Romanticism in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
...t in the novel, Huck begins to think, “And then think of me! It would get all around that Huck Finn helped a nigger to get his freedom; and if I was ever to see anybody from that town again I’d be ready to get down and lick his boots for shame.” (213) Huck actually writes back to Jim’s owner, telling her where he is and what needs to be done in order to get him back. Huck does this all out of not what he believes to be right, but what society believes to be right. He begins to become scared of what might happen to him in society’s eyes for a rare moment in the novel, and the outcome is terrible. Huck actually considers turning Jim in just so he can appear as some sort of hero for society. But Huck begins to think about his decision, and with this thought process, he reaches the climax of the novel as he tears up the letter he wrote to Jim’s owner and emphatically says, “All right, then, I’ll go to hell.”(214). With this sentence, Huck finally begins to stand for what he believes in, regardless of society’s wishes. All along Huck’s journey, he hasn’t had much regard for society, doing such thing’s as lying and “borrowing”, yet his decision to help Jim regardless of society and God’s wishes is the final turning point of Huck to a life in which he believes in himself, and his own wishes. Huck truly becomes his own person. Although these are just two scenes, it is throughout the novel that Twain implies that society’s rules and conventions should be questioned, and not be followed religiously. This idea of rules and conventions follows into the idea of “civilized” humanity not being so civilized. Twain uses when Huck goes to live with the Grangerfords to depict humankind in nature as morally superior to “civilized” humanity. Twain characterizes the Grangerfords to be very wealthy people. They live in a large house in the country, with all the amenities of a house in the city, rather than a house in the customary style of a farm. They are patrons of the arts as their living room is filled with works of art and poems. They are portrayed to be intelligent and kind people as well, as they take in Huck and treat him as a family member. Additionally, they are good Christians; church-goers who do not miss a single sermon. However civilized they may appear to be, they are portrayed to have one terrible savagery in them; they are bloodthirsty. A feud that started more than thirty years back still has all the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons, their enemies, to carry around weapons wherever they go, even to church. But the worst of it is, none of the Grangerfords or Shepherdsons remember why the feud even started; they just seem to figure it is their sole duty to kill anyone of the opposite family, without a second thought as to why they are doing this kind of killing. Twain also uses the example of the feud between the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons to highlight the hypocrisy of society. On one hand, they were at a church sermon about brotherly love, and both the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons praised the sermon. Yet, each one had brought a gun with them to church and kept it between their knees, or stood them handily against a wall. Twain is showing this hypocrisy of bringing gun even to church to kill, when each family praised the sermon relating directly to their case. Huck, who is “uncivilized” and has been living as one with the river, and as a human of nature, finds this to be morally wrong. He cannot understand why this feud is continuing, if no one knows why it started in the first place. Secondly, he sees the hypocrisy of both families in bringing their weapons to church. When the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons have their final duel over Sophia Grangerford marrying Harney Shepherdson, the families kill one another and don’t really seem to have a problem with it. It is Huck who becomes sick over it, and it is Huck who can’t recount that night in great detail for fear he’ll be sick again. He says that he still dreams about that fight between the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons, yet they were the ones who brought their untimely deaths upon themselves. Through this duel scene, Twain depicts Huck as morally superior to the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons, although Huck is uneducated and living life on a raft, while the two aristocratic families are enjoying an opulent life style as patrons of the arts, and educated men and women. Not only does Twain portray Huck as morally superior in this episode, but also as innocent in his childhood; he was so sickened by the feud that his innocence is very conspicuous in the midst of the corrupted society. Throughout the novel, Twain emphasizes the innocence of children until corrupted by their surroundings. Twain introduces this initial innocence of children in the beginning of the novel, when the idea for Tom Sawyer’s Gang springs up. As part of the oath for the gang, they decide to kill anyone boy’s families as well as the boy himself who betrays the oath. All the boys find this a grand idea, and are stumped when it comes to Huck because he has no family. Huck readily offers Miss Watson, one of the women who take care of him, as the one to be killed in case he betrays the gang. Huck doesn’t even re...