charhf The Complex Character of Huckleberry Finn :: Adventures Huckleberry Huck Finn Essays

Huckleberry Finn – Complex Character Huckleberry Finn is a complex character. As this book progresses, so does Huck. Huck is about thirteen years old, from the low end of the white middle class. His father is a ruffian who disappears for months on end. This book starts off with Huck being `reformed' by the widow Douglas and therefore remains a marginalized member of society. He has not been brought up with the same social values as an average middle-class boy might be, but this helps to create Huck's unique personality. The way he has been brought up affects his traits, values, and relationships throughout the book. Although Huck's character progresses in this story his traits that he portrays at the end are very similar to those at the beginning. His ingenuity, morality, and intelligence are consistent throughout the story. Huck's ingenuity is shown throughout his clever actions. His decision to make his escape on the canoe look like a murder to hide his tracks is just one example, "And they'll follow that meal track to the lake and go browsing down the creek that leads out of it to find the robbers that killed me and took the things. They won't ever hunt the river for anything but my dead carcass. They'll soon get tired of that, and won't bother no more about me." This idea continues as he decides to dress up as a girl to gain information. Although this idea doesn't fully succeed because he is found out, it is an excellent plan, which also reviles his ingenuity. Another time we see this unique cleverness is when he pretends to be `George Jackson' to live with the Wilkes family. Also throughout this story, Huck develops his own morality, however it has a different turn from the accepted norm for that society at that time. An example of his morality coming through is how he didn't tell on Jim when he ran away. Although the society would see this as wrong, Huck took Jim's point of view and concluded to help him. Huck also showed his morality when he tried to return the stolen money to the girls and escape from the Duke and King after the burial.