Essay Example on Thematic Essay Transformation of Huck Finn

Huck Finn Thematic Essay Transformation of Huck Finn People rarely change When they do others take note Huckleberry Finn didn t appear to show much promise of changing His opinions especially towards African Americans were deformed by the southern society where he grew up Widow Douglass Miss Watson and his father Pap all had tried to sivilize and change him yet their attempts all ended up unsuccessful However by the end of the novel Huck was transformed to a boy with self reliance independence and notion of right and wrong and love towards humanity And it was all done by an African American slave named Jim who was viewed not even as a person at his time but a possession Huck first emerged into the novel as a punk boy with an empty heart His guardians Miss Watson and Widow Douglass all had tried to educate Huck by sending him to school and taught him manners Huck was rebellious and desired freedom He looked up to his childhood friend Tom Sawyer who was just as mischievous as himself and they decided to be part of a gang By rules of the gang every member must murder their family members if he broke one of the rules of the gang Huck was an orphan and he didn t have a family to kill yet he offered to sacrifice Miss Watson just to be part of a nonexistent gang 

They talked it over and they was going to rule me out because they said every boy must have a family or something to kill or else it wouldn't be fair and square for the others Well nobody could think of anything to do everybody was stumped and set still I was most ready to cry but all at once I thought of a way and so I offered them Miss Watson they could kill her 28 Twain This scene demonstrates Huck s naiveness and immorality from the start of his journey As Huck's journey progressed Huck was put into situations where he needed to make a decision if whether he turned Jim in or not Huck had a good nature but he was raised in the southern society that had a deformed conscience about African Americans As Huck and Jim arrived in Cairo he has to choose whether to keep his promise of his friend to send him into freedom or to turn him in as a inferior runaway slave Huck made the decision to not turn Jim in going against what the society had taught him to do Although he still felt guilty doing so he thought that bringing Jim into freedom was the right thing to do I will go to hell 207 Twain Huck s decision on this matter demonstrated the influence and guidance Jim had brought to him It was the first time that Huck started to follow his own heart and gained self reliance marking a significant transformation Huck and Tom were quite similar from the beginning both being teenage boys that were rebellious pranksters against adults However after Huck went through his journey with an African American runaway slave Jim his change was significant Tom was an educated boy raised in a respectable family 

He went school and learned how to read yet everything inside him was nothing but a mischievous prankster His heart was empty Unlike Tom Huck did not receive education at school yet as he went through his journey he became much more mature and logical of the effects of his actions His relationship with Jim educated him as a person and changed his heart Tom didn't go through the same journey as Huck did and by the end of the novel when they were trying to save Jim Tom was rash and selfish and foiled Huck s metamorphosis Huck initially wanted to save his friend as quickly and simply as possible but Tom still viewed Jim as a runaway slave Tom told me what his plan was and I see in a minute it was worth fifteen of mine for style and would make Jim just as free a man as mine would and maybe get us all killed besides 566 Twain He dehumanized Jim by complicating the process and watched Jim suffering from pain and putting himself and the others in danger just to have some fun and adventure He knew Jim was a free man the whole time yet his romantic nature or in other words selfishness and immaturity remained through the whole novel and made him a sharp contrast to Huck People rarely change yet when they do something significant must ve happened In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain Huck wasn t the best candidate for a total transformation and metamorphosis yet somehow his journey with a runaway slave shaped his own personality and completely changed his heart He viewed Jim as an inferior possession and pranked on him when they first met and he even thought about turning him in just like what he's been taught to do But by the end of the novel he was trying his best to save his friend from danger Word Cited Votaw John and Mark Twain The adventures of Huckleberry Finn Pearson Education Ltd 2008