In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck Finn is a very complex and thought-provoking young boy. Born into the lower level of white society, this thirteen-year-old boy goes through a great change in the story. Through the course of this narrative, Huck will create himself no less willfully than anyone else, and will do so in ways that come to seem no more self-justifiable (Mitchell 84). Huckleberry Finn makes a transition from that of a young naive boy to that of a man through his experiences with the escaped slave Jim down the Mississippi River.
             As we are first introduced to Huckleberry Finn, we see truly how he is still young. He is continuously teaming up with his best friend Tom Sawyer pulling pranks on Jim and engaging in imaginary gangs. Huck's reason for joining Tom, in other words, is that he is lonely and frightened, that he wants distraction, companionship, friendship-ultimately of course, love (Bell 51). In these childish games the immature children would pretend to "stop stagecoaches and carriages on the road, with masks on, and kill the people and take their watches and money." Tom and the gang of course, are completely unrealistic about the crimes they propose to commit, and blissfully unaware that crime, as gilded by the popular romances, is morally wrong (Adams 44). These games based off what was pieced together from novels Tom had read demonstrated the young boys lack of maturity. Again and again, to the dismay of serious readers, Huck seems to accept Tom's values (Bell 51). Huck must conform to Tom's ritualistic and childish ways early on, but later in the story we view the more practical and quick thinking Huck Finn that gets them he and Jim out of unfavorable situations. In this opening setting we view only one side of Huck, one of immaturity mainly dominated by Tom Sawyer. The theme of the book as we have hinted, is the same as that of Tom Sawyer: the growth of a boy to manhood, and ...