Huck Finn Post 1

            In Mark Twain’s  Adventure of Huckleberry Finn it is seen that Huck is a pivotal character as well as the narrator of the story. Also, Huck tends to be a rebel during the first ten chapter of the book. He is a young boy who wants to rise up against society.  This first impression is exemplified by his being uncomfortable with conformity imposed upon him by Widow Douglas, “She put me in the new clothes again, and I couldn’t do nothing but sweat and sweat, and feel all cramped up” (Twain 11-12).  The same is true with his wanting to smoke and being unable to do the latter. Another example of his rebellion is in choosing to go to hell as opposed to heaven when Miss Watson wanted him to behave, “Don’t gap and stretch like that, Huckleberry—why don’t you try to behave” (Twain 12)?  Huck then told her he wanted to “go to the bad place; all I wanted was a change I couldn’t see no advantage in going where she was going” (Twain 12).  His rebellious nature is also seen when Huck tries to run away from the Widow Douglas, but then returns with the urging of Tom Sawyer. Thus, Huck rebels against society and all who want to “sivilize” him. He would rather live freely and in nature.

            Moreover, Huck was a rationalist. He would use his logic in order to try and solve problems. For example, Huck is not able to believe that the picnic is an Arab army, “But there warn’t no Spaniards and A-rabs, and there warn’t no camels nor no elephants. It warn’t anything but a Sunday-school picnic, and only a primer class at that” (Twain 22). Also, Huck uses logic to figure out that his father isn’t truly dead when he states, “They said he was floating on his back in the water. They took him and buried him on the bank. But I warn’t comfortable long, because I happened to think of something. I knowed mighty well that a drownded man don’t float on his back, but on his face. So I knowed, then, that this warn’t pap, but a woman dressed up in a man’s clothes” (Twain 21). Huck uses his rationale in rejecting religion or prayer in that he sees it as not conferring any personal gain, “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 any more, but just let it go” (Twain 20). Despite Huck being young and uneducated, he was in fact brilliant with his ability to rationalize problems.