could do what he liked and he had no real sense of what society saw as correct. He viewed the world in a manner that was very different from others.
Huck’s upbringing with the Widow Douglass and Miss Watson was contrary to what Huck had learned with Pap. Huck was taught many new ideas that seemed alien like to him. “She said the thing a body could get by praying for it was ‘spiritual gifts.’ This was too many for me, but she told me what she meant-I must help other people, and do everything I could for other people, and look out for them all the time, and never think about myself" (19). Huck is hearing many new things and most likely he thinks that they are foolish. These new ideas are much different from what he learned when he was with Pap. Huck now has had two contradictory views on life, and they must have been confusing to understand which was right and which was wrong. Huck’s view on the world only will become more difficult for him to understand because the diverse opinions that were being taught to him.
The next setting that Huck was exposed to was life on the raft with Jim. Life was easy on the raft: “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" (128). The raft was a place of freedom for Huck and Jim. They lived their lives as they wanted to and did things to survive. They encountered many different situations and people while on the raft, and during these experiences are where the reader is shown many examples of how Huck’s upbringing affects his view on situations in society.
On the raft Huck was put into many new types of situations that he had to find a way out of. There were times where they had no food on the raft and were forced to steal, but Huck would leave some other kind of food in its place because he thought it was what the widow would do. In this type of situation there are examples of two of the forms of Huck’s upbringing. He stole out of necessity, which is something he would have learned from Pap, and he left something behind in its place because it is something that he thought the Widow Douglass would like. There are other situations where some event takes place and Huck’s explanation is outside of the norm. For example there was a time while on the raft Huck found pieces of bread in the water that he could eat. His answer for why the bread was there was simple: "I reckon the widow or the parson or somebody prayed that this bread would find me […] there's something in it when a body like the widow or the parson prays, but it don't work for me, and I reckon it don't work for only just the right kind"(48). Huck is still a young, naïve boy, and he has not had the opportunity to learn and develop like others at his age level. He sees life differently than others, and there are many times where he says things that show how he feels about situations that many people would feel differently about.
There are issues that Huck has differing views about that many would see as simple to understand, like learning right and wrong: “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?" (104). Huck’s view on this situation is one from a person who, in his early life, was not taught the difference between right and wrong by societies standards, but he was taught what was right and wrong in order to survive. Huck’s right and wrong is different from society’s right and wrong. Another instance where Huck shows his opinion is when he speaks about telling the truth. "I reckon a body that ups and tells the truth when he is in a tight place, is taking considerable many resks, though I ain't had no experience, […] and yet here's a case where I'm blest if it don't look to me like the truth is better, and actuly safer, than a lie"(200). Huck’s experiences have shown him how to act in certain situations, and he has grown as an individual.
Huck Finn was raised outside of society and was never corrupt by its teachings. He was exposed to some of societal views as his life went on, but he was always able to view the corruption from the outside since he never truly had a real part in society. Huck never had to experience the corruption of society for long, and he escaped it because he was not born into it. He was born outside of society and he could always look in and act outside of the corruption.
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