In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, Huck explores the state of St. Petersburg Missouri in a marvelous adventure between him and his close friend Jim who is a slave known as Miss Watson’s property. As the story progresses, Huck acquires various skills and personality traits that help him become a better person in the eyes of the man above, however, unfortunately not to the eyes of the society they live in.
Huckleberry Finn is a nice, heartwarming character who, throughout the novel, has gained enormous heroic traits and will go to extreme lengths to protect those he cares for most. For example, Huck is very clever. He works best when it comes to thinking of ideas and excuses even when there’s no time to process the decision.
One example of Huck’s cleverness is when he gets locked in a cabin by his drunk dad. Huck’s dad, Pap, is usually always gone and will show up out of the blue and be the worst dad someone could ask for. He comes home drunk and beats Huckleberry up at times. Huck has had enough of it and decides to fake his own death and run away so he never has to see his dad again.
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When Pap leaves the cabin, Huck begins his plan and takes his time to figure out what he needs to do so there are no flaws in his plan. He figures out how to saw his way out of the cabin and make it look like he was killed. Huck gathered all the materials he needed and put them on a getaway boat for later. Then, he shot a pig and traced its blood across the cabin entrance while breaking the front door open with an axe to make it look like robbers broke into the cabin and killed him.
“I took the axe and smashed in the door. I beat it and hacked it considerable a-doing it. I fetched the pig in, and took him back nearly to the table and hacked into his throat with the axe, and laid him down on the ground to bleed.” (33). Huck is extremely clever in the ways he thinks and processes different situations he is wrapped up in. The plans he comes up with to get out of these situations is unreal.
Another example of Huck’s cleverness is when he and Jim are just floating down the river and need to figure out where they are. So Huck goes ashore and asks some men that are standing there. The men are looking for runaway slaves which means they want someone like Jim and want to look in the raft whether there is anyone there. Huck quickly made an excuse about how he has his dad with him and how he is sick with smallpox and needs help.
Huck uses reverse psychology and fools the men into not searching the raft. “Well, hang it, we don’t want smallpox, you see. Look here, I’ll tell you what to do.” (88). In this process, he gets quite a bit of money as well. I believe they received about 20 dollars each. Huck’s quick-witted decision making helps him get out of many tough problems he occurs throughout the novel.
Huck Finn is among few characters who show that they really care, caring for someone is one of the best traits a human could have. For example, Huck never blew Jim’s cover as a runaway slave. He would always protect him and care for him even when his back is against the wall. An example of this is when Jim was sold for 40 dollars by the dauphin to Silas Phelps. When Huck found out that Jim was sold, he instantly tried to get him back by asking strangers around if they’ve seen him. “Down to Silas Phelp’s place, two miles below here. He’s a runaway nigger, and they’ve got him. Were you looking for him?” (203).
Huck was in a situation where he could either give Jim’s position away to Miss Watson or help him escape from the Phelps family. He began writing a letter to Miss Watson telling her where Jim is and could get him back for the reward but stopped to read over it and had a life decision. “I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: “All right, then, I’ll go to hell”—and tore it up. It was awful thoughts and awful words, but they were said. And I let them stay said, and never thought any more about reforming.” (206).
After this was said, I had an immediate connection to the previous novel we read; The Crucible, by Arthur Miller. I connected this statement to when John Proctor was forced to sign his name and have it be hung up on the church wall. These two situations both signify their pride and whether they want to live their life as a lie or die trying to be good; hell or heaven. This was a great line before he tore up the paper because it shows that Huck really cares for Jim and doesn’t want anything terrible to happen to him ever again.
Huck Finn has many traits that help him and Jim rise above the circumstances. He is extremely clever and quick to make decisions. Also, Huck is extremely caring and will do whatever it takes to make sure his friends are safe and sound. These traits, along with many others got him and Jim to where they want to be overcoming many difficult obstacles along the way, As a result, all the characters in the novel are in a pleasing state all because of Huckleberry and his personality.
