Huck Finn

I have read Huck Finn several times throughout my learning in English. Each time I read this book I discover more about Huck and understand what drives him to adventure down the Mississippi River. Huck Finn is really the quintessential adolescent. Mark Twain displays adolescence through Huck’s character extremely well, so well that this book can be used generations later and still be applicable. Though Huck is bold, adventurous, and strong headed, he still remains naïve about the stereotypes and restrictions of the world. Huck has Jim as his main role model and the main contributor to his development throughout the novel. Huck considered Jim a friend, even a brother and that quality shows the resilience of adolescents, because they are able to see past the differences of people and value their input and reliability. Twain makes Huck a strong character, but still malleable so that readers were able to see how crucial Jim was to Huck’s learning and understanding how the world really was. Jim was a black slave striving for freedom and equality, Huck was a young adolescent that wanted freedom to do what made him happy and live without bonds to a society influence. He was able to see the bad in the cons that they encountered and in the towns that wanted to sell Jim. Both of these characters needed each other to learn how to live and appreciate the world, though it was flawed. They created within each other resistance to pressure and courage to do what was right. Huck was able to learn from a person that was not bound by society’s rules and therefore he grew in the book to be more confident in what made a person a good person.