Huck Finn Post 16-22

These few chapters were not very forthcoming with the theme, coming-of-age, and you definitely had to dig deeper into the reading.  But eventually you find it.  One instance of coming-of-age in chapters 16-22, is the notion of death.  Here you meet the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons, who are two families still at war with each other, but neither one knows why.  Their main objective, however, seems to be to kill each other.  There is even a sense of irony as you realize that the two families go to the same church, but while sitting there listening to the word of brotherly love, they have rifles between their knees.

This feud between the two families leads to the death of Buck Grangerford and the nineteen year old Shepherdsons, and this is a very serious moment in the novel.  While they have brought up the situation of death earlier in the book with Huck’s father,  this is now one of his friends that he had been staying with.  This is a coming-of-age example because when you are facing the death of someone who is close to you, you don’t really have a choice but to confront it.  You also may have to ask yourself questions such as ‘what happens when we die?’  And even though Huck was more concerned about fleeing, you saw how this death affected him when he pulled Buck’s body from the river and cried when he covered his face.  Death is something that shouldn’t affect people as young as Huck, but this incident shows just how quickly family feuds can escalate, and how confusing Huck’s world really is.

There is also the Duke and the Dauphin, who really seem to bring out Huck’s innocence in a way.  He knows that these men are criminals and that they are lying to him and Jim, but they are powerless in this situation.  While on the other hand, on this raft with these men, Huck has come up with his own opinion that one is “mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft,” despite the evil in the world that surrounds him.  Huck seems to be growing up and making his own decisions.  This could be either really good, or really bad.

In the next few chapters, there is fraud, fakery, and religion.  You can really see just how messed up Huck’s world is, and this means that he is going to have to learn to grow up fast.  He is going to have to recognize evil, and the crimes on human may commit against another.  He is also going to have to learn to make quick decisions since he and Jim are now fugitives.  This world he lives in has already made an impact on him.  While attending something as innocent as a circus, which is supposed to be entertaining and amusing, Huck finds himself genuinely concerned for the safety of the drunken clown on a horse.  He should have seen this situation as funny, not as dangerous.  Huck’s world is getting more complicated, and with him and Jim on the run, I think things are going to get a lot worse before they get better.

Huck Finn Chapters 1-5

The theme “Coming-of-age” means to mature, find oneself, or to have a better understanding of life.  Most people would not expect to see this theme in a story such as Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, simply because the main character is a young about, and you don’t expect him to be mature or have a deeper understanding of the world around him.  But Huck Finn does, and it was very interesting to read about his coming of age during the first five chapters.

One example of the theme coming-of-age was when Huck talked about learning how to read, write, and do math.  Now in today’s culture, this wouldn’t be seen as a big deal, because most children go to school to read and write, and they are expected to learn and receive a good education.  For Huck Finn, education was a luxury.  He came from a poor family, in which no one knew how to read or write.  So even early on in the story he was doing things that some adults couldn’t even do, which showed maturity and the ability to understand aspects of life.

Another example would be when Huck formed his own opinion on religion in chapter three.  “I went out in the woods and turned it over in my mind a long time, but I couldn’t see no advantage about it-except for the other people-so at last I reckoned I wouldn’t worry about it anymore, but just let it go.” (Twain, 12).  This is part of coming-of-age because he was able to understand both the widow and Miss Watson’s point of views, and then decide for himself what he thought about it.  Most kids just believe whatever it is that their parents believe at this age, but no Huck.  He choose what he wanted to believe in and that was it.

On page 15, you can see how Huck’s character starts to mature by the way he reacts to one of Tom Saywer’s stories about Arabs and elephants.  In this last paragraph before chapter 4, Huck says “So then I judged that all that stuff was only just one of Tom Sawyer’s lies.  I reckoned he believed in the A-rabs and the elephants, but as for me I think different.  It had all the marks of a Sunday school.” (Twain, 15).  He is starting to drift away from all of Tom’s stories and theories about pirates and genies, and thinking about the situation logically.  He sees the faults in Tom’s stories and makes the decision that they are lies based on the evidence around him, which in this case was a Sunday school having a picnic on a hill.  We are barely halfway through the novel and you can see how much Huck has matured, and how he is starting to get a better understanding of things.