Huck Finn
Struggle Between Heart and Conscience When Robert Frost writes of "two roads diverged in a wood, and I-/ I took the one less traveled by/And that has made all the difference" ("The Road Not Taken"), he demonstrates the realization of both writers and the hoi-polloi that following the accepted path of society not always directs an individual in the proper direction. While few people would disagree with the principle, most do not concede to the action. Since such moral conflicts continuously plague the lives of common people, writers commonly portray such simple problems in their novels. But just as not all moral decisions allow for an obvious solution, not all writers choose to portray such one-dimensional conflicts. Often a person's intuition conflicts with pervading conventions in solving an obscure problem, as demonstrated by the Mark Twain in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The main character of the novel, the youthful Huckleberry Finn, uses his intuition throughout the novel to guide him in the correct path. Employing various episodes involving not only the runaway slave Jim but also other characters, Twain efectively conveys to the reader a complex moral problem that the young Huck must face in the nineteenth
(67) Huck realizes the innate goodness within Jim that so few men possess, because "his profound and bitter knowledge of human depravity never prevents him from being a friend to man. But when the culture of the time period is researched, one encounters such plethora of evidence of these magical practices that Jim's behavior becomes valid. Reverting to the dilemna of slavery in the end of the novel, Huck reaches the highest moral peaks as he acknowledges Jim as an actual friend who he decides to protect out of the goodness of his heart. " (Marks, 47) Once he rejects society's stereotype of the black man, Huckleberry will go to great lengths to protect his travelling companion. (C, p21) With his collision with the Duke and King, this factor becomes crucial in explaining Huck's behavior. But Huck is not yet a purely altruistic soul; he must still travel miles of river before he can wash away the stains of his initial assistance to Jim which was based partly on his own self-interest in escaping. Twain seriously explores the ethics of self- interest throughout the many underhanded schemes instituted by the two frauds. In order to impart on the reader the true moral standing which he wishes him to uphold through the rest of the book, Twain extrapolates on the subject of slavery in the nineteenth century in the first few chapters of the novel. #) In all of these incidents, Huckleberry Finn's active concern for his fellow man demonstrates the uprightness of his intuitive "heart" when compared to the society which surrounds it. Perhaps the most famous line of the novel is, "All right then, I'll go to hell!" When Mark Twain allows his main character to utter these self-damning words, he forces the reader to face the irony of benevolent Huck's accepance that "whoso would save his soul must lose it" (A, p79). An example of Huck's moral probity occurrs during the shipwreck scene. Since so little is to be hoped for from such a world, a moral theory of individual expediency acquires plausibility.
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Acceptance Essays
